Afirst-person shooter (FPS) is avideo game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from afirst-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through the eyes of themain character.[1] This genre shares multiple common traits with othershooter games, and in turn falls under theaction games category. Since the genre's inception, advanced3D andpseudo-3D graphics have proven fundamental to allow a reasonable level of immersion in thegame world, and this type of game helped pushing technology progressively further, challenging hardware developers worldwide to introduce numerous innovations in the field ofgraphics processing units.Multiplayer gaming has been an integral part of the experience and became even more prominent with the diffusion of internet connectivity in recent years.
Although earlier games predate it by 20 years,Wolfenstein 3D (1992) was the highest-profile archetype upon which most subsequent first-person shooters were based. One such game, considered the progenitor of the genre's mainstream acceptance and popularity, wasDoom (1993), often cited as the most influential game in this category; for years, the term "Doom clone" was used to designate this type of game, due toDoom's enormous success.[2] Another common name for the genre in its early days was "corridor shooter", since processing limitations of that era's computer hardware meant that most of the action had to take place in enclosed areas, such as corridors and small rooms.[3]
During the 1990s, the genre was one of the main cornerstones for technological advancements of computer graphics, starting with the release ofQuake in 1996.Quake was one of the first real-time 3D rendered video games in history, and quickly became one of the most acclaimed shooter games of all time.[4][5]Graphics accelerator hardware became essential to improve performances and add new effects such as fulltexture mapping,dynamic lighting andparticle processing to the 3Dengines that powered the games of that period, such as the iconicid Tech 2, the first iteration of theUnreal Engine, or the more versatileBuild. Other seminal games were released during the years, withMarathon enhancing the narrative and puzzle elements,[6][7][8]Duke Nukem 3D introducing voice acting, complete interactivity with the environment, and city-life settings to the genre, and games likeTom Clancy's Rainbow Six andCounter-Strike starting to adopt a realistic and tactical approach aimed at simulating real life counter-terrorism situations.GoldenEye 007, released in 1997, was a landmark first-person shooter forhome consoles, while the critical and commercial success of later titles likePerfect Dark,Medal of Honor and theHalo series helped to heighten the appeal of this genre for the consoles market, straightening the road to the current tendency to release most titles as cross-platform, like many games in theFar Cry andCall of Duty series.
First-person shooters are a type ofshooter game[9] that relies on afirst-person point of view with which the player experiences the action through the eyes of thecharacter. They differ fromthird-person shooters in that, in a third-person shooter, the player can see the character they are controlling (usually from behind, or above). The primary design focus is combat, mainly involving firearms or other types of long range weapons.[10]
A defining feature of the genre is "player-guided navigation through a three-dimensional space." This is a defining characteristic that clearly distinguishes the genre from other types of shooting games that employ afirst-person perspective, includinglight gun shooters,rail shooters,shooting gallery games, or older shootingelectro-mechanical games.[1] First person-shooter games are thus categorized as being distinct from light gun shooters, a similar genre with a first-person perspective which uses dedicatedlight gun peripherals, in contrast to the use of conventional input devices.[11] Light-gun shooters (likeVirtua Cop) often feature "on-rails" (scripted) movement, whereas first-person shooters give the player complete freedom to roam the surroundings.
The first-person shooter may be considered a distinct genre itself, or a type of shooter game, in turn a subgenre of the wideraction game genre.[12] Following the release ofDoom in 1993, games in this style were commonly referred to as "Doom clones";[13][14] over time this term has largely been replaced by "first-person shooter".[14]Wolfenstein 3D, released in 1992, the year beforeDoom, has been often credited with introducing the genre, but critics have since identified similar, though less advanced, games developed as far back as 1973.[10] There are occasional disagreements regarding the specific design elements which constitute a first-person shooter. For example, titles likeDeus Ex orBioShock may be considered as first-person shooters, but may also fit into therole-playing games category, as they borrow extensively from that genre.[15] Other examples, likeFar Cry andRage, could also be consideredadventure games, because they focus more on exploration than simple action, they task players with multiple different objectives other than just killing enemies, and they often revolve around the construction of complex cinematic storylines with a well defined cast ofsecondary characters to interact with. Furthermore, certain puzzle or platforming games are also sometimes categorized as first-person shooters, in spite of lacking any direct combat or shooting element, instead using a first-person perspective to help players immerse within the game and better navigate 3D environments (for example, in the case ofPortal, the 'gun' the player character carries is used to create portals through walls rather than fire projectiles).[16] Some commentators also extend the definition to includecombat flight simulators andspace battle games, whenever the cockpit of the aircraft is depicted from a first-person point of view.[7][10]
Like most shooter games, first-person shooters involve anavatar, one or more ranged weapons, and a varying number of enemies.[12] Because they take place in a 3D environment, these games tend to be somewhat more realistic than2D shooter games, and have more accurate representations of gravity, lighting, sound and collisions.[9] First-person shooters played onpersonal computers are most often controlled with a combination of akeyboard andmouse. This system has been claimed as superior to that found in console games,[17][18] which frequently use twoanalog sticks: one used for running and sidestepping, the other forlooking and aiming.[19] It is common to display the character's hands and weaponry in the main view, with aheads-up display showing health,ammunition and location details. Often, it is possible to overlay a map of the surrounding area.[20]
First-person shooters generally focus on action gameplay, with fast-paced combat and dynamic firefights being a central point of the experience, though certain titles may also place a greater emphasis on narrative, problem-solving and logic puzzles.[21] In addition to shooting,melee combat may also be used extensively. In some games, melee weapons are especially powerful, as a reward for the risk the player must take in maneuvering his character into close proximity to the enemy.[22] In other games, instead, melee weapons may be less effective but necessary as a last resort.[23] "Tactical shooters" tend to be more realistic, and require the players to use teamwork and strategy in order to succeed;[19] the players can often command a squad of characters, which may be controlled by theA.I. or by human teammates,[24] and can be given different tasks during the course of the mission.
First-person shooters typically present players with a vast arsenal of weapons, which can have a large impact on how they will approach the game.[9] Some games offer realistic reproductions of actual existing (or even historical) firearms, simulating their rate of fire, magazine size, ammunition amount, recoil and accuracy. Depending on the context, other first-person shooters may incorporate some imaginative variations, including futuristic prototypes, alien-technology or magical weapons, and/or implementing a wide array of different projectiles, from lasers, to energy, plasma, rockets, and arrows. These many variations may also be applied to the tossing of grenades, bombs, spears and the like. Also, more unconventional modes of destruction may be employed by the playable character, such as flames, electricity, telekinesis or other supernatural powers, and traps.
