Im looking for games that combines good FPS action, stealth, decent story, atmosphere, roleplaying and freeform gameplay.
I have played through these games so far (and enjoyed most of them).
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. SoC & CS, Deus Ex 1&2 , Thief 3, Vampire the masquerades: Bloodlines, Fallout 3, Ultima Underworld 1 & 2, Oblivion & Morrowind, Arx Fatalis, Farcry 1, Crysis.
So what Im really asking here is if someone has any ideas on similar games?
FPS action & Freeform gameplay
That's a pretty tight criteria to fit in. What about Thief 1 and 2? If you ask me they tend to fit the description.
Yeah, I forgot to mention Bioshock and System Shock 1&2. Played through them as well. Was a bit disappointed in Bioshock though...
Well Thief 1&2 isnt rly freeform at all. More like your average stealth game (Hitman etc). Although decent games.
It would appear you've listed probably all of the good ones. Have you played any of the two Chronicles of Riddick games? They would tick most of the boxes you mentioned.
Nope, but I might give them a try. Thx.
I forgot to mention that I played through Batham: Arkham Asylum and Mass Effect as well.
Have you tried Borderlands yet? I'm not seeing too much on the story element during my first play-through now, but it meets most of the other criteria you've requested. If story is a focus, then if you are willing to fudge a bit on the FPS aspect, lots of people say the last MGS game is worth your time. I'm not sure if you have a PS3 or are just an exclusive PC gamer, but if you do dabble on the console side, that might be worth your while. I am pretty sure earlier versions of the Metal Gear franchise were available on PC, if you want to start there.
Im still a bit curious about Borderlands but Im not sure Im gonna buy it until the price has dropped a bit. Seems a bit much to pay fullprice for a grinding-oriented co-op game. Learned my lesson from L4D. :(
Well the MGS series is decent games I guess but they didnt get me hooked.
Thx :) Well I played the Thief games when they came out but that was like ages ago. Maybe a re-visit is in order.
Farcry 2 didnt get my attention since it seems like they removed a lot of the stuff that made the first one interesting (Element of surprise in the story, etc). Im not sure but to me it looked like all graphics, no soul, maybe Im wrong...
"Farcry 2 didnt get my attention since it seems like they removed a lot of the stuff that made the first one interesting (Element of surprise, etc) "Though Farcry 2 did do away with a good chunk of the stealth aspect of it, it is dripping in atmosphere; it is a really great game.
Really, the only other one I can think of that isn't on this list is Hellgate: London which is more Diablo in a 3rd or 1st person perspective. It's a good game, but not everyone will like it.
Ok. In that case maybe I should check it out.
Isn´t the Hellgate: London servers offline now btw? Doesn´t seem like much fun grinding alone. Im not rly much for MMORPG´s anyway. Played WOW, AoC and GW for a while but the mindless grinding just got me rly bored even though I played with a lot of friends most of the time and instances could be good fun.
Suggestions so far:
Farcry 2
The Chronicles of Riddick games
Thief 1 & 2
Borderlands
MGS series
Hellgate: London
A series called IGI for PC several years ago was like that. It was developed with a flight sim engine of all things, mostly used to be able to have "levels" that were literally several hundred sq. kilometers in size. You also had the freedom to go about the missions in different ways, using whatever weapons you preferred.
Farcry 2 is good, but some of the game's artificial limitations break the feeling of freedom. Like how much you can carry, the unrealistic wear of weapons, and the fact you just can't kill the guy who sells you guns and take all his shit instead of "earning" the right to buy what you wanted earlier in the game. It's worth checking out, especially since it's pretty cheap now. In a way it's almost too open, since your jobs are basically "go kill this guy or blow this up" and you get a location - sometimes a route the guy follows - and that's it. How you get there and what you use to do the job are entirely up to you.
Borderlands is great even solo, there isn't much story to push you forward, but when compared to something like Stalker - that game really didn't have a ton of story either.
A little game called Cold War was unique in how you went about playing the game. It was sort of like MGS meets MacGyver, where you could build things like bombs, traps, silencers and what not out of crap you'd find in the levels and you could play how you wanted.
Operation Flashpoint is about as open as it gets, but it's hard to like unless you're really committed to it. The same goes for ArmA.
A few others for quick mentions:
Project Snowblind. What Deus Ex - Tribal Wars turned into. Still has a Deus Ex feels to it, but it's like Deus Ex meets Halo.
Cold Winter. A Goldeneye sort of game with some freedom peppered in.
I've been a fan of this sub-genre since the first games like thee came out. It's a shame there aren't more of them, but I guess it makes the ones we get that much more appreciated.
Operation Flashpoint, Arma 2, Far Cry 2, Boiling Point. They don't necessarily tick all of your boxes, but I think they're definitely the type of thing you're looking for.
I would definitely recommend giving Arma 2 a shot, I still haven't played a great deal of it, but what I have played seems right up your street.
IGI and Cold War looks interesting in some ways but both of them seem to have gotten pretty bad reviews for some reason. The MacGyver-ish aspect of Cold War looks pretty fun I guess.
Yeah but what S.T.A.L.K.E.R. lacks of in storyline it rly makes up for in atmosphere. Not sure Borderlands are capable of that. Interesting graphics though.
Cold Winter seems like it has some good points but Im afraid I dont have a PS2 and I do most of my gaming on PC.
Just picked up Project: Snowblind on steam for a low price. Looks like its probably worth the money.
Yeah, I agree and lets hope they dont mess up Deus Ex 3 (Which they probably will).
Im a bit curious if there is an actual name on this subgenre or are people force to use "Freeform-Storydriven-Atmospheric-Stealth-FPSRPG" to describe it all the time? :)
Thx for all the good suggestions.
