Looking to play all seminal FPS titles chronologically, are any of them sorely missing? #BuildingTheList

Doom (1993)

Doom II: Hell on Earth (1994)

Duke Nukem 3D (1996)

Quake (1996)

Quake II (1997)

Half-Life (1998)

Unreal (1998)

Unreal Tournament (1999)

Quake III: Arena (1999)

Halo: Combat Evolved (2001)

Medal of Honor: AA (2002)

Call of Duty (2003)

Half-Life 2 (2004)

Halo 2 (2004)

Call of Duty 2 (2005)

BioShock (2007)

Halo 3 (2007)

Call of Duty 4: MW (2007)

Call of Duty: MW2 (2009)

DOOM (2016)

Having played and loved DOOM (2016) I started Doom (1993) and like it a lot. Which FPS titles between then and now should I play on my way through the time between the two aforementioned games?

Golden Eye, CS

Bioshock Infinite? Counter Strike? TF2? Overwatch? Maybe Wolfenstein 3D too.... There probably deserves to be a Battlefield game in there, but I'm not sure which one.

Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict was one of the first "hero shooter" games. Unfortunately, I don't think there's any way to play the multiplayer anymore, and it didn't really include a campaign.

Added years of the ones from years you're missing:

SiN: not really that influencial, but one of the earlier shooters to step away from the Doom like design.

Dark Forces: Star Wars shooter and engine use.

Outlaws: not really that influencial, but great use of music and cut scenes.

Soldier of Fortune (2000) (2): dismemberment effects

Hexen (1995): plays kinda different from Doom.

FEAR: slowmo effects and engine

Blood: not really that influencial, but one of the better Build engine games.

Delta Force: voxel engine use.

Noone Lives Forever (2000): just a good game.

Perfect Dark (2000): the next step after Golden Eye, but also still pre Halo.

Black (2006): action action action.

Resistance (2006): first big shooter on the PS3.

Battlefield: Bad Company (2008): first use of the Frostbite engine and destruction.

Far Cry 2 (2008): very interesting mechanics.

Metro 2033 (2010): one of the earlier dx11 titles. Good looking and a good game overal.

RAGE (2011): megatextures.

Black Ops 2 (2012): CoD with a more fleshed out serious story.

Wolfenstein: The New Order (2014): did what DOOM 2016 did before DOOM 2016.

I'd say Wolfenstein 3-D (or Catacombs) should be in there. Maybe replace them with Blake Stone or Rise of the Triad which refine the concepts a bit, while still sticking to a different mold than Doom. Since you list Bioshock I'd also say System Shock 1 and 2. If you want some really early obscurities I'd also suggest Corporation (1989) and the japanese Star Cruiser (1988).

Descent (1995) goes for a pretty different thing, so I could see why you wouldn't count it, but it's generally classified as an FPS rather than a flying game.

I'd probably pick Blood above Duke Nukem 3D. While Duke Nukem 3D was an earlier Build engine release, I don't think it ever was particularly great on its own, it was made fantastic by the modding community. Blood was a better package from the get-go.

I would add Wolfenstein 3D, a battlefield game (1942 or 2), Team Fortress 2, Borderlands, and maybe Crysis.

I agree with @gundogan with F.E.A.R. and The New Order, and Perfect Dark. I would do Far Cry 1 over Far Cry 2. Delta Force is decent, I am a huge fan of NovaLogic, Inc. games back in the day, but idk if they are considered seminal games.

MW2 is a great game, but I dont think it makes this list.

Timesplitters/Timesplitters 2

@ravey: As much as I love Codename: Eagle's multiplayer I'd probably not recommend it today unless he has 15 other people to set up a match with. The singleplayer campaign was never good, and it was hard to make the game run well on PC's even at the time of release, probably much more so today. The later Battlefield games are probably easier to play and find matches in.

@fisk0:

Blood was one of those games for me that blew my freakin mind when I first played it. You can set enemies on fire with the flare gun. YOu CAN SET ENEMIES ON FIRE WITH THE FLARE GUN!!! I need to find this game and play it right now.

Marathon did some pretty cool stuff with storytelling in 1994, and it's probably the only Mac game that you can put on a list like this. It also might be the first FPS to have dual wielding in it? I'm sure someone will correct me on that, though.

And, uh, Metroid Prime probably belongs on this list.

Alot of these games aren't what you would call "seminal" tbh. If you want a comprehensive list:

Wolfenstein 3D

Doom / Doom 2

Quake / Quake 2

Quake 3 Arena

Descent

Half-Life

Thief / Thief 2

Unreal

System Shock 2

CounterStrike

Deus Ex

Halo

Call of Duty 4

Metroid Prime

S.T.A.L.K.E.R

DOOM 2016

Anything else is either too similar to something else (Duke Nukem 3D) or isn't worth playing (CoD 1, MoH)

Also don't play Goldeneye. It's bad.

