First-person shooter (
FPS) is a
video game genre which centers the
gameplay around gun- and projectile weapon-based combat through the
first person perspective;
i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a
protagonist. Generally speaking, the
first-person shooter shares common traits with other
shooter games, which in turn fall under the
heading
action game. From the genre's
inception, advanced 3D or pseudo-3D
graphics elements have challenged
hardware development, and
multiplayer gaming has been
integral.
The first person shooter has since been traced as far back as
Maze War, development of which
began in 1973, and 1974's
Spasim.
1987's
MIDI
Maze for the
Atari ST was one of
the first network multiplayer action games and also saw release on
game consoles. The genre coalesced with 1992's
Wolfenstein 3D, which is generally
credited with creating the genre proper and the basic archetype
upon which subsequent titles were based. One such title, and the
progenitor of the genre's wider mainstream acceptance and
popularity was
Doom,
released the following year and perhaps the most influential
first-person shooter.
Half-Life, released in 1998,
enhanced the narrative and puzzle elements, and along with its 2004
sequel
Half-Life 2, showcases
the considerable development of the genre's potential.
GoldenEye 007 (1997) was the first
landmark first-person shooter for
home console, with the
Halo series heightening the console's
commercial and critical appeal as a platform for first-person
shooter titles. In the 21st century, the first-person shooter is
one of the most commercially viable and fastest growing video game
genres.
Definition
First-person shooters are a type of 3D
shooter game, featuring a
first person point of view with
which the player sees the action through the eyes of the
player character. The primary design
element is combat, mainly involving firearms. The first person
shooter may be considered a distinct genre in itself, or a type of
shooter game, in turn a subgenre of the wider
action game genre. Following the release of the
influential
Doom in 1993, games in this style were
commonly termed "Doom clones"; in time this term has largely been
replaced by "first person shooter".
Wolfenstein 3D,
released in 1992, the year before
Doom, is generally
credited with inventing the genre, but critics have since
identified similar though less advanced games developed as far back
as 1973. There is sometimes disagreement regarding exactly what
design elements constitute a first-person shooter: for example,
Deus Ex is sometimes considered a
first person shooter, but may also be considered a
role-playing game as it
borrows from this genre extensively. Some commentators may extend
the definition obliquely to include
combat flight simulators, as opposed
to characters on foot.
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 is often considered
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 still 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.
These games typically give players a choice of weapons, which have
a large impact on how the player will play the game. Some have
highly realistic models of real weapons, including their rate of
fire, size of ammunition, and accuracy. However, they may allow
players to carry many of them at the same time, with no reduction
in speed or mobility. 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. Others feature large
sandbox environments, which are not
divided into levels and can be explored freely. 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. The environment
can be damaged, 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 necessary to memorize the levels through trial and
error.

Later first person shooters utilize
the internet for multiplayer features, but local area networks were
more commonly used in early games.
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 shooter 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 (there
is also a team-based version) in which players score points by
killing other players' characters, and
capture 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
Early first person shooters: 1970s and 1980s
The earliest two documented first-person shooters were
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.
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 and it was not until
1980 that a tank game,
Battlezone, was released
in
arcade. A version was released in
1983 for home computers, the first successful mass-market game
featuring a first-person viewpoint and 3D graphics.
MIDI Maze was an early
first-person shooter released in 1987 for the
Atari ST. It was unique in featuring network
multiplayer through the
MIDI interface long
before mainstream
Ethernet and
Internet play became commonplace. It is considered
the first multiplayer 3D shooter on a mainstream system and the
first major network multiplayer action game, with support for as
many as 16 players. It was followed up by ports to various
platforms in 1991 under the title
Faceball 2000, including
the
Game Boy and
Super NES, making it
possibly the first handheld and multiplatform first-person shooter
and an early console example of the genre.
Id Software released
Hovertank
3D in 1991, which pioneered
ray
casting technology to enable faster gameplay than 1980s vehicle
simulators. Later developers added
texture mapping with
Ultima Underworld: The
Stygian Abyss (by
Looking
Glass Technologies), a role-playing game featuring a first
person viewpoint and an advanced graphics engine, released in 1992.