Jimbo:
Yeah, Farcry 2 is probably something I should look into pretty soon.
I tried the Arma 2 demo but it had even more broken code and glitches than S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and AoC together (Fell through the ground and got stuck in bushes and trees several times) so I think I´ll pass on that one. Operation Flashpoint seems to be appreciated by a lot of people so I might just check it out later on.
I've played most of those games you've mentioned and enjoyed them too. I can't think of any additional games to recommend right now, but I'll support the previous recommendations for Chronicles of Riddick (though it's lacking in freeform gameplay) and I guess Far Cry 2 (which is a bit weak on role-playing, story, and atmosphere).
Just out of curiousity, of all those games you listed as having played, which one(s) is your favorite?
Some suggestion off the top of my head based on the games you mentioned...
Bioshock,
Hitman series,
Splinter Cell series,
and GUN.
EDIT: Also, Max Payne 1 and 2 are pretty awesome if you don't mind older games. Outcast is excellent as well but looks like shit nowadays. And I'd want you to check out The Witcher as well.
My favourites are probably Deus Ex (1) after that it´s Ultima Underworld 1, Fallout 3
and Morrowind . How about yours?
Fuzzyponken:
I have Bioshock but it was a bit of a letdown,
Gun was a nice sandboxgame, but far too short and could have used a lot more content.
I have (and like) most games in the Hitman series.
Im sad to say that The Splinter Cell series is not really my cup of tea. I find the gameplay a bit too restricted I guess, but thx.
"Im looking for games that combines good FPS action, stealth, decent story, atmosphere, roleplaying and freeform gameplay.
I have played through these games so far (and enjoyed most of them).
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. SoC & CS, Deus Ex 1&2 , Thief 3, Vampire the masquerades: Bloodlines, Fallout 3, Ultima Underworld 1 & 2, Oblivion & Morrowind, Arx Fatalis, Farcry 1, Crysis.
So what Im really asking here is if someone has any ideas on similar games? "
Suggestions I´ve received so far:
Noone lives forever 1 & 2
Outcast
Farcry 2
The Chronicles of Riddick games
Thief 1 & 2
Borderlands
MGS series
Hellgate: London
Bioshock
System Shock 1& 2
Gun
Hitman series
The IGI series
the first Turok games
Dark Messiah of M&M
Cold Winter
Cold War
Arma 2
Operation Flashpoint
Project Snowblind
Boiling Point
Gothic 2 & 3
Thief 1& 2
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Mass Effect
Infamous
Prototype
I'm not sure what you mean by "freeform" considering what I think of when you say that, and how many games you have listed that conflict with that, so I'm going to say:
Splinter Cell (any except Double Agent, and I highly recommend Chaos Theory.). It's not necessarily exactly what you're looking for, but I think if you like Thief that you'll like Splinter Cell.
Let me make myself clear on how I choose to define Freeform and/or freedom to avoid confusion:
I´ve listed S.T.A.L.K.E.R. SoC & CS because its pretty non-linear and u can play it in a few different ways.
Deus Ex 1&2, Vampire the masquerades: Bloodlines and Thief 3 is listed because of the way it maintains the illusion of some actual freedom
Fallout 3, Ultima Underworld 1 & 2, Oblivion & Morrowind, Arx Fatalis because they are very free in a lot of ways
Farcry 1, Crysis is listed because of the massive enviroments and because of the option to handle things "your way" even though both of them are pretty linear.
Although the most important thing is games that manages to use as many of these keywords at once:
Freedom (not necessary sandbox-style)
Action (pref. FPS)
Atmosphere
Good Story
elements of strategy (stealth etc)
elements of roleplaying
I think you've pretty much listed them all here. It's not a mix of styles that has a long history.
I also think Far Cry 2 would really be of interest to you - ignore the screenshots, it is a game unlike any other. A real love/hate thing for many people, but totally freeform in a very original way.
I might be picking the dust here, but the Might and Magic series (6-8) isnt too bad. Although old...
Yeah, but Im gonna wait for the english version 2010 since I dont know a word of russian :)" STALKER Call of Pripyat came out in the CIS earlier this month. You can probably find a Russian copy floating around the net. "
@FoleyLantz said:
" I might be picking the dust here, but the Might and Magic series (6-8) isnt too bad. Although old... "Yeah I played them and liked them when they came out but they havent aged well at all (especially if u have played Morrowind, Oblivion and Falout 3). "Horrific" is a word that comes to mind.
Hehe, yeah...although i tend to pop out 6 once a year ^^Yeah I played them and liked them when they came out but they havent aged well at all (especially if u have played Morrowind, Oblivion and Falout 3). "Horrific" is a word that comes to mind. "
And if im not wrong, most russian games comes with english options as they normally voice act it in english.
EDIT: Oh and before i forget .
I never tried this game, but Tron 2.0. I think its something down the line of Deus Ex.
Yeah, I must confess I reinstalled M&M 6 & 7 a few weeks ago when I was sick and home from work :)
Its amazing how many Tron spinoff games there are by now. Especially since not many ppl remember the movie, and those who do wants to forget about it :)
I quote the reviewer:
"Tron 2.0… More fun to write about than to play? Something like that."
Nor do I. I plan on buying the English version once it comes out, but for now I'm gonna check out the RUS version with a shitty Google translation simply to try out the gameplay. Stalker has never really been about the story for me as much as the survival/advancement aspect." @MrKlorox said:
Yeah, but Im gonna wait for the english version 2010 since I dont know a word of russian :)" STALKER Call of Pripyat came out in the CIS earlier this month. You can probably find a Russian copy floating around the net. "
But this is a good list of games that I should try out. I'm always looking for a game to take the place of Stalker.
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