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Game design

Like most shooter games, first-person shooters involve an avatar, one or more ranged weapons, and a varying number of enemies. Because they take place in a 3D environment, these games tend to be somewhat more realistic than 2D shooter games, and have more accurate representations of gravity, lighting, sound and collisions.First-person shooters played on personal computers are most often controlled with a combination of a keyboard and mouse. This system has been claimed as superior to that found in console games, which frequently use two analog sticks: one used for running and sidestepping, the other for looking and aiming. It is common to display the character’s hands and weaponry in the main view, with a head-up display showing health, ammunition and location details. Often, it is possible to overlay a map of the surrounding area.

Combat and power-ups

First-person shooters often focus on action gameplay, with fast-paced and bloody firefights, though some place a greater emphasis on narrative, problem-solving and logic puzzles. In addition to shooting, melee combat may also be used extensively. In some games, melee weapons are especially powerful, a reward for the risk the player must take in maneuvering his character into close proximity to the enemy. In other situations, a melee weapon may be less effective, but necessary as a last resort. “Tactical shooters” are more realistic, and require teamwork and strategy to succeed; the player often commands a squad of characters, which may be controlled by the game or by human teammates.

First-person shooters typically give players a choice of weapons, which have a large impact on how the player will play the game. Some game designs have realistic models of actual existing or historical weapons, incorporating their rate of fire, magazine size, ammunition amount, recoil and accuracy. Other first-person shooter games may incorporate imaginative variations of weapons, including future prototypes, “alien technology” scenario defined weaponry, and/or utilizing a wide array of projectiles, from industrial labor tools to laser, energy, plasma, rocket and grenade launchers or crossbows. These many variations may also be applied to the tossing animations of grenades, rocks, spears and the such. Also more unconventional modes of destruction may be employed from the viewable users hands such as flames, electricity, telekinesis or other supernatural constructions. However, designers often allow characters to carry varying multiples of weapons with little to no reduction in speed or mobility, or perhaps more realistically, a pistol or smaller device and a long rifle or even limiting the player to only one weapon at a time. There are often options to trade up, upgrade or swap out in most games. Thus, the standards of realism varies between design elements. The protagonist can generally be healed and re-armed by means of items such as first aid kits, simply by walking over them.Some games allow players to accumulate experience points similar to those found in role-playing games, which can unlock new weapons and abilities.

Level design

First-person shooters may be structurally composed of levels, or use the technique of a continuous narrative in which the game never leaves the first-person perspective.^[1]Others feature large sandbox environments, which are not divided into levels and can be explored freely.^[21] In first-person shooters, protagonists interact with the environment to varying degrees, from basics such as using doors, to problem solving puzzles based on a variety of interactive objects. In some games, the player can damage the environment, also to varying degrees: one common device is the use of barrels containing explosive material which the player can shoot, destroying them and harming nearby enemies. Other games feature environments which are extensively destructible, allowing for additional visual effects. The game world will often make use of science fiction, historic (particularly World War II) or modern military themes, with such antagonists as aliens, monsters, terrorists and soldiers of various types.Games feature multiple difficulty settings; in harder modes, enemies are tougher, more aggressive and do more damage, and power-ups are limited. In easier modes, the player can succeed through reaction times alone; on more difficult settings, it is often necessary to memorize the levels through trial and error.

Multiplayer

First-person shooters may feature a multiplayer mode, taking place on specialized levels. Some games are designed specifically for multiplayer gaming, and have very limited single player modes in which the player competes against game-controlled characters termed “bots”.Massively multiplayer online first-person shooters allow thousands of players to compete at once in a persistent world.Large scale multiplayer games allow multiple squads, with leaders issuing commands and a commander controlling the team’s overall strategy.Multiplayer games have a variety of different styles of match.

The classic types are the deathmatch (and its team-based variant) in which players score points by killing other players’ characters; andcapture the flag, in which teams attempt to penetrate the opposing base, capture a flag and return it to their own base whilst preventing the other team from doing the same. Other game modes may involve attempting to capture enemy bases or areas of the map, attempting to take hold of an object for as long as possible while evading other players, or deathmatch variations involving limited lives or in which players fight over a particularly potent power-up. These match types may also be customizable, allowing the players to vary weapons, health and power-ups found on the map, as well as victory criteria.Games may allow players to choose between various classes, each with its own strengths, weaknesses, equipment and roles within a team.

