Topic: Is Retro FPS Better Than Modern FPS?

Personally, I enjoy the old FPS games more than modern FPS games today. Back then, although some FPS games were Doom clones, the games were better designed, with equal emphasis on single-player AND multiplayer. Let's take Doom, my favorite FPS game of all time. The levels were basically arena-like stages with you finding your own way to the end of the level with some hidden secrets like hidden shotguns and what-have-you. Plus, the music is just plain amazing. At Doom's Gate and The Imp's Song is up there as some of the best video game music ever. The final thing, though, is that Doom has near-infinite replayability. Seriously, people STILL create speed-runs for Doom, even today.

In contrast, modern FPS games feel... uninspired, for some reason. I feel that developers only look at games like Call of Duty 4 and imitate the multiplayer of those games. This caused a huge focus on multiplayer and not much on single-player, and today, it feels as if you played CoD 4, you basically played all of the other FPS games. And when you compare the music and replayability of modern FPS to Doom, the only pieces of music I actually found good for me in FPS games were the Halo theme and CoD 4's Mile High Club mission music. That's it. Moreover, when you beat the campaign of a modern FPS, what's next for you? Multiplayer? Well, to be honest, I think online-play is overrated. That's why I don't care for Xbox Live, PSN, or that new Nintendo Network (though that's a topic for another time); instead, I care for single-player and local multiplayer. While you may catch me playing Mario Kart 7 online time to time, I don't do that on a regular basis. Maybe later on, but until then, single-player games are my way to go.

Anyways, I'm getting sidetracked (again...). What do you think? Do you enjoy retro games like Doom's gripping single-player, or the modern online-multiplayer FPS?

On an unrelated note, I want Nintendo to have Retro Studios and NST to create a good online-multiplayer FPS with all of the traits of a Nintendo game (amazing single-player, awesome music) with new innovations to the CoD 4 multiplayer formula to breathe life into the stale genre. And hey, maybe they could get me to play online most of the time. If anyone can do that permanently (not just for two years), it's Nintendo. I just know it.

I agree, i love playing Doom, etc, but as far as more recent FPSs, i just don't enjoy them anywhere near as much. Of course, i'm old, so that might be part of it.
_{get off mah lawn}

I definitely enjoy old FPS games to modern ones. To this day I can still go back and enjoy GoldenEye 007 on the N64, but Black Ops I only played once and haven't touched since (and I only played it because my brother happened to purchase it)...

I also agree with you on online multi-player—it just doesn't interest me and it'll never make me feel as enthralled as sitting in a room with three friends playing a round of GoldenEye on the Bunker map, with proximity mines as the weapon of choice...

One of the things I miss the most these days about multi-player shooters (other than the fact that most of them don't feature split-screen anymore) is picking a weapon category and starting a match out with nothing but your fists, having to scramble toward a weapon, lest you be caught unarmed by one of your lead-toting friends. Loadouts, which, have become the norm nowadays, take all that fun and suspense away. And don't even get me started on regenerating health...

This is all just my opinion, though...

The less focus on online multiplayer the better.
For some reason my Internet can't seem to handle me playing games online, so until I can get that all sorted I can't even play online games very much so if a game is mostly focused on online multiplayer then I can't really play it much at all.
I'm not a big First Person Shooter fan anyway, one or two per system is enough for me.

I've never been big on Doom (I know, I know), but GoldenEye is certainly great. However, I think it's unfair to call modern fps games uninspired. Sure, a lot of them are, but then again, you did say a lot of old FPS games were just clones, so what's the difference?

IE: F.E.A.R. Despite the awfulness of the latest game, you can't deny the original was fairly unique in it's blend of action and horror.
Left 4 Dead is also very unique with it's 100% co-op gameplay. It's honestly one of the only games I can think of where it's actually IMPOSSIBLE to win if you try to Everyman it.
Borderlands and Fallout 3 were both unique as well (despite Fallouts generic visuals), with their RPG/FPS hybrid gameplay.

But easily the best and most original FPS of this generation is Call of Juarez: The Cartel. The story, the gameplay, the writing, the graphics, the setting. All absolutely amazing.

Oh, also, it's not just FPS games that focus on multiplayer and discard local. A good majority of modern games, regardless of genre, do the same thing. It's definitely my biggest issue with this generation.

i think that there is too much hype and interest in modern FPS, although the thing that bugs me is that many of them render hollywood big budget feature films, as opposed to actual games. the realism aspect can sometimes be a good thing, from a technology point of view. but with regards to rehashing the same formula without adding anything new to it, is the problem i have with FPS.

i don't get the hype with CoD and those kinds of shooters-yet i think the graphics are a main selling point. if CoD had crappy graphics or be it had SNES, N.E.S style graphics- not to say SNES, N.E.S graphics were totally crap, would many people buy it? probably not.

i liked metroid prime triology because it wasn't just an FPS- it had other gameplay mechanics and elements and retro took an original nintendo franchise and made it twice as exciting and enthralling as it wasn't just about samus shooting everything in sight. i liked the retro, old school FPS more- the titles and the back stories, plots behind each one were far more interesting.

how far back are we considering retro.

Yeah most modern FPS are somewhat uninspired. Only reason why series like halo hasn't suffered from that is due to every game playing alittle differently and having a serious sci-fi storyline and just the love of the people who work on it. the halo games also manage to hit that sweet golden eye/doom mutiplayer note where it just works.

where do you rank stuff like bioshock.

