1. Doom. It popularized the genre. There were many before it, but Doom is king. That and I have fond memories of dialing in to my favorite multi-node BBS for some 4 player deathmatch. And it was so easy to modify the game. Unpack a wad, replace assets, adjust numbers, repack. Level building? If you took a gradeschool CAD class, you could build levels in Doom.
2. Half-Life. It was cinematic before there was cinematic first person shooters. You were no longer going down a map of connected hallways, you were trying to get out of an underground facility. The AI didn't simply spawn and run towards you. Sure, Half-Life didn't age well, but when it came out, it was a notable leap when it came to first person shooters. And while games before Half-Life had mods, Half-Life was once again, king. Team Fortress. Counter-Strike. Day of Defeat.
3. Battlefield 1942. That Wake Island demo. Holy shit. Sure, Halo had Warthogs in 2001, but in 2002 BF 1942 gave us: fighter planes, bombers, tanks, jeeps, frigates, fuckin' air craft carriers. That you could move on the map. That you could take off from, land on, and sink. That you could parachute on to, steal an enemy plane, or better yet, attach explosives to enemy planes, hide, and blow up once they took off. Maps big enough where 64 players never felt cramped. AI soldiers for some lan-party comp-stomping. Mods!
4. Desert Combat Sure, it's a mod. But when every first person shooter of the time was World War 2, Desert Combat put us into the modern era. This mod alone probably sold more 1942 expansions than EA ever could by itself. All of my PC gaming buddies own every expansion for 1942, but we couldn't tell you what they were like; only that we needed them for the next version of Desert Combat. Maps were huge - you could fly a jet in a straight line for more than five seconds before going out of bounds! Helicopters were incredibly difficult to learn, but mastering one was incredibly rewarding. An AC-130! One that you needed multiple gunners to man. One that you needed a pilot to fly. There was a sense of scale to Desert Combat games that no game has touched since.
5. Half-Life 2. Again, this game didn't age well. However, it was another leap forward in the FPS genre when it came to tech. Characters whose mouths were lip-sync'ed through software and not through hand-animation. The gravity gun. Ravenholm! Environmental physics! Pick up that can!
6. Halo. While every FPS of the time focused on team versus team and deathmatch, Halo brought us a cooperative experience as well. A coop experience that felt solid, balanced, and fun. I don't care for Halo's multiplayer, but whenever a new Halo comes out, I'm always down to play some coop.
Log in to comment