It seems we are at the point in the gaming industry where there are at least eight different first person shooters coming out every year. I don't know about anyone else but I'm getting sick of gunning down bad guys from a first person perspective. Not to say I don't enjoy those games from time to time but I'm just ready for something a little different. I don't think the first person genre should be left behind completely but there is plenty of room for advancement. While any game that has a first person perspective is more than likely going to involve a gun and the player shooting dudes but that doesn't mean there isn't room for other features.
 
In the last couple years we have seen an advancement in the genre with realistic animations (which may bother some but I really enjoy as it gives a sense of character) and varied game play features.  The first games that come to mind are The Darkness and The Chronicles of Riddick. These games introduced some interesting concepts such as experiencing every day things (watching a movie and kissing your girlfriend) and hand to hand fighting from a first person perspective. I found these games to be highly unique and a great fun experience when they came out and I am glad to see sequels to these games being released. Far Cry 2 and 3 seem to be good examples as to how you can take a standard first person shooter and make it a little more interesting with dynamic character animation. I feel like varied animation can give a lot to a first person character even if it is a silent protagonist you can still get a feel of how this person thinks or feels in the position that they are in. Some people find this distracting to game play and that it slows them down but I am more than welcome to embrace good character animation in my first person shooters just so I can have a little more variety. 
 
Prey 2 is on the horizon and this game is giving me a lot of hope for the future of first person shooters. While it has the makings of most standard shooters it is also far more in depth with the fact that there are choices to make in the game and traversal elements for making your way around the environment (something Brink tried to implement, but well . . . yeah.) The one thing about Prey 2 that is most interesting to me is living through the life of a bounty hunter in first person. This is something that I wouldn't mind seeing more of in future games. All of the different things you can do in Prey 2 make this game so fascinating to me (aside from the fact that this seems like an awesome sequel to a terrible game) such as the option to play through your missions differently and the world they have created for the game.
 
I can only hope to see more variety in first person games in the future. There have been plenty of attempts with games like The Darkness, Riddick, Prey 2 and even fatal frame with the camera mechanic. I would even be interested in a first person puzzle game with no weapons (a first person horror puzzle games could be pretty fun.) I'm not saying the average Call of Duty game should disappear but a break might keep the series from going stale.

It seems we are at the point in the gaming industry where there are at least eight different first person shooters coming out every year. I don't know about anyone else but I'm getting sick of gunning down bad guys from a first person perspective. Not to say I don't enjoy those games from time to time but I'm just ready for something a little different. I don't think the first person genre should be left behind completely but there is plenty of room for advancement. While any game that has a first person perspective is more than likely going to involve a gun and the player shooting dudes but that doesn't mean there isn't room for other features.
 
In the last couple years we have seen an advancement in the genre with realistic animations (which may bother some but I really enjoy as it gives a sense of character) and varied game play features.  The first games that come to mind are The Darkness and The Chronicles of Riddick. These games introduced some interesting concepts such as experiencing every day things (watching a movie and kissing your girlfriend) and hand to hand fighting from a first person perspective. I found these games to be highly unique and a great fun experience when they came out and I am glad to see sequels to these games being released. Far Cry 2 and 3 seem to be good examples as to how you can take a standard first person shooter and make it a little more interesting with dynamic character animation. I feel like varied animation can give a lot to a first person character even if it is a silent protagonist you can still get a feel of how this person thinks or feels in the position that they are in. Some people find this distracting to game play and that it slows them down but I am more than welcome to embrace good character animation in my first person shooters just so I can have a little more variety. 
 
Prey 2 is on the horizon and this game is giving me a lot of hope for the future of first person shooters. While it has the makings of most standard shooters it is also far more in depth with the fact that there are choices to make in the game and traversal elements for making your way around the environment (something Brink tried to implement, but well . . . yeah.) The one thing about Prey 2 that is most interesting to me is living through the life of a bounty hunter in first person. This is something that I wouldn't mind seeing more of in future games. All of the different things you can do in Prey 2 make this game so fascinating to me (aside from the fact that this seems like an awesome sequel to a terrible game) such as the option to play through your missions differently and the world they have created for the game.
 
I can only hope to see more variety in first person games in the future. There have been plenty of attempts with games like The Darkness, Riddick, Prey 2 and even fatal frame with the camera mechanic. I would even be interested in a first person puzzle game with no weapons (a first person horror puzzle games could be pretty fun.) I'm not saying the average Call of Duty game should disappear but a break might keep the series from going stale.

Eight FPS a year? You should add a zero.

Eight FPS a year? You should add a zero.

Prey 2's bounty hunter setup just kinda reminds me of Far Cry 2's free-roaming mercenary setup, so everything inspires everything else.

A first person puzzle game with no weapons?? Sounds like something valve would do.

@laserbolts said:

A first person puzzle game with no weapons?? Sounds like something valve have done.

I used to hate FPS games by default, but the Half-Life games, Bioshock, and Fallout 3 changed my opinion a lot. I probably would have never even tried Far Cry 2 if it wasn't for those and I really liked it, Then there were really different first-person games like Portal, Zeno Clash and Condemned 2 that I got into. I went back and played games like Deus Ex, System Shock 2, Chthulu: Dark Corners of the Earth and Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. I even learned to appreciate Modern Warfare, but I haven't had a lot of interest in the sequels. 
  
I'm a lot more open to the format these days and I'll admit that some really great games can be done this way, but I still think most that are released basically try to clone Halo or Call of Duty's multiplayer success with little attempt to create an interesting single pleyer game or try anything new with their environments and gameplay. 
 
EDIT: Oh, and I loved the Darkness.