Yes, there are exceptions to modern FPS games. For one, the already-mentioned Metroid Prime Trilogy was a great game this generation. The BioShock series seems interesting, yes, and yeah, Valve had done a good job with FPS games (Left 4 Dead, Half-Life). However, for every unique FPS game there is, two more uninspired ones pop up, mostly with focus on online multiplayer.

And about the retro clones, the big difference between those games and today's uninspired FPS games is the single-player and hype. Back then, the Doom clones weren't really hyped, but the single-player is still a tad better than the modern FPS. In contrast, most FPS games today I play change the campaign very much like the original Mega Man series: it always has eight robot masters, a castle, and Wily. Today it is a little bit like that. Now it's more like go here, explosion, break in here, bullet hell time, sneak into enemy territory, you get the point. Not to mention, they're so linear, making me feel like I'm watching a movie - a terrible one. Of course, there are exceptions, but you basically get the point. If a FPS game dares to go against the norm, I may be interested. But those games are few and far in between.

Here lies a terrible time for video games.

the original doom was the game that kicked started the whole FPS craze, then came virtua cop, time crisis. but the latter 2 tended to be more target-aiming style shooters as opposed to say like CoD, gears of war.

i think that for FPS to be a really great game, it needs to have something really special but also different to make it exciting that makes it stand out from all those current shooters.

For me, it's the control scheme that matters most. If it has mouse + keyboard, Wiimote + nunchuck, or arcade light gun controls, good. Dual-analog controls? Forget it!

My FPS history

1991-2001
Wolfenstein 3D (PC)
Doom (PC)
Heretic (PC)
Hexen (PC)
Doom (SNES)
Halflife (PC)
GoldenEye (N64)
Perfect Dark (N64)
Doom 64 (N64)
Turok series (N64)
Quake I & II (N64)
and many many others...

2002-2012
Metroid Prime (GC)
TimeSplitters 2 (GC)
Metroid Prime 2 (GC)
Geist (GC)
Metroid Prime 3 (Wii)
GoldenEye (Wii)
That's it... not much for a decade.

Of course I played a Medal of Honor, a Battlefield, a Far Cry, a Halo, a Mass Effect and a Call of Duty but didn't add them to my collection (all graphics, no gameplay). I liked Bioshock and Deus Ex somewhat but wasn't compelled to beat them during the time I had a Xbox.

I think if it wasn't for retro, then we wouldn't have a recent awesome FPS, Goldeneye, and Doom set the standards.

Yeah, it is mixed with adventure and RPG elements and lots of story background.
Doesn't Metroid Prime have all of it as well? Anyway, I'm not debating what is FPS and what is not.
Just saying I'm not one of the millions who enjoyed playing these games.

Want a good single-player FPS with large focus on story and such? Half-Life series. I'm surprised there aren't more fans of HL on here.

EDIT: And if you're looking for something like Doom and Quake and such, Serious Sam comes to mind, and I've heard that the Painkiller series is good for that as well.

I'll be the odd one out and say no, Modern FPS' are better than Retro ones. Why? With the exception of Half-Life (which is arguably the best game ever made, and it's kind of more Modern anyone), they haven't aged well. You give a brand new player DOOM and then give them Halo, they'll probably pick Halo. The pacing and variety within and between retro FPS are seriously poor. All they did was basically give a scenario of "here's things to shoot, here's ammo, here's things to shoot, etc., boss, repeat". They felt very similar between each other as well. While if you look at Halo: Combat Evolved, it had a variety of different things to do, had great pacing, and different ways to approach the topic at hand. Also, look at the differences between Halo, Metroid Prime, Half-Life, Bioshock, Deus Ex: HR, and Crysis. With the exception of having a fun, substantial, SINGLE-PLAYER campaign and the concept of shooting things in first person, there aren't any real similarities. I don't find older FPS' gripping due to them doing the same thing over and over again but with a background color. Yes, Quake, Serious Sam, and Doom are fun, but modern FPS' are better, fuller games.

I still remember when Wolfenstein 3D was brand new, and my friend's uncle gave him a copy of it along with a bunch of other random games (his uncle was a programmer back in the early PC days, and always had the inside track on things like that) — my friend called me up to come over and play it, and when he was trying to describe the game: "You're a soldier in a castle and you're killing Nazis and finding treasure and secret rooms, but it's like it's YOU actually doing it!" We had no term back then for "first person shooter"!

I think it's quite unfair to say Halo is all graphics no gameplay. Explain to me what exactly is wrong with Halo's gameplay? Sorry, I'm just tired of the Halo Hating Bandwagon that never has any reasons for its hate apart from the series being popular.

Also I fully agree with MooMoo.

Agreed. Many retro FPS games are incredibly linear and boil down to this: "shoot these generic enemies until you reach the end of the level, fight a boss, repeat." There was barely any plot progression or character development in these old games.

Unreal Tournament 2004 still puts all other multiplayer shooters to shame in my view. Too bad Epic had to run the series into the ground in favor of Gears of War.

unreal didn't bring in the money and used a twitch shooter forumla that Kant popular today. that and gears is mostly single player focus and are different type of game.

also seeing as epic has out out gears, shadow complex,infinity blade, and that new minecraft shooter I'm glad we aren't getting another unreal.