In the early era of first-person shooters, often designers allowed characters to carry a large number of different weapons with little to no reduction in speed or mobility. More modern games started to adopt a more realistic approach, where the player can only equip a handheld gun, coupled with a rifle, or even limiting the players to only one weapon of choice at a time, forcing them to swap between different alternatives according to the situation. In some games, there's the option to trade up or upgrade weapons, resulting in multiple degrees of customization. Thus, the standards of realism are extremely variable.[9] The protagonist can generally get healing and equipment supplies by means of collectible items such asfirst aid kits or ammunition packs, simply by walking over, or interacting with them.[25] Some games allow players to accumulateexperience points in a role-playing game fashion, that can generally be used to unlock new weapons, bonuses and skills.[26]
First-person shooters may be structurally composed oflevels, or use the technique of a continuous narrative in which the game never leaves the first-person perspective.[7] Others feature largesandbox environments, which are not divided into levels and can be explored freely.[27] In first-person shooters, protagonists interact with the environment to varying degrees, from basics such as using doors, to problem solving puzzles based on a variety of interactive objects.[7] In some games, the player can damage the environment, also to varying degrees: one common device is the use of barrels containingexplosive material which the player can shoot, harming nearby enemies.[25] Other games feature environments which are extensively destructible, allowing for additional visual effects.[28] The game world will often make use of science fiction, historic (particularlyWorld War II) ormodern military themes, with suchantagonists asaliens,monsters,terrorists and soldiers of various types.[29] Games feature multiple difficulty settings; in harder modes, enemies are tougher, more aggressive and do more damage, and power-ups are limited. In easier modes, the player can succeed through reaction times alone; on more difficult settings, it is often necessary to memorize the levels through trial and error.[30]
More 21st century first-person shooters utilize the Internet for multiplayer features, but local area networks were commonly used in early games.
First-person shooters may feature amultiplayer mode, taking place on specialized levels. Some games are designed specifically for multiplayer gaming, and have very limited single player modes in which the player competes against game-controlled characters termed "bots".[31]Massively multiplayer online first-person shooters like those in thePlanetSide series allow thousands of players to compete at once in apersistent world.[32] Large scale multiplayer games allow multiple squads, with leaders issuing commands and a commander controlling the team's overall strategy.[31] Multiplayer games have a variety of different styles of match.
A player standing close to the blue flag in a "capture the flag" round of the 2023 gameXonotic
The classic types are thedeathmatch (and its team-based variant) in which players score points by killing other players' characters; andcapture the flag, in which teams attempt to penetrate the opposing base, capture a flag and return it to their own base whilst preventing the other team from doing the same. Other game modes may involve attempting to capture enemy bases or areas of the map, attempting to take hold of an object for as long as possible while evading other players, or deathmatch variations involving limited lives or in which players fight over a particularly potentpower-up. These match types may also be customizable, allowing the players to vary weapons, health and power-ups found on the map, as well as victory criteria.[33] Games may allow players to choose between variousclasses, each with its own strengths, weaknesses, equipment and roles within a team.[23]
There are many free-to-play first-person shooters on the market now, includingWolfenstein: Enemy Territory,Apex Legends,Team Fortress 2,PlanetSide 2, andHalo Infinite Multiplayer.[34] Some games are released as free-to-play as their intended business model and can be highly profitable (League of Legends earned $2 billion in 2017),[35] but others such asWarhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade begin their life as paid games and become free-to-play later to reach a wider audience after an initially disappointing reception.[36] Some player communities complain about freemium first-person-shooters, fearing that they create unbalanced games, but many game designers have tweaked prices in response to criticism, and players can usually get the same benefits by playing longer rather than paying.[36]
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The earliest two documented first-person shooter video games areMaze War andSpasim.Maze War was originally developed in 1973 by Greg Thompson, Steve Colley and Howard Palmer, high-school students in aNASA work-study program trying to develop a program to help visualizefluid dynamics for spacecraft designs. The work became a maze game presented to the player in the first-person, and later included support for a second player and the ability to shoot the other player to win the game. Thompson took the game's code with him toMassachusetts Institute of Technology, where with help fromDave Lebling to create an eight-player version that could be played overARPANET, computer-run players using artificial intelligence, customizable maps, online scoreboards and a spectator mode.[37]Spasim had a documented debut at theUniversity of Illinois in 1974 on the PLATO mainframe system. The game was a rudimentaryspace flight simulator for up to 32 players, featuring a first-person perspective.[10] Both games were distinct from modern first-person shooters, involving simpletile-based movement where the player could only move from square to square and turn in90-degree increments.[38] Such games spawned others that used similar visuals to display the player as part of a maze (such asAkalabeth: World of Doom in 1979), and were loosely called "rat's eye view" games, since they gave the appearance of a rat running through a maze.[37] Another crucial early game that influenced first-person shooters wasWayout. It featured the player trying to escape a maze, usingray casting to render the environment, simulating visually how each wall segment would be rendered relative to the player's position and facing angle. This allowed more freeform movement compared to the grid-based and cardinalMaze War andSpasim.[37] Among PLATO games, Witz and Boland's 1977Futurewar, a dystopian 3D first-person dungeon shooter, has been argued to be the first true FPS. This is due to the combination of a fully perspective-shifting 3D maze with enemies ahead, and what may be the earliest representation of weapons appearing in perspective in front of the player.[39][40][41][42]
MIDI Maze, a first-person shooter released in 1987 for theAtari ST,[45] featuredmaze-based gameplay and character designs similar toPac-Man, but displayed in a first-person perspective.[46][47] Later ported to various systems—including theGame Boy andSuper NES under the titleFaceball 2000—it featured the first network multiplayerdeathmatches, using aMIDI interface.[48][47] Despite the inconvenience of connecting numerous machines together, it gained a cult following;1UP.com called it the "first multi-player 3D shooter on a mainstream system" and the first "major LAN action game".[48]
In 1986, MacroMind released a version of the game for the Apple Macintosh titled Maze Wars+, which was playable on the AppleTalk local network by up to 30 players. The game featured five different character avatars, including an eyeball similar to that found in the Xerox version of the game, four different types of robot players, additional maze features such as teleporters, and walls made of lines rather than blocks.
Id Software'sHovertank 3D pioneeredray casting technology in May 1991 to enable faster gameplay than 1980s vehicle simulators,[44] though it was preceded by 3 years by the FPSThe Colony in doing so andCatacomb 3-D introduced another advance,texture mapping, in November 1991. The second game to use texture mapping wasUltima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, a March 1992action role-playing game byLooking Glass Technologies that featured a first-person viewpoint and an advanced graphics engine. In October 1990, id developer John Romero learned about texture mapping from a phone call to Paul Neurath. Romero described the texture mapping technique to id programmerJohn Carmack, who remarked, "I can do that.",[49] and would feel motivated by Looking Glass's example to do the same inCatacomb 3-D.[44]Catacomb 3-D also introduced the display of the protagonist's hand and weapon (in this case, magical spells) on the screen, whereas previously aspects of the player's avatar were not visible.[44] The experience of developingUltima Underworld would make it possible for Looking Glass to create theThief andSystem Shock series years later.[50]
Although it was not the earliestshooter game with afirst-person perspective,Wolfenstein 3D is often credited with establishing the first-person shooter genre and many of its staples.
