Giant Bomb's Best Single Player FPS

Hello,

I was debating with a couple friends what is the best Single Player FPS experience out there.

We had trouble deciding so I am putting it to this community (which I just joined and turns out to be pretty awesome)

What is your favourite single player FPS?

My favourites are:
Half life and Half life 2 + Episodes
Call of Duty 2

I have been recommended to try:
Crysis - Just purchased
Killzone2 - Planning on purchasing

So what is it for you guys?

Half Life and Half Life 2 + ep1 & 2 are by far my favourites.

Doom 1 & 2 are my favs

Clive Barkers Jericho.

Half-Life 2 and Bioshock, most definitely.

Are we talking single player only FPS or just FPS games that had the best single player? Single player only would have to be Bioshock, multiplayer would have to be Half-life.

Bioshock is pretty damned good, if you consider it enough of a shooter to consider.

But Half-life 2 really has no real competition here.

I think you are going to be really disappointed with Crysis.  I had more fun shooting trees than I did in later parts of the game.

""The dreams in which I'm dieing are the best I've ever had" what does that mean!? What does it mean!?"

hahaha that's great!

The Half-Life series and STALKER are my favorites.

Except I don't know if you guys consider STALKER a FPS or a RPG. I just think it leans more onto the FPS side.

Bioshock all the way, with halo being a personal fave for the incredibly deep backstory.

I never really saw what was so special about Half life - please dont burn at the stake accusing me of witchcraft for this.

Half-Life and Half-Life 2, for sure. Currently playing BioShock and I'm impressed so far. I really enjoyed the first Halo game but couldn't get into Halo 2 and haven't even tried Halo 3, so I can't really comment there.

My personal favorites (beingg a console gamer exclusively):

1. Halo: Combat Evolved
2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
3. Bioshock

I'm not really into single player FPS games, but I've played the more popular ones. Now I usually only play them if there's co-op. So it's a close call for me.

But regardless, I'm gonna have to go with Halo: Combat Evolved. I just personally found it a lot of fun. Vehicles were really cool at the time, and I liked how you got to roll with marines and stuff at times in the game. I hate playing through one man army games. At least you got to fight with some guys in this one. Also the controls were really good.

The first Half-Life was real good though too. But Xen was so damn annoying. Thank god for infinite health cheat. I didn't really get into Half-Life 2 at all. That game was eh to me. But the first was pretty sweet.

And as people are saying, BioShock was really good as well. Great Atmosphere.

BioShock, most definitely.

Call of Duty 2 and the Halo trilogy.

Hmm.. I think my all time favorite has to be Duke Nukem 3D.. that game was just bad ass...

Honorable mentions goes to, Half-Life 2 and COD4

GoldenEye 64. Not just the best FPS but also one of the best games ever made.

Half-Life 2.

You duders forgot one:

Half-Life and all of the games in the franchise. Nothing is better. The end.

What about the single player in killzone 2? I've heard 2 very different stoires.

1. The AI is good and makes the single player very fun
2. The AI of your team mates ruins the game.

Which is true?

It's a three way tie between Thief 2, System Shock 2 and Bioshock. 

I'd go Goldeneye 64. Revolutionary for the time and still has memorable and varied single-player mission objectives to this day.

Although, presumably it's "obviously" Half-Life.

lol i was going through this thread thinking wow no ones mentioned halo  then around 5 mentioned it as soon as  i said lol
well i look for story in games includeing FPS so i would say bioshock or half life 2 im also fond  of resistance 2 (not so much 1)
ive been wanting to play system shock 2 for  a while does any one know if itl run on vista or not  and if so is it worth tracking down a coppy?

Half-Life 2 ... Stalker-SOC

Doom
Duke Nukem 3D
Clive Barkers Jericho
Half - Life / 2 / Ep1 / Ep 2
System Shock 1 and 2
Quake
Call of Duty 2 and 4
S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl
Condemned: Criminal Origins
Unreal Tournament 2004

Those are about all you need. Forcing someone to make an arbitrary decision about which one of those is 'best' is like getting a mix plate of the worlds best sushi and throwing all but the Salmon Nigiri away. They are all different enough to be unique experiences and they all bring something different to the table, and they are all worthy of your attention.

And here's where I contradict myself and say If I were forced to choose one, it would be Half Life 2 without a moments hesitation. 

• Halo 1/3 (Halo 2 was junk)
• F.E.A.R. 1
• CoD 4
• The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape of Butcher Bay
• Condemned: Criminal Origins

Right now, I'll say Crysis. Half-Life 2 is pretty close.

I think Bioshock and Half-Life 2 definitely deserve an honourable mention but my favourite FPS game ever is definitely Halo so I'd have to say my favourite FPS ever is Halo 3. While I'm aware this is not everyone's cup of tea the way the environments, gameplay, story and music all tie together is second to none for me and I absolutely love the game.

