Ah, First Person Shooters. On one hand they can be pulse-pounding, brain-numbing fun but on another they’ve been dull, repetitive and predictable since 2005. But before any of that, let’s cast our minds back to the 1980s…

Back in the day, people played FPSs like Wolfenstein and Doom; games which, despite their appearance, created a very different experience from those of today. For example, exploration was a lot more common in shooters back then for many different reasons. Firstly, health bars. Now-a-days, if you get shot you just hide behind cover until your health regenerates but before that you used to have a health bar which would only replenish itself when you found a med kit. Not only did this add an extra layer to the game play as you had to go scouting around for healing items, but it also made the shoot-outs even more tense. Sitting behind cover with only 5 health points left, fighting off waves of enemies in a desperate battle for survival.

Secondly, some old FPSs had you hunting around for not only med kits and ammo, but also other more powerful weapons and power-ups. This meant that there were many ways to deal with a situation so the player was expected to deploy actual tactics and strategy rather than charging in with a squad of AI marines like most titles today (as pictured below).

Fast forward twenty years to the birth of Call of Duty and the death of originality in shooters. From 2003 to the present the FPS market has been dominated by grey-brown graphics depicting one of two gritty and realistic settings; WWII and the modern day. Every once in a while we’ll get a shooter set in space in a desperate attempt to mix up the formula and cash in on the success of Halo, but that happens all too rarely.

Now, credit where credit’s due, there are some good modern First Person Shooters. Lots of them in fact. Bioshock, Team Fortress 2, Fallout 3, Half-Life, the list goes on. But my point is that there really aren’t enough of these. Also, I think it raises the issue that FPS as a genre is going nowhere fast. The games I’ve listed are all First Person Shooters which mix in other elements, like RPG. It seems that shooters in modern times can’t really hold up on their own without mingling with other game play features.

To conclude, I think what I’m trying to get across is that FPSs were, once upon a time, things of remarkable originality and depth before they became the shallow and watered-down shells of former greatness which they are today. Some pure action FPSs are still enjoyable but in the same way that burning ants with a magnifying glass is enjoyable. Yes, it may be fun at first but there’s just nothing to it and it soon becomes dull and tiresome. But what makes this even worse is that FPSs have never been more popular. Developers know they don’t have to put in any effort now-a-days so they can just churn out any old rubbish every 6 months and know that people will buy it. So, put down Modern Warfare and Medal of Honor and next week I’ll show you some good games to try.

NEXT WEEK: Why The Elder Scrolls Are Amazing.