A Glimpse of Full Magnitude of the Decline (FPS, Blood)

[DraQ]

So, we all know of the decline affecting not only RPGs, but also other genres, particularly FPS.

In the light of my recent experiences, however, we do not quite grasp its magnitude.
Which is scary thing to behold.


Recently I've been replaying Blood, which I deem the best of Build games, and also probably the only game where you play the role of a bloodthirsty, pointlessly violent psychopath that I like - after all Blood executes both the 'dark' and 'humour' parts pretty smoothly.

Now, despite my high opinion of Blood, the details of actual level design managed to become fuzzy in my memory and I've remembered Blood as yet another ultimately linear key-hunt shooter, like Doom and its sequel, up until my recent playthrough. It was a bit of a shock.

Jesus Fucking Christ, how have FPSes declined since that time.

While in terms of level structure Blood is very conventional - four episodes (plus expansions), each consisting of a linear train of levels, each having entry, exit and a number of keys and doors controlling the flow, the game is hardly linear. There are so many possible routes through levels mind fucking boggles.

And this isn't Deus Ex or some RPG hybrid, it's honest, simplistic, mindless shooter where you blow up innocent mines while cracking smug one-liners.



Compare it with modern FPS games (and I don't mean STALKER here), with supposedly developed plot, supposedly far more refined and mature THAT ARE FUCKING CORRIDORS WITH CUTSCENES AND SINGLE FLOW DIRECTION.


This isn't about that pic comparing map design. In this pic the old FPS in question was Doom or Doom 2, which were still effectively linear, albeit convoluted and with far more interesting levels.

This is about going from strongly nonlinear levels, highly destructible and dynamic, allowing different, often obscure routes through them in old mindless shooters and fucking rails in modern, 'sophisticated' ones.



cdoex i vcdsgfWERSTETGR%T$ER^$UT^%YGRBGRGAEASW!!!!11111111111111111111111

 

[WhiteGamer]

I think we can also point to the diversity of the enemy cast, the strategies needed to take down said cast, and the diverse [or lack of] environments.

Nowadays FPS' are lucky to have 6 different kinds of enemies with 4 different bosses thrown in. DNF and FEAR 3 are quite good examples of the decline.

 

[Grim Monk]

Wikipedia defines the Rail Shooter as:

A rail shooter is a type of action-based video game. In a rail shooter the player control is limited to directing where to fire a virtual gun or move their avatar around the screen; the player does not control the path their avatar takes from the start to the end (although they may be able to pause that movement), as if the player is tied to a rail like a roller coaster.

Those games literally are Rail Shooter's with an illusion of free movement...

 

[Edwin]

Oh Blood...the memories As I remember it was the first game I played on my very first computer(I was around 10-12 yo).

Yeah gotta agree with you FPS games didnt improve at all since the 90s.I will be honest I very rarely play FPS games nowadays and it is rarer that an FPS can hold my attention for more than a few minutes but it wasnt always like this...the problem is that I realized that they are all the same and nothing changes.I played Quaqe 1-2-3,Turok 2,Blood,Unreal,Shogo,Postal 2...and probably a few others I dont remember anymore(Hexxen?Heretic?Kingpin? ....nvm).

I only played just a few FPS games from the last decade(and just for a few mins/hours because there is nothing what keeps me going or there is nothing to look forward to).What changed?Nothing.You can carry just 2 weapons instead of 20-30(wtf?its a game,who said that it must be realistic,not like its believable that 1 person can slaughter hundreds or thousands without dieing).The maps are linear usually,keys/keycards disappeared(or I just didnt play long enough),what remains is the killing.Point and shoot.Point and shoot.Point and shoot.Where is the fun in that?Isnt it repetitive?They tried to steal a few RPG elements like the talents or wtf you can gather from aliens in Crysis 2 but its just to shallow to provide something extra(its not worth mentioning,I already regret it).

