What happened to single player first person shooters?

[Timmo]

I think big budget, story-led FPSs were a huge thing from around 2000 all the way up to 2015ish, but since then there has been a huge drop off.

 

Other than the two Doom games which I never quite fully clicked with (I do recognise they are both great games, though), it feels like the last great single player FPS was Titanfall 2, and that was coming up to seven years ago.

 

It seems as though any first person shooter released now is one of:

 

• A roguelight. Ugh. I always liked the idea of this in principle - what could be better than having an infinite game? - but they are always unsatisfying for a number of reasons you're probably all now very familiar with.
• A boomer shooter. No issue with the genre existing, of course, but not really for me, particularly since I rarely play PC games.
• Multiplayer only or very heavily focussed. Including Battle Royale.
• Call of Duty. Macho shit.

 

I've played Titanfall 2 through about 10 times now.

 

I'm guessing the main reason is that every larger budget game costs so much to make now that 15 hour linear experiences are only going to get rarer.

 

This is more of a sad moan than anything, but if anyone has any recommendations for FPS games I may have missed, please post them here!

[Sexton Hardcastle]

Either Doom and Doom Eternal happened & no other developer could match the bar set, so it appears they haven’t tried. 
 

or more likely there’s money to be made peddling multiplayer transactions so they’ve been told by the publishers to just focus their attention on that. 

[Strafe]

Boomer shooters happened.

[JPL]

Despite its many issues, Halo Infinite is excellent when you get stuck into a big battle.

[Benny]

Doesn't Deathloop count?

[Mallet]

There was one released recently on game pass, High on Life I think it's called 

[Strafe]

If you’re going to include Titanfall 2 you should include all the CoD campaigns.

[Isaac]

56 minutes ago, Timmo said:

 

• A boomer shooter. No issue with the genre existing, of course, but not really for me, particularly since I rarely play PC games.

 

Boomer shooters are on console though? Unless you mean you don't really have nostalgia for pre-Half Life FPS campaigns (which is what boomer shooters hark back to)

 

Which is fair enough, I guess. Give it 5-10 years and maybe we will see a bunch of developers become producers at indie game studios who grew up playing Half Life 1 & 2 and want to make modern interpretations of the style.

[Ivanho]

Star Wars BF2 campaign was pretty good. I know most people who weren't put off by the initial loot box crap went straight to the MP but I've had a couple of playthroughs and although its not the most challenging, I still enjoy it each time.

[Majora]

I think the main problem is that, in the AAA space at least, players have become conditioned to single player games being these massive bloated epics. There's very little room in the market anymore for a focused £70 10 hour FPS campaign, no matter how good it is. It's why nearly everything in the AAA space now has open world elements, crafting, skill trees, XP systems etc to pad out the game and give the illusion of value.

[Uzi]

Stalker 2 and Atomic Heart are coming? As well as that new bioshock game that isn't bioshock?

[dreamylittledream]

Yeah Atomic Heart is out in a couple of weeks and looks like a traditional story based single player FPS, albeit one that owes a lot to Bioshock et al.

[Opinionated Ham Scarecrow]

Evil West is pretty damned decent imo.

 

Would Metro Exodus and Neon White count?

[ZOK]

6 minutes ago, Opinionated Ham Scarecrow said:

Neon White

No, it’s not a FPS in any meaningful sense, and certainly not in a campaign one. It’s more of a speed running puzzle game.

[Trumpets]

45 minutes ago, Uzi said:

Stalker 2 and Atomic Heart are coming?

 

I believe they are, yes.

 

1 hour ago, Isaac said:

 

Boomer shooters are on console though?

 

Yes, that is the case.

[Stanley]

Don’t forget Half-Life 3.

[dreamylittledream]

20 minutes ago, Opinionated Ham Scarecrow said:

Evil West is pretty damned decent imo.

 

Would Metro Exodus and Neon White count?

It is indeed but it’s definitely not an FPS (it’s more a God of War brawler with some guns thrown in).

 

Metro Exodus very much yes but that was several years ago now.

[Qazimod]

Metal Hellsinger? It’s a rhythm FPS hybrid but I had a lot of fun with the demo.  

[thesnwmn]

27 minutes ago, Stanley said:

Don’t forget Half-Life 3.

 

Could you send this to Valve please. They hardly even bother to troll the community about it any more.

[mushashi]

2 hours ago, Uzi said:

Stalker 2 and Atomic Heart are coming? As well as that new bioshock game that isn't bioshock?