History

Before the popularity of first-person shooters, the first-person viewpoint was used in vehicle simulation games such as Battlezone.

The earliest two documented first-person shooter video games are Maze War and Spasim. Maze War features on-foot gameplay that evokes modern first-person shooter games. Development of the game began in 1973 and its exact date of completion is unknown.Spasim had a documented debut at the University of Illinois in 1974. The game was a rudimentary space flight simulator, which featured a first-person perspective. They were distinct from modern first-person shooters, involving simple tile-based movement where the player could only move from square to square and turn in 90-degree increments.Spasim led to more detailed combat flight simulators and eventually to a tank simulator, developed for the U.S. Army, in the later 1970s. These games were not available to consumers, however, and it was not until 1980 that a tank video game, Battlezone, was released in arcades. A version of the game was released in 1983 for home computers and became the first successful mass-market game featuring a first-person viewpoint and wireframe 3D graphics,presented using a vector graphics display.

Early first-person shooters: 1987–1992

MIDI Maze, an early first-person shooter released in 1987 for the Atari ST, featured maze-based gameplay and character designs similar to Pac-Man, but displayed in a first-person perspective.Later ported to various systems – including the Game Boy and Super NES – under the title Faceball 2000,it featured the first network multiplayer deathmatches, using a MIDI interface. It was a relatively minor game, but despite the inconvenience of connecting numerous machines together, its multiplayer mode gained a cult following: 1UP.com called it the “first multi-player 3D shooter on a mainstream system” and the first “major LAN action game”.

Id Software’s Hovertank 3D pioneered ray casting technology in May 1991 to enable faster gameplay than 1980s vehicle simulators; and six months later Catacomb 3-Dintroduced another advance, texture mapping, in November 1991. The second game to use texture mapping was Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, a March 1992 action role-playing game by Looking Glass Technologies that featured a first-person viewpoint and an advanced graphics engine. In October 1990, id developer John Romero learned about texture mapping from a phone call to Paul Neurath. Romero described the texture mapping technique to id programmer John Carmack, who remarked, “I can do that.”,and would feel motivated by Looking Glass’s example to do the same in Catacomb 3-D. Catacomb 3-D also introduced the display of the protagonist’s hand and weapon (in this case, magical spells) on the screen, whereas previously aspects of the player’s avatar were not visible. The experience of developing Ultima Underworld would make it possible for Looking Glass to create the Thief and System Shock series years later.

Rise in popularity: 1992–1995

Wolfenstein 3D (created by id Software and released in 1992) was an instant success, fueled largely by its shareware release, and has been credited with inventing the first-person shooter genre. It was built on the ray casting technology pioneered in earlier games to create a revolutionary template for shooter game design, which first-person shooters are still based upon today. Despite its violent themes, Wolfenstein largely escaped the controversy generated by the later Doom, although it was banned in Germany due to the use ofNazi iconography; and the Super NES version replaced the enemy attack dogs with giant rats. Apogee Software, the publisher ofWolfenstein 3D, followed up its success with Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold in 1993. The game was initially well-received but sales rapidly declined in the wake of the success of id’s Doom, released a week later.

Doom, released as shareware in 1993, refined Wolfenstein 3D’s template by adding improved textures, variations in height (e.g., stairs the player’s character could climb) and effects such as flickering lights and patches of total darkness, creating a more believable 3D environment than Wolfenstein 3D’s more monotonous and simplistic levels.Doom allowed competitive matches between multiple players, termed “deathmatches,” and the game was responsible for the word’s subsequent entry into the video gaming lexicon. The game became so popular that its multiplayer features began to cause problems for companies whose networks were used to play the game.