There is nothing new under the sun(if we are talking about FPS games) and they are less and less different from each other(if we dont count the hybrids like Mass Effect but its a different kind of animal).They are all the same and you can see from miles that 0 effort and creativity went into the new FPS games.These so called FPS devs should all pay royalty to Carmack because they are doing nothing else just copy pasting and recycling his work year after year without adding anything to it(making it worse if possible) and the old Carmack is no different from them because after all these years he has 0 new ideas or improvements(as he just proved with Rage)

Blood is an artifact from an age when FPS developers dared to try something slightly different.In Bloods case this was the extreme violance and the dark humour everywhere in the game(remember playing football with heads? ) and the setting was ok too,not the usual you are Superoldier XZ025,keel everything in your path because you are the only 1 who can save the world(Blood was all about revenge and that is sweeter than saving the world in my opinion).

As I see it the FPS genre of today is nothing more than cheap entertainment and fast satisfaction for
snotty kids

 

[Edwin]

Wikipedia defines the Rail Shooter as:

A rail shooter is a type of action-based video game. In a rail shooter the player control is limited to directing where to fire a virtual gun or move their avatar around the screen; the player does not control the path their avatar takes from the start to the end (although they may be able to pause that movement), as if the player is tied to a rail like a roller coaster.

Those games literally are Rail Shooter's with an illusion of free movement...

that seems to be accurate :clap:

edit:and yeah whats up with all these fucking cutscenes everywhere,as I know nobody likes them(if I want to watch a movie I will watch a fucking movie,in games I prefer to play instead,1 intro and a cutscene in the end is enough for me)

 

[The_Pope]

Anyone know of any good sourceports for blood?

 

[Twinkle]

None exist. Sadly, unlike DN3D and Shadow Warrior Monolith never released the source code. Our bro Lucius of DaggerXL fame plans to support in his engine but the wait will be long if we are lucky enough to see the release at all.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

that seems to be accurate

It actually isn't. As I mentioned when this picture was first used here, that's one of the worst Doom maps to bring up for this comparison. Your progress is almost immediately halted by a door needing a keycard, and you're confined to two rooms to try to find the keycard. After that you must find your way through a sewer maze to find the next keycard, which leaves you just a couple of rooms from the exit. The only time multiple pathways are available to you is when you're entering the final room, where three paths are open to you. In short, it's almost exactly like a corridor shooter, except the corridors widen out at times to give you some leg room, but there's still only one way forward.

A far better example is the E2M7 map. That one both looks complicated as fuck, and actually gives you loads of freedom of movement right from the start.

Draq: Not that I'm disputing your claim, but could you provide some examples of how Blood's level design is better than the corridor shooters of today? The train level isn't exactly a good example, and to be frank I'm having a hard time remembering any "free-range" levels except the "Body of Tchernobog" one in Episode 4.

 

[JarlFrank]

edit:and yeah whats up with all these fucking cutscenes everywhere,as I know nobody likes them(if I want to watch a movie I will watch a fucking movie,in games I prefer to play instead,1 intro and a cutscene in the end is enough for me)

For every thread you make complaining about cutscenes (especially UNSKIPPABLE ONES oh gods) there's at least 5 people coming in saying "lol just watch them they're pretty good".

When I play new shit, like Ass Creed 2 - which I enjoy but cannot see myself replaying due to UNSKIPPABLE cutscenes -, I look on the internet for "how to skip cutscenes in game X" if you cannot skip them. Usually, forum threads where people ask this have two kinds of answers:
either "You can't and yeah, it sucks, they should really add a button to do it"
or "lol why would you want to skip them they're pretty cool and the developers put a lot of work into them lol and if you replay just watch them again or don't you like them lol"

people defending an atrocity such as UNSKIPPABLE CUTSCENES!!!11!!!1!1one make me fucking RAGE!!!!!!!!! more than anything else in this age of decline

