What single player FPS campaign are you playing?

[dsheinem]

I've got some options.

Play Devil Daggers for a bit - a typical run is just a few minutes.

Far Cry 2 is still the best game in that series, and it does some fascinating stuff with game design that has still never been recaptured by any subsequent FPS I have played.

If you haven't played the Metro games they are arguably two of the best FPS titles from the past decade. If you have played them, I don't know that you need to play the Redux versions.

Given your interest in horror-tinged stuff, a few others I'd put high in your queue: FEAR 2 and Blood are both very solid.

For the Bethesda stuff - Wolfenstein:The New Order is the best FPS without "Doom" in the title that has been associated with iD in the last decade or more. It is far better than its sequel. Rage and Dishonored are fine, but neither game is as good as its influences.

If you want to try something different, Call of Juarez Gunslinger is maybe the best Western-themed game I have played in any genre.

[MrPopo]

Out of those choices, my recommendations for a top 3 in each category:

Retro: Hexen II, Rise of the Triad, Star Wars: Republic Commando
Modern: Dishonored, Metro 2033, Wolfenstein: The New Order

[Xeogred]

2cents

BioShock Remastered - wanted to enjoy it on (PC) but it kept crashing lol, has some bad review bombing on Steam for said issues
DOOM 3: BFG Edition - nice remaster, visuals and sound design hold up tremendously
F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin + Reborn - fantastic shooter, not as tough as the first but the level design is far more varied and interesting
Far Cry 2 - this is honestly closer to STALKER than one might expect, Far Cry 2 was highly experimental and weird, in excellent ways
Shadow Warrior Classic Redux - still love DN3D but I still can't get into this for some reason, loses me with weird triggers/key hunting
Star Wars: Republic Commando - tried playing it last year and wasn't impressed
Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Jedi Academy - terrible, this isn't even really a continuation of Kyle Katarn's saga either. Huge disappointment
Strife: Veteran Edition - very cool updated port
Thief 2 - 10/10
Thief: Deadly Shadows - best music in the series to me, I like the first two games more but this is still high caliber
TimeShift - bootleg slow-mo generic sci-fi FPS but I liked it when I played it back on the 360, been wondering how it holds up...

BioShock Infinite - better gunplay than the original and I love the setting, fantastic
Dishonored - better Deus Ex than the Eidos Deus Ex's, straight up 10/10 if you're a fan of Thief and this genre
Metro 2033 Redux - see below
Metro Last Light Redux - could never get into 2033, but Last Light hooked me right away! I went back and enjoyed 2033, stoked for Exodus
RAGE - beaten it twice now, replayed on the PC more recently. It's not mindblowing but still pretty cool with a great setting in my book
Wolfenstein: The New Order - the more I look back on this one and the latest, the more I think they're crazy overrated. Worth a look though

[Ack]

Well, I'm still playing Ziggurat. Of the 17 characters, I've unlocked 14 and have beaten the game with 7. I've found all of the lores and finished the Bestiary. However, I only have unlocked 76 of the 164 items, so there is still plenty of work to do. I'm mainly trying to beat the game with everyone once at the moment, which will hopefully unlock the last three characters in the process. Once that's done, there are some achievements for doing crazy runs that I'll start working towards, such as beating the game without leveling up.

[Ack]

I'm still plugging away at Ziggurat. I've beaten it now with 9 characters and have unlocked more items. Still got plenty to go.

I'm also a chunk of the way into Wolfenstein 3D: Ultimate Challenge. It's from the same group that did Return to Danger, FormGen Corporation. Only while it keeps the needless color changes and sprite reworks, it drops the problematic level design of the previous expansion.

I'm at the start of level 9, and I'm liking Ultimate Challenge a lot more than Return to Danger. Yes, it keeps the same bosses, and I don't feel particularly like I'm running through some kind of computer tech lab or a laser guidance research facility, but it's still an improvement over the last run. We'll see if I still feel this way at the end, but as of right now, Ultimate Challenge has generally been superior to Return to Danger.

[SpaceBooger]

I am playing Destiny PS3 again...
I finally feel like I know what I am doing (didn't play many FPS games before this) Griding solo and up to level 31. I also figured out how to follow the story.
So yeah. I feel almost retro playing the original Destiny on what Bungie calls a Legacy Console.

