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Retro FPS Renaissance

Your favourite throwback shooter so far?

  • Ion Fury

    Votes: 88 38.1%

  • Amid Evil

    Votes: 17 7.4%

  • Dusk

    Votes: 59 25.5%

  • Wrath: Aeon of Ruin

    Votes: 11 4.8%

  • Prodeus

    Votes: 56 24.2%
  • Total voters
    231
mansoor1980

mansoor1980

Member
despite the fate of 3do console , studio 3do released a lot of really solid games,would love to see remasters of their games by nightdive studio
 
diffusionx

diffusionx

Gold Member
mansoor1980 said:
despite the fate of 3do console , studio 3do released a lot of really solid games,would love to see remasters of their games by nightdive studio
Click to expand...
there were two that looked awesome in the magazines back in the day, Killing Time and PO'ed. I think the latter came to PSX but never got around to it, and didn't have a 3DO. PO'ed is one of those schizo FPS like EYE and ROTT.
 
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violence

violence

Gold Member
After playing the Quake 2 remaster. I think Daikatana is ripe to be "reimagined" by Nightdive/Machine games as a modern-day boomer shooter. I can't think of a more fun IP for a redemption.
 
Last edited:
simpatico

simpatico

Member
"Fuck it, we'll do it ourselves"

To start things off, you should know that you can own all these games for less than the cost of collectors edition of Forespoken. 2023 has been the best year for SP FPS games in recent memory. Let me demonstrate.

header.jpg



Start off with HROT. A love letter to Quake where you must fight your way through hordes of irradiated enemies in communist era Czechoslovakia. The game runs on an early 90s version of Pascal and it feels incredible because of it. Many boomer shooters try to emulate this retro type of engine, but HROT doesn't have to emulate anything. The absolute madman developer coded the whole thing in an actual retro engine. Enemies are interesting and numerous. Both in type and quantity. Levels will keep you grinning and fighting for your life. A wonderful blend of FPS action and clever creativity.

The atmosphere and vibes in this one are unmatched by anything on this list and for me, anything released this year. Of any budget or any genre. HROT is a must play.

header.jpg



Many 40k games have been made, none capture the boltgun quite like.... Boltgun. Living up to it's namesake, Boltgun provides the player with the best feeling boltgun ever coded. Imagine a battle rifle that hits like a sniper rifle, but is fully automatic. The game balances this by throwing the absolute kitchen sink at the player. This is probably my least favorite on this list, there are plenty of years past where Boltgun could have been FPS of the year. Non stop visceral action. And gibs. Lots and lots of gibs.

header.jpg



Imagine Quake 2, but good. During it's time, Quake 2 was overshadowed by the technically superior Unreal. Some bad design decisions aided it's cold reception, but Nightdive studios has perked this title up in all the right ways. Tweaking enemy AI in very slight ways to make the game more intense. I will say, unless you're absolutely committed to playing all the content in this package, start with the brand new chapter by Machine Games, "Call of the Machines". It's easily the best content in the package and benefits from all the lessons learned in 20 years of FPS level design.

header.jpg



Amid Evil is the most underrated Boomer Shooter on the market. Grand levels, tons of enemy types and one of the best assembly of weapon types in any FPS game. It also has a contender for best FPS weapon of all time, the ice mace (I forget the real name). Imagine mixing the flak cannon from Unreal with the nail gun from FEAR. That is about half as cool as the ice mace is. It's fires bundles of flak that will nail an enemy to the wall. It feels completely OP, but in this game you'll need it. Elements of bullet hell and a non stop flow of enemies makes this love letter to Hexen surpass it's inspiration easily. The new DLC just dropped and while I haven't had time to play it because I'm replaying the base game to get acclimated again, New Blood doesn't miss. So I can confidently say it's worth your time and money.

