History of the first-person shooter series (Part 4)

One of the most influential forces in the FPS series is not from a game, but from a movie: Saving Private Ryan (Saving Private Ryan) directed by Steven Spielberg, taking place during World War II ( It’s great, you should try it.) The film depicts the arrival of D-Day, which later influenced titles of the following decade such as Killzone and Titanfall. Spielberg himself has a connection to the game development profession: he co-founded DreamWorks Interactive (DWI) with Microsoft in 1995 to make movies like Small Soldiers. After completing Saving Private Ryan, Spielberg wanted to find a way to teach young people more about war, so he asked DWI to develop the FPS Medal of Honor game for Sony’s PlayStation platform.

Launched in 1999 with huge sales, Medal of Honor was the starting point for many things. On the one hand, the game does not follow the path of science fiction or paper stories like Doom or Wolfenstein. On the other hand, the game gives game developers the right to use real events, and partly reduces the idea that violent games lead to violent behavior. Medal of Honor comes out a few months after the Columbine massacre in Colorado, a violent incident that made people worry about the effects of violent games. Afraid of criticism, DreamWorks Interactive removed the gore from the game before it was released. The game also drew a response from the Medal of Honor Society of America, and the head of the association spoke directly to Spielberg about his concerns. Despite the detractors, the release of this game set a precedent for the following studios to use historical as well as social events.

At the end of the 90s was the birth of Unreal, sparking a confrontation between its creator Epic MegaGames (the company that released the game Fortnite) and id Software. The game takes you to the first experience of climbing the flying carpet (like in Aladdin) flying through caves full of robots. Unreal then quickly engulfed the Quake game, thanks to 16-bit color image processing and ambient effects, such as dense fog. Like Quake, the game was designed to be modifiable and also lacked multiplayer when it was first released. Epic then released a separate expansion, Unreal Tournament in 1999, which allowed participation in a deathmatch (free-firing) mode. The game came out before id’s Quake III: Arena was released. In addition to many different shooting modes, the game has both a mode for ‘hardcore’ players and more ‘entertaining’ maps such as flying around the world. The Unreal brand has found a foothold in the online market, but what makes Epic successful is founder Tim Sweeney’s Unreal technology, a graphics technology designed for continuous improvement.

While Quake and Unreal Tournament specialize in nihilistic fantasy, that same year, Counter-Strike was born. A mod version of Half Life created by two amateur game makers Minh Le and Jess Cliffe: a clash between terrorists and police, two factions trying to plant or defuse bombs, rescue and protect hostages, can buy guns with the money they accumulate at the end of each round. This mod version didn’t stand out very well at first, but the game makers at Valve recognized the potential of the game and brought in Le and Cliffe to get the game’s intellectual property rights in 2000. Counter-Strike returned It’s become a phenomenon, with thousands of player-created maps (including David Johnston’s two legendary Middle Eastern maps Dust and Dust 2) and a huge fanbase. Elements included in this game such as game modes revolving around big goals, design based on strategy are part of the gene of professional games.

2000 was also the time when Microsoft bought Bungie, taking away one of the rare titles on Apple’s Mac operating system, the Halo sci-fi series. The game started the open-world adventure genre, powered by Bungie’s Myth technology. Halo: Combat Evolved’s scale in the game became a hit when Microsoft’s Xbox came out in 2001. Halo’s environment was bright, vast, and colorful, while the shooters at the time were pretty decent. dirty and dull looking. The weapon system retains the quintessence of Quake and Unreal – pistols with the ability to compress power to break enemy shields are a popular strategy in the game – but Halo also only grants one health bar per character. limited as well as the ability to restore shields to make the game more rhythmic and tactical. Halo also demonstrates Bungie’s potential in creating a virtual world: it’s Halo’s stunning vast universe that sets the scene for FPS games.

Halo was later overshadowed by another World War II shooter, using id Software’s Quake III technology by Infinity Ward – a studio founded by former members of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and owned by Activision invest capital. Released in 2003, Call of Duty was one of the first FPS games to allow players to use the mind to aim – a risky gamble as it creates fear due to the narrow space, making you pay less attention to everything. around except for the gun in hand, although the number of AI characters in the game is on par with the game Allied Assault. It still hasn’t surpassed the shadow of Medal of Honoc on PC, but Call of Duty’s popularity caught the attention of Microsoft, and they asked Activision to develop the next version for the Xbox 360. While Halo 3 wasn’t out yet, Call Of Duty was the best-selling game on Xbox 360 in 2005. Concerned about relying too much on one developer, Activision acquired game studio Treyarch (best known for Spider games. -Man) to design Call of Duty 3 with the technology of part 2, while Infinity Ward has 1 more year to prepare for the next version. With the title’s annual appearance after that, along with an immersive multiplayer mode, Call of Duty engulfed every opponent and extended its influence in the FPS genre.

One of the fiercest opponents to the Infinity Ward studio is the Swedish game developer DICE. Battlefield: 1942 can connect up to 64 players on an extremely large map with loot mode. While Call of Duty’s multiplayer mode focuses on individual action, Battefield focuses on team unity, using tactical resources like vehicles, and above all, realistic simulations. very genuine. Battlefield’s Refractor technology allows for real-life physics such as using TNT to blow a Jeep from a flying port all the way to the deck of an aircraft carrier. Although it did not become mainstream in the gaming market, mainly because the single-player part was not attractive enough, Battlefield still attracted players thanks to the freedom afforded in the game.

Crytek’s Far Cry started out as a tech demo, originally titled X-Isle: Dinosaur Island. They were then supported by Ubisoft to create the first open world FPS game. While other shooters tell the player to move forward, Far Cry lets you explore vast rainforests, using bushes for cover while tracking sentinels through the sick. his binoculars. This series title was then the premise for Ubisoft to create 3rd-person games called Assassin’s Creed, each version being a completely different architecture in the large open world.