I was recently reviewing several FPS (First Person Shooter) games in order to evaluate them and think about the genre. I replayed or sat and thought about games like the original Unreal, Doom, Half-Life and System Shock 2. I also played games like Quake 4, Half-Life 2, Prey and other fairly modern FPS games. I noticed some significant changes in the genre and I also noticed that I enjoyed the older versions (for the most part) than the newer FPS games. I wanted to start a discussion about why someone might prefer one over the other. Here are my initial thoughts.

The original FPS games (Doom, Unreal, Half-Life, etc) may have had a story or not, but the end-user was not always privy to it. This meant that there was a lot of discovery along the way. In some cases the discovery may have been relatively small. For example, in Doom you wanted to get past a door and so you needed to find the key card for it. Other than point and shoot, there was not much more to the game. However, Doom is still fun to play. This may be because Doom is really not much more than a 2D side scrolling arcade game brought into a form of 3D! And arcade games are simply mindless fun (for the most part). Nothing wrong with that at all!

Unreal added a few other elements. Yes, triggers needed to be tripped to open doors and activate elevators and all of that, but they added some cool things like better AI, the earth would shake (at one point in the game) giving the possibility of knocking the player into lava and a few other cool, but simple, things. For all intents and purposes, the game play between Doom and Unreal was not all that different. Even so, it still remains one of my all-time favorite games despite its age and despite how many times I have played through all the levels.

Half-Life added a few other things to the genre. The story was more complex and there was a sense of purpose that was stronger than in the previously mentioned games. HL was just a tad more than an arcade game turned on its side. Even so, the story and driven purpose of the game did not really dominate the game and, thus, the game for many was as joyful to play as any mindless arcade game. In fact, if you wanted to ignore the story and just run around shooting things and looking for the exit, you could and you could still win the game. So the story was a nice tool, but it did not detract from the overall game. In fact, it did a good job of enhancing it.

But things start to change significantly for me with some of these newer games. I had never played Quake 4. Somehow I missed that one. I started to play it a few days ago and I certainly liked the details surroundings and the nicely detailed models. But I frankly became bored with the game. Why? The reason, for me, is that the story took a higher role than the idea of simply having fun blasting things. And the way this was done was that I was FORCED to do things the way the game wanted me to. I was DRIVEN to move from one point to the next whether I wanted to or not. I did not feel FREE to explore the WORLD of Quake 4. I was simply a cog in a machine and the game was my master instead of the other way around. I quickly found myself turning on God Mode so that I could ignore the game and study the surroundings.

For me, this trend toward controlling the player causes FPS games to loose their appeal. And the control employed (i.e. assigning missions as they do) takes away from the discover of the unknown. There is NOTHING to discover! You are simply TOLD what to do and then, like a good little robot, you go out and do it. BOOOORRRIIINNNGGG.

Now, Half-Life 2 did a great job of trying to combine the two ideas. They did guide you, that is true and you had a little less control of your destiny, but you could make choices and there was plenty to discover. Even so, the mystery of the earlier games was gone for me. I enjoyed Half-Life 2, but I find that I enjoyed the original Unreal even more.

What made the original Unreal so appealing to me personally? Well, as the player you had no real idea what was going on. You wake up on a crashed ship. What are you? Why are you there? No one tells you. It is a mystery. You find your way off the ship and, in the process, see some things that give you a clue to the world you are about to enter. You hear the screams of others on the crashed ship being slaughtered. You catch a fleeting glimpse of one of the monsters running away after tearing apart someone.

Then you exit the ship on a strange planet. No one tells you where to go. No one tells you what to do. You can find messages on dead bodies or carved into a wall, etc. But you can totally play the game never reading them. Or you can immerse yourself in the story. Whatever. The choice is the players. This is not the case with games like Quake 4, where you are led by the nose.

System Shock 2 is another game that I have always enjoyed. While its story was king and the player was led by the nose to some extent, the player still had a sense of freedom. You could be half-way through the game and work your way all the way back to near the beginning if you wanted to. All doors were open, so to speak.

I suppose what I am discovering as I write this is that, in order for a good FPS to be successful, it must give at least the illusion that the player has virtually absolute freedom ... that all choices are his and his alone. If the player feels they are being led by the nose then the experience can be significantly lessened.

Perhaps I am just too simple and like the old school, simple games of the past and, as a result, perhaps the problem is me and not modern FPS games. But I sense this may not really be the case.

What are your thoughts? What would make a good modern FPS game and why?