Wolfenstein 3D was the first episodic FPS game developed byid Software, as a successor to the successful 1980s 2D infiltration video-gamesCastle Wolfenstein[51] andBeyond Castle Wolfenstein[52] fromMuse Software, and published byApogee Software on 5 May 1992[53] in which the player had to explore mazes while battlingNazis to find keys required to unlock doors to reach each floor's exit all while searching every wall for secret areas filled with treasures for a higherscore until each episode's last floor'sboss and was an instant success because of its first episode's distribution and spread asshareware[54] whereas the second and the third available after registration; and the three last prequel episodes available as a separate mission pack, to the point that it has since been credited for having single-handedly invented theconcept of first-person-shooter as a genre of video-games.[7][10] It was built onJohn Carmack'sray casting technology already experimented into id's previous gamesHovertank One andCatacomb 3D to create a new standard for first-person-shooter video-games widely emulated, improved, and still applied to this day.[7][10][21]Tom Hall originally designed it to be a first-person infiltration game including stealth, hiding dead bodies, disguises and alarms, following the legacy of its predecessors, and the game engine does include these original features, howeverJohn Romero andJohn Carmack wanted a simple shooter and Tom Hall had to fight hard to even include the secret areas.[55][56][57][58] Despite its violent themes,Wolfenstein largely escaped the controversy generated by the laterDoom, although it was banned fromGermany due to the use ofNaziiconography which is a sensitive topic there where Wolfenstein has been forbidden until 2022[59][60][61][62] andNintendo too required id Software to removeblood, gore, and all Nazi iconography as well as replace the enemyattack dogs with giantrats to allow it to be released onSNES because of their anti-violence policy.[63] id Software released amap editor to let players create and share online their own home-mademaps for the game which started the players'modding communities who blossomed withDoom and maintain their games alive continuously sustaining new content for them. DuringDoom's development, id Software quickly developed a short extension forWolfenstein 3D titledSpear of Destiny released on 19 September 1992[64] to tease the players with the Hell to come inDoom asSpear of Destiny concluded into Hell,[65][66] then two years later,Doom 2 included twosecret levels featuringWolfenstein in Hell while re-usingSpear of Destiny's Hell final level's music to close the loop.[67]
Ken Silverman decided to develop his owngame engine after he playedWolfenstein 3D in 1992. His firstgame, that he namedWalken as in "Ken's Walking simulator", was close toWolf3D engine. Then he improved his game with his friend Andrew Cotter, addednarration to eachfloor, renamed itKen's Labyrinth, and released it onInternet asshareware under his brother's companyAdvanced Systems on 1 January 1993.[68] The game was about escaping a bizarre dream labyrinth full of people shooting projectiles at the player while projectiles were more balls than bullets, meaning they had limited range and were slow enough to dodge them as opposite toWolfenstein 3D whose weapons werehitscanfirearms, some walls reflected projectiles, killed enemies vanished without any death animation nor remnant body on the floor, and Ken himself voiced theprotagonist and filled his game with pictures of himself which hurt the player if they dared to shoot them, which made his game personal.Epic MegaGames, thenWolfenstein 3D'spublisherApogee Software's main competitor, noticed it, saw potential, then signed a commercial agreement with Ken's father, as Ken was still minor. However, the original Advanced Systems'Ken's Labyrinth was made from Ken and Andrew's limited resources to the point that Ken made thesound effects with his mouth, therefore Epic MegaGames made use of their resources to revamp the game, replaced the projectiles balls withbubble gum balls,starbursts which bounced off walls, andhoming missiles, while collecting more of the same weapon increased their range and collectingthunderbolts increased the range of all weapons at once, also replaced the originalfinal boss with Ken himself, added diverse monsters, temporarypower-ups such as reflecting enemies' projectiles, kill enemies on contact, and invincibility, as well as treasures for buying these power-ups fromvending-machines and for paying doors' toll,slot-machines to wincoins instead of finding treasures in secret areas, death-traps such as holes in floors which were the only way to get rid of someinvulnerable enemies, water fountains which slowly restored health (much like inDuke Nukem 3D three years later), changed the goal from the original's merely escaping the labyrinth to rescue the player's abducteddog Sparky and save the world, added the requirement to have Sparky follow the player to the exit of each floor to be able to reach the next floor, which made the player have to pay attention to another character beside their own, and commercializedKen's Labyrinth v2 still as shareware on 21 March 1993.[68] All versions ofKen's Labyrinth got to besource-ported many times and even ontoNintendo Switch by a fan.[69][70][71][72][73] As soon asid Software showed off some previews ofDoom in the middle of its development, Ken Silverman started to develop his own game engine to rival withJohn Carmack once again, used athesaurus to searchsynonyms for the word "construction", and named his new game engine "Build". Apogee Software wanted Build since id Software went their own way and didn't want to license their newDoom engine (yet). Both Epic MegaGames and Apogee Software attempted tocontract Ken Silverman who chose Apogee Software which he never explained his reasons however Epic Games expressed noregret since not relying on Ken Silvermanmotivated them to develop their own technologies, which paid off.[74][75][76]
Most shooters in this period were developed for IBM PC compatible computers. On theMacintosh side,Bungie released its first shooter,Pathways into Darkness in August 1993,[77] which featured more adventure and narrative elements alongside first-person shooter gameplay.Pathways had been inspired byWolfenstein 3D, and born out of an attempt to take their previous top-down dungeon exploration gameMinotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete into a 3D setting.[78][79]
ShadowCaster, developed byRaven Software and published byOrigin Systems on 27 October 1993,[80] used a heavily modified version ofWolf3D engine made byJohn Carmack during summer 1992 who offered it to Raven Software after he was impressed with their firstRPVGBlack Crypt because he was curious about how Raven would use hisgame engine to make a RPVG instead of a FPSG.ShadowCaster was the first commercial game released with classic "2.5DDoom engine" improvements such as distance fogging, non-orthogonal walls, textured ceilings and floors, etc. beforeDoom itself came out. It introduced someRPG elements into aFPS game engine as well as a customizableHUD, anauto-map, jumping, swimming, flying,shapeshifting with each metamorphosis featuring its own characteristics to adapt to each situation.[81] Then it got enhanced withredbook audionarration, voiced dialogues which replaced the text boxes, two new levels, and 3D renderedcutscenes, then re-released onCD-ROM in 1994.[82][83][84][85]ShadowCaster started a durable close friendship between id Software and Raven Software as id will always share their technologies with Raven who will continuously use and upgrade them.
