Blog:My Ideal First-Person Shooter

Recently, as some of you can tell, I have been in a Doom mood recently, as evidenced by the new pages I'm creating in my sandbox. As well as that, I have also started playing Return to Castle Wolfenstein (Which I likely won't write a page about) and begun replaying Star Wars: Dark Forces because of this. And with Doom Eternal and Wolfenstein: The New Order on my must-play list and my recent blog about a video game I would like to make, I decided to put up this list of ideas and mechanics that I personally think would make a good first-person shooter, more-so one I would like to play. Basically, this list will structure what I think will make a fun first-person shooter, as well as mechanics I think are best to avoid. Disclaimer ahead: This is all based on my personal opinion, and I would like to see what you would think in the comments section.

No Reloading Mechanics
One of the reasons I like the older first-person shooters more than recent ones is because of the lack of a reloading mechanic. I like this because it causes less break-ups in the action and overall I just find it a lot more fun to play as a result. I also find mechanics like these, while realistic, just very annoying and I would rather watch a single ammo gauge rather than watching my magazine size and my total amount of ammunition.

Allow the Player To Carry As Many Guns As They Want
Another reason why I prefer older FPSs over new ones is that most of the time you can only carry a limited amount of weapons. In Halo and Call of Duty, you have only two guns to swap out of as well as a grenade slot, and only that much does not give me the power fantasy I want from shooters. Instead, I would much rather prefer to be a walking tank, with shotguns, machine guns, and plasma cannons galore.

Not Holding the Player's Hand
The next aspect I really like about older FPSs is that they would not guide you along a pre-determined path, fighting anything you find along the way. Instead, you were only given the tools for your survival and told to figure everything out by yourself for the rest of the game. It was up to and only for you to figure out how to finish each of the complex levels. If you decided to loom around hard enough, you could find secrets to help you out or just a silly Easter egg that gave you a quick laugh. There was normally a pre-determined layout for how to get through, but it was up to you to figure out, and some levels even had multiple paths to complete them with.

Character Upgrades
One thing I will give modern shooters credit for is that the mechanics of upgrading your character will make you feel more powerful, which is exactly what gamers like me want in games, to feel more powerful than they actually are in the real world. In my ideal FPS, I want the player to be able to upgrade their maximum health to be more resistant, their maximum ammo reserves to attack more often, and their melee power to cut through enemies with melee attacks easier and as an alternative to using ammo on weaker foes, which brings me to my next point...

Melee Weapons
I think this is one of the more controversial aspects of FPSs, as it can be hard to gauge exactly where your melee attacks are going in a first-person camera, but I like having the option of melee in FPSs. For one thing, it is a cheap alternative to attacking enemies, as it can be a great way to conserve ammunition. It can also lead to the player to feel like a badass when they sneak up on enemies and execute them in one hit or decapitate and brutalize them up close.

Enemies Everywhere
Finally, the last of the aspects of what would make what I would consider to be a great FPS is that the action must be non-stop most of the time. I find that this creates a lot more of a fun challenge in an FPS and one that never really gets boring and rely on the player focusing on the action and taking everything out under a lot of pressure, which in my opinion increases the overall fun value as well as making sure you aren't exploring the map without anything to do while looking for a key or something, as it will keep you occupied.

Single-Player As the Focus
Really self-explanatory. Being multiplayer focused is what ruins a lot of first-person shooters nowadays, especially when the time comes when no one is playing online anymore. Making a short single-player camapign is just lazy, and having a fully fleshed out campaign is what would make the game worth buying in the first place (This is one of the reasons why I won't play Quake III). A fully fleshed out single-player campaign along the lines of the Doom seies, Quake I,II, and IV, Shadow Warrior, and Wolfenstein: The New Order is what makes these games fun to play in the first place. If you forget to focus on single-player, you end up with a game where its fate will only be decided by chance.

That's all I have for now, and I plan to add more later. What are your thoughts on what is your ideal FPS, and feel free to oppose my opinions with yours :)