So what is *the* best modern FPS campaign?

[QuantumPion]

No love for number 47?

You play Hitman as a FPS?

 

[RampantAndroid]

You play Hitman as a FPS?

You can.

 

[Stringjam]

I don’t understand why MW1 haters are so vehement.

I personally can't stand any of the military MP developer's attempts at making a campaign, because these developers know NOTHING about AI. Because they know absolutely nothing, they all use the same technique of trying to work around it.....throwing a lot of idiots at you.

So a lot of people go "Yay! Lots of action, woohoo....spray bullets everywhere...how fun!!!!" :awe:

I would rather face a single NPC that has advanced navigation ability, cover use, and behaviors than a hoard of gimps like what those games throw at you.

I mean, F.E.A.R. came out in 2005 and has better AI than any game starting with COD or BF. If you read up a bit on AI technique and some history of it in FPS you'll see how seriously Monolith, and few other developers approached it.

Devs that make MP games don't care about paying expensive coders to develop advanced AI and machine-state handling systems. They know 90% of the people that buy their games do so for the MP, so why should they care?

The single-player FPS campaign seems to be a dying breed.....STALKER is gone now. I'm hoping FarCry3 and Metro: Last Light will have something to offer.

 

[micrometers]

The thing about AI is that it is limited by map design.

For instance, I thought that Half Life 1 actually had better AI than HL2.

that was the impression I had.

but it appears that it's mostly because of level design.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

What? I thought Crysis 2 was crap. I hated how they turned the near-future realistic technology aspect of Crysis 1 into essentially, magic, for Crysis 2.

Did you play crysis 1 after the mine? The magic started in the first game.

Richard K. Morgan is kinda of a mind rape artist in most of his books. The Takeshi Kovacs books are amazing.

 

[thejunglegod]

I loved Far Cry and i enjoyed FEAR because of it's amazing AI.

 

[MrColin]

postal 2. you can use a kitten as a silencer. piss out gasoline and light it on fire. you have to kill gary coleman. it's glorious.

This^

Most entertaining FPS ever and they have a Linux version. Uwe Boll made an excellent movie based on it (best game-based film ever). If you enjoy reading The Onion, you will appreciate this game.

 

[lakedude]

So what is *the* best modern FPS campaign?

I'm not sure what you mean by modern or campaign but:

I play mostly FPS games and have several favorites.

The most memorable "campaign" was the Soviet campaign in COD 1. This stuff is loosely based on real history and that makes it feel more real. You feel how bad it sucks to be a Soviet solder crossing the Volga. Your heart sinks when you are not even issued a weapon. Next thing you know you are on the ground with your ears blown out. If you poke your head up for more than a second you are dead. Oh and not one step backward or your own people will shoot you!

Second most memorable was the American campaign in COD 2 when you are climbing up cliffs at Pointe du Hoc and crawling around in trenches.

Big FarCry fan including FC2, and Crysis. Playing the original FC now actually. It looks a bit dated but the gameplay is intense.

Loved BioShock, great story! Didn't play BS2 cause of that MS Live crap.

 

[Veliko]

System Shock 2, if that counts as a modern FPS.

To be honest, my favourite campaigns in shooter FPSs have been from the Halo games.

 

[Veliko]

I personally can't stand any of the military MP developer's attempts at making a campaign, because these developers know NOTHING about AI. Because they know absolutely nothing, they all use the same technique of trying to work around it.....throwing a lot of idiots at you.

So a lot of people go "Yay! Lots of action, woohoo....spray bullets everywhere...how fun!!!!" :awe:

I would rather face a single NPC that has advanced navigation ability, cover use, and behaviors than a hoard of gimps like what those games throw at you.

I mean, F.E.A.R. came out in 2005 and has better AI than any game starting with COD or BF. If you read up a bit on AI technique and some history of it in FPS you'll see how seriously Monolith, and few other developers approached it.

It's a shame that Monolith didn't spend as long making the FEAR environment varied, and more interesting then.

I can't say that I noticed the AI in FEAR do anything exceptional, or game-making.

