Top Five First-Person Shooters

Now, many regular readers here at Red Parsley will have already gotten a good idea about my gaming tastes and preferences – namely that I’ve generally stuck to consoles of the 80’s and 90’s (or arcades, when lucky enough to find one) and almost always play arcade-style games mostly consisting of shmups, platformers, racing games, and a sprinkling of puzzle and fighting games. There have been some fairly sizeable casualties as a result of these stringently upheld habits with some of the biggest including my neglect of genres more usually found on home computers or modern consoles such as RPG’s, survival horror, strategy and simulation games, and of course the one that currently comprises about half of all games released – the First Person Shooter. The paltry number of FPS’s that I’ve actually devoted more than a few minutes to could literally be counted on the fingers of one hand and could accordingly be summarised in a Top Five list right here! So, taking the form of a comedy Top Five, here are my five ‘favourite’ FPS’s:

5. Killing Time (3DO - 1995)

I’m quite confident in saying that this is the first FPS I ever owned and it was bought only on the strength of a decent review in the short-lived 3DO Magazine that I used to buy. It was all rather new and intriguing to me but I also didn’t really have any idea what I was doing. The story casts you in the role of an Egyptology student searching for a lost artifact somewhere within the estate of a wealthy heiress located on an island in Maine. This involves snooping around the large play-area which is soon discovered to be filled with lots of spooky ghosts and undead creatures! There are a number of weapons available, including the usual pistols and machine guns, and lots of areas to explore as you gradually uncover the story of the occupants of the island and the heiress herself. One notable aspect of the game is its graphics which were very impressive in their day. The locations are pretty nice and most of the sprites are FMV-based which help make Killing Time a very atmospheric game with some genuinely unsettling moments!

4. Rise of the Triads (PC - 1995)

Yes, that’s right – a PC game! I have played a very small number of them and, aside from Worms (chortle), this is the one I’ve spent most time with. I have no memory of how or when I got a copy but I do recall that it took me a good while to get around to trying it. When I did, though, I found it to be a pretty splendid game! It’s based on the creaky Wolfenstein 3D engine and actually started out as an expansion pack for that game, but it soon evolved into an impressive game in its own right. It’s also, coincidentally, another one which requires you to investigate spooky happenings on an island, this time in a monastery. There’s a choice of five characters with differing attributes and a good number of weapons to search for which prolongs the game’s lifespan a lot, and I remember getting very drawn into exploring the stages. In fact, I’ve just discovered there’s a remake/reboot of ROTT on the way so maybe I’ll get to do so all over again!

3. Quake 2 (N64 - 1999)

Although it’s embarrassing to admit now, I somehow (unintentionally) managed to completely bypass the whole Doom-fever of the early-to-mid-90’s, but I didn’t escape the Quake series in the same way. I did play the original very briefly, on my good friend Luke’s PC, and I enjoyed it too, so when it released on the splendid N64 I bought it straight away. As good as it was, however, it was this sequel I enjoyed the most which was released and duly bought soon afterwards. It apparently features an entirely new set of stages from those found in other versions and it also employed the N64’s Expansion Pack which meant everything looked a lot sharper than many N64 games. The pace was a bit slower than the original too, which I liked, the setting was also changed to a sci-fi one which appealed to me a lot, and the large, detailed stages were packed with secret items and areas to hunt down. The only problem was that it could only save on the rather unreliable N64 memory pak which meant I had to keep playing through the early stages. Oh well, where needs must...

2. Exhumed (Saturn - 1996)

The Saturn was a machine that was supposedly hopeless when it came to 3D games so, as a loyal Sega fan-boy, I found it immensely satisfying that this version was notably superior to the PlayStation version! As well as looking nice, Exhumed was a fantastic game which has arguably taken up more of my time than any other FPS so far. This could be in part due to the hefty challenge it presents but it's designed so superbly that I never got fed up with trying. Unlike many games of the type, the focus here is just as much on exploration and puzzles as it is on shooting things, but that's not to say it's not action-packed! It's set in the ruins and ancient cities of Egypt so there's plenty of secret passages and scary mummies and other terrors to throw stuff at (or run away from) and the stages are structured in a great way which often sees you returning to previously explored areas with new abilities enabling you to uncover new sections as well as unlocking entirely new areas. Sequel please!

1. Goldeneye 007 (N64 - 1997)

Predictable perhaps, but there probably wasn’t too many console gamers around in the late 90’s who wouldn’t have named this as the finest offering ever seen, and it was exclusive to Nintendo’s ugly black box as well! It stood out for many reasons – FPS’s had previously been the near-exclusive domain of PC’s, for one thing, and many believed that they could never be any good on a mere console. It’s also based on a film, of course – something that would usually cause any self-respecting gamer to shudder with fear. It soon defied all its initial critics, however, and how could it not? It followed the plot of the film fairly well, featured decent enemy AI, and introduced console gamers to a far more stealthly style of play – using the sniper rifle for the first time is still one of my fondest gaming memories! Seldom before or since had a game so immersed me into its world and I felt genuinely sad when it was finally completed. Still, there was always the other ultra-challenging difficulty modes to try as well as the superb multi-player game to give me my Goldeneye fix!


Yes, that's right - these five games, as good as they are, pretty much comprise my entire history of FPS gaming! For those wondering, that does indeed mean no Doom, Unreal, Half-Life, Halo, and certainly none of those pesky modern Call of Duty time-vacuums either. Time to rectify this oversight? Is it even an oversight at all? Maybe not, but if I should play one more FPS, which should it be? Comments below please, but think carefully ;)