header.jpg



Trepang2 is the sequel to FEAR that we never got. Not shying away from it's inspiration, this is the first game since the original that really captures the FEAR gameplay. More so than FEAR2 and 3 with ease. The game is made by a small team, so as whole it's pretty basic in terms of continuity and story, but you're not here for that. Levels are varied in biome and has much more enemy variety than the original without really changing the way it feels and plays. Graphics are really good if you're looking for a more modern looking shooter. Worth every penny, and coming to consoles soon! Game has a ton of replay value once you become one with the controls. Action packed the entire time. This joins Severed Steel (another pure gem) in the budding FEAR-like FPS genre. I want to see this genre expanded on every single day.




and now, the coup de grace and my current GOTY,,,,,,
header.jpg



WHAT THE EVERLOVING FUCK INSPIRED THESE DEVS?!?!? Imagine Doom Eternal (without the emphasis on changing guns for specific enemies) and Cyberpunk had an AI MRNA enhanced child who was blessed by the Almighty Elder God. This game fucks. The demo didn't do it for me, but reading some reviews after it left Early Access made me decide to buy it (damn Steam and their easy returns!). Hooooo Leeeee FUCK! This game is amazing. To start off, you've got a chainsaw leg and a slide move that cuts through hordes of enemies like butter. You've also got a double jump and an air dash. The arsenal is amazing. None of the weapons stop being used at any point in the game. Everything gets an alt fire mode and you'll upgrade them more as you go. There's a little upgrade system where you can add effects to each of your limbs. Reduced bullet spread and gaining health on chainsaw kills are my favorite. Mobs of enemies start to look like health pickups after you learn to use this one. Every level in this game is great. The fun never stops. It's got a TON of content and a map editor and browser that lets you try player made maps.

Nothing I can type here can really convey the feelings this game has given me. It's like Tony Hawk FPS with Dark Souls levels of endorphin hits. If you're an FPS fan and you're not playing Turbo Overkill, gaming media has failed you. I have a hard time imagining anything released the rest of the year is going to top this for my GOTY. It's already scratching my Top 20 all time.... Once the gameplay clicks and you're double jumping, dash and sliding around on pure instinct it just feels incredible. It does cool things to my brain and make me happy. Just buy it.
 
Last edited:
Ivan

Ivan

Member
When there's an actual problem with something, people tend to make threads like this and try to convince everyone that we're in a golden age of it.

What can I say, those examples are far, far away from good fps years. A few remasters and "retro" shooters are not good enough, sorry.
 
simpatico

simpatico

Member
Shit I left out Fortune's Run. There's a demo available and it comes out next month. Seems like it's gonna be amazing. It's got some Deus Ex inspiration, RPG elements with dialog and non combat zones.

Ivan said:
When there's an actual problem with something, people tend to make threads like this and try to convince everyone that we're in a golden age of it.

What can I say, those examples are far, far away from good fps years. A few remasters and "retro" shooters are not good enough, sorry.
Click to expand...
When is the last "great year" that tops this one? I'm thinking you're gonna have to go back to the early 00s. I've given up hope that AAA publishers are ever going to make great FPS games again. The Trans-Maoist who've taken over HR in these companies simply won't allow it.
 
Last edited:
The artful mincer

The artful mincer

Member
simpatico said:
"Fuck it, we'll do it ourselves"

To start things off, you should know that you can own all these games for less than the cost of collectors edition of Forespoken. 2023 has been the best year for SP FPS games in recent memory. Let me demonstrate.

header.jpg



Start off with HROT. A love letter to Quake where you must fight your way through hordes of irradiated enemies in communist era Czechoslovakia. The game runs on an early 90s version of Pascal and it feels incredible because of it. Many boomer shooters try to emulate this retro type of engine, but HROT doesn't have to emulate anything. The absolute madman developer coded the whole thing in an actual retro engine. Enemies are interesting and numerous. Both in type and quantity. Levels will keep you grinning and fighting for your life. A wonderful blend of FPS action and clever creativity.