Apogee Software, the publisher ofWolfenstein 3D, followed up its success and released another FPS game based on itsengine titledBlake Stone: Aliens of Gold from another developer Jam Productions 5 December 1993[86] which featured asci-fisetting about aBritishsecret agent named Blake Stone pursuing amad scientist through his facilities like a sci-fiJames Bond, a similar Wolf3D'sgameplay of exploring mazes while battling various foes to findkeycards required to unlock doors to reach each floor's exit all while searching every wall for secret areas filled with treasures for a higherscore until each episode's last floor'sboss but with a far wider diversity of enemies,[87] and added textured floors and ceilings, switches to find and to press to open new areas, traps, anauto-map, stats tracking, a grenade launcher, limited-usevending-machines,teleporters, enemies spawners, back-tracking to previous levels as well as some friendlyNPCs in the form of scientists who would give the player hints and supplies provided the player didn't kill them.[88][89][90][91][92][93] The game was initially well-received but sales rapidly declined in the wake of the success of id'sDoom, released a week later.[94][95][96][97] It still got a sequelBlake Stone: Planet Strike on 28 October 1994[98] which integrated the auto-map into theHUD as a rotating mini-map which revealed secret doors at the cost of consuming auto-mapper charges and added some enemies whocamouflaged into the environment or werecloaked to surprise the player though.[99][100][101]
During the Doom & Quake's era from 1993 to 1997, FPS games were still all about their game engines as original and innovative games were ignored for the only reason that their game engine was outdated. FPS games were simplistic, such as shooting everything without any complex plot. However their gameplay started to evolve, and the combo id Software & Raven Software still dominated the market, while a challenger Captone Software persisted at attempting to be original, and competed with them and failed every time for diverse reasons,[which?] when another challenger LucasArts succeeded, and Bungie Software made FPS games featuring a complex plot.[citation needed] The modding communities who sustain life into their games blossomed starting from Doom, 2D sprites were replaced with 3D polygons starting from Descent then Quake, and Apogee Software returned on the market as 3D Realms thanks to Ken Silverman.[citation needed]
Doom, released on 10 December 1993,[102] refinedWolfenstein 3D's template by adding support for higher resolution, improved textures, variations in height (e.g., stairs and platforms the player's character could climb upon), more intricate level design (Wolfenstein 3D was limited to a grid based system where walls had to be orthogonal to each other, whereasDoom allowed for any inclination) and rudimentary illumination effects such as flickering lights and areas of darkness, creating a far more believable 3D environment thanWolfenstein 3D's levels, all of which had a flat-floor space and corridors.[103]Doom allowed competitive matches between multiple players, termed "deathmatches", and the game was responsible for the word's subsequent entry into the video gaming lexicon.[103] According to creatorJohn Romero, the game's deathmatch concept was inspired by the competitive multiplayer offighting games[104] such asStreet Fighter II andFatal Fury.Doom became so popular that its multiplayer features began to cause problems for companies whosenetworks were used to play the game, causing frequent bandwidth reductions.[21][103]Doom has been considered the most important first-person shooter ever made.[105] It was highly influential not only on subsequent shooter games but on video gaming in general,[103] and has been made available on almost every video gaming system since.[21] Multiplayer gaming, which is now integral to the first-person shooter genre, was first successfully achieved on a large scale byDoom.[7][103] While its combination ofgory violence,dark humor andhellish imagery garnered acclaim from critics,[103][106] these attributes also generated criticism from religious groups and censorship committees, with many commentators labelling the game a "murder simulator".[107] There was further controversy when it emerged that theperpetrators of theColumbine High School massacre were fans of the game; the families of several victims later unsuccessfully attempted to sue numerous video game companies - among them id Software - whose work the families claimed inspired the massacre.[59] John Carmack explained how he designed his Doom engine toKen Silverman that he considered his only equal which inspired Ken who was in the process of developing hisBuild engine.[74][108][109]
Operation Body Count, developed onWolf3D engine and released byCapstone Software on 1 January 1994,[110][111] was Capstone's first FPS game. Featuring a story about aterrorist attack on theUNO tower, it was an early attempt at making a tactical FPS game, since the player was in command of an anti-terrorist squad that they could order around and even switch between squad members as long as they were not dead.OBC featured digitized graphics, transparent textures such as breakable glass,randomization of enemies and items' placement,body armor,booby traps, and a nearly fullydestructible environment. The flamethrower could set people and environments on fire, making movement extremely hazardous for the player as the fire randomly spread, and the grenade launcher could destroy most walls (with somehard coded exceptions).OBC also featured textured floors and ceilings and anauto-map similar toBlake Stone. However, unlikeBlake Stone,OBC featured more than one floor texture per level, despite the floor and ceilinggraphics being partiallyparallax, meaning that they appeared to "warp" as the player moved around.[112][113][114] Despite someoriginalideas, the game is widely considered to be of poor quality. The terrorists werestereotypes ofArab people, theAI was not smart enough to have the enemies pose any challenge nor the squad's teammates be useful, and being based on Wolf3D engine afterDoom was released, it was technologically outdated and "doomed" from the start as opposite toBlake Stone which did enjoy one week of glory beforeDoom was released.[115] OBC was eventually portedsource-ported intoGZDoom andremastered by itsmodding community.[116]
Corridor 7: Alien Invasion, developed and published byCapstone Software on 1 March 1994,[117] was their second attempt to make a FPS game. Still based onWolf3D engine, theplot reminds strikingly ofHalf-Life's, four years later, since it was aboutscientific experiments withgamma beam on an alien artifact brought fromMars by a team ofAmericanscientists which opened a portal and connectedEarth to another world from which an alieninvasion started into theresearch facility.Corridor 7 added animatedtextures such as computer screens, distant shading which darkened distant areas to limit the player's sight's distance, dark areas andnight vision mode to see into them, some invisible aliens and traps which could only be seen throughthermal vision mode, some energy stations to recharge the visor's battery, some aliens whocamouflaged into the environments (likeBlake Stone: Planet Strike released half a year later),screen jumpscares whenever the player was idle for 10 seconds,body armors, limited-use healing chambers,force fields which hurt the player if they walked into them,mines to trap corridors, maps of the floors, and replaced keys with security computer screens which unlocked all doors of the same color within the floor whereas some computers were traps which triggered analarm which attracted nearby enemies to the player. Capstone Software releasedCorridor 7 first asfloppy disks, then as aCD-ROM on 6 May 1995 which featured a differentsoundtrack,randomization of placements within floors, and added 10 morelevels into the alien homeworld with new weapons and alien types along withmultiplayer in the form of up to 12 players'deathmatch andteam deathmatch modes (believed to be the first FPS game to allow that many players) and 8 additional maps made specially for it. In deathmatch, the player could choose among 12 of the game'scharacters bothhumans and aliens who had different speed and health stats, however all characters used the same weapons though.[118][119][120]Corridor 7 was a significant improvement after Capstone's previous FPS gameOperation Body Count (read above), the atmosphere was gripping, the aliens were more appreciated than thestereotypes ofArabian people, theAI was improved with some enemies patrolling routes and some others camouflaging into environments or being invisible and not attacking until the player was close enough to ambush them, providing an actual challenge to players, and the game was considerably more evolved thanWolfenstein 3D andBlake Stone, however it was still based on the thenoutdated Wolf3D engine afterDoom was released and therefore was "doomed" from the start too even if it did better than its predecessor, it was still not technologically on par withDoom and Capstone moved onto another newgame engine after this game.[121][122][123][124] Still,Corridor 7 was so appreciated that it got to besource-ported only five years after its original release into theDoomsday engine and completelyremastered by itsmodding community.[125]
On 12 March 1994, the Japanese company Exact releasedGeograph Seal for theSharp X68000 home computer.[126] An obscure import title as far as the Western market is concerned, it was nonetheless an early example of a3D polygonal first-person shooter, with innovativeplatform game mechanics andfree-roaming outdoor environments.
