What's your all time favorite FPS campaign?

I'm not much a multiplayer FPS guy or a 1st-person-shooter guy in general but I do enjoy a good FPS campaign from time to time. I'm bout to start a playthrough of a well-regarded FPS campaign I missed from last gen, Battlefield: Bad Company, which made me want to ask y'all this question. I did enjoy Doom last year but looking back, it definitely could've been trimmed here and there. Overall though, as someone who's not that versed in the genre, it's up there for sure for me.

Anyway, what's your favorite FPS campaign and what do you like so much about it?

Probably Halo 3. It has a lot of really epic moments and some amazing levels(and one really horrible level). I really love when the Forward Unto Dawn swoops in and drops a bunch of tanks and then you steamroll a bunch of covenant and take on a scarab.

That's a tough one for sure. Do I include games like Portal? That's a puzzle game right? Deus Ex? Is that a shooter or an RPG? Metroid Prime? People were very fond of pointing out it's a first person ADVENTURE back in the day.

For just pure shooter action I'd say maybe Halo Reach? Playing that game alone, on Legendary gave me a very specific mood, or vibe that none of the other Halo games or any other shooter in general did. The Halo games are mechanically very polished and the music in the game is fantastic.

I really love F.E.A.R. It's endlessly entertaining to me. Challenging, stylish, spooky, fast-paced, engrossing. That's my fave.

Combat Evolved has a campaign that can drag on, but the set-pieces and Master Chief's role in that universe is always compelling to go back to. ODST has my favourite vibe of the whole series, but the original has that Mass Effect 1 sense of wonder in the music, the environments, etc. Always a treat.

Bioshock isn't a shooter in the same ways, but the RPG elements, Rand-inspired world and depiction of enslavement in all its forms -- trapped under the sea, trapped by addiction, trapped by your DNA, trapped by your ambitions, trapped by your ideology -- is profoundly interesting, and always worth re-experiencing every few years.

Can't really name one. I really like Halo 3, Titanfall 2, F.E.A.R., Gears of War, Gears of War 3 and BioShock Infinite. I should've checked out Halo Reach since I never did. Have a feeling I would really like that campaign also.

Halo 3 - I think it was a combination of a really good campaign, me being into the world of halo, and split-screen gaming still being a thing.

Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 3. First an intro to a great series with incredibly memorable moments (and I got to a point where I had memorized every line of dialogue in the first level simply from playing it so much, and I still remember most of it). While 3 wrapped up that particular story very well, and also had some incredible moments. I still play through the first three games every now and then. Reach and ODST were also very well done.

Pretty much every level in the first Halo was awesome, from having to abandon ship to landing on the ring, boarding the Truth and Reconciliation, assaulting an island for the Silent Cartographer, going into the ring itself for Assault on the Control Room, then 343 Guilty Spark and The Library, followed up by a return to the Truth and Rec, and the final mission aboard the Autumn. The characters and world it built are some of my all-time favorite things.

Halo 3 has a desperate defense on Earth, the return of the Flood, the Ark with the Dawn landing and that giant sand slope battle leading to the Scarab, and possibly my favorite moment in the series, "One Final Effort" where you fight your way down a snowy cliffside as two Scarabs drop in and the theme song plays. The flood (temporarily) being on your side, and the return of 04...just so many good moments.

Also, there's nothing that gives me sudden anxiety and some mild PTSD more than Devils...Monsters...

It's easily my favorite game series.

@mems1224: Tank beats everything!

Halo Ce probably, or one of the other Halo games

Metroid Prime.

Half-Life 2. It goes places and does things I really love.

Or Portal. Or Portal 2 for sole of those either funny or that one heartbreaking moment.

I feel like that's not a shooter. None of the gameplay mechanics that make a shooter are in there. That said, it is an outstanding game and one of my favorites. I remember getting to that ice section for the first time with that music... man. MAN. That was a trip.

I'd count Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, COD 1 and COD 4 as basically one game, since it's the same people doing the same thing but with ever better tech and more experience. I like that kind of tightly scripted shooter when it's done right, and for me IW just always hit that spot better than anyone else.

Another standout is NOLF 2, as a rare mix of fun mechanics, a unique audiovisual style and theme (for an fps anyway) and a great sense of humor.

