What single player FPS campaign are you playing?

[Xeogred]

I can't get a handle on the chainsaw/grenade launcher guys and it feels like pure luck taking down those white lightning monster things.

The trick for dealing with the Ogres is to get into Melee range then back off when they wind up with the chainsaw. Don't go too far or they'll pop you with grenades. You've kind of got to play Yo-Yo with them, hopping in and out of melee range so they'll chainsaw thin air until they die.

The Shamblers are bastards. Spray and pray.

Quake and Doom have a slightly different ethos when it comes to enemy design. Doom will throw a crap load of enemies at you that are pretty easy to wipe out, where as Quake will throw a few enemies at you who are bullet sponges with powerful attacks that you have to dance with for a while. I always felt like Quake was the harder game because of this.

That's a good way to put it with the differences. Almost like this is more similar to Duke Nukem 3D instead haha (since that's kind of how I see the difference between Doom and DN3D). Speaking of that, I find it funny the Ogres here seem to have the same grunt noises that the police-hogs in DN3D make.

I've noticed I can sometimes axe the Ogres to death up close. Might get hit a little though. It's crazy how much damage you take from melee attacks though. Those sword goons are no joke if they get up on you. Then there's those Pinky-like jumping things, luckily I've noticed they sometimes seem to get stuck in the environments sometimes so that's helpful for me... lol.

I was great at grenade launcher wall bouncing Goldeneye, but this is like 200x faster haha.

It seems you take tons of damage from just about anything in general. Health packs are abundant, but one little mistake and you can be dead in mere seconds.

I have not touched Quake 2 since I played it on the PSX back in the day, but something tells me that one is a bit slower paced and maybe closer to Unreal in style? No idea and that could just be from playing the PSX version, probably ran a little slower in general. I recall the level space being bigger and more open though.

[Gunstar Green]

Quake 2 can get pretty hectic but there's more strafing and less kiting jumpy enemies that want to eat your face like the Fiends (Pinky-like dudes) in Quake 1. The Knights are kind of like that as well but without the jumping (but if they catch you... ooooooh boy you're going to feel it). There's lots of running away backwards so you don't lose your face in Quake.

[Stark]

Started up Doom 3 today. Haven't tried playing this since I did on Day 1, but a buddy convinced me to try it again. I feel like a lot has changed in design since this game was made, probably pretty obvious statement considering it is 12 years old. The game begins with a computerized voice telling you about a corporation called UAC, and describes them as a company that is very large, started by working on weapons tech, but now has grown to the point where it has no oversight and can do pretty much whatever it wants. Spoooky! You're ship lands some dudes get off and talk about not wanting to clean up his messes over again and then you're some other guy that gets off the ship after them and then you're in control!

You then try to figure out where to go, which seems to be only clear by the fact that all doors are locked other than the path you want to go? I couldn't find a map or anything. Anyway you go down this stretch of connected corridors, which is briefly interrupted by those two figures talking with the mayor of this place? or something? You finally find your destination which is a dude who is clearly your superior yelling at you for taking so long. "Well sir I walked here directly from the hangar, so...." He tells you that you need to go find some scientist dude and that this droid will take you there. Guess where it is? Nearly all the way back to where you started. Then do I get to shoot something? Nope! You talk to requisition officer who gives you weapon and armor and then "tests your comms" by talking into a radio, where your character doesn't respond to the test, but the tech declares that your comms are working and show good signal. My lunch break was over so I stopped there, but hilarious that I played like 15 minutes and basically did nothing.

[MrPopo]

It's like the beginning of Half-Life but with less lighting.

[Xeogred]

Yeah you can't really deny the beginning of some other FPS's are pretty damn slow as well.

I still think Doom 3 is great, but it's clearly in the vein of FEAR, Half-Life 2, Bioshock, etc, and maybe not top of the shelf compared to its brothers, but still pretty good in my book with fantastic atmosphere and a cool setting. It's hilarious how similar it and Dead Space 1 are in terms of story and stuff.

I was never a fan of the flashlight gimmick though, which they thankfully fixed with the BFG edition. Every gun has a light now.

After beating Doom 4, I feel I could jump back into 3 and still enjoy it for what it is. And I just may do that sometime this summer since the new one gave me a craving to replay it again, even though they are entirely different.

[Stark]

Oh yeah, I should note that I'm playing BFG edition, so I get the flashlight mod.

The Half-Life comparison seems apt, although I remember being more compelled to move forward or more interested in the world building. No worries, I shall continue!

[Xeogred]

I hate to say I think Half-Life 1 is a weird case of one of my old favorites being -overplayed-. I think I only finished the game once (Xen sucks anyways), but I used to replay it a lot over the years but it feels like every time I do, I lose more interest in it altogether. I usually lose steam around the tram level especially, which goes on forever. I still love how menacing the Marines are even compared to the Combine, but yeah.

Nowadays I feel I'd rather replay Unreal Gold, Deus Ex, Thief 1-2, System Shock 2, and Jedi Knight. Of this list, I've replayed Deus Ex and Jedi Knight a lot and still love them. They continue to hold my interest with revisits.

I replay Half-Life 2 almost bi-yearly though and it always blows me away. Timeless stuff.

I played Black Mesa when it was pretty fresh, before they went premium on Steam or whatever. I might check it out again sometime since it sounds like they've continued to improve it and add more since I last played. Maybe that'll be the version I replay more often in the future.

Random rant.

[prfsnl_gmr]

I still love how menacing the Marines are even compared to the Combine, but yeah.

Yeah. They are way, way tougher. So much tougher, in fact, it is kind of hard for me to imagine the Combine defeating them...

[MrPopo]

The level design in Half Life 2 doesn't have nearly as much enemy flanking as Half Life 1 does, so the Combine seems less effective. What made the marines tough was the level design and scripts that involved groups of them flanking you and flushing you out with grenades. There was no real safe way to fight them other than running up in their face and giving them one or two barrels, as they tended to run from close combat.

[Exhuminator]

What made the marines tough was the level design and scripts that involved groups of them flanking you and flushing you out with grenades.

The marine AI in Half-Life remains the most impressive I've seen in an FPS. Was it so impressive because it was running on predestined scripts? As in scripts tailored to the specific level design? This was non-emergent AI?