First-person shooter
[15] Other examples, like Far Cry and Rage, could also be considered adventure games, because they focus more on exploration than simple action, they task players with multiple different objectives other than just killing enemies, and they often revolve around the construction of complex cinematic storylines with a well defined cast of secondary characters to interact with.
[16] Some commentators also extend the definition to include combat flight simulators and space battle games, whenever the cockpit of the aircraft is depicted from a first-person point of view.
[20] First-person shooters generally focus on action gameplay, with fast-paced combat and dynamic firefights being a central point of the experience, though certain titles may also place a greater emphasis on narrative, problem-solving and logic puzzles.
[9] Some games offer realistic reproductions of actual existing (or even historical) firearms, simulating their rate of fire, magazine size, ammunition amount, recoil and accuracy.
Depending on the context, other first-person shooters may incorporate some imaginative variations, including futuristic prototypes, alien-technology or magical weapons, and/or implementing a wide array of different projectiles, from lasers, to energy, plasma, rockets, and arrows.
Thompson took the game's code with him to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where with help from Dave Lebling to create an eight-player version that could be played over ARPANET, computer-run players using artificial intelligence, customizable maps, online scoreboards and a spectator mode.
Id Software's Hovertank 3D pioneered ray casting technology in May 1991 to enable faster gameplay than 1980s vehicle simulators,[44] though it was preceded by 3 years by the FPS The Colony in doing so and Catacomb 3-D introduced another advance, texture mapping, in November 1991.
[7][10] It was built on John Carmack's ray casting technology already experimented into id's previous games Hovertank One and Catacomb 3D to create a new standard for first-person-shooter video-games widely emulated, improved, and still applied to this day.
Then he improved his game with his friend Andrew Cotter, added narration to each floor, renamed it Ken's Labyrinth, and released it on Internet as shareware under his brother's company Advanced Systems on 1 January 1993.
However, the original Advanced Systems' Ken's Labyrinth was made from Ken and Andrew's limited resources to the point that Ken made the sound effects with his mouth, therefore Epic MegaGames made use of their resources to revamp the game, replaced the projectiles balls with bubble gum balls, starbursts which bounced off walls, and homing missiles, while collecting more of the same weapon increased their range and collecting thunderbolts increased the range of all weapons at once, also replaced the original final boss with Ken himself, added diverse monsters, temporary power-ups such as reflecting enemies' projectiles, kill enemies on contact, and invincibility, as well as treasures for buying these power-ups from vending-machines and for paying doors' toll, slot-machines to win coins instead of finding treasures in secret areas, death-traps such as holes in floors which were the only way to get rid of some invulnerable enemies, water fountains which slowly restored health (much like in Duke Nukem 3D three years later), changed the goal from the original's merely escaping the labyrinth to rescue the player's abducted dog Sparky and save the world, added the requirement to have Sparky follow the player to the exit of each floor to be able to reach the next floor, which made the player have to pay attention to another character beside their own, and commercialized Ken's Labyrinth v2 still as shareware the 21st of March 1993.
It introduced some RPG elements into a FPS game engine as well as a customizable HUD, an auto-map, jumping, swimming, flying, shapeshifting with each metamorphosis featuring its own characteristics to adapt to each situation.
Apogee Software, the publisher of Wolfenstein 3D, followed up its success and released another FPS game based on its engine titled Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold from another developer Jam Productions 5 December 1993[86] which featured a sci-fi setting about a British secret agent named Blake Stone pursuing a mad scientist through his facilities like a sci-fi James Bond, a similar Wolf3D's gameplay of exploring mazes while battling various foes to find keycards required to unlock doors to reach each floor's exit all while searching every wall for secret areas filled with treasures for a higher score until each episode's last floor's boss but with a far wider diversity of enemies,[87] and added textured floors and ceilings, switches to find and to press to open new areas, traps, an auto-map, stats tracking, a grenade launcher, limited-use vending-machines, teleporters, enemies spawners, back-tracking to previous levels as well as some friendly NPCs in the form of scientists who would give the player hints and supplies provided the player didn't kill them.