I can enjoy mindless shitty fuck shooters, I even enjoyed the older CoD games (never tried the new ones though)

But if there is anything, ANYTHING I absolutely fucking HATE, it's the horrible SHIT idea of UNSKIPPABLE CUTSCENES
whoever came up with this concept needs to be FUCKING IMPALED ON A RUSTY SPIKE

 

[SCO]

i never use high level spells in torment, fuck that

 

[Destroid]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BktJeOuOEs

 

[hoopy]

For every thread you make complaining about cutscenes (especially UNSKIPPABLE ONES oh gods) there's at least 5 people coming in saying "lol just watch them they're pretty good".

The cutscenes I hate the most are ones that make your character do some dumb shit that you would never do. I was stealthing around in Crysis when a cutscene took over, removed my stealth and got me captured. Had I been in control, it would never have happened. Likewise in FEAR, there's a scripted scene where the bad guy comes from around a corner and hits you in the face with a plank. Except I pumped his face full of lead the instant he appeared, so he should have just died. But no, the cutscene just went on like nothing had happened.

 

[asper]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BktJeOuOEs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atI5SyXD070

Now this shows true decline. Is there any other game where speed of movement was a matter of skill?

 

[Admiral jimbob]

My favourite cutscene yet was the one in Lemon Revolution where Jensen just... walks into blatantly evil Ming Zhao woman's office, she tries to kill him, then he... lets her seduce him and kick him out while gloating about stupid males? Fuck you game I don't have yellow fever you could have just had her in a sealed cubicle with an emergency escape or something instead of throwing in a bizarre awkward scene about how dumb men are.

 

[JohnTheRevelator]

whats up with all these fucking cutscenes everywhere,as I know nobody likes them(if I want to watch a movie I will watch a fucking movie,in games I prefer to play instead,1 intro and a cutscene in the end is enough for me)

My guess would be that dev's are simply lazy. Since every game nowadays "needs" some kind of story they have to put bits of it here and there, question is: what's the easiest way do do it? Cutscenes, almost no effort required, all the important bits were pretty much already made. You just script it and add voiceovers, then lock player down so he won't mess up "cinematic action" or god forbid, try to do something that wasn't intended by "game designers". Too bad final product is just as good as much effort went into it...

 

[Destroid]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BktJeOuOEs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atI5SyXD070

Now this shows true decline. Is there any other game where speed of movement was a matter of skill?

Both were accidents

 

[Gord]

There's a reason arcade shooters like those have become all but extinct: Everyone had grown fucking tired of them at a point.

I've got no problem with there being cinematic rail shooters, too. Unfortunately every publisher nowadays seems to think that this is the only valid design for shooters.

If you are after a fast fps with (player-)skill based movement, there are some nice open source projects based on the Quake 2 engine (IIRC). Try e.g. Warsow.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Does any of them allow practising against bots?

 

[Oriental European]

You know why Doom and Quake have so much fun? Because they are unrealistic and set in unrealistic universe, with random platforms, giant buttons and elevators, tons of various monsters and guns that shoot lightnings/plasma/lava. You can't do that shit in Counter-Strike, duh.

Same goes for levels, you can't rocket jump to the end of the level in modern shooters, because there is no end of the level at the military base/airport/jungles and there is no unrealistic rocket launcher physics.

Does any of them allow practising against bots?

Yes. Also, check out Xonotic, new version has been released recently. Probably the quintessential online FPS.

 

[Oriental European]

Oh, and you should probably remove that "dead" from your signature Awor, it's not good for your mental health. And eat more fruits.

 

[DraQ]

Draq: Not that I'm disputing your claim, but could you provide some examples of how Blood's level design is better than the corridor shooters of today? The train level isn't exactly a good example, and to be frank I'm having a hard time remembering any "free-range" levels except the "Body of Tchernobog" one in Episode 4.

E1M5, for instance or E2M1. Quite a few other E2 levels as well.