The atmosphere and vibes in this one are unmatched by anything on this list and for me, anything released this year. Of any budget or any genre. HROT is a must play.

header.jpg



Many 40k games have been made, none capture the boltgun quite like.... Boltgun. Living up to it's namesake, Boltgun provides the player with the best feeling boltgun ever coded. Imagine a battle rifle that hits like a sniper rifle, but is fully automatic. The game balances this by throwing the absolute kitchen sink at the player. This is probably my least favorite on this list, there are plenty of years past where Boltgun could have been FPS of the year. Non stop visceral action. And gibs. Lots and lots of gibs.

header.jpg



Imagine Quake 2, but good. During it's time, Quake 2 was overshadowed by the technically superior Unreal. Some bad design decisions aided it's cold reception, but Nightdive studios has perked this title up in all the right ways. Tweaking enemy AI in very slight ways to make the game more intense. I will say, unless you're absolutely committed to playing all the content in this package, start with the brand new chapter by Machine Games, "Call of the Machines". It's easily the best content in the package and benefits from all the lessons learned in 20 years of FPS level design.

header.jpg



Amid Evil is the most underrated Boomer Shooter on the market. Grand levels, tons of enemy types and one of the best assembly of weapon types in any FPS game. It also has a contender for best FPS weapon of all time, the ice mace (I forget the real name). Imagine mixing the flak cannon from Unreal with the nail gun from FEAR. That is about half as cool as the ice mace is. It's fires bundles of flak that will nail an enemy to the wall. It feels completely OP, but in this game you'll need it. Elements of bullet hell and a non stop flow of enemies makes this love letter to Hexen surpass it's inspiration easily. The new DLC just dropped and while I haven't had time to play it because I'm replaying the base game to get acclimated again, New Blood doesn't miss. So I can confidently say it's worth your time and money.

header.jpg



Trepang2 is the sequel to FEAR that we never got. Not shying away from it's inspiration, this is the first game since the original that really captures the FEAR gameplay. More so than FEAR2 and 3 with ease. The game is made by a small team, so as whole it's pretty basic in terms of continuity and story, but you're not here for that. Levels are varied in biome and has much more enemy variety than the original without really changing the way it feels and plays. Graphics are really good if you're looking for a more modern looking shooter. Worth every penny, and coming to consoles soon! Game has a ton of replay value once you become one with the controls. Action packed the entire time. This joins Severed Steel (another pure gem) in the budding FEAR-like FPS genre. I want to see this genre expanded on every single day.




and now, the coup de grace and my current GOTY,,,,,,
header.jpg



WHAT THE EVERLOVING FUCK INSPIRED THESE DEVS?!?!? Imagine Doom Eternal (without the emphasis on changing guns for specific enemies) and Cyberpunk had an AI MRNA enhanced child who was blessed by the Almighty Elder God. This game fucks. The demo didn't do it for me, but reading some reviews after it left Early Access made me decide to buy it (damn Steam and their easy returns!). Hooooo Leeeee FUCK! This game is amazing. To start off, you've got a chainsaw leg and a slide move that cuts through hordes of enemies like butter. You've also got a double jump and an air dash. The arsenal is amazing. None of the weapons stop being used at any point in the game. Everything gets an alt fire mode and you'll upgrade them more as you go. There's a little upgrade system where you can add effects to each of your limbs. Reduced bullet spread and gaining health on chainsaw kills are my favorite. Mobs of enemies start to look like health pickups after you learn to use this one. Every level in this game is great. The fun never stops. It's got a TON of content and a map editor and browser that lets you try player made maps.

Nothing I can type here can really convey the feelings this game has given me. It's like Tony Hawk FPS with Dark Souls levels of endorphin hits. If you're an FPS fan and you're not playing Turbo Overkill, gaming media has failed you. I have a hard time imagining anything released the rest of the year is going to top this for my GOTY. It's already scratching my Top 20 all time.... Once the gameplay clicks and you're double jumping, dash and sliding around on pure instinct it just feels incredible. It does cool things to my brain and make me happy. Just buy it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this! How many of these are available on console?
 