[94][95][96][97] It still got a sequel Blake Stone: Planet Strike the 28th of October 1994[98] which integrated the auto-map into the HUD as a rotating mini-map which revealed secret doors at the cost of consuming auto-mapper charges and added some enemies who camouflaged into the environment or were cloaked to surprise the player though.
[74][108][109] Operation Body Count, developed on Wolf3D engine and released by Capstone Software on 1 January 1994,[110][111] was Capstone's first FPS game, was all about a terrorist attack on the UNO tower, and was an early attempt at making a tactical FPS game since the player was in command of an anti-terrorist squad that they could order around and even switch to any of their body at any time as long as they were not dead and featured some digitized graphics, transparent textures such as breakable glass, randomization of enemies and items' placement, body armors, booby-traps, and a nearly fully destructible environment since the flamethrower could set people and environments on fire, which could make movement extremely hazardous for the player, especially since the fire randomly spread, and the grenade-launcher too could destroy any wall (with some hard coded exceptions).
[126] An obscure import title as far as the Western market is concerned, it was nonetheless an early example of a 3D polygonal first-person shooter, with innovative platform game mechanics and free-roaming outdoor environments.
Marathon was highly successful, leading to two sequels Marathon 2: Durandal released the 24th of November 1995[134] then Marathon: Infinity released the 15th of October 1996[135] to form the Marathon Trilogy,[136] and becoming the standard for FPS games on Mac which pioneered or was an early adopter of several new gameplay features such as default freelook, ammo clips and weapons reloading though not manually, forcing the player to keep an eye on their ammo clips to anticipate the next reloading, dual-wielded and dual-function weapons, a motion sensor to detect both enemies and allies in the area, gravity alterations, swimming, interactive environments such as healing stations, oxygen stations, save points, teleporters, many computer terminals spread all around the levels as plot devices which provided messages, informations, various objectives and maps to the player's character[137] as well as friendly defense drones and non-player characters (NPCs), versatile multiplayer modes (such as King of the Hill, Kill the Man with the Ball, and cooperative campaign) and a map editor for players to create and share their own maps for the games.
The Marathon games also had a strong emphasis on storytelling in addition to the action, which revolved around evolving relationships between the human player's character and some AIs during a surprise invasion and subsequent war against a hostile alien Empire which already conquered and enslaved some other alien species, much like Bungie's future projects such as the Halo and Destiny series which took a lot from the Marathon trilogy[138][139][140][141][78][142][143] which is no more exclusive to Mac since Bungie Software open-sourced it in 2000 then released the original trilogy as freeware in 2005, some fans have source-ported it to Windows and Linux as well as remastered them using the open-source engine Aleph One and have even been developing many new scenarios, total conversions, and multiplayer maps sustaining a still active community.
[144][145] Many sci-fi games both from Bungie themselves and from other studios have cited the Marathon trilogy as a huge influence on their stories and settings such as the series Halo, Destiny, Mass Effect and Warframe.
"[147] Raven Software then used and upgraded the Doom engine and released Heretic the 23th of December 1994[148] which introduced larger maps, vertical aiming, flying, gibs, randomized ambient sound effects, interactive environments such as rushing water and winds which push the player along, an inventory system to store and select many different items which range from health potions to the "morph ovum" which transforms enemies into chickens and one of the most notable item that can be found is the "Tome of Power" which acts as a secondary firing mode for certain weapons, resulting in a much more powerful projectile for each weapon, some of which change the look of the projectile entirely,[149][150][151][152][153] then Raven added two more episodes and re-released it as Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders the 31st of March 1996.
