The shooter market feels stagnant right now

[neogunhero]

Shooters feel stagnant right now. To my knowledge, there haven’t been much FPS games this year that were really innovative and are pushing FPSs to new directions. BattleBit remastered is great, but it really is just trying to recapture the magic of the Battelfield Bad Company 2 and BF3 days. System Shock was great but it is mostly just a remake of another game. Even this years new COD game is focused on recapturing movement gameplay that was popular in 2009-2012 COD entries.

We haven’t seen much innovation in the FPS scene this year when it comes purely to innovative gameplay. Even looking at articles for best FPSs of 2022 doesn’t show much promise in that regard. Maybe FPSs are just taking a breather right now, it is a very oversaturated genre after all.

What do you guys think of the current state of FPS games?

 

[Pifanjr]

Shooters feel stagnant right now. To my knowledge, there haven’t been much FPS games this year that were really innovative and are pushing FPSs to new directions. BattleBit remastered is great, but it really is just trying to recapture the magic of the Battelfield Bad Company 2 and BF3 days. System Shock was great but it is mostly just a remake of another game. Even this years new COD game is focused on recapturing movement gameplay that was popular in 2009-2012 COD entries.

We haven’t seen much innovation in the FPS scene this year when it comes purely to innovative gameplay. Even looking at articles for best FPSs of 2022 doesn’t show much promise in that regard. Maybe FPSs are just taking a breather right now, it is a very oversaturated genre after all.

What do you guys think of the current state of FPS games?

I haven't seen an interesting shooter in a while. It seems it's mostly the year of RPGs and management/sim games, at least for me.

 

[neogunhero]

I haven't seen an interesting shooter in a while. It seems it's mostly the year of RPGs and management/sim games, at least for me.

That’s exactly what I was thinking. Great year for RPG and sim fans, there have been some really innovative games in those genres. FPS games are getting phased out by people who like to use their brain more than I do (doh!).

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Thought for a minute Stalker 2 was out soon, but its 2024. Does Cyberpunk count if youre going to call System Shock remake an FPS?

The last really good new ones for me were Doom Eternal and Metro Exodus, so its been a while. Lots of Boomer Shooters though.

I dont think FPS is getting phased out, probably just a lull.

 

[Brian Boru]

I feel you @neogunhero, any year without a Far Cry release is by definition a bad FPS year.

As regards innovation, there are innovative games released every day—~30/day overall on Steam if I recall correctly, and they can't all be copycats, right? Not all shooters of course, but some for sure.

Since about 99.9% of all innovation fails—and mostly not spectacularly, so there isn't even that satisfying going-down-in-flames martyrlike denouement—all is right with the world and we can continue to enjoy what we continue to enjoy.

Now please excuse me, gotta continue work on this waterproof automobile with wings—finding the space for lifeboat and parachute is a pain.

 

[DXCHASE]

I agree to a point. I think its more that releasing a call of duty and a battlefield every other year makes it stagnant. There are secret FPS gems out there to find (looking at you Trepang2 ) but those are few and far between i must admit. Now as for boomer shooters (that are FPS) that market is booming imo. Lots of old school doom/duke nukem 3D like games coming out.

 

[ZedClampet]

Shooters feel stagnant right now. To my knowledge, there haven’t been much FPS games this year that were really innovative and are pushing FPSs to new directions. BattleBit remastered is great, but it really is just trying to recapture the magic of the Battelfield Bad Company 2 and BF3 days. System Shock was great but it is mostly just a remake of another game. Even this years new COD game is focused on recapturing movement gameplay that was popular in 2009-2012 COD entries.

We haven’t seen much innovation in the FPS scene this year when it comes purely to innovative gameplay. Even looking at articles for best FPSs of 2022 doesn’t show much promise in that regard. Maybe FPSs are just taking a breather right now, it is a very oversaturated genre after all.

What do you guys think of the current state of FPS games?

Well, Remnant 2 was an absolutely fantastic shooter. Both it and it's prequel did some great things with the shooter genre. If more games were like those, I would actually play shooters, but so many of them are just horribly boring.

 

[ZedClampet]

I feel you @neogunhero, any year without a Far Cry release is by definition a bad FPS year.

As regards innovation, there are innovative games released every day—~30/day overall on Steam if I recall correctly, and they can't all be copycats, right? Not all shooters of course, but some for sure.

Since about 99.9% of all innovation fails—and mostly not spectacularly, so there isn't even that satisfying going-down-in-flames martyrlike denouement—all is right with the world and we can continue to enjoy what we continue to enjoy.