Sure there is a fair dose of linearity in pretty much all levels, but it's a key hunt FPS, so this is understandable. You can still go through the levels in non-standard manner quite often and once you get the jump boots and conserve them sequence breaking levels becomes a game in its own right.
And a damn rewarding one when you silently emerge out of a small passage located right under the roof and casually toss a bundle of TNT at the cultists tactically positioned around the "proper" passage below.

None exist. Sadly, unlike DN3D and Shadow Warrior Monolith never released the source code. Our bro Lucius of DaggerXL fame plans to support in his engine but the wait will be long if we are lucky enough to see the release at all.

Well, Blood runs well enough in DOSBox and doesn't look half bad even in vanilla.

I think we can also point to the diversity of the enemy cast

Well, that actually isn't Blood's forte.

There are quite a few effectively pointless enemies, for example gargoyles are conceptually cool and stuff, but effectively harmless at any but point-blank range. Mother spiders are annoying as fuck pointless ammo sinks. Pretty much the only enemies that pose some threat are lowly cultists and fanatics, plus damn hellhounds. Those three types of enemy are absofuckinglutely lethal, especially on high difficulty. Oh, and stone gargoyles are nasty too, but they are pretty much minibosses.

whoever came up with this concept needs to be FUCKING IMPALED ON A RUSTY PITCHFORK

Fixed.

With burning flares stuck in all his orifices.

 

[Renegen]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BktJeOuOEs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atI5SyXD070

Now this shows true decline. Is there any other game where speed of movement was a matter of skill?

Um, Tribes? Unless your sentence referred to both games.

Question: How do you ever run Blood on modern computers? I try Dosbox but it's either too slow or too fast, it doesnt seem to sync well. The controls also didnt age well, WASD + mouse doesnt really work, what do you use?

edit: lol the Tribes video has some french pop music in the background. Hell I might just give Tribes 1 a try again, been so long till I played that.

 

[DraQ]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BktJeOuOEs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atI5SyXD070

Now this shows true decline. Is there any other game where speed of movement was a matter of skill?

Um, Tribes? Unless your sentence referred to both games.

Question: How do you ever run Blood on modern computers? I try Dosbox but it's either too slow or too fast, it doesnt seem to sync well. The controls also didnt age well, WASD + mouse doesnt really work, what do you use?

edit: lol the Tribes video has some french pop music in the background. Hell I might just give Tribes 1 a try again, been so long till I played that.

You may try vmsound but it works fine enough for me under DOSBox (though not perfectly - it occasionally stuters and suffers rare speed glitches).

 

[GarfunkeL]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BktJeOuOEs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atI5SyXD070

Now this shows true decline. Is there any other game where speed of movement was a matter of skill?

Was that Quake3 version of DM4 from QuakeWorld? Almost didn't recognize it because of the odd texturing but the layout seems to be same from what I can remember. Best duel map!

 

[Destroid]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BktJeOuOEs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atI5SyXD070

Now this shows true decline. Is there any other game where speed of movement was a matter of skill?

Um, Tribes? Unless your sentence referred to both games.

Question: How do you ever run Blood on modern computers? I try Dosbox but it's either too slow or too fast, it doesnt seem to sync well. The controls also didnt age well, WASD + mouse doesnt really work, what do you use?

edit: lol the Tribes video has some french pop music in the background. Hell I might just give Tribes 1 a try again, been so long till I played that.

There's a few options for Tribes action these days. People still play T1 and T2 (TribesNext), but whether you can get a good game with decent ping will depend on where you live. Legions Overdrive (now publicly developed version of the browser based Tribes that was under development by the original tribes guys before their company went under, runs in a client now) is the same. Don't know if anyone plays Vengeace. Tribes Ascend is in closed (ish, it's easy to get a key) beta and has a lot of players, but a heap of bullshit that comes with being F2P. Still fun though. I actually had a dream about skiing last night

T1 will always be dearest to me heart.