[154][155][156][157] Super 3D Noah's Ark, developed on Wolf3D engine and published by the christian video-games company Wisdom Tree (formerly named Color Dreams) the 1st of January 1995,[158] was the first non-violent FPS game along with being the first religious FPS game (Doom was already based on christian mythology as well since the enemy was christian's Hell however unlike Super 3D Noah's Ark, it merely used it as a setting and didn't attempt to teach religion) which featured Noah from Abrahamic mythology's Noah's Ark as the protagonist and re-used Wolfenstein 3D's gameplay and level-design while replacing enemies' death animations by seemingly friendly animals falling asleep upon being hit by the player's weapon which was a slingshot shooting food to feed the unresting hungry animals aboard goats filled Noah's Ark made of the recycled original maps from Wolfenstein 3D including the same items' placements and even the SNES version was itself a mere reskin from Wolfenstein 3D's SNES version as well however the PC version did upgrade some things upon Wolfenstein 3D such as textured floors (like Blake Stone) along with higher resolutions graphics and MIDI music, and added a new gameplay feature such as quizzes which tested the player's religious knowledge whose rewards were more ammo to keep playing the game along with some score's points.
[170] Descent (released by Parallax Software the 17th of March 1995[171]), a game in which the player pilots a spacecraft around caves and factory ducts, was among the earliest truly three-dimensional first-person shooters.
[7][21] The 28th of April 1995, the Japanese company Exact released the successor to Geograph Seal for the PlayStation console, called Jumping Flash!, which placed more emphasis on its platform elements.
[205] Strife, developed by Rogue Entertainment and published by Velocity Inc. the 15th of May 1996,[206] was the last commercial game which used and modified the Doom engine before id released the new Quake engine the following month[207] and it introduced some RPVG's features into the standard FPS formula such as an actual lively open-world filled with NPCs, dialogues with choices of answers, some of them were even voiced, trade, reinforcements who engage the enemies in battle, mandatory and optional quests, character's evolution of his abilities, an intriguing plot branching into different routes and conclusions according to the player's choices and actions, some burning effects as well as some infiltration gameplay such as stealth, disguises and alarms.
[207] Like Doom, Quake was influential and genre-defining, featuring fast-paced, gory gameplay, within a completely 3D game environment, and making use of real-time rendered polygonal models instead of sprites.
[222][223] Shadow Warrior, developed and published by 3D Realms the 13th of May 1997,[224] introduced 3D voxels instead of 2D sprites for weapons and inventory items as well as weapons' secondary firing mode, climbable ladders, true room-over-room situations, transparent water, some vehicles to drive, and a brand new Asian hero named Lo Wang into a brand new Asian setting in contrast to its predecessor Duke Nukem 3D's occidental atmosphere and Shadow Warrior, just as its predecessor, features deliberately immature and politically incorrect humor, as well as a protagonist who delivers regular one-liners, commenting upon the situation at hand.
It capitalized heavily on the concepts of non-enemy characters (previously featured in many other titles, such as the Marathon series and Strife)[232] and wider in-game interactivity (as first introduced by the likes of Duke Nukem 3D and System Shock) but did not employ power-ups in the traditional sense,[7] making for a somewhat more believable overall experience.
[21] Deus Ex, released by Ion Storm in 2000, featured a levelling system similar to that found in role-playing games; it also had multiple narratives depending on how the player completed missions and won acclaim for its serious, artistic style.
"[241] Battlefield 1942, another World War II shooter released in 2002, featured large scale battles incorporating aircraft, naval vessels, land vehicles and infantry combat.
[253] Finally, the Crytek games Far Cry (2004) and Crysis (2007) as well as Ubisoft's Far Cry 2 (2008) would break new ground in terms of graphics and large, open-ended level design,[21][254] whereas Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007), Resistance: Fall of Man (2006) and its sequel Resistance 2 (2008) presented increasingly refined linear levels and narratives,[255] with the fast pace and linearity of the Call of Duty games bearing a resemblance to rail shooters.
[261] The Pointman user interface combines a motion-sensitive gamepad, head tracker and sliding foot pedals to increase the precision and level of control over one's avatar[262] in military first-person shooter games.