CyClones was begun in February 1994 and published byRaven Software on 1 November 1994,[127] marking the beginning of a new period for Raven who split into two groups: One which worked withid's newDOOM engine to createMage, a fantasy action game, which would eventually evolve into the gameHeretic. The other team started on a project that was to use theengine fromShadowCaster to create a futuristic missions-based FPS game calledCyClones. The name referred toCyberneticClones, the minions of aliens who had ravaged and devastatedEarth. The game was infirst person3D, as was most other Raven games, so reusing theShadowCaster engine and its tools was a natural choice. But within a short time, the team found that they wanted to do more with the game and engine than they had done before. A new, 100% in-house engine was created that could handle moving platforms, catwalks, sloped areas, and transparent textures. The engine, by Carl Stika, was nicknamed STEAM. A small budget was granted forfull-motion video sequences to be created for the game, to be presented between missions as briefings.CyClones allowed to use the mouse to aim without moving, as opposite to other FPS games from the time which bound the mouse to both aiming and moving simultaneously, and without turning either, as thecrosshair was not fixed at the center of the screen on which it could move freely as opposite to nowadays standard fixed aiming,CyClones's aiming was comparable toMetroid Prime's years later.CyClones used the mouse not only for aiming but also for picking up objects and interacting with the environment such as doors and switches and even revealedsecret doors since the crosshair changed color upon pointing a secret door. It also included vertical aiming, jumping, various missions objectives as well as one of the first training modes in a FPS game.[128][129]
Apogee Software'sRise of the Triad: Dark War, released on 21 December 1994,[130] began as a sequel toWolfenstein 3D, but was soon altered and became a stand-alone game . The game included "ludicrous" gibs, bullet holes persisted, and sheets of glass could be shattered by shooting or running through them.[131][132]
Bungie Software released thesci-fi FPS gameMarathon on 21 December 1994 still exclusively onMac,[133] which streamlined concepts from their previous gamePathways Into Darkness by eliminating role-playing elements in favor of the shooter action spurred byDoom's success.Marathon was highly successful, leading to two sequelsMarathon 2: Durandal released on 24 November 1995[134] thenMarathon: Infinity released on 15 October 1996[135] to form theMarathon Trilogy,[136] and becoming the standard for FPS games on Mac which pioneered or was an early adopter of several newgameplay features such as defaultfreelook,ammo clips and weapons reloading though not manually, forcing the player to keep an eye on their ammo clips to anticipate the next reloading, dual-wielded and dual-function weapons, amotion sensor to detect both enemies and allies in the area,gravity alterations, swimming, interactive environments such as healing stations,oxygen stations,save points,teleporters, manycomputer terminals spread all around thelevels asplot devices which provided messages, informations, various objectives and maps to theplayer's character[137] as well as friendly defense drones andnon-player characters (NPCs), versatile multiplayer modes (such as King of the Hill, Kill the Man with the Ball, and cooperative campaign) and amap editor for players to create and share their own maps for the games. TheMarathon games also had a strong emphasis on storytelling in addition to the action, which revolved around evolving relationships between the human player's character and someAIs during a surprise invasion and subsequent war against a hostile alienEmpire which already conquered and enslaved some other alien species, much like Bungie's future projects such as theHalo andDestiny series which took a lot from the Marathon trilogy[138][139][140][78][141][142] which is no more exclusive to Mac since Bungie Softwareopen-sourced it in 2000 then released the original trilogy asfreeware in 2005, some fans havesource-ported it to Windows and Linux as well asremastered them using the open-source engineAleph One and have even been developing many new scenarios, total conversions, and multiplayer maps sustaining a still active community.[143][144] Many sci-fi games both from Bungie themselves and from other studios have cited the Marathon trilogy as a huge influence on their stories and settings such as the seriesHalo,Destiny,Mass Effect andWarframe.[145]
After having provided a modifiedWolfenstein 3D engine toRaven Software forShadowCaster and being impressed by the final result,id Software requested that Raven develop a medieval-themed/dark fantasy game using a modified version of id'sDoom engine. Raven considered themselves as typicalD&D fans and initially drafted the game withrole-playing elements. They then took instruction from idprogrammerJohn Carmack to simply "do it likeDoom, and add the fantasy flavor."[146]Raven Software then used and upgraded theDoom engine and releasedHeretic on 23 December 1994[147] which introduced largermaps, vertical aiming, flying,gibs, randomized ambient sound effects, interactive environments such as rushing water and winds which push the player along, an inventory system to store and select many different items which range from health potions to the "morph ovum" which transforms enemies into chickens and one of the most notable item that can be found is the "Tome of Power" which acts as a secondary firing mode for certain weapons, resulting in a much more powerful projectile for each weapon, some of which change the look of the projectile entirely,[148][149][150][151][152] then Raven added two more episodes and re-released it asHeretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders on 31 March 1996.[153][154][155][156]
Super 3D Noah's Ark, developed onWolf3D engine and published by thechristian video-games companyWisdom Tree (formerly namedColor Dreams) on 1 January 1995,[157] was the firstnon-violent FPS game along with being the firstreligious FPS game (Doom was already based onchristian mythology as well since the enemy was christian's Hell however unlikeSuper 3D Noah's Ark, it merely used it as asetting and didn't attempt to teach religion) which featuredNoah fromAbrahamic mythology'sNoah's Ark as theprotagonist and re-usedWolfenstein 3D'sgameplay andlevel-design while replacing enemies' death animations by seemingly friendly animals falling asleep upon being hit by the player's weapon which was aslingshot shooting food to feed the unresting hungry animals aboardgoats filled Noah's Ark made of the recycled originalmaps fromWolfenstein 3D including the same items' placements and even theSNES version was itself a mere reskin from Wolfenstein 3D's SNES version as well however the PC version did upgrade some things upon Wolfenstein 3D such as textured floors (likeBlake Stone) along with higher resolutions graphics andMIDI music, and added a new gameplay feature such asquizzes which tested the player's religious knowledge whose rewards were more ammo to keep playing the game along with somescore's points. This is not what Wisdom Tree had originally designed though, since they originally designed a FPS game based on the horror moviesHellraiser themselves adapted fromClive Barker'snovels, until they realized that this was incontradiction with their christiansocial image then designed Super 3D Noah's Ark instead. A popularrumor has it that Wolf3D engine was given to Wisdom Tree byid Software as a kind of "revenge" againstNintendo for all thecensorship thatWolfenstein 3D had to go through to be on the Super Nintendo. However, there's no proof of this, and Wisdom Tree bought a license for thegame engine like everybody else instead of having it "given" to them.[158] The SNES version was not licensed by Nintendo and therefore couldn't be played on a SNES by itself which is why the SNESgame cartridge was actually an adapter cartridge which required another licensed SNES game cartridge to be inserted into it in order to get Super 3D Noah's Ark to work despite being unlicensed.[159][160][161][162][163][164]