Doom has been considered the most important first-person shooter ever made. It was highly influential not only on subsequent shooter games but on video gaming in general,and has been available on almost every video gaming system since. Multiplayer gaming, which is now integral to the first-person shooter genre, was first achieved successfully on a large scale with Doom. While its combination of gory violence, dark humor and hellish imagery garnered acclaim from critics, these attributes also generated criticism from religious groups, with other commentators labelling the game a “murder simulator.” There was further controversy when it emerged that the perpetrators of theColumbine High School massacre were fans of the game; the families of several victims later unsuccessfully attempted to sue numerous video game companies – among them id Software – which the families claimed inspired the massacre.

In 1994, Raven Software released Heretic, which used a modified version of the Doom engine that allowed for vertical aiming, an inventory system to store and select items, andgibs. On the Macintosh, Bungie’s release, in the same year, of Marathon, and its subsequent sequels, set the standard for first-person shooters on that platform. Marathonpioneered or was an early adopter of several new features such as freelook, dual-wielded and dual-function weapons, versatile multiplayer modes (such as King of the Hill, Kill the Man with the Ball, and cooperative play), friendly NPCs, and a strong emphasis on storytelling in addition to the action. Star Wars: Dark Forces was released in 1995 afterLucasArts decided Star Wars would make appropriate material for a game in the style of Doom. However, Star Wars: Dark Forces added several technical features that Doomlacked, such as the ability to crouch or look up and down, Apogee’s Duke Nukem 3D, released in 1996, was “the last of the great, sprite-based shooters” winning acclaim for its humor based around stylised machismo as well as its gameplay. However, some found the game’s (and later the whole series’) treatment of women to be derogatory and tasteless.

Advances in 3D graphics: 1995–1999

In 1994, Exact released Geograph Seal for the Japanese Sharp X68000 home computer. An obscure import title as far as the Western market was concerned, it was nonetheless “a fully 3D polygonal first-person shooter” with innovative platform game mechanics and “free-roaming” outdoor environments. The following year, Exact released its successor for the PlayStation console, Jumping Flash!, which placed more emphasis on its platform elements.Descent (released by Parallax Software in 1995), a game in which the player pilots a spacecraft around caves and factory ducts, was a truly three-dimensional first-person shooter. It abandoned sprites and ray casting in favour of polygons and six degrees of freedom.

Shortly after the release of Duke Nukem 3D in 1996, id Software released the much anticipated Quake. Like Doom, Quake was influential and genre-defining, featuring fast-paced, gory gameplay, but used 3D polygons instead of sprites. It was centered on online gaming and featured multiple match types still found in first-person shooter games today. It was the first FPS game to have a following of player clans (although the concept had existed previously in MechWarrior 2 (Netmech) with its Battletech lore as well as amongst MUD players), and would inspire popular LAN parties such as QuakeCon. The game’s popularity and use of 3D polygonal graphics also helped to expand the growing market for video card hardware; and the additional support and encouragement for game modifications attracted players who wanted to tinker with the game and create their own modules.

Based on the James Bond film, Rare’s GoldenEye 007 was released in 1997, and as of 2004 it was the best-selling Nintendo 64 game in the United States. It was the first landmark console first-person shooter and was highly acclaimed for its atmospheric single-player levels and well designed multiplayer maps. It featured a sniper rifle, the ability to perform head-shots, and the incorporation of stealth elements; as well as Virtua Cop-inspired features such as reloading, position-dependent hit reaction animations, penalties for killing innocents, and an aiming system allowing players to aim at a precise spot on the screen.

Though not the first of its kind, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six started a popular trend of tactical first-person shooters in 1998. It featured a team-based, realistic design and themes based around counter-terrorism, requiring missions to be planned before execution and in it, a single hit was sometimes enough to kill a character. Medal of Honor, released in 1999, started a long running proliferation of first-person shooters set during World War II.

Valve’s Half-Life was released in 1998, based upon Quake‘s graphics technology.Initially met with only mild anticipation, it went on to become an unprecedented commercial success. While previous first-person shooters had focused on visceral gameplay with comparatively weak plots, Half-Life had a strong narrative; the game featured no cut scenes but remained in the first-person perspective at all times. It featured innovations such as non-enemy characters (featured somewhat earlier in titles such as Strife) but did not employpower-ups in the traditional sense. Half-Life was praised for its artificial intelligence, selection of weapons and attention to detail and “has since been recognized as one of the greatest games of all time” according to GameSpot. Its sequel Half-Life 2 (released in 2004), was less influential though “arguably a more impressive game”.