I like F.E.A.R 1 and Half Life 2.

Cod 4 lasted me a while..but i stopped playing cause i played it soo much that i got tired of it...killzone 2 was zomgamazing.....battlefield badcompany was cool..just kinda mad at the AI....rainbow six vegas 2 was pretty kool...the thing that bothered me about it was the AI...and im looking forward to Call Of Duty Modernwarfare 2..I already preordered the prestige edition.....Add me on playstation network... Rwarrior28 
 
Edit: im editing this cause...i forgot that this was about single player...ya the cod 4 single player was cool..but short..i put it on my list cause i played multiplayer for a while..i would still probably leave it on..but..since this thread is about single player..cod 4 just lost a little bit of points from me..also battlefield badcompany...single player wasnt like super amazing..i liked it cause online was fun too...killzone 2 im leaving alone..the story mode was solid so im not gonna take any more points off that..rainbow six story is fun but i like playing terrorist hunt online..and LOLOLOLOL my edit was longer than my regular post 
 
Edit 2: ya im editing again..just to say a little bit more...i know this is an FPS thing..but just like...incase we're allowed to put any shooter...then Metal Gear Solid 4 is always and forever on my list..if you count that as a shooter..some people might not  count it as a shooter cause you can do most of the game without shooting if u want to just go sneaking..but i use guns the whole game so i would put that on my list..if this wasnt an first person shooter thread

Half-Life 2, definitely.

If we were talking about technological or design achievements other games would rise to the top, but if we're just talking about plain old fun, Half-Life 2 wins for me.

Stalker, but only once you've modded it.

You shoot things in Portal......

Easily Halo 3 for me. The music makes the game feel epic. If I could count Gears I would say that though.

"

• Halo 1/3 (Halo 2 was junk)
• F.E.A.R. 1
• CoD 4
• The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape of Butcher Bay
• Condemned: Criminal Origins

"

Condemned is the best but I wasn't sure if we could call it a shooter. "

" @Ugalde said:

Condemned is the best but I wasn't sure if we could call it a shooter. "

I think so. There were some guns you could use. "

I think the 'best' single player FPS really depends on your tastes as far as gameplay goes; not all single player FPS experiences are created equal. My personal favourites have already been listed, for the most part. The first Halo, Unreal, Call of Duty, Half Life, et al.
 
I would consider Condemned, but to be honest, the game's hook is its brutal melee combat, not shooting. Yes, you do have a gun, but it's usually used more as a last resort than anything due to ammo being so rare.

Halflife 2 + episodes by far... Duke Nukem 3d.  Cod 4 is also pretty good

Half-Life 2, Episodes 1& 2 are the only HL games I can say I liked.  I hated Half-Life 2 until about.. the last 2 hours of the game - that game had issues with pacing. Those lengthy vehicle sections were an absolute drag. Half-Life 1 was okay, but I was pretty much done with indoor corridor-style FPS by that point and had moved on to RPGs - w00t for Baldur's Gate.
 
I'd say I've had most single-player FPS fun with: 

• TimeSplitters 2 - best arcade style FPS in my books. Fun campaign, great level design and hundreds of challenges and tournaments to keep you entertained for hours. 
• Halo: CE - varied as hell, epic and pretty much flawless. Intriguing story, characters, and fun combat. 
• Call of Duty 4 - action packed, varied, tight gameplay with a fantastic story and some of the best set pieces of the CoD franchise. Oh, and there was a fucking Nuke. ^_^
• Deus Ex - don't think I have to say much here. Utterly compelling at the time. Hard to revisit though. 

• System Shock 2.  It's old and ugly by today's standards, but it was (and maybe still on that level) one of the most engaging FPS games I've ever played.  

• Dark Forces II shouldn't be overlooked.  Maybe not the prettiest of games even in its day, it did provide a very enjoyable romp through the Star Wars universe with heavy blaster in hand. 

• I really loved Half-Life 1.  It completely freaked me out when I first played it.  The "everyman" quality of Gordon Freeman was new back then so beating up crates with a crowbar was kind of fun.

• Thief 2 was an interesting kettle of fish in that you tried to avoid combat if possible.  For an FPS, this wasn't at all like the "run-and-gun" shooters of the day.  The stealth and medieval setting made it very memorable.  It's always nice to play something other than a gun-toting super soldier. 

• Deus Ex offered a involved plot but also variation when approaching many of the tasks.  In through the front door wasn't always deemed the wisest decision.

Half-Life 2 plus the two Episodes, Portal, and Bioshock are all up there as my favorites.

Halo is a classic fav of mine, COD4 was great though, pulled me right outta halo 3 for months. Also I love the Marathon games, they're so much fun.. it's like doom but with less annoying level design, and more plot.