Star Wars: Dark Forces was released on 6 February 1995[165] afterLucasArts decidedStar Wars would make appropriate material for a game in the style ofDoom. However,Star Wars: Dark Forces improved on several technical features thatDoom lacked, such as the ability to crouch, jump, or look and aim up and down.[13][21][166]Dark Forces also was one of the first games to incorporate 3D-designed objects rendered into the game's 2.5D graphics engine.[167] The game's success launched theStar Wars: Jedi Knight series, beginning with the direct sequelStar Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II[168] on 9 October 1997.[169]
On 28 April 1995, the Japanese company Exact released the successor toGeograph Seal for thePlayStation console, calledJumping Flash!, which placed more emphasis on its platform elements.[171][172]
Witchaven,[173] developed byCapstone Software and published by theirparent companyIntraCorp on 20 September 1995,[174] was the first commercial game licensed onApogee Software rebranded3D Realms'Ken Silverman's newBuild engine to rivalid Software'sJohn Carmack'sDoom engine and was amedieval fantasy First Person Slasher game as in amelee-focused FPS game, reminiscent ofRaven Software'sHeretic including an inventory system, both a single-player campaign and multiplayer, but far harder as it was far moretactical, making use of environmental hazards such asmagma and traps against enemies, while implementing more of aRPGgameplay such as weapons' durability which broke after many uses, requiring the player to find other weapons and save the strongest weapons for the strongest foes, evolving stats from earned experience where each level up unlocked new spells and abilities such aslockpicking in the form of an unlocking spell as well asdual wielding some weapons.[175] The campaign involved a knight on an epicquest to defeat awitch who cast acurse of never-endingdarkness onto his land. In order to complete this quest, he had to battle hordes of minions with both medieval weapons and magical spells to reach the witch on hervolcanic island.[176][177] It featureddigitized graphics, however the characters made of clay didn't appeal to everyone and the environments were empty, as well as adjustable level of gore, the sameCorridor 7's trick to spawn ascreen jumpscare whenever the player is idle, and it is known for game logic issues, dumbAI, hazardousmap triggers andgame physics that cause slippery player movement, sudden deaths, and faulty hit detection.[178][179]Witchaven wasopen-sourced in 2006 thensource-ported into JFBuild by JonoF and into BuildGDX by its community which fixed most of its original issues in 2018.[174][180][181]
William Shatner's TekWar, developed byCapstone Software and published bySoftKey Multimedia Inc. on 30 September 1995,[182] barely ten days afterWitchaven (read above), was the second commercial game licensed onApogee Software rebranded3D Realms'Ken Silverman's newBuild engine to rivalid Software'sJohn Carmack'sDoom engine and was a FPS game adapted fromWilliam Shatner's TekWarnovels andTV series who personally contributed to the video-game to the point of live-acting the player's boss during briefings and debriefings.William Shatner's TekWar, both novels, TV series and video-game, is asci-fi story revolving around a neural drug named Tek and the Matrix, avirtual reality (four years beforethe first Matrix movie).[183][184] The video-game featured FMVs, digitized live-actors and actresses, a stun gun to neutralize people in anon-lethal fashion, andgibs and dropped the player into a livelyopen-world futureLos Angeles, making it the first FPS game which featured an open-world modern city, full of civilians, cops and enemies where civilians panicked if the player drew a weapon who they begged to not shoot while holding their hands up and ran away for their life whereas cops drew their gun onto the player and ordered him to drop their weapon and enemies shot him on sight from everywhere without the cops ever reacting whereas they shot the player if he dared to shoot back at the enemies, which is the main issue with this game: everyone is allowed to shoot you but you are not allowed to shoot anyone.[185] Some civilians were actually kamikazeandroids who self-destructed when close to the player, taking them into theirexplosion. Half of the game also took place into the Matrix.[186][187][188]William Shatner's TekWar was the worst of Capstone's FPS games however it still got to besource-ported into BuildGDX.[189]
Raven Software upgraded theDoom engine further and releasedHexen: Beyond Heretic on 30 October 1995[190] which added jumping, moreimmersive environments with effects such as swirlingleaves or scatteringbats upon the player's approach, weather effects, some destructible objects, scripted environmental changes such as earthquakes, differentcharacter classes to allow different playstyles as well as interconnected maps through hub maps instead of the standard linear succession of maps which granted a taste ofopen-world in a FPS game.[191][192][193]
The gamePowerSlave was initially designed using theBuild engine forMS-DOS, but was later spun off into releases forSega Saturn andSony PlayStation using developerLobotomy Software's in-house SlaveDriver engine. While the PC version is a traditional linear first-person shooter, the console versions feature non-linear progression and unlockable player abilities reminiscent of ametroidvania.[204]
Strife, developed byRogue Entertainment and published by Velocity Inc. on 15 May 1996,[205] was the last commercial game which used and modified theDoom engine beforeid released the newQuake engine the following month[206] and it introduced someRPVG's features into the standard FPS formula such as an actual livelyopen-world filled withNPCs, dialogues with choices of answers, some of them were even voiced, trade, reinforcements who engage the enemies in battle, mandatory and optional quests, character's evolution of his abilities, an intriguing plot branching into different routes and conclusions according to the player's choices and actions, some burning effects as well as some infiltration gameplay such as stealth, disguises and alarms. The plot takes place in amedieval world struck by acomet which released avirus which wiped out almost alllife on theplanet and corrupted most of the remaining people who created ahigh-techtheocratic new world order known as "The Order" whereas the few remaining free people organized into an underground resistance known as "The Front" and the player is an unnamedmercenary (sometimes referred to as the Strifeguy) who joins the Front to fight the Order's oppressive rule while being remotely assisted by a Front's radio operative woman nicknamed Blackbird who occasionally comments with humor the situations that the player encounters.[207][208][209][210][211] However, despite all of its innovations, Strife went relatively unnoticed because it was released right between the two other overwhelmingly popular gamesDuke Nukem 3D andQuake which made the Doom engine already outdated by then.[212] Still, players who discovered it many years after its original release appreciated its originality for its time and even compared it toDeus Ex andMarathon.[213][214][215]Doom's modding communitysource-portedStrife intoGZDoom to update and upgrade it from its original version to modern standards.[216][217][218]
