Opinion: Has The Time Passed For First-Person Shooters?
Ever since Wolfenstein 3D caused shockwaves around the gaming world, first-person shooters have continued to snowball and improve with every console generation: Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, Quake and Goldeneye 64 will live long in the memories of gamers who played these titles at the time. With the volume of first-person shooters being turned up to eleven in the last generation, I believe that despite continued success in terms of sales, the reception from the community has shown that the genre isn’t all that it used to be and it may be time to turn down the classics and opt for the new material.
In the build-up to the Xbox One’s release, advertising focused heavily on Respawn Entertainment’s newest release Titanfall (which scored 7.5 with us). With the experience that most of the Respawn team had with making several games in the Call of Duty series, you would think that no one would know how to create a first-person shooter better than this team. By the time the beta was announced, the community was primed and ready for the game’s release and despite the Xbox One’s disappointing start to its life cycle; this was going to be the game to catapult the console to the heights of the PlayStation 4.
As the reviews appeared on websites, social sites and printed media, you could sense that this was going to be the next big thing and that we would be hearing about the game for months to come. It’s now almost 4 months since Titanfall’s release and the tweets have stopped, the hype has ended and no one seems to be waiting around for their Titan to drop. While I’m aware that there will still be a high number of people playing the PC, Xbox 360 and Xbox One versions, the discussion about the game on social media hasn’t been widespread since shortly after its release. The key question is: What is this down to? Is it to do with the gaming community having enough of first-person shooters or is it that Titanfall isn’t all that good?
It’s not only Titanfall that’s been suffering recently; the blockbuster Call of Duty series has been feeling the effects too. Although it still sold in vast quantities, Ghosts was regarded as a flop by many as they were once again faced with a terrible singleplayer experience and a steep learning curve of online multiplayer. Even the reveal of Advanced Warfare, the latest Call of Duty game, has been met with a muted response. In a recent poll by CVG, COD: AW was 39th in a list of 40 games that people were highly anticipating this year (as stated on a recent podcast of theirs). For a blockbuster game, it should really be doing a lot better.
Battlefield 4 (9.0) has been met with fierce criticism too and despite its solid gameplay; the connectivity issues have driven many players away as they are still constantly finding problems with the game almost 9 months later. Wolfenstein: The New Order (which scored 8.6) arrived on the latest consoles and PC and has been the second highest selling game this year. With the focus on the game being on a solid singleplayer experience, it seems as though many have forgotten the game exists after only a month of being on the market.
Despite these numerous titles being released to mostly positive reviews, if they fall off the radar so quickly or if they do maintain some awareness, then it’s mostly for negative reasons similarly to the Battlefield 4 problems. I now feel as though the FPS genre is at the same stage of producing far too many like-for-like games similarly to zombie games recently, which have been done to death (quite literally). If you are constantly being bombarded by FPS’s then the next FPS title which is trying something different will be seen as the new ‘Call of Duty clone’ and lose its appeal very quickly. Even when games such as Bulletstorm or Brink attempt to do something different, they end up getting forgotten about too. Despite showing creativity and innovation, these games get kicked to the curb because, I think, they take many people out of their comfort zone.
As I’ve previously touched on, the last console generation was pivotal in taking multiplayer games into the mainstream: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare brought fresh mechanics and addictive gameplay to the masses when it was released. Although the series has tweaked small aspects of each game, the gameplay has largely remained the same and with yearly releases, it feels as though we’re having the same game year-on-year. Despite this, many will argue that sports games do the exact same thing. In my eyes, you can slightly change the mechanics in a sports game and it affects the entire match whereas the shooting mechanics in Call of Duty do feel almost the same every year, even with tweaked gameplay.
One aspect of gaming where the genre continues to thrive is on PC, the weapon of choice for the ‘Master Race’. PC only games such as Team Fortress 2 and Counter Strike are both continuing to thrive after years of satisfying gameplay, but why can’t this be the case for console shooters? Why money, of course. Team Fortress 2 had recently released a free update which allows for new weapons and opens up a whole new experience for no additional cost, on top of an already free-to-play game. If the same content was implemented into a console game, there would at least be a £5 charge rather than it be provided for free and extend the longevity of the game’s appeal. While I do believe that players can pay what they want for skins and Snoop Dogg commentary, it should be used as a reward for players who play the game for a long period of time and make the production hours worthwhile.
Although first-person shooters continue to disappoint, I do believe that games such as Left 4 Dead have provided countless hours of fun due to the wonderful gameplay, simple objectives and great teamwork required. This is the type of FPS which refreshes the genre and steps out from the war-based shadows of Battlefield and COD. If you look to the future, games such as Destiny and Evolve will be released later in the year and, from what the media have been saying, it seems as though that both are very impressive. The main thing which both games have in common is that they aren’t based on one side in a war against someone else and there seems to at least be some decent story driven content in Destiny, and Evolve seems like the next stage for Left 4 Dead. In this regard the future seems to be very promising for the genre, but there’s a chance that these games could be forgotten by 2015 and let’s not forget Titanfall was the “biggest game of 2014”, right?
It’s a shame to see such a great game as Titanfall being left in the dark after initially shining so brightly. Even with the ability to call a large titan from the sky and leap your way to the top of buildings, Titanfall fell short in many people’s estimations. Could it have been the Beta? I think this certainly attributes to the game’s burnout, but perhaps it’s time to sign a peace treaty to end all of these similar first-person shooters. Judging by what has happened in the past; games which try to attempt something different with first-person shooting are forgotten about once the appeal of the fresh feature has disappeared. I can only hope that we are met with two games later in the year which can reinvigorate the genre and bring some unique gameplay to the new consoles.