Summary
Story-heavy FPS games are a rarity now and were even moreso when the genre was still in its infancy. Even if the way modern games tell stories is vastly different from before, that doesn’t mean that older games didn’t have a solid narrative or that story-focused games didn’t exist. They just take a little longer to find among the mass of arcade-like experiences of the time.
Another thing that makesold boomer shooterswith a focus on storytelling hard to find is that the way they tell their story is often different from what we would expect. For every storytelling classic ahead of its time, likeHalf-Life, there are a thousand dated games likeMarathon. Here are the best boomer shooters that had a focus on bringing a story to life.
While it’s hard to believe now, Raven Software’sHereticwas once one of the biggest shooters out there. It was published by id Software and produced by John Romero, clearly presenting it as a worthy successor toDoom, especially when you consider it was even built on top of the originalDoomengine.
WhileHeretic’s story is simple enough, it’s clear how much Raven Software tried to push the game’s storytelling outside what was typical of the genre. This is one of the very first shooters to focus heavily on atmosphere, using ambiance sounds and rich environments. It’s clear that a lot of work went into building a believable 3D environment. The team even modified their game engine, Doom’s own id Tech 1, to allow players to look up and down.
6Heretic 2
Third-Person Game-Changer
Heretic 2is the secondHereticsequel, following the events of the original game andHexen. The player takes the role of Corvus, the protagonist of the firstHeretic, as he comes back home after the final battle of the first game. Upon his arrival in the city, he finds it has been taken over by a curse and the inhabitants are either dead or extremely hostile.
Unlike the rest of the series,Heretic 2is a third-person shooter, this time based on theQuake 2engine instead ofDoom’s id Tech 1. Because of this, itplays unlike anything else from its the time. But this is also what allows it to give the story more space: the change in perspective and pacing also allowHeretic 2to have what resembles modern cutscenes.
The importance ofMarathonin story-focused shooters can’t be understated, yet the series itself is not really that well-known. That’s probably because, for a long time, the first game in the series was a Mac exclusive. And while the source code and the assets were eventually released as freeware, there has never been an official Windows release for any game in the series.
Marathonfollows the story of Colony Ship Marathon, which is about to make its way toward an unexplored solar system when it is attacked by unknown alien forces.The story soon gets complicated, with AIs fighting over control of the ship, alien factions switching sides midway through the battle, and the protagonist’s nature being called into question.
4Half-Life
An Iconic Story Through The Eyes of Freeman
Half-Lifeisn’t the original story-focused FPS and what it adapted to shooters was already tradition in dungeon crawlers. That said, its popularity is what made those tropes unavoidable for years to come.System Shockmight have been the first shooter with a silent protagonist, but its influence on the genre was nowhere near that ofHalf-Life.
One wholly unique thing aboutHalf-Lifeis how every major story beat is seen through the eyes of Freeman, the protagonist. It is often through him that the story moves forward; if not, he at least gets to witness it. This means that the levels and gameplay have to move to follow the story and not the other way around.
Quakeas a series isn’t well-known for its story and for good reasons. The first game isn’t even sure who or whatQuakeis, as the game seemingly changes its mind from chapter to chapter on whether it’s a person or a place.Quake 2is an exception to this rule.
Quake 2takes a distinctly different approach from the original game. For one,a strong setting holds the story together. Humanity is caught in an ongoing struggle against the Strogg, the half-machine, half-organic alien race from the first game. The fight takes the shape of a predictable but consistent war story that is more reminiscent of modern military shooters than other id Software games.
2Marathon 2: Durandal
A Unique Story-Telling Method
If the release ofMarathonimposed a new high for storytelling in FPS games,Marathon 2: Durandalbrings the stakes even higher. Bungie’s secondsci-fi shooteralmost brings the story on par with that of the well-knownHaloseries.
What keepsMarathon 2: Durandaldown is the presentation: events are rarely played or even seen. And even when it happens, it’s hard to tell what’s happening. The game just isn’t built for that. Instead, the story is illustrated in what amounts to a mix of writing on the wall and emails from angry AIs. Even if it’s not elegant, it’s an interesting and unique way to tell a story.
1Marathon Infinity
An Abstract But Entertaining Tale
Marathon Infinityis plagued by the same problem that haunted the rest of the series: the story is mostly conveyed through dialog, and all dialog happens inside ugly and busy computer terminals. But right as the series came to an end during this third installment, Bungie seems to have learned to use the setup to its maximum extent.
The best thing one can say aboutMarathon Infinityis that it loves to try new things. The writing is just as good as it was before, but there’s so much more to draw upon. Some levels are implied totake place inside the protagonist’s dreams. The writing itself becomes much more abstract than before; interpreting it is not just busywork but becomes actually entertaining.