I'd say Wolf 3D, then ROTT and Blake, then Doom, instead of replacing anything. I think Blake and ROTT are important as having early attempts at features that wouldn't be normalized in shooters for a while. And of course, you can't run through the history of FPS without Wolfenstein 3D. Catacomb is important, but skippable, I think.

Same with Duke and Blood. Actually, I'd say that all four major Build games (Duke, Blood, Shadow Warrior, even Redneck Rampage) are essential. Not only important games, but just damn fun to boot.

For extra credit, might be worth checking out Ken's Labyrinth too. Probably just my nostalgia speaking on that one, though. And if he's going to dig *that* deep, suddenly we're talking Pie In The Sky engine games, Eradicator, Bad Toys 3D... haha.

Edit: OP, do you plan to blog about the games afterwards? I always love to hear fresh takes on 90s shooters. I'm so close to them that I really couldn't say how well they hold up, and I'm curious.

GoldenEye was ahead of its time and is still worth playing in my opinion, but there's an argument to me made for seeking out Perfect Dark instead as it's definitely a more feature-rich sequel (minus the Bond license). I highly recommend the 360/X1 version of PD with modern dual analog controls.

I still think there's an untapped niche in the genre for something like Perfect Dark to come back - something with a focus on arcade-y shooting and speedruns, weapons with tertiary fire modes, side objectives, optional stealth, and a dash of cyberpunk.

Edit: Far Cry 2 is a beauty to behold and one of the all-time greats. I think I managed to find a mod that reduced the enemy aggression when driving through checkpoints and it made the game much better to play.

I know it's been said but definitely Goldeneye!

@shagge: I'm certainly going to take notes! Now that you mention it, a write-up sounds cool. Will do!

There's already so much to talk about when it comes to Doom vs. DOOM 2016: even as someone who hadn't played anything before the PS1 aside from Super Mario World, it's crazy how well the 1993 original holds up. The different enemies, the gunplay... it all combines into a 'dance with the demons' that's every bit as engaging, challenging and fun as its modern succesor. Having only played Knee Deep In The Dead so far, I'm already interested in playing this again on a higher difficulty... might do that after going through all these classics.

Titles like Wolfenstein 3D, GoldenEye and even Doom 3 and Quake 4 are all games I should maybe skip, but they're sort of on a B-list: play them mostly for completion sake in case I wanna dive deeper still.

Which would also mean playing crazy old stuff pre-Wolfenstein that I don't even know about yet of course :P

I think a lot of Dark Forces/Jedi Knight1-3.

The Tom Clancy games have had some great content as well so I would consider those. Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon were impressive. Operation Flashpoint was as well for me. That's a different kind of tactical branch of games.

Far Cry was incredible for me when it came out and I think worthy of this list. What it was doing with open outdoor environments and stealth were not common.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein is also worthy I think (had a big multiplayer, a popular free multiplayer version).

A lot of people have thrown out hybrid games (like Deus Ex, Thief, and STALKER) and that's a whole different can of worms I think.

Games that have had a lasting impact on the genre that you need to add: Bioshock, Bioshock Infinite, Deus Ex, Battlefield 1942, Battlefield 2, Portal, Portal 2, Left 4 Dead, Goldeneye. I am sure there are more that I can't think of off the top of my head.

Either Far Cry or Crysis need to be on this list, personally I would lean Crysis. I think Borderlands is worth adding as well. Titanfall is also a must add since it really jump started the current obsession with mobility in shooters.

I don't see Fugitive Hunter or Haze so this list seems woefully incomplete.

No mention of Heretic which is one of the best classic shooters imo.
EDIT: I also believe Heretic was the first shooter that allowed you to look up and down?

no jurassic park for snes *shakes head*

Honestly, I think there's something fascinating about going through all the early iD shooters (perhaps even including Hovertank 3D). It's really interesting seeing iD's progress from Catacomb 3-D to Wolfenstein 3D to Doom to Quake, both in terms of technological advancement and creativity. If you can play them all, then I'd say go for it.

@beachthunder: Yeah, that's a good point. Decent game, too, so it wouldn't be a slog.

Oh, and one addendum to my suggestions: Nitemare 3D. Not a good game, but that soundtrack... mmm-mmm. MIDI goodness.

Not sure how faithful you're trying to go with those games but I highly recommend Black Mesa when you play Half-Life 1. It's the game recreated using Half-Life 2's engine.