Far Cry 2 is amazing. Being thrown into a world where at any moment your rusty shotgun can jam, or explode, or you can be struck with your malaria symptoms forces a kind of improvised combat tactics that few games ever encourage. Early on in the game you will often find you have run out of ways to defend yourself, and must reach for whatever murderous hunk of metal is nearby in order fend off aggressors. During a break in the combat you'll use some pliers yank a bullet out of your arm before running for your life. Meanwhile the jeep you arrived at your mission location in has long since exploded and you must make your way up the nearby cliffs where some dope left his hang glider. As you float away from the carnage behind you, the fire you started reaches the mission objective you were supposed to destroy and does your job for you.

Later in the game you'll have purchased an infinite supply of high-quality weapons, and the combat transitions from makeshift to highly considered. You'll stop at one of your hideouts and choose from a selection of weapons to best serve your chosen approach to the next mission. You may want to bring your sniper rifle and pick enemies off one-by-one, or you may want to use all silenced weapons, then start a fire on one side of the camp while you sneak in on the opposite side.

A game that often provides the same feeling is S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat. I recall traveling through the open world when I receive notice that a radioactive storm, called an emission in the game, is incoming. I sprint towards the nearest building I can find for cover from the deadly atmosphere. As I huddle in a corner of the basement I come to the alarming realization that I'm hiding in the middle of a nest of invisible vampire mutants. Trapped inside with them, I'm forced to do combat with what seems like an endless onslaught of nightmare creatures. All my ammo is depleted save my pistol rounds as I hear the radio call informing me that the emission has passed and I immediately cease my counter-assault and sprint for the stairs with the bloodsuckers on my heels. I escape the immediate danger, but must travel to the nearest settlement with great caution, knowing that I've depleted all means of defending myself against the hostile world.

Some will recommend other Stalker games, but Call of Pripyat is definitely my favorite.

While we're discussing post-apocalyptic Russia, you need to play Metro 2033, and Metro: Last Light as well.

I mean... there is the shooting?

EDIT: Nevermind. Let's not actually start that discussion.

Brothers in Arms 1 & 2.

No one Lives Forever and Shogo as runner ups.

deus ex

I doubt anything will ever beat the shareware episode of Doom. I mean, Doom as a whole with all the episodes is a fantastic game, but episode 1 was such a beautifully crafted thing, especially with the perfectly executed downer ending enticing you to get the rest of the game.

SiN and Red Faction 1 had really good campaigns too. I was about to say they were "more recent games" but then realized it's been longer since either of those came out than it was between the release of Wolfenstein 3D and those games.

@spoonman671: Yeah I remember a similar situation especially. Radio call comes in, I'm like shit time to haul ass. Get to the nearest indoor area and realise it's been locked by 2 other Stalkers, poop myself, keep running and fall into a series of tunnels that are the nests for those crawly bastards and have to fight them in a similar fashion whilst hoping the emission stops. Such an incredible experience.

And yeah, if we're talking linear 'campaign' style ones then yeah Metro 2033 for life.

Bioshock 1 is my favorite.

Doom 1 & 2; TNT & Plutonia are also good runner-ups.

When I think about memorable FPS campaigns my mind goes to the Resistance expansion for Operation Flashpoint.
Just the way that game starts off with the Soviets invading the town and you having to make an escape to your shed. Later some Soviet soldiers come and you're standing outside while they're questioning you, and so you make a run to the back of the shed, grab a shotgun and start blasting them, and then take their car and drive away to join the resistance. All the while you hear enemy choppers with reinforcements in the distance. I'm simplifying the story and stuff, but there are so many crazy and tense moments in the game it really stands out to me.

@brunothethird: FEAR still holds up remarkably well. I love how the environments just look completely destroyed and rooms are just filled with smoke after a firefight.

Ohh yeah. I remember that. I echo your statement and I thought about it when posting but it's still the game that brought me back to the genre after years of absence.

@mems1224: It does hold up well, and I love that 'alive' feeling after a fight, too, with the residual effects and whatnot. They also do that for some of the environmental 'shit went down here' stuff, like in the beginning with the charred skeletons of your crew still smoking.

Also the way the guys scream when you kill them is horrifying but dope. Every time you kill anything it doesn't just flop down silently, it flies backwards, or explodes into a bloody mist, or collapses over something. Throwing a grenade into a group of dudes and hearing them panic over their comms is darkly satisfying, haha. Never gets old.

That game rules.

@spoonman671: But there's no shooting whatsoever in Portal, and yet, people are mentioning it in the thread. Which is fine by me, because if that's the case, then The Talos Principle is my favourite FPS. Seriously, that game is incredible. I'll take any excuse to mention it; they really did themselves a huge disservice by releasing that game in December :( It basically got completely ignored by all sites for game of the year stuff.