Fuz

Fuz

Banned
simpatico said:
"Fuck it, we'll do it ourselves"

To start things off, you should know that you can own all these games for less than the cost of collectors edition of Forespoken. 2023 has been the best year for SP FPS games in recent memory. Let me demonstrate.

header.jpg



Start off with HROT. A love letter to Quake where you must fight your way through hordes of irradiated enemies in communist era Czechoslovakia. The game runs on an early 90s version of Pascal and it feels incredible because of it. Many boomer shooters try to emulate this retro type of engine, but HROT doesn't have to emulate anything. The absolute madman developer coded the whole thing in an actual retro engine. Enemies are interesting and numerous. Both in type and quantity. Levels will keep you grinning and fighting for your life. A wonderful blend of FPS action and clever creativity.

The atmosphere and vibes in this one are unmatched by anything on this list and for me, anything released this year. Of any budget or any genre. HROT is a must play.

header.jpg



Many 40k games have been made, none capture the boltgun quite like.... Boltgun. Living up to it's namesake, Boltgun provides the player with the best feeling boltgun ever coded. Imagine a battle rifle that hits like a sniper rifle, but is fully automatic. The game balances this by throwing the absolute kitchen sink at the player. This is probably my least favorite on this list, there are plenty of years past where Boltgun could have been FPS of the year. Non stop visceral action. And gibs. Lots and lots of gibs.

header.jpg



Imagine Quake 2, but good. During it's time, Quake 2 was overshadowed by the technically superior Unreal. Some bad design decisions aided it's cold reception, but Nightdive studios has perked this title up in all the right ways. Tweaking enemy AI in very slight ways to make the game more intense. I will say, unless you're absolutely committed to playing all the content in this package, start with the brand new chapter by Machine Games, "Call of the Machines". It's easily the best content in the package and benefits from all the lessons learned in 20 years of FPS level design.

header.jpg



Amid Evil is the most underrated Boomer Shooter on the market. Grand levels, tons of enemy types and one of the best assembly of weapon types in any FPS game. It also has a contender for best FPS weapon of all time, the ice mace (I forget the real name). Imagine mixing the flak cannon from Unreal with the nail gun from FEAR. That is about half as cool as the ice mace is. It's fires bundles of flak that will nail an enemy to the wall. It feels completely OP, but in this game you'll need it. Elements of bullet hell and a non stop flow of enemies makes this love letter to Hexen surpass it's inspiration easily. The new DLC just dropped and while I haven't had time to play it because I'm replaying the base game to get acclimated again, New Blood doesn't miss. So I can confidently say it's worth your time and money.

header.jpg



Trepang2 is the sequel to FEAR that we never got. Not shying away from it's inspiration, this is the first game since the original that really captures the FEAR gameplay. More so than FEAR2 and 3 with ease. The game is made by a small team, so as whole it's pretty basic in terms of continuity and story, but you're not here for that. Levels are varied in biome and has much more enemy variety than the original without really changing the way it feels and plays. Graphics are really good if you're looking for a more modern looking shooter. Worth every penny, and coming to consoles soon! Game has a ton of replay value once you become one with the controls. Action packed the entire time. This joins Severed Steel (another pure gem) in the budding FEAR-like FPS genre. I want to see this genre expanded on every single day.




and now, the coup de grace and my current GOTY,,,,,,
header.jpg



WHAT THE EVERLOVING FUCK INSPIRED THESE DEVS?!?!? Imagine Doom Eternal (without the emphasis on changing guns for specific enemies) and Cyberpunk had an AI MRNA enhanced child who was blessed by the Almighty Elder God. This game fucks. The demo didn't do it for me, but reading some reviews after it left Early Access made me decide to buy it (damn Steam and their easy returns!). Hooooo Leeeee FUCK! This game is amazing. To start off, you've got a chainsaw leg and a slide move that cuts through hordes of enemies like butter. You've also got a double jump and an air dash. The arsenal is amazing. None of the weapons stop being used at any point in the game. Everything gets an alt fire mode and you'll upgrade them more as you go. There's a little upgrade system where you can add effects to each of your limbs. Reduced bullet spread and gaining health on chainsaw kills are my favorite. Mobs of enemies start to look like health pickups after you learn to use this one. Every level in this game is great. The fun never stops. It's got a TON of content and a map editor and browser that lets you try player made maps.

