What is your favorite shooter SP campaign?

[ZedClampet]

We had one on shooters in general, but that can include multiplayer. I want to know what your favorite shooter SP campaign is.

This is an easy one for me: Titanfall 2. It has to be one of the best SP campaigns of all time. There is a ton of variety. Just never gets boring. If you've never played it, you could do worse than to put it on your wishlist and see how deep the Winter Sale discount is, although it's easily worth full price even though it's only about 7 hours long.

What's your choice for best shooter campaign? Half-Life 2? One of the Call of Duty or Wolfenstein games?

 

[Alm]

I think the original half-life. The story was engaging, the atmosphere quite immersive, and all the weapon types new and providing interesting opportunities for challenges.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I came here to mention Titanfall 2... The time switching level worth playing the whole game just to experience that. Also mechs are almost always cool.

Not the biggest FPS person but from the last few years a couple of honorable mentions to:

Doom: Super fast, I really don't remember another single player FPS getting the adrenaline going in the same way, ever. Keep moving or you're dead, but you also have to think tactically at the same time. Haven't played Eternal yet because the time hasnt been right, but I have high hopes. Not a game for relaxing too.

Metro Exodus: I've liked all the Metro games, and this one expanded the scope of the game but still felt Metro. Having the train move to different biomes through the seasons mixed up the environments while still allowing them to have creepy claustrophobic zones as part of much more open sections.

 

[Pifanjr]

Does Mass Effect count? What about Borderlands?

Other good choices are Sniper Elite V2 for the more sneaky gameplay, Rainbow Six Vegas 2 as a more serious co-op experience, Spec Ops: The Line for a very engaging story and Red Faction: Guerilla for some fun with destructible environments.

 

[Ryzengang]

I'm generally bad at picking an overall favorite so I love the original Halo trilogy so those games are definitely up there. I have to agree with some of the others in this thread that Titanfall 2 is fantastic and definitely one of my favorite FPS campaigns. Some others to mention: Doom 2016, Doom Eternal, Borderlands 2, Metro Exodus. I'm sure I'm forgetting some but those are a few of my favorite FPS games.

 

[ZedClampet]

Does Mass Effect count? What about Borderlands?

You shoot, so I consider them shooters.

 

[Johnway]

Despite how infuriating it can be, i do have a soft spot for COD's SP. COD2 and MW2 being real highlights. The ones i like are more open ended and feel like an actual battle. Like capturing a town, DDay or battling through an american nightmare of being invaded by russians.

I did enjoy spec ops the line's campaign. The pacing was the main thing i remember being a highlight and the combat wasn't bad at all.

 

[Pifanjr]

You shoot, so I consider them shooters.

I think Mass Effect has the best story, but the actual shooting is pretty lackluster. As is Borderlands'. So if the question is about a campaign that does shooting the best, I wouldn't pick either game. Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, Operation Flashpoint and Call of Duty: World at War are probably the best shooting experiences I've had.

 

[ZedClampet]

I think Mass Effect has the best story, but the actual shooting is pretty lackluster. As is Borderlands'. So if the question is about a campaign that does shooting the best, I wouldn't pick either game. Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, Operation Flashpoint and Call of Duty: World at War are probably the best shooting experiences I've had.

You're making it too complicated. Which campaign did you enjoy the most? That's the answer.

 

[flashn00b]

Doom 1. Though you can ignore Thy Flesh Consumed.

Sure, there aren't any super shotguns, revenants, arch viles, hell knights, pain elementals and arachnatrons but I've actually found the level design of Doom 1 to be leagues above what Doom 2 delivered.

 

[Pifanjr]

You're making it too complicated. Which campaign did you enjoy the most? That's the answer.

I'd like to see it as encouraging discussion

 

[Brian Boru]

Plenty of favs, tough to pick just one.

The Operative: No One Lives Forever
A game with one of the best sequels ever, No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way—could have picked that one too, but giving the nod to the first.

The lovely Cate Archer, the female answer to James Bond—GoldenEye was one of its inspirations, along with Metal Gear Solid. It's a real shame that stupid legal quicksand prevents it being remade.

Great music, great humor, and great gadgets—lipstick bombs, perfume bottles spraying gas, hairpin lockpicks etc. All being built by her own Q and released as she progressed thru the good story.

Missions around the world—and beyond!—often with various ways of completing them. Various weapons with suppressors and different ammo types. Marry the style of Deus Ex and the gameplay of Far Cry and you get NOLF, a true classic.

 

[mainer]

I don't play many games that would be considered strictly shooters, in fact, the last one I purchased was Black Mesa which resides near the top of my TPB pile now that Crowbar Collective has released that major patch that renders previous saves unusable but contains allot of fixes.

My number one favorite is still Half Life 2 (with episodes 1 & 2), it had such a momentum to it that kept driving me forward, variety in the levels and types of enemy encounters, and running over antlions with the dune buggy never got old even with my meager driving skills.

A close second would be the first Fear game, I loved the combat in that game, and the tone was creepy enough with the stringy-haired Alma popping up every so often to keep the story interesting. I never played Fear 2 or 3, don't really know why.

Years ago, back in the mid-1990s, I was really into Duke Nukem 3D. The gunplay was great and I loved the wise-cracking Duke as he mowed down waves of aliens. There was a sense of humor to the game that really doesn't go over well today, but back then I enjoyed it.

 

[ZedClampet]

Years ago, back in the mid-1990s, I was really into Duke Nukem 3D. The gunplay was great and I loved the wise-cracking Duke as he mowed down waves of aliens. There was a sense of humor to the game that really doesn't go over well today, but back then I enjoyed it.

