What would be your stand out SP FPS picks from the last 5 years?

Lets face it. There have been some stellar single player First person shooters over the last 5 or so years.

Games that not only looking fantastic, but also have replay value thanks to enjoyable mechanics.

To start the ball rolling I'm nominating the excellent Metro: Last Light (redux)

Adapted from from the highly enjoyable Metro 2033 and Metro 2034 books, both Metro 2033 (redux, thanks to it's vastly improved performance) and it's follow up Metro: Last Light, both games are much more improved performance wise and are still visually very impressive. Both manage to encapsulate the "post apocalyptic" feel of factional survival and the supernatural/sci-Fi elements of the books.

While metro 2033 is a good game, it's major downside was pacing issues. - However Last Light managed to improve upon the formula by removing the "boring bits" while delivering a stunning atmosphere AND a balance of gameplay not found in most other titles.

There are two main approaches. You can play it the "easy way" in Spartan mode with plenty of ammo and a more traditional run n gun feel. Fun, but ultimately lacking the horror/survival aspect that's the Metro ethos. Where both shine is playing it on the survival / Ranger hardcore mode which adds a whole new depth to it. Truly the way it was intended to be played.

Instead of going in guns blazing, you discover a deep stealth, ammo conserving "plan ahead' method of play reminiscent of early Splinter Cell/Thief games that is infinitely more rewarding. A well placed thrown knife, or silenced head-shot that doesn't alert all enemies on the map is far more enjoyable than a triple headshot which alerts every damn enemy on the map like the COD series gives you. Head shots alsofeel like headshots and not 1,2,3 headshot.

Even within the linear setting of the levels, there are multiple ways of completing a section. Playing peek a boo with intelligent foes is far more enjoyable than shooting at "pop up" kamikaze soldiers with obvious hit point tallies. Enemies don;t have supernatural vision. You can actually hide from them and then flank, pop a shot and slink away to attack from another direction.

Even with the performance tweaking that has lowered some of the particle effect ambience, it still looks superior to the the cartoon-esque look of other "AAA" titles. With all bells and whistles - it simply looks the goods. If you have the grunt on a single screen, the Super Sampling AA looks gorgeous.


Metro LL uses the proven formula of of recreating the fun bits of gameplay in virtually all scenarios. Visually impressive, satisfying gameplay mechanics and weapons that feel unique and not simply re-skinned "same feel pop pops" trumps any sort of humdrum that certain other franchises continue to churn out.

Is it the best FPS ever? No. But neither it is it a gimmicky regurgitation like Chore of Dookie: Advanced Same thing.

If you didn't enjoy the original metro 2033 - Give the redux version a go. The performance tweaks alone are worth it. If you never played it on the Survival hardcore Ranger level - prepare yourself for a different game. Then enjoy the extra improvement of Last Light.

if this game disappoints you, then I'm afraid you have no discerning taste and are quite happy to accept 2nd rate AI, inferior visuals and enemies that soak up bullets like a sponge.

I'm nominating Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 1,2, and 3.


Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is a 2007 first-person shooter video game, developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii. A handheld game was made for the Nintendo DS. The game was released in North America, Australia, and Europe in November 2007 for video game consoles and Microsoft Windows. It was released for the Mac in September 2008, then released for the Wii in November 2009, given the subtitle Reflex Edition. It is the fourth installment in the Call of Duty video game series, excluding expansion packs, and is the first in the Modern Warfare line of the franchise, followed by a direct sequel, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 as well as the first game in the series to have a Mature rating. The game breaks away from the World War II setting of previous games in the series and is instead set in modern times. Developed for over two years, the game uses a proprietary game engine. On September 10, 2009, it was re-released in Japan by Square Enix.
The story takes place in the year 2011, where a radical leader has executed the president of an unnamed country in the Middle East, and an ultranationalist movement starts a civil war in Russia. The conflicts are seen from the perspectives of a U.S. Force Reconnaissance Marine and a British SAS commando, and are set in various locales, such as the United Kingdom, the Middle East, Azerbaijan, Russia, and Ukraine. The multiplayer portion of the game features various game modes, and contains a leveling system that allows the player to unlock additional weapons, weapon attachments, and camouflage schemes as they advance.
As opposed to earlier games in the Call of Duty series, the game features modern equipment and new features, many exclusive to the multiplayer part of the game, such as "killstreaks"; killing a number of enemies without the player dying in between kills allows access to various assets including airstrikes and helicopter support. A character can be positioned in one of three stances: standing, crouching, or prone; each affecting the character's rate of movement, accuracy, and stealth. Using cover helps the player avoid enemy fire or recover health after taking significant damage. As such, there are no armor or health power ups. When the character has taken damage, the edges of the screen glow red and the character's heartbeat increases. If the character stays out of fire, the character can recover. When the character is within the blast radius of a live grenade, a marker indicates the direction of the grenade, helping the player to either flee or toss it back to the enemy.
Campaign

The player takes on the role of various characters during a single-player campaign. The characters' involvement in the plot occurs simultaneously and overlaps the events in the game. As such, the player's perspective changes from one character to another between missions. Each mission features a series of objectives; the player is led to each objective with the heads up display, which marks its direction and distance. Some objectives require that the player arrives at a checkpoint, while other objectives require the player to eliminate enemies in a specified location, stand their ground to defend an objective, or plant explosive charges on an enemy installation. After the credits, a special epilogue mission is unlocked for play, featuring a four-man squad retrieving a VIP from terrorists who have hijacked an airliner. The SAS rescue the VIP and escape before the plane is destroyed.[3]


These games was a fun game to play and also sad because of the story line (Soap, Grinch, Truck, Roach, and Yuri all died leaving Cpt.Price alive after killing Makarov in MW3).

I have MOH Warfighter 1 but never played it. I might give it a go soon. I loved the COD MW games, and crisis games. I lost interest in Far Cry after part 1, and the Metro games were not for me either

Metro was a brilliant game which I enjoyed but I found its replay-ability lacking against other FPS games such as Fallout.

My favorite 'good' graphics shooter would have to be Call of duty 4, at the time this game released it was revolutionary to the shooter genre and its only real competition was halo. CoD4 will always be one of them 'classics' that will live on in many gamer's hearts and minds.

Another brilliant FPS that I personally loved was Half life + Half life 2. I bought the whole pack on steam and have played all of them several times. I spent many years as a young gamer spas 12'ing head crabs and using the crowbar to batter people zombies.

Lately though I feel FPS losing its foothold, with games like Watchdogs and GTAV taking a high spot in the 3rd person genre with huge worlds and much deeper story than most fps can dish out.

My twocents ;D

Phill3990

Bioshock Infinite :)

My nomination is FarCry 3, by far the best iteration of FarCry to date, stealth and FPS mixed similar to Metro 2033 but set in a tropical Island with fantastic visuals, engaging game play and massive amounts of replay-ability, it ran with problems but it had a certain charm.

Skyrim comes in at a close 2nd for me, even though it was more of a fantasy-adventure title, it is still FPS but not in a traditional sense, medieval FPS is suppose

MrNeeds

For me, it's Bioshock Infinite. While I feel that the first two games are better in terms of atmosphere, Infinite combined the classic FPS elements with a story that really pulled you in to Columbia. The Burial at Seas DLCs that close out the game are just icing on the cake. I'm a sucker for a FPS with a great story.

A very close second goes to Far Cry 4. I loved FC3, but Far Cry 4 has grabbed me to the point where I can go days without doing a single story-advancing mission, because I'm too busy hunting or just doing random stuff.