No One Lives Forever, Half Life 1, Wolfenstien the New Order.

Half life 2 and Medal of Honor Allied Assault

@spoonman671: Not really though, there is no aiming involved. It's more of an action platformer or something.

I just gone back to replaying Metro 2033 and Metro Last Light. I loved those two games. Other than that definitely Fallout: New Vegas and the Stalker series.

Halo 3 and Half life 2

Half Life 2.
I like the first game a lot too but the second game is incredible, the physics, the weapons, the gravity gun, the characters, the universe, but if i were to point out the main thing i like about HL2 it's the variety in the level design.
I like the soundtrack too, the Half Life sci fi ambience and occasional electro funky beats give it such a unique identity.

Halo 3 and Resistance 3 are pretty high up there.

F.E.A.R. without a doubt. The action is just so awesome. I keep playing the game occasionally still. The weapons are really great, the AI is still one of the best, and the slow mo really works well together with the other aspects. Like throwing grenades and shooting them in the air. The combat encounters feel so dynamic that they are fun to play again and again.

Its also a quite cool horror game.

Playing through COD4 Remastered made me remember just how damn good that campaign is.

The SOCOM 1 & 2 campaign were surprisingly good. For that era having sensible/realistic objectives and missions as well as native chatter was impressive.

Black (CriterionGames) while a creaky not impressive playing console style game, did have an interesting well told story with the CIA interrogation...a story CoD liked some much they used in in BLOPs.

There are a lot. I like to cut it down to three, though. F.E.A.R., the first Crysis on PC, and Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. Dark Athena plays even better, but it, unfortunately, lacks some of the good tracks from the soundtrack. It still retains a good soundtrack, but they changed it around and added in new ones that just aren't quite as good or memorable as what was in the original release. The first Crysis on console is also good, but they took some aspects out, again some of the music was taken out (some of the best tracks), but they also took out a section I enjoyed from the PC version where you're flying VTOL. The visuals are more impressive than expected, but still not comparable to the PC version. F.E.A.R. on console is marginally worse than the PC version really, but you do get a new weapon. Bioshock is one of my favorite games period, but as a shooter, it's not one of the best.

Doom because it is recent in my mind and damn awesome

Half Life 3 and Halo 3 for nostalgia (also they are pretty great)

Something else I am forgetting

@zevvion: To be fair, Metroid Prime is 100% more of a first person shooter than the Gears of War games you listed, yo.

For me it's a big tie between Halo 3, Half-Life 2, Bioshock Infinite, and Doom 2016.

It's definitely not the *best* campaign I've played, but Modern Warfare 2's story was a wild ride- played through taking turns with my brother, like watching an action movie.

Half life 2 for me. I was in 8th grade when it came out and had to get my older brother to buy it for me since my parents didn't let me play M rated games. After smashing that first combine soldier's face with a crowbar I was hooked. Ravenholm, highway 17, and the gravity gun blew my mind.

Honorable mention: Doom 2016, COD 4 and Portal

bioshock 1 is an awesome game, nuff said

for straight up shooting mechanics, i love doom 2016

I can't defy Halo: Combat Evolved here. Its campaign essentially redefined my perception of the first-person shooter genre.

Nothing pulled me in and held on quite as tightly as Half-Life 1 did.

I even liked Xen.

Not trying to instigate further frustration, but Metroid Prime takes this for me. I'd call a game an FPS if you play as a floating gun and the gun can be fired. Bioshock comes next.

The original Deus Ex and The Darkness.

Might not be absolute favorites, but here's three random ones:

1. Titanfall 2: 2016's actual best shooter campaign. A ton of fun, with Effect and Cause being one of the best FPS campaign levels I have ever seen.
2. Halo: I played this campaign probably the most out of any other, between going solo, doing co-op, doing higher difficulty settings, and spending an evening recreating the Warthog jump.
3. BioShock Infinite: Genuinely enjoyable campaign, great art direction and styyyyyle, and I am a fan of that game's last thirty minutes.
4. Fallout 3: Not a campaign in the truest sense, I know. However, some of those arcs are pretty great.

Original Deus Ex and Titanfall 2 are definitely up there.

I know it looks like polygonal vomit now, but I really REALLY enjoyed Goldeneye growing up (being mostly a console person). So I guess it's that.

Definatly Halo CE.

Other favorites include Halo 3, Call of Duty 1, Half Life 2, Bioshock

Singleplayer, it's gotta be Halo: CE, with Halo 3 the best for co-op. Taking on two Scarabs at once with three other people remains one of my all time favourite multiplayer experiences.