Shortly after the release ofDuke Nukem 3D, id Software released the much anticipatedQuake on 22 June 1996.[206] LikeDoom,Quake was influential and genre-defining, featuring fast-paced, gory gameplay, within a completely 3D game environment, and making use of real-time rendered polygonal models instead of sprites. It was centered ononline gaming and featured multiple match types still found in first-person shooter games today. It was the first FPS game to gain a cult following of playerclans (although the concept had existed previously inMechWarrior 2'sNetmech, with itsBattletech lore as well as amongstMUD players), and would inspire popularLAN parties and events such asQuakeCon.[219] The game's popularity and use of 3D polygonal graphics also helped to expand the growing market forvideo card hardware;[7][21][220] and the additional support and encouragement forgame modifications attracted players who wanted to tinker with the game and create their own modules.[219] According to creator John Romero,Quake's 3D world was inspired by the 3D fighting gameVirtua Fighter.Quake was also intended to expand the genre withVirtua Fighter influencedmelee brawling, but this element was eventually scrapped from the final game.[221][222]
Shadow Warrior, developed and published by3D Realms on 13 May 1997,[223] introduced3D voxels instead of2D sprites for weapons and inventory items as well as weapons' secondary firing mode, climbable ladders, trueroom-over-room situations, transparent water, some vehicles to drive, and a brand new Asian hero named Lo Wang into a brand new Asian setting in contrast to its predecessor Duke Nukem 3D's occidental atmosphere and Shadow Warrior, just as its predecessor, features deliberately immature and politically incorrect humor, as well as a protagonist who delivers regularone-liners, commenting upon the situation at hand. Much of the humor is derived from over-the-top,stereotypical portrayals ofAsian culture.[224]
Based on theJames Bondfilm,Rare'sGoldenEye 007 was released in 1997, and as of 2004 it was still the best-sellingNintendo 64 game in the United States.[225] It has been the first landmark first-person shooter for console gamers and was highly acclaimed for its atmospheric single-player campaign and well designed multiplayer maps. It featured asniper rifle, the ability to perform head-shots, and the incorporation of stealth elements[7][21][226][227] (all of these aspects were also included in the game's spiritual sequel,Perfect Dark) as well as someVirtua Cop-inspired features such as weapon reloading, position-dependent hit reaction animations, penalties for killing innocents, and a newly designed aiming system that allowed players to aim at a precise spot on the screen.[225]
Though not the first of its kind,Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six started a popular trend oftactical first-person shooters in 1998. It featured a team-based, realistic design and themes based aroundcounter-terrorism, requiring missions to be planned before execution and in it, a single hit was sometimes enough to kill a character.[24][228]Medal of Honor, released in 1999, gave birth to a long running proliferation of simulative first-person shooters set during World War II.[21]
Valve'sHalf-Life was released in 1998, based uponQuake's graphics technology.[229] Initially met with only mild anticipation, it went on to become a commercial success.[21][230] While most of the previous first-person shooters on the IBM PC platform had focused on visceral gameplay with relatively weak or irrelevant plots,Half-Life placed a far bigger focus on strong narrative; the game featured nocut scenes but remained in the first-person perspective at all times. It capitalized heavily on the concepts ofnon-enemy characters (previously featured in many other titles, such as theMarathon series andStrife)[231] and wider in-game interactivity (as first introduced by the likes ofDuke Nukem 3D andSystem Shock) but did not employpower-ups in the traditional sense,[7] making for a somewhat more believable overall experience. The game was praised for itsartificial intelligence, selection of weapons and attention to detail and "has since been recognized as one of the greatest games of all time" according to GameSpot. Its sequel,Half-Life 2, (released in 2004), was less influential though "arguably a more impressive game".[232]
Starsiege: Tribes, also released in 1998, was a multiplayer online shooter allowing more than 32 players in a single match. It featured team-based gameplay with a variety of specialized roles, and an unusualjet pack feature. The game was highly popular and later imitated by many other titles such as theBattlefield series.[7][8] Id'sQuake III Arena and Epic'sUnreal Tournament, both released in 1999, became the real milestones for multiplayer gaming, thanks to their incredible graphics and frenetic, yet accessible and perfectly balanced online modes; on the other hand, both games only featured a very limited single player campaign designed for a more "disposable"arcade approach.[21]Counter-Strike was also released in 1999, aHalf-Lifemodification with a counter-terrorism theme copied fromRainbow Six. The game and later versionCounter-Strike: Source (2004) went on to become the most popular multiplayer game modification ever, with over 90,000 players competing online at any one time during its peak.[21][229]
At theE3 game show in 1999,Bungie unveiled areal-time strategy game calledHalo; aka Halo CE at the following E3, an overhauledthird-person shooter version was displayed. In 2000, Bungie was bought byMicrosoft.Halo was then revamped and released as a first-person shooter; it was one of thelaunch titles for theXbox console. It was a runaway critical and commercial success, and is considered a premier console first-person shooter. It featured narrative and storyline reminiscent of Bungie's earlierMarathon series but now told largely through in-game dialog and cut scenes. It also received acclaim for its characters, both the protagonist,Master Chief and itsalien antagonists. The sequel,Halo 2 (2004), brought the popularity ofonline gaming to the console market through the medium ofXbox Live, on which it was the most played game for almost two years.[21]
Deus Ex, released byIon Storm in 2000, featured a levelling system similar to that found in role-playing games; it also had multiple narratives depending on how the player completed missions and won acclaim for its serious, artistic style.[21] TheResident Evil gamesSurvivor in 2000 andDead Aim in 2003 attempted to combine thelight gun and first-person shooter genres along withsurvival horror elements.[233]Metroid Prime, released in 2002 for theGameCube, a highly praised first-person shooter, incorporatedaction adventure elements such asjumping puzzles and built on theMetroid series of2Dside-scrollingplatform-adventures.[21] Taking a "massive stride forward for first-person games", the game emphasized its adventure elements rather than shooting and was credited by journalist Chris Kohler with "breaking the genre free from the clutches ofDoom".[234]
Efforts to develop earlyhandheld video games with 3-D graphics have eventually led to the dawn of ambitious handheld first-person shooter games, starting with twoGame Boy Advance ports ofBack Track andDoom not long after the system was launched in 2001.[235] The GBA eventually saw the release of several first-person shooter games specifically tailored for it, includingDuke Nukem Advance,Ecks vs. Sever andDark Arena, with a sizable amount of them being praised for pushing the hardware to the limit while providing satisfying gameplay.[236][237][238] Despite their varying reception, they would demonstrate the viability of first-person shooters on handhelds, which became more apparent with new technological advances that accompanied future handheld systems.[239]