I loved Duke Nukem 3D, but got stuck at one point and gave up. I couldn't figure out where to go, and there were no YouTube walkthrough's back then.

It's a shame that politically incorrect humor isn't allowed anymore. Used to be that anything was fair game in comedy, now if 8 people angry Tweet about something, there are journalism witch hunts, resignations etc.

 

[ZedClampet]

I'd like to see it as encouraging discussion

That's a good point. My mistake. I thought you were confused about my question is why I tried to simplify it. But you bring up some good points. One thing I'm interested in, as I'm not a shooter person myself, is what are the qualifications that make the shooting in a game good? I always thought the Borderlands games had bad shooting, but I couldn't put my finger on anything other than that the guns were wildly inaccurate--to the point that I couldn't stand to play the game.

So after thinking about it for awhile, I came up with:

1) An appropriate sound when you shoot a gun.
2) Feedback on your character or the gun when you shoot (like a recoil animation or empties flying out).
3) Feedback on what or who you shot (visible damage, stagger, whatever)
4) Feedback on when you yourself get shot.

I actually came up with several more, but decided they were personal preferences, rather than objective ways of making the shooting good. For instance, as a gun owner in real life, it drives me crazy when games make guns comically inaccurate (see Borderlands), but I know that some gamers consider that part of the challenge.

But I suspect that what I'm talking about is the "feel" of shooting, but that people who play the genre regularly have different ideas of what makes the shooting good.

So what do you feel makes a game's shooting good?

 

[Brian Boru]

It's a shame that politically incorrect humor isn't allowed anymore

I see Leisure Suit Larry series has been re-released—dunno if it's remade or remastered—so all is not lost

1) An appropriate sound when you shoot a gun.
2) Feedback on your character or the gun when you shoot (like a recoil animation or empties flying out).
3) Feedback on what or who you shot (visible damage, stagger, whatever)
4) Feedback on when you yourself get shot.

Good list. One of the things I like in FC5 is that it's not point and shoot, unless quite close. To pick off the driver in a truck going across the screen, you have to aim in front of him. Same with moving boats, birds and aircraft. That took me a while to get used to.

I guess you could call that semi-realistic ballistics. I don't like total realism in ballistics, when you also have to account for wind, gravity, the rotation of the Earth, and if Mercury is in the Ascendant. That's too much like work.

Variable ammo is also a good thing—eg having armor-piercing to stop vehicles or take out heavies.

Other variables like damage, recoil, suppression and fire rate add to the tactical considerations of your loadout.

The variation in damage depending on where you or enemy is hit also adds significant tactical choice—do I spray n pray, or take an extra second for a single careful headshot?

 

[ZedClampet]

Great points!

do I spray n pray, or take an extra second for a single careful headshot?

You know, I always just aim for the head, even if I'm shooting pilots out of the air in FC 5. The only time I haven't done that (again, I rarely play shooters) is in FC4 when I got the Buzzsaw, and it no longer mattered. Even if I'm lugging around an OP shotgun...it's to the head.

 

[futurebucket]

I don't play many games that would be considered strictly shooters, in fact, the last one I purchased was Black Mesa which resides near the top of my TPB pile now that Crowbar Collective has released that major patch that renders previous saves unusable but contains allot of fixes.

My number one favorite is still Half Life 2 (with episodes 1 & 2), it had such a momentum to it that kept driving me forward, variety in the levels and types of enemy encounters, and running over antlions with the dune buggy never got old even with my meager driving skills.

A close second would be the first Fear game, I loved the combat in that game, and the tone was creepy enough with the stringy-haired Alma popping up every so often to keep the story interesting. I never played Fear 2 or 3, don't really know why.

Years ago, back in the mid-1990s, I was really into Duke Nukem 3D. The gunplay was great and I loved the wise-cracking Duke as he mowed down waves of aliens. There was a sense of humor to the game that really doesn't go over well today, but back then I enjoyed it.

Love the throwback mentions!

 

[dayanandarao555]

C.O.D mw 1,2,3 and battelfield are one of my favourite sp games out there!!!

 

[McStabStab]

Half-Life has to be up there as one of my favorites for single player. The newer Wolfenstein games were also a blast and had some brilliant moments as well.

The one I'd like to pick as my favorite, though, are the STALKER games. For richness of story, freedom of movement and progression, and tactical gunplay, it has to be one of the best out there.

 

[DXCHASE]

I cannot just pick one! So i guess my top ones in no particular order are Destiny, Battlefield Bad Company 2, COD 2, Crysis series, Far Cry series and Duke Nukem 3D

 

[Sarafan]

It's hard to pick one. Basically I love Quake 1, Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal single player campaigns. I'd probably go with Q1 if I had to choose only one. There's basically no story there, but it's pure fun. I have high hopes that the upcoming new idSoftware project is Quake-related.

 

[Zloth]

I think I would give it to Saints Row, particularly SR 3. Completely over the top, under the bottom, around the sides, and out through some orifices you didn't want to know about story!

Control is doing really well, though. If there's a second game that can continue the story, it could become the new "best." They've set up a dynamite IP in that game! If they end up just using it to push their other games, though.... blah.

 

[ysffsl]

Cod MW 1,2,3 AND FARCRY ,

 

[Frindis]

Hands down and hands up, Metro Exodus! Amazing story, good characters, looks insane and you feel like you REALLY need to pay attention to not get shredded by the nearest pack of ghouls. Just a kick-ass game that also got good replayability.