Starsiege: Tribes, also released in 1998, was a multiplayer online shooter allowing more than 32 players in a single match. It featured team-based gameplay with a variety of specialized roles, and an unusual jet pack feature. The game was highly popular and later imitated by games such as the Battlefield series.Id’s Quake III Arena and Epic’s Unreal Tournament, both released in 1999, were popular for their frenetic and accessible online multiplayer modes; both featured very limited single player gameplay. Counter-Strike was also released in 1999, a Half-Life modification with a counter-terrorism theme. The game and later version Counter-Strike: Source (2004) went on to become by far the most popular multiplayer first-person shooter and computer game modification ever, with over 90,000 players competing online at any one time during its peak.

Online wars and return of the console: 2000–2006

At the E3 game show in 1999, Bungie unveiled a real-time strategy game called Halo; at the following E3, an overhauled third-person shooter version was displayed. In 2000, Bungie was bought by Microsoft. Halo was then revamped and released as a first-person shooter; it was one of the launch titles for the Xbox console. It was a runaway critical and commercial success, and is considered a premier console first-person shooter. It featured narrative and storyline reminiscent of Bungie’s earlier Marathon series but now told largely through in-game dialog and cut scenes. It also received acclaim for its characters, both the protagonist, Master Chief and its alien antagonists. The sequel, Halo 2 (2004), brought the popularity of online-gaming to the console market through the medium of Xbox Live, on which it was the most played game for almost two years.

Deus Ex, released by Ion Storm in 2000, featured a levelling system similar to that found in role-playing games; it also had multiple narratives depending on how the player completed missions and won acclaim for its serious, artistic style. The Resident Evil games Survivor in 2000 and Dead Aim in 2003 attempted to combine the light gun and first-person shooter genres along with survival horror elements.Metroid Prime, released in 2002 for the Nintendo GameCube, a highly praised console first-person shooter, incorporated action adventure elements such as jumping puzzles and built on the Metroid series of 2D side-scrolling platform-adventures. Taking a “massive stride forward for first-person games”, the game emphasised its adventure elements rather than shooting and was credited by journalist Chris Kohler with “breaking the genre free from the clutches of Doom“.

World War II Online, released in 2001, featured a persistent and “massively multiplayer environment”, although IGN said that “the full realization of that environment is probably still a few years away.” Battlefield 1942, another World War II shooter released in 2002, featured large scale battles incorporating aircraft, naval vessels, land vehicles and infantry combat. In 2003, PlanetSide allowed hundreds of players at once to compete in a persistent world, and was also promoted as the “world’s first massively multiplayer online first person shooter.” Doom 3, released in 2004, placed a greater emphasis on horror and frightening the player than previous games in the series and was a critically acclaimed best seller, though some commentators felt it lacked gameplay substance and innovation, putting too much emphasis on impressive graphics. In 2005, a film based on Doom featured a sequence that emulated the viewpoint and action of the first-person shooter, but was critically derided as deliberately unintelligent and gratuitously violent.

In 2005, F.E.A.R. was acclaimed for successfully combining first-person shooter gameplay with a Japanese horror atmosphere.Later in 2007, Irrational Games’ BioShockwould be acclaimed by some commentators as the best game of that year for its innovation in artistry, narrative and design, with some calling it the “spiritual successor” to Irrational’s earlier System Shock 2.

Finally, the Crytek games Far Cry (2004) and Crysis (2007) as well as Ubisoft’s Far Cry 2 (2008) would break new ground in terms of graphics and large, open-ended level design,whereas Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007), Resistance: Fall of Man (2006) and its sequel Resistance 2 (2008) presented increasingly refined linear levels and narratives, with the fast pace and linearity of the Call of Duty games bearing a resemblance to rail shooters.In 2006, GamaSutra reported the first-person shooter as one of the biggest and fastest growing video game genres in terms of revenue for publishers.