World War II Online, released in 2001, featured a persistent and "massively multiplayer environment", althoughIGN said that "the full realization of that environment is probably still a few years away."[240]Battlefield 1942, another World War II shooter released in 2002, featured large scale battles incorporating aircraft, naval vessels, land vehicles and infantry combat.[21] In 2003,PlanetSide allowed hundreds of players at once to compete in a persistent world,[241] and was also promoted as the "world's first massively multiplayer online first person shooter."[32] TheSerious Sam series, first released in 2001, andPainkiller, released in 2004, both emphasized fighting waves of enemies in large open arenas, in an attempt to hearken back to the genre's roots.[242][243]
Doom 3, released in 2004, placed a greater emphasis on horror and frightening the player than previous games in the series and was a critically acclaimed best seller,[244][245] though some commentators felt it lacked gameplay substance and innovation, putting too much emphasis on impressive graphics.[15] In 2005, afilm based onDoom featured a sequence that emulated the viewpoint and action of the first-person shooter, but was critically derided as deliberately unintelligent and gratuitously violent.[246] In 2005,F.E.A.R. was acclaimed[247] for successfully combining first-person shooter gameplay with aJapanese horror atmosphere.[248] Later in 2007,Irrational Games'BioShock would be acclaimed by some commentators as the best game of that year for its innovation in artistry, narrative and design,[249][250][251] with some calling it the "spiritual successor" to Irrational's earlierSystem Shock 2.[252]
Finally, theCrytek gamesFar Cry (2004) andCrysis (2007) as well asUbisoft'sFar Cry 2 (2008) would break new ground in terms of graphics and large,open-ended level design,[21][253] whereasCall of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007),Resistance: Fall of Man (2006) and its sequelResistance 2 (2008) presented increasingly refined linear levels and narratives,[254] with the fast pace and linearity of theCall of Duty games bearing a resemblance to rail shooters.[255] BLACK in 2006 was considered to be a leader in cinematic game design, with strong sound design and destructible environments.[256] In 2007,Portal popularized the concept of puzzles mechanics in first-person perspective.[citation needed] In 2006, Gamasutra reported the first-person shooter as one of the biggest and fastest growing video game genres in terms of revenue for publishers.[257]
Team Fortress 2, originally a user-made mod forQuake but made into an official product by Valve by its release in 2007, launched a new type of team-based subgenre calledhero shooters, which consist of first-person and third-person shooters where players selected from one of several pre-made characters with existing weapons and skill sets, using those different characters effectively to complete objectives against their opponents.[258] The hero shooter genre had significant growth following the release ofOverwatch in which refined the hero shooter formula by adding unique characters and larger narrative as they expanded the game in future updates.[259]
The use of motion-detectinggame controllers – particularly theWii's – "promised to make FPS controls more approachable and precise with an interface as simple as literally pointing to aim" and thus "dramatically reshape the first-person shooter." However, technical difficulties pertinent to functions other than aiming – such as maneuvering or reloading – prevented their widespread use among first-person shooters.[260]ThePointman user interface combines a motion-sensitive gamepad, head tracker and sliding foot pedals to increase the precision and level of control over one's avatar[261] in military first-person shooter games.
In the late 2010s, first-person and third-person shooters enjoyed a surge in popularity with the rise ofbattle royale games, in which many players battle for survival on a large map to be the last man or team standing through intense action-packed combat, andPlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (2017) reached the highest number of concurrent players ever to be recorded onSteam.[citation needed] Itsfree-to-playmobile game version,PUBG Mobile (2018), reached over1 billion downloads worldwide by early 2021[262] and grossed over$8 billion by early 2022.[263]
Asvirtual reality (VR) technologies are being developed, FPS games are being developed right alongside the variousVR gaming platforms. The new immersive 3D environments using VR headsets and motion controllers enable some entirely unique experiences and mechanics for FPS games, such as physically ducking / dodging, precise control for throwing objects, and individual finger control, enhancing the interactivity with in-game wearables and other objects in the environment. VR Games naturally have a greater focus on the players' spatial presence and the 3D environment itself rather than the actual challenge / competitiveness of the game,[264][265] which also extends to first-person shooters, especially in the horror sub-genre.[264]Half-Life Alyx, released in 2020, is to date (2023) the highest grossing VR first-person shooter and is usually considered the firstAAA title in VR.[266][267][268][269][270] While there is much hype in the Virtual Reality arena, it is still an emerging technology, and it has yet to be determined if VR FPS titles will become mainstream competitive or how these platforms will influence the genre in the future.[271][272][265]
In 2010, researchers atLeiden University showed that playing first-person shooter video games is associated with superior mental flexibility. Compared to non-players, players of such games were found to require a significantly shorter reaction time while switching between complex tasks, possibly because they are required to develop a more responsive mindset to rapidly react to fast-moving visual and auditory stimuli, and to shift back and forth between different sub-duties.[273]
^abVoorhees, Gerald (2014). "Chapter 31: Shooting". In Perron, Bernard (ed.).The Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies.Taylor & Francis. pp. 251–258.ISBN978-1-136-29050-3.
^Lahti, Martti, "As We Become Machines: Corporealized Pleasures in Video Games", Wolf, Mark J. P. & Perron, Bernard (eds.),The Video Game Theory Reader, Routledge, p. 161
^abDunkin, Alan (September 9, 1998)."Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Review".GameSpot. Archived fromthe original on June 4, 2012. RetrievedFebruary 19, 2009.While generally better than Spec Ops, Rainbow Six carries its own baggage, especially where the conflict of realism versus gameplay rears its ugly head.
^"An Audience with John Romero".Edge. No. 45 (May 1997). May 2, 1997. pp. 18–23.John Romero: My original idea was to do something likeVirtua Fighter in a 3D world, with full-contact fighting, but you'd also be able to run through a world, and do the same stuff you do inQuake, only when you got into these melees, the camera would pull out into a third-person perspective. It would've been great, but nobody else had faith in trying it. The project was taking too long, and everybody just wanted to fall back on the safe thing – the formula.
^"Get your hands on the games you owe to yourself".GameSpot. September 7, 2001. p. 1.Archived from the original on September 7, 2004. RetrievedFebruary 19, 2009.Welcome to another installment of Game Collector, where GameSpot hunts for great deals on games so that you don't have to. This week we present 10 great games focusing on warfare, from small-scale to epic-scale. Half of these are first-person shooters, while the other half are strategy games. Two popular PC gaming genres--one all-important, always-relevant subject. So if you're interested in modern or historical warfare and other military maneuverings, or if you just want some great games to add to your collection, then this week's Game Collector is for you.
^Templeman, J.; Denbrook, P. (2012). "Enhancing Realism in Desktop Interfaces for Dismounted Infantry Simulation".Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference (I/ITSEC).