 

[Sulaco]

F.E.A.R's AI was pretty darn good.

Enemies would actively take cover when being fired on, try and flank, use grenades wisely, hang back in cover when being hammered, and try and rush you when they had clear number advantages.

I enjoyed FEAR, but the convoluted-as-hell plotline and mostly unscary moments (aside from a few cheap jump scares) made it just a straight-up, rather hollow action game in all.


I would say the best FPS campaign of the "modern era" as defined arbitrarily by the OP has to be Bioshock. Great story, amazing atmosphere, gorgeous graphics, incredible soundtrack, and solid and innovative gameplay.

 

[gorcorps]

The last modern campaign I was impressed by was COD2. The pacing was fantastic and it was incredibly intense at the right difficulty. It's such a bummer that the MP took over the series as that campaign was glorious.

 

[biostud]

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

 

[QuantumPion]

Did you play crysis 1 after the mine? The magic started in the first game.

Richard K. Morgan is kinda of a mind rape artist in most of his books. The Takeshi Kovacs books are amazing.

Crysis 1 had aliens with anti-gravity and a freeze ray. Obviously, sci-fi territory but still, they are space aliens. I give them leeway.

Crysis 2 turned the nano suit into a magic AI portable science laboratory that could alter your DNA and directly interface with your brain, built by a mad scientist.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

If we're going that far back I liked No One Lives Forever. That game was awesome because it felt like you were part of a living world. People would have conversations with each other.

 

[Schfifty Five]

Modern Warfare 1. I still go back to the game and play through the campaign once in a while. Just overall a cool and exciting campaign with a well-paced narrative.

MW1 definitely gets my vote for having the best single player campaign. It was so epic. Felt like you were in a movie the whole time, one where you could control the characters.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

Crysis 1 had aliens with anti-gravity and a freeze ray. Obviously, sci-fi territory but still, they are space aliens. I give them leeway.

Crysis 2 turned the nano suit into a magic AI portable science laboratory that could alter your DNA and directly interface with your brain, built by a mad scientist.

The game was set 10 years after the first one, and the mad scientist built the new nanosuit for that exact purpose. I don't know if at some point they will fill in the missing ten years, but it would be interesting to know what prophet was up to for that time.

 

[micrometers]

Seriously, the cutoff line should be Half Life 2 or Call of Duty 4.

 

[leper84]

Crysis 1 had aliens with anti-gravity and a freeze ray. Obviously, sci-fi territory but still, they are space aliens. I give them leeway.

Crysis 2 turned the nano suit into a magic AI portable science laboratory that could alter your DNA and directly interface with your brain, built by a mad scientist.

I have to completely agree on this. Crysis 1, for what it was, just had more of a realistic, direct feel to it. Crysis 2 tried to turn into some epic AAA blockbuster, bloated, hollywood style movie disconnected crap. Even the art in the game went from vibrant and alive in Crysis 1 to washed-out Michael Bay style bland in 2.

I have to say Half Life franchise still takes the crown as the best overall, well rounded FPS.

With all its issues I think Rage would come pretty close except they decided to end the game about 5 hours early.

 

[surfsatwerk]

Half Life series.

 

[sigurros81]

MW1 definitely gets my vote for having the best single player campaign. It was so epic. Felt like you were in a movie the whole time, one where you could control the characters.

The thing that made me really like enjoy the campaign was just how well written it was. If they ever make a COD movie, they should use the script straight from this game.

 

[shortylickens]

Seriously, the cutoff line should be Half Life 2 or Call of Duty 4.

Thats what I was thinking. It really doesnt get better after that.

 

[Stringjam]

Thats what I was thinking. It really doesnt get better after that.

Can't say I agree....I'll take Metro and definitely STALKER over either or those games. Different strokes I suppose.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Thats what I was thinking. It really doesnt get better after that.

It is a sad world when COD4 is indicative of the best single player experiences.

It's clearly not.

 

[micrometers]

It is a sad world when COD4 is indicative of the best single player experiences.

It's clearly not.

When I first played the game it really affected me with the visceralness of the graphics.

And the quotes from the neocons just made it feel evil.