Nothing I can type here can really convey the feelings this game has given me. It's like Tony Hawk FPS with Dark Souls levels of endorphin hits. If you're an FPS fan and you're not playing Turbo Overkill, gaming media has failed you. I have a hard time imagining anything released the rest of the year is going to top this for my GOTY. It's already scratching my Top 20 all time.... Once the gameplay clicks and you're double jumping, dash and sliding around on pure instinct it just feels incredible. It does cool things to my brain and make me happy. Just buy it.
Click to expand...

Turbo Overkill looks really slick, I'll need to play it sooner or later. Well, Apogee. No big surprise.

Played a bit of Boltgun and I found it pretty dull, sadly.
 
YuLY

YuLY

Gold Member
I cant wait till we are passed the boomer shooter phase and get to half-life and FEAR clones (like we did with Trepang). The forced pixelation is so tired at this point. Boomer shooters have run their course.

What I want is stuff like Robocop: Rogue City, Trepang, Atomic Heart, Stalker 2.
 
balls of snow

balls of snow

Member
Ivan said:
When there's an actual problem with something, people tend to make threads like this and try to convince everyone that we're in a golden age of it.

What can I say, those examples are far, far away from good fps years. A few remasters and "retro" shooters are not good enough, sorry.
Click to expand...
Yeah, its a far cry from the days of Titanfall 2, Wolrenstein 2 and Doom Eternal.
 
Dice

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
Sorry, don't have the patience/skill to make this a neat showcase...

Project Warlock 1 & 2 are fabulous. Nightdive did a fantastic revamp of PowerSlave Exhumed. Forgive Me Father is a different sort of style blending with horror themes, very cool. Implaer is a kind of surreal blend between Doom/Hexen styings and old school arcade game arena like Robotron yet in a modern roguelite progression. Ion Fury got a lot of attention but personally I felt it was a little TOO authentic to the old style because it was pretty difficult to figure what the hell to do to progress the levels.

A couple that are a bit older but I feel got overlooked were machine-fighting arena shooter Hard Reset, and Descent-inspired Overload and Sublevel Zero Redux. Currently getting mostly overlooked is Terminator: Resistance, a cool and more modern survival horror shooter based on the human uprising against the machines. Still developing and different style struggle against machines is Generation Zero, which has shaped up into a cool open world survival shooter (think S.T.A.L.K.E.R.) and then there is Void Bastards which is super cartoon style and a neat puzzle/metroidvania kind of shooter.

Oh, I forgot Necromunda: Hired Gun and GTFO were both pretty cool and Prodeus is very cool.

YuLY said:
I cant wait till we are passed the boomer shooter phase and get to half-life and FEAR clones (like we did with Trepang). The forced pixelation is so tired at this point. Boomer shooters have run their course.

What I want is stuff like Robocop: Rogue City, Trepang, Atomic Heart, Stalker 2.
Click to expand...
More technically advanced games are coming out but they are harder to make so of course they will be less frequent. If you don't like the really old style that doesn't mean they are lame. They are a certain style for an audience that enjoys that style. I would personally love more games like Medal of Honor: Frontline and Deux Ex: Human Revolution, but that kind of development takes an uncommon level of design skill and inspiration.

balls of snow said:
Yeah, its a far cry from the days of Titanfall 2, Wolrenstein 2 and Doom Eternal.
Click to expand...
I don't understand why something has to push the absolute limits of the genre to be considered worth noticing and celebrating.
 
Last edited:
balls of snow

balls of snow

Member
Dice said:
I don't understand why something has to push the absolute limits of the genre to be considered worth noticing and celebrating.
Click to expand...

Ehh I have no love for boomer shooters (grew up with halo, half life and fear) so this particular golden age is meh. I am interested in the Boltgun and Severed Steel though.
 
simpatico

simpatico

Member
Fuz said:
Turbo Overkill looks really slick, I'll need to play it sooner or later. Well, Apogee. No big surprise.

Played a bit of Boltgun and I found it pretty dull, sadly.
Click to expand...
Boltgun is pre-Dusk in quality. For me Dusk is the BC-AD dividing line in the boomer shooter Renaissance. Turbo Overkill really delivered. Feels like a full priced game in terms of content and quality.

