Why don’t we see single-player FPS games like Half-Life 2: Episode One anymore? Once a staple of the gaming industry, these narrative-driven shooters have been overtaken by multiplayer and live-service models. After recently replaying Half-Life 2: Episode One, I’m reminded of a time when we got incredible single-player FPS experiences every year. Now, singleplayer FPS releases are few and far between. I want to talk about this epic era for singleplayer FPS games and why I think it could work again. Thanks for watching. #gaming #gamingvideos
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21 Comments
I guess Journey to the Savage Planet and High On Life aren't single-player FPSs…?
I think FPS story games aren't going anywhere; you even mentioned new FPS games coming out. I would agree there are certainly fewer coming out, but it would be untrue to say they are going away. As long as people keep playing FPS games more will be made.
All of the AAA companies are looking for their Destiny 2 or GTA Online. They want to make one game that brings them billions of dollars. Funnily, they end up spending hundreds of millions while failing to get it. They should be putting small teams on small projects that bring in relatively little money while they work on the huge gamble. After over a decade of garbage, gamers are finally not purchasing some of these garbage games that used to sell well simply because they were "new."
Cooperative campaigns were really popular at one time, but they died out before the "microtransactions" became infamous. I think there's room to sell skins in cooperative campaigns. Payday 2 is a pretty good indication that it could work, even though that game doesn't really have a campaign. The aforementioned smaller games can take greater risks, leading to novel gameplay, along with the more time-tested games.
Call of Duty United Offensive expansion comes to mind. It improved on the original COD and was just as good as COD 2 imo. Love late 90s through 2000s gaming. What a time.
I found the gameplay of the two episodes more fun than HL2
Meh I half life 2 but I can’t stand how they left us on cliffhanger for 2 decades and never finished thier story that’s a whole nother issue altogether
I feel like a lot of the great indie shooters coming out, to fill that classic shooter void, are lacking in a solid story. Sure, you could have some solid shooter mechanics, but I also crave a solid story and world to pull me in. Like Half-Life, or Halo. If the story is just "go kill" I tend to get bored, unless the gameplay is mind bogglingly good.
Hey man the HL3 leaks are real and maybe if we suck enough copium it will be real?
The answer it simple. It not profitable for AAA studio to do linear fps game anymore. Game these day need to hook the player in an open world to sell dlc and micro-transaction, live service.
Elo! im basically new to the channel (really loving it, good vids) so dont know if you play it or not, but the Entropy : zero series on steam are really good, they feel like the old dlc of half life 1 but for half life 2, really encourage you to play them!
I'm playing through Black Mesa, i'm not sure why i didnt play it until now. but wow its amazing.
As much as we want those types of games again, I feel they’re going to stay in the past. Studios aren’t taking enough risks to make a game stand out. There are certainly games that are new which are fantastic and we would be living under a rock to say that isn’t true, but overall as an industry, it’s staying too safe and everyone wants to copy eachother so they can keep up with the profits.
You gotta play at least Stalker SoC if not the trilogy before Stalker 2. The vanilla games are way better than Anomaly.
Ngl, I think Half life 3 is gonna bring it back!
What about Bright Memory: Infinite? That's an excellent narrative driven shooter that came out in 2021 and can run on a potato. Not saying you're wrong, the genre gets very few entries nowadays but new ones still come out.
Its really sad to see single player story driven shooters dying out. I've just started falling back on the campaign modes of COD, BF etc, or playing games like Metro etc.
Games like half-life 1 and 2 have been relevant because of the modding community, every new year there a new mod coming for half-life that allows the player to experience those two games in different way, is something that not a lot of fps shooters have.
Half life 1 and 2, Cod OG MW trilogy, Quake games, God of War 1 and 2, Doom (including 2016 and eternal) and Halo
These games defined my taste in gaming and why i mostly prefers single player the most than multiplayer and hasxno unnecessary grind and pay to win.
There's way, way, way, WAAAYYY too many of them now. But 90% are all independent projects with no marketing, no support, no long-term fan bases, etc.
Myself, I just replayed one of my own Doom1 episodes (9 maps, "Darkhell") using GZDoom + some awesome graphical & sound mods. It was AWESOME. 💪😎✌️One life, no saves, no deaths, etc. That's plenty fine for now, and I'll do "Blakhell" later on. I don't really need anything else. But if I do, I'll try HL1 & HL2's free remakes or even Tron 2.0 or Might & Magic Dark Legacy or whatever.
Because micro transactions and loot boxes are easier and more profitable.
I was 14 when HL2 released, grew up in the golden era of gaming and the rise of tech. Trully a special time.