Now please excuse me, gotta continue work on this waterproof automobile with wings—finding the space for lifeboat and parachute is a pain.

I was reading a history of The Settlers games, and their endless quest for significant innovation was humorous in retrospect. Every new sequel after Settlers 2 was worse than the last until they finally destroyed the series. And it was clear that all players really wanted the entire time was a new version of Settlers 2.

 

[Colif]

Perhaps they have run out of wars... I mean, you can only refight the same ones so many times with updated graphics. That and they all use the same features so they all feel the same... innovation is scary, people might not like it... better to feed you the same mush than to risk you not eating it at all.

 

[flashn00b]

As far as new shooters go, the one i'm most looking forward to is currently in development hell. Why it's a big deal for me is cuz it's the first retail game to be made by the creator of Brutal Doom.

Brutal Fate on Steam

Brutal Fate is a fast-paced ultra-violent retro first-person shooter inspired by 80's and 90's sci-fi movies. It blends the best features of classic shooters with some modern aspects, making it an unique mix.

store.steampowered.com

I think what could help make things fresh is a return of the 90s/early 2000s arena shooter, though considering the direction that multiplayer gaming is going, I think it'd be best for that specific subgenre of multiplayer FPS to instead go for a singleplayer focus. I wanna think that there's a market for a fully fleshed out game based on UT2004's singleplayer mode, which I think could be a good way to blend old-school shooting with... sports management? I wanna think that a shooter/sports sim hybrid could also look into the more... shadier elements of professional sports (in the context of a death tournament, a particularly underhanded team could smuggle in military grade weapons which have much less ammo, but hit harder than their tournament counterparts, though dying with an mil-spec gun will ruin your reputation as an athlete)

 

[Guruguruhiki]

Thought for a minute Stalker 2 was out soon, but its 2024. Does Cyberpunk count if youre going to call System Shock remake an FPS?

The last really good new ones for me were Doom Eternal and Metro Exodus, so its been a while. Lots of Boomer Shooters though.

I dont think FPS is getting phased out, probably just a lull.

Unfortunately Stalker 2 development has been delayed cause the studio creating it is in Ukraine. I am saddened immensely, I’ve been waiting so long

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Unfortunately Stalker 2 development has been delayed cause the studio creating it is in Ukraine. I am saddened immensely, I’ve been waiting so long

Makes sense, sucks of course. I also found this PCG article about a fire in their new office in Prague.

I only played a bit of Shadow of Chernobyl when it released, feel like I'd be more into a game of that type now than I was back then so excited to give it a go at some point.

I dont really care much for MP or arena shooters, so always interesting to hear about single player focused campaigns like Stalker 2.

 

[BeardyHat]

Maybe not innovative, as I'm not really sure what you do in the FPS space to innovate, but I've heard some buzz around Turbo Overkill. I have the demo downloaded, but I haven't tried it yet, but it's suppose to be pretty interesting and silly.

Turbo Overkill on Steam

Turbo Overkill 1.0 is finally here! Chainsaw legs, arms, bikes--chainsaws everywhere! You'll need them to clean up Paradise, run by Syn (a super AI), a trio of bounty hunters (Maw, Ripper & Jazz), and about 150,000 augmented cyberpunks. Apogee's best FPS since Duke Nukem 3D. Good hunting, Sir!

store.steampowered.com

 

[Brian Boru]

I'm not really sure what you do in the FPS space to innovate

Maybe include some/all of these:

Choice of 1st- or 3rd-Person Perspective—if modders can do it, devs can.
Make Alt-Tab work—this has gotten a lot better recently.
Make Boss fights optional, eg skip for lower score.
Vary difficulty by doubling/tripling number of opponents.
Fix Driving and Flying controls.
Provide slow motion and fast motion choices.
Always make different genre segments skippable.
Keep QTE dead.
Provide decent Save game function, like we had in 90s.
Do not make us Skin/Loot each individual kill of the dozens lying around.
Don't require a key press for looting or similar trivial actions.
Provide more ways to 'beat' a game—eg expand all A, develop all B, catch all C, find all X, meet all Y, do all Z without being discovered, etc etc.
Drop Unskippable long Intro/Cut scenes.
Make all cut scenes skippable after first view.
Make intro sequence skippable.
Provide decent weapon comparison charts when there are dozens or more choices.
Provide an auto-reload after every shot option.
Make games mod-friendly.

 

[Pifanjr]

There's cool stuff happening in every big FPS right now, and I can't decide where to start

October is a monster month for multiplayer shooters.

www.pcgamer.com

Perhaps this will help a little bit.