During development, this led to
Catacomb 3-D which was actually released
first, in late 1991, and introduced the display of the
protagonist's hand and weapon (magical spells) on the screen.
Rise in popularity: 1992–1995
Wolfenstein 3D (created by
id Software and released in 1992) was an
instant success and is generally credited with inventing the first
person shooter genre proper. It 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 the violent themes, it largely
escaped the controversy generated by the later Doom, although it was banned in
Germany
due to the use of Nazi iconography; the Nintendo version replaced the enemy attack dogs with giant rats. Apogee Software,
the publisher of
Wolfenstein 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 (such as stairs the player's
character could climb) and lighting effects such as flickering
lights and patches of total darkness, creating a more believable 3D
environment than
Wolfenstein 3D's repetitive 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 controversy from religious
groups, with other commentators labelling the game a "murder
simulator."
There was further controversy when it emerged
that the perpetrators
of the Columbine High School massacre
were fans of the game; the families of several
victims later unsuccessfully attempted to sue id Software, among
numerous other video game companies, claiming they inspired the
massacre.
Bungie Studios released its first FPS, titled
Pathways into Darkness in 1993
for the Mac, shortly after Wolfenstein 3D. It laid the groundwork
for the highly successful
Marathon
trilogy which began in 1994. Marathon pioneered many FPS
features, including secondary weapons functions, a free look
camera, and aiming in the vertical dimension. It also featured a
network multiplayer mode.
Star Wars: Dark
Forces was released in 1995 after
LucasArts 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
Doom lacked, such as
the ability to crouch or look up and down.
Descent, (released by
Parallax Software in 1995) a game in which
the player pilots a
spacecraft around
caves and factory ducts, was the first truly three dimensional
first person shooter. It abandoned
sprites and ray casting and
introduced
polygons and
six degrees of freedom. Apogee's
Duke Nukem 3D, released in
1996, was the last successful sprite-based first person shooter,
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.
Arrival of 3D graphics: 1996–1999
Shortly after the release of
Duke Nukem 3D, id Software
released the much anticipated
Quake,
which used 3D polygons instead of sprites. Like
Doom,
Quake was influential and genre-defining, featuring fast
paced, gory gameplay. It was centered around online gaming and
featured multiple match types still found in first person shooter
games today. It was the first game to have a following of
clans, attracted increased
modification and expanded the market
for
video card hardware.

Science fiction settings with alien
antagonists are common themes in first person shooters; this game
features 3D graphics rather than the sprites found in earlier
games, such as
Doom.
The first
landmark, best-selling console first-person shooter was Rare's
GoldenEye
007, based on the James Bond
film and released on the Nintendo 64 in 1997. Highly acclaimed for
its atmospheric single-player levels and well designed multiplayer
maps, it featured the ability to aim at a precise spot on the
screen, a
sniper rifle, the ability to
perform
headshots, and the incorporation of
stealth elements.
Released in 1998,
Tom Clancy's Rainbow
Six started a popular trend of tactical first person
shooters, though it was not the first of its kind. 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 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. 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 but did not
employ
power-ups.
Half-Life was
acclaimed for its
artificial intelligence, set of
weapons and attention to detail and, along with its sequel
Half-Life 2 (released in 2004), is consistently reviewed
as one of finest examples of the genre.
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 versions (the latest being
Counter-Strike Source, released
in 2004) went on to become by far the most popular multiplayer
first person shooters.
Recent milestones: 2000–present
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. Later in 2000 Bungie was bought
by
Microsoft, and
Halo was
revamped and released as a first person shooter, 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.
Metroid Prime, released in 2002 for the
Nintendo GameCube, another highly
praised console first person shooter, incorporated
action adventure elements such as
jumping puzzles and built on the
Metroid series of
2D
platformer.
Battlefield 1942, a 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 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 emulated the viewpoint and action of a
first person shooter, but was critically derided as deliberately
unintelligent and gratuitously violent.
Bioshock was acclaimed by some commentators as
the best game of 2007 for its artistry, narrative and innovation.
Crysis (2007) and
Far Cry 2 (2008) broke 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.
As of 2006, in terms of revenue for publishers, the first person
shooter was one of the biggest and fastest growing video game
genres.
See also
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