 

Story-led FPS games still get made out of countries with low wages (the Metro series falls into this category also), but out of those 3, only Judas is likely to qualify for the sort of game Timmo wants, though Valve finally delivered a major Western FPS sequel a few years ago that doesn't get counted because of the cost of entry.

 

Usual real reason for why anything doesn't happen anymore is the reason nobody wants to hear.

[Fry Crayola]

2 minutes ago, mushashi said:

Usual real reason for why anything doesn't happen anymore is the reason nobody wants to hear

 

It's all Crazy Frog's fault!

[mushashi]

3 hours ago, Isaac said:

Which is fair enough, I guess. Give it 5-10 years and maybe we will see a bunch of developers become producers at indie game studios who grew up playing Half Life 1 & 2 and want to make modern interpretations of the style.

 

The difference with Boomer Shooters is the reason the major publishers hardly do them anymore. Unless AI is somehow going to steal all the artists jobs and replace the load of people required to make a story-led cinematic FPS, then I'm doubtful Indies will fill that gap. They can only fill the gaps on cheap to make genres.

 

I'm still waiting for the Indie Arcade Racer renaissance FFS and Hell will likely experience extreme Climate Change before then and those games had quite small teams when they were Arcade games too.

[Cheyenne]

MachineGames' handling of Wolfenstein over the past 8 years has generally been positively received. They haven't announce anything in 3 years so I'm curious if they're continuing with it or moving onto something else. Can't help but think that Covid had an effect here, as they had consistently been releasing things every two years.

 

I think this is where cross pollination with other genres is changing things up a bit. Far Cry is consistently releasing expansive SP focused titles, but they've hugely trended towards the RPG stylings. Would you count Resident Evil 7 and Village as FPS's? The Shadow Warrior revival has pretty crap tryhard humour but the core gunplay has been great fun. Ghostrunner is a nice spin on an FPS. Arkane have made consistent bangers but they of course have their own particular implementation. Would something like Ghostwire Tokyo count?

 

I like where the genre is right now. While not as inundated with options as in the past, there have been some absolutely killer titles in the past decade.

[Sarlaccfood]

MachineGames are doing the Indiana Jones game no?

[Cheyenne]

So they are! Brain completely blanked on that. Doubtful it will be first person, but a great way for them to continue implementing their core 'fuck up Nazis' approach to game design.

[Timmo]

27 minutes ago, Cheyenne said:

MachineGames' handling of Wolfenstein over the past 8 years has generally been positively received. They haven't announce anything in 3 years so I'm curious if they're continuing with it or moving onto something else. Can't help but think that Covid had an effect here, as they had consistently been releasing things every two years.

 

I think this is where cross pollination with other genres is changing things up a bit. Far Cry is consistently releasing expansive SP focused titles, but they've hugely trended towards the RPG stylings. Would you count Resident Evil 7 and Village as FPS's? The Shadow Warrior revival has pretty crap tryhard humour but the core gunplay has been great fun. Ghostrunner is a nice spin on an FPS. Arkane have made consistent bangers but they of course have their own particular implementation. Would something like Ghostwire Tokyo count?

 

I like where the genre is right now. While not as inundated with options as in the past, there have been some absolutely killer titles in the past decade.

Good shout, for some reason I never played those Wolfenstein games so I’ll go back.

 

Did Youngblood get patched into a decent game in the end? And is it ok as a one player game?

[Cheyenne]

No idea. Haven't personally played them, but know that New Order, Old Blood and New Colossus are well regarded. That last one a little less so, but still favourably viewed in an era of increasingly multiplayer focused titles.

[Down by Law]

I really like The New Order and The Old Blood was still pretty solid. But Wolfenstein : The New Colossus and Youngblood can get in the bin. Really good case study in how to mess up a good thing.

 

 

[dreamylittledream]

1 hour ago, Timmo said:

Good shout, for some reason I never played those Wolfenstein games so I’ll go back.

 

Did Youngblood get patched into a decent game in the end? And is it ok as a one player game?

Youngblood is okay but lacks the bonkers plot and tight maps of the other games. I enjoyed it anyway. But it feels more like a Borderlands type game than a Wolfenstein title.

 

New Colossus is actually my least favourite due to the slightly broken difficulty gap between normal (which most of the time is fine but occasionally ridiculous) and easy which offers no challenge at all.

[teddymeow]

It's be great if Insomniac had another crack at the Resistance franshice or Guerilla went back to Killzone.