@yurimegumi: call bs on goldeneye not being seminal, it basically made first person shooters on consoles possible. outdated and clunky now? yes (mmmaybe). but definitely influential and part of this list as stated.

Delta Force took like 6 years of my life. It's definitely not "seminal" but I'd play Bulletstorm just for fun, too :)

Probably don't listen to me because I disagree with just about everyone on this subject. But some of the best shooter experiences I've had are:

• Gears of War
• Gears of War 3
• RAGE
• Halo 3
• F.E.A.R.
• Titanfall 2? Maybe? Probably. Not sure yet.

I'd probably throw Destiny in there too. Its not exactly seminal and the "campaign" has all sorts of problems (at least it did in 2014, I haven't played it or kept up with it since), but it is the pinnacle of core shooting mechanics in an FPS.

The following for sure should be on the list for one reason or another:

• Far Cry 2 (2008)
• Wolfenstein 3D (1992)
• Destiny (2014)
• Left 4 Dead (2008)
• Borderlands (2009)
• Rage (2011)
• Metroid Prime Trilogy (2009)
• System Shock 2 (1999)
• Resistance 3 (2011)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010)
• Bulletstorm (2011)
• No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way (2002)
• Star Wars: Republic Commando (2005)
• Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (2013)
• Duke Nukem Forever (2011)
• Titanfall 2 (2016)
• Syndicate (2012)

Syndicate people or are you all forgetting poor Jeff!

Edit:

Forgot Battlefield: Bad Company (2008)

This is a fun post!

Good list, but I would recommend System Shock 2 and the first Medal of Honor. The latter more for historical context as it kickstarted the big wave of WW2 shooters.

Also, from this year, SUPERHOT. It's the most original shooter I've played in years.

This is a super cool idea. I'd love to see an article or a series of articles about this journey.

It makes me wonder how we would collectively define "seminal." And I also wonder, in some cases, how time might have rendered some of those games--at least the games in @vindtumijtelang's original list--difficult to measure retroactively.

Halo 2 is the example that sticks out. I don't think that game is all that important mechanically, despite being a net improvement to the core Halo formula. Instead, that game gets remembered in large part because it wrote the blueprint for console-based matchmaking. You could go back and play Halo 2's campaign and still enjoy it, or even jump into some multiplayer matches via the Master Chief Collection. But unless you were there when Halo 2 was rewriting and cementing the specific paradigms it did, you might miss or undervalue that game's impact.

@inevpatoria: I'm starting to think I'll make a post each time I finish a game, but I'm not sure where and how extensive yet. I'm halfway through the original Doom and I already have enough to talk about for a 500 word post, pretty much.

Maybe just post them on these forums in General Discussion like this?

@vindtumijtelang: I'm definitely not the best authority on the process, but I guess I'd suggest using the site's Blog feature, since blogs can be cross-posted to the forums, and trying to connect it with one of the site's first-person concepts (also, is there really not a "first-person shooter" concept page in the wiki?).

Someone else will probably jump in with some better insight, though. Can't wait to read it!

Let me add a vote for going witch Blood over Duke Nukem.

Also: F.E.A.R. and Crysis. I love Far Cry 2, but it's a different animal.

... is the dictionary not sufficient?

"seminal: (of a work, event, moment, or figure) strongly influencing later developments"

Given that definition, I'd even question Quake 2 being on the list, I don't remember much changing after that game came out.

lol

Marathon might be one of the first too. They both came out in '94 so I'm not sure.

It's already been said, but Far Cry 2 is a must. It is one of the most uncompromising and divisive FPS of all time. It's like an insane person made it. It's almost completely systems-driven, and the systems are so weird and chaotic. I think it's more influential than people usually give it credit for.

You can't forget about mods like Team Fortress, Action Quake, Counter-Strike, Day Z, Infiltration, Natural Selection and so forth. There's a massive rabbit hole of mods to play that still have small player bases that influenced the genre, started careers or even entire game studios. A lot of game types you see in modern popular shooters came straight out of mods.

Natural Selection is one of my personal favorite games of all time. I've had more fun playing multiplayer mods than any retail shooter save for a select few.

F.E.A.R. to me still hasn't been topped by any game including the new DOOM in terms of satisfy firefights.

Crysis the first one is the best out of the series the gameplay is fun with semi level sandbox approach and the graphics where ahead of it's time the game still looks great today especially with mods.

Battlefield 2 still the best BF in my opinion great team work a good learning curve and awesome maps and the gameplay is still better than BF1.

If you actually want the biggest seminal first person shooters then the list should be pretty short.