[Ack]

The year of the FPS continues. The last Wolfenstein 3D expansion is now done. I'm still playing Ziggurat and now messing around with Destiny 2 after being convinced to try it by Fastbilly...though this isn't old school enough to sate my needs. Well, not like I don't have plenty of options!

[Arenegeth]

So I started Ziggurat and...

I don't think I'll ever accept rouge-like mechanics, I don't see the point in them, they seem an artificial restriction antithetical to what I enjoy about gaming.

This game would have been so much better, if there was a checkpoint on every floor, and every time I died, I was given the option to continue, or cash out and unlock some perks. That way, the balance would still be there, you'd still have to clear an entire (random) floor in one go, you'd still be rewarded for failure by the unlocks but not necessarily punished if you forgo that for restarting.

And this is a very, very light rouge-like game, I thought I'd be fine with it, or grow to be fine with it, but it fundamentally bothers me, is not even a practical issue, since I managed to make it to the fifth floor and the boss trounced me, which makes me think the game wants to me to unlock better perks/characters/weapons before I can take him on. But it fundamentally annoys me to no end that my progress gets invalidated every time I fail, even if it really isn't, since unlocking more perks/weapons only makes me better down the line.

I think is more of an ideological dissonance, I'm a very goal oriented person, that is one of the reasons I don't play (mostly) anything multiplayer, since it lacks a very definitive beginning-middle-end compared to single player gaming.

I have to almost force myself not to circumvent the mechanics, that's not a good thing, especially since I wanted something refreshing and not stressful right now. But I will continue to trudge on and see if anything changes, but I doubt it, it is a good lesson though. If I don't manage to accept the mechanics with a rouge-like game which is as light as this, I will never accept them, so I'll know to either never play them in the future or always circumvent them when possible.

Other than that, I have a few other issues with the game. For one thing health drops seem to be annoyingly rare, at least early on and with not any relevant perk bonuses active. Certain enemies/layouts can be very unbalanced, like enemies being able to hit me through grates while I can't even see them on the other side. The FOV needed some adjusting/getting used to, but I think I got it down where I want it now. But worst of all.

I had to switch to a controller from a mouse and keyboard. This isn't the game's fault, is due to a combination of my set-up and the fact that I lack a gaming mouse and keyboard (especially keyboard). Playing an FPS on PC with a controller in 2019 is pretty sad, but I guess it can't be helped, since the alternative requires time/money/effort I can't really spare right now.

[Gunstar Green]

The year of the FPS continues. The last Wolfenstein 3D expansion is now done.

I really don't like the FormGen packs but that Doom-themed final level is a nice touch.

[Ack]

The year of the FPS continues. The last Wolfenstein 3D expansion is now done.

I really don't like the FormGen packs but that Doom-themed final level is a nice touch.

Yeah, it's a nice touch. Ultimate Challenge is inferior to id's output, but it's the better of the two FormGen packs. It's a shame Return to Danger is so terrible. Did they have something to do with the distribution of the Blake Stone games? I've started up Aliens of Gold and noticed their logo. I expect I'll be playing Aliens of Gold for a while, since it's like 3 times longer than Wolf3D...

So I started Ziggurat and...

Hey Arenegeth, it is potentially possible to back up saves in Ziggurat. Your save game info is stored in an xml file, so you could potentially copy it and store back ups. There were some hiccups over filepaths when the game first came to GOG, so game devs were active in the GOG forums to tell how to access it. You might be able to back yourself up. You can apparently also edit the file data using notepad if you really want to, though I don't know how it's laid out.

I had a similar experience of getting to the first boss and then dying the first time. Some of it is just learning about the various bosses and their attacks and patterns, and some of it is that you lack the necessary upgrades. Think of your runs as less about beating the game and more about unlocking the lore, bestiary, and weapons/upgrades/amulets sections as well as snagging more characters. Also if you need to knock the difficulty down to Easy while you learn attack patterns and room arrangements, that's perfectly fine. But if it's causing you stress, it's ok to play something else. I wouldn't think any less of you, nor would anyone else. You can always come back later when you're more in the mood or take some time with other stuff.