​

 
simpatico

simpatico

Member
YuLY said:
I cant wait till we are passed the boomer shooter phase and get to half-life and FEAR clones (like we did with Trepang). The forced pixelation is so tired at this point. Boomer shooters have run their course.

What I want is stuff like Robocop: Rogue City, Trepang, Atomic Heart, Stalker 2.
Click to expand...
Cost is a factor I think, but Trepang showed it was possible. Ready for the RTCW-like genre myself. I'd say outside of Boltgun the stuff in the OP goes beyond the forced pixelated stuff. HROT is an outlier because it uses a an early 90s engine. It's hard to explain but it makes that look seem right. It's a technical oddity because it's actually exploring the absolute limits of the engine it's using, rather than slapping a pixel filter on a Unity game. The movement and crispness of combat are better for it. A really special game.
 
64bitmodels

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
Ivan said:
What can I say, those examples are far, far away from good fps years. A few remasters and "retro" shooters are not good enough, sorry.
Click to expand...
there is one remaster in everything he listed and even then it does well enough and includes enough new content to basically be considered better than the original.

Broaden your damn horizons, maybe youd really enjoy one of the games shown here
 
StereoVsn

StereoVsn

Gold Member
One problem is that there are enough good FLS with a meaty SP campaign now days. Unless you count Cyberpunk as one.

I would love to see something like CoD Infinite Warfare SP campaign.
 
ShadyAcshuns

ShadyAcshuns

Member
I agree wholeheartedly, only with different examples: TotK, FFXVI, BG3, OT2, FE: E and all this year. They're examples of why I bought in to this gen. When everything is GaaS then I'll have no need to keep buying next gen hardware, but for now we're still getting amazing SP games.

EDIT: I read your OP incorrectly to say "SP renaissance". My bad.
 
Last edited:
Hudo

Hudo

Member
I agree. But also kinda disagree. There's a lot cool stuff coming out, yes. But on the other hand you have:

Halo: Infinite, which was mediocre,
No new Unreal game,
No Titanfall 3,
No Half-Life 3,
Marathon being turned into a shitty PVP extraction shooter,
Monolith Productions being forced to shit out some capeshit game for DC/WB instead of making a cool FPS,
Rainbow Six having been turned into a multiplayer shooter.
 
Last edited:
Soodanim

Soodanim

Member
"Boomer Shooter" is such a fucking shit name. I'd take Boomstick Shooter, I'd even take Boom Boom Shooter. But "Boomer Shooter" is so ridiculously shit.

"Retro Shooter" makes it sound like a renaissance of a gameplay design philosophy rather than some mockable gimmick that a 15 year old on Twitter or Reddit came up with because they only grew up with Call of Duty 9.
 
Pejo

Pejo

Gold Member
Man I clicked this thread hoping for good single player campaigns like old Raven Software games but with modern graphics, but it's still the same graphics from the old Hexen II days. I know graphics aren't everything but I just miss when FPS games used to put effort into the campaigns. Singularity is probably one of my favorite FPS and it's never on any top 10 list. Also the OLD Medal of Honor games.

Anyways, I'm happy for fans of old boomer shooters, you guys are definitely eating well as of late.
 
Apocryphon

Apocryphon

Member
Pejo said:
Man I clicked this thread hoping for good single player campaigns like old Raven Software games but with modern graphics, but it's still the same graphics from the old Hexen II days. I know graphics aren't everything but I just miss when FPS games used to put effort into the campaigns. Singularity is probably one of my favorite FPS and it's never on any top 10 list. Also the OLD Medal of Honor games.

Anyways, I'm happy for fans of old boomer shooters, you guys are definitely eating well as of late.
Click to expand...
Raven have always been overrated. Their best games are Black Ops and Singularity, neither of which are top 50 nevermind too 10 😂

I liked Singularity for what it was but it had plenty of issues. Most publishers aren’t taking risks with medium budget shooters anymore. If a game doesn’t have multiplayer, isn’t open world, or can’t be monetized further, they’re not interested.
 
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