Favourite SP FPS Campaign this generation?

[alexwagner]

Admittedly I swiped this thread from another forum but it seemed like a good idea WIth the large amount of FPS this gen which has delivered your favourite single player experience? It doesn't have to be just one...

[Steve T Power]

This is a tough one. A few notables:

Medal of Honor - For an Army goon, I really dug Medal of Honor's focus on reality rather than blowing the shit out of modern civilization. More awesome was how each level of the campaign transitioned into the next. Some amazingly tense firefights, wonderful mechanics (the peek and aim feature should be in every FPS) and very little downtime. Just a great single player effort.

Medal of Honor: Airborne - The last GREAT World War II shooter. The open level design had you parachuting into these massive environments and really fighting your way to various objectives. The weapon upgrades were cool, the bad guys were suitably tough, and the game still looks pretty damn good as well. It did get a little insane towards the end (Nazi Stormtroopers with gas masks, trench coats and MG 42s, and the "Death Star" of flak towers), but it remains a very underrated and overlooked gem of a shooter in this generation.

Far Cry 2 - One of the most unique, lengthy, and detailed single player campaigns i've ever seen. You're a mercenary set loose in what feels like a MASSIVE open area of African terrain. Several unique mechanics appear, including small towns, warring factions, battlefield surgery, jamming weapons, and vehicles. The story lingers in the background for the most part, raising its head once in a while at certain points to propel you forward, and when it does, it's pretty good stuff. Did I mention that the game is also ridiculously long? This isn't something you'll finish in a weekend.

Killzone 2 and 3 - Yes, both games are stunning examples of what the PS3 is capable of in terms of stunning gee-whiz visuals, and the mechanics feel amazing, like you're really a 200 pound killing machine loaded down with another 100 pounds of gear. In KZ2 every weapon has it's own weight and feel (the COD whiners killed this feature in the sequel) bot both games just pack in an intense single player campaign that's just the right length, full of hairy situations, and some of the coolest future-tech weapon designs and bad guys you will ever see. It's also cool that there's a mythology slowly materializing as the series progresses (dollars says the Viscari that Rico gunned down at the end of KZ2 was a double, and the guy stepping out of the pod at the end of KZ3 was the real deal.)

Battlefield 3 - There are definitely a few issues, but as far as scripted events go, this one propels you forward like a rocket ride, and the storyline (involving a US soldier going rogue and attempting to stop a terror attack in NYC) is impeccably well told. If you just want a straight forward run through a warzone, this is the game to get. It doesn't hurt that it's absolutely stunning to look at either.

[mkiker2089]

Bioshock 2 would be mine. I'm usually not into FPS because they all start feeling redundant to me. Chalk that up to being forced into "death matches" which I consider the ultimate bore. However this series felt intriguing.

[alexwagner]

That's really a fantastic post Steve. I've really been itching to try Medal Of Honor's SP campaign.I hope it's not the last we see from the IP. Airborne is also on my must play list. It's a game I consistently see mentioned in underrated/under appreciated lists on various forums.

I actually have Killzone 2 sitting right here which unfortunatley induces the worst motion sickness I've ever felt

[Attrage]

I have to echo Steve on this one, and say without doubt that Medal of Honor and Far Cry 2 are tied for my favorite, with MoH:Airborne a very close second.

One thing that Steve didnt mention, and for me what maybe pushes Far Cry 2 above MoH would be that Far Cry 2 is endlessly re-playable. I have gone through the entire game 5 times now, and each time although the story missions have the same objectives, the experience has been totally different. FC2 has a fairly unique, almost RPG-like "weapon loadout" system, where you can choose to take silenced stealth weapons, gung ho assault weapons, or a mix of both. And because you can approach each enemy area from whatever direction you like, at whatever time of day you like, each playthrough feels different. The AI is also superb (apart from some occasional glitches), and have some real personality.

But yeah, Medal of Honor definitely way up there. Like Steve said, the realism is so great, the campaign, although painfully short, is so well done the way each mission segues into the next, and as I have mentioned in other posts, the "weight" to the guns has yet to be matched by any other FPS I've ever played.

[Steve T Power]

I have to echo Steve on this one, and say without doubt that Medal of Honor and Far Cry 2 are tied for my favorite, with MoH:Airborne a very close second.

One thing that Steve didnt mention, and for me what maybe pushes Far Cry 2 above MoH would be that Far Cry 2 is endlessly re-playable. I have gone through the entire game 5 times now, and each time although the story missions have the same objectives, the experience has been totally different. FC2 has a fairly unique, almost RPG-like "weapon loadout" system, where you can choose to take silenced stealth weapons, gung ho assault weapons, or a mix of both. And because you can approach each enemy area from whatever direction you like, at whatever time of day you like, each playthrough feels different. The AI is also superb (apart from some occasional glitches), and have some real personality.

But yeah, Medal of Honor definitely way up there. Like Steve said, the realism is so great, the campaign, although painfully short, is so well done the way each mission segues into the next, and as I have mentioned in other posts, the "weight" to the guns has yet to be matched by any other FPS I've ever played.

Farcry 2's gunplay is fantastic, and as a straight up shooter it's a fantastic game, I always felt the stealth mechanic is too underplayed and, frankly, a tad broken to be honest. Enemy AI is excellent, no doubt, but I always felt that their awareness was more of the "on or off" variety, and stealth was only ever employable for the initial strike, and then everyone and their dog just made a bee-line for your position, even if it was impossible for them to have picked up on or seen the sweet ass machete or silenced pistol kill you just landed.

[Attrage]

I have to echo Steve on this one, and say without doubt that Medal of Honor and Far Cry 2 are tied for my favorite, with MoH:Airborne a very close second.

One thing that Steve didnt mention, and for me what maybe pushes Far Cry 2 above MoH would be that Far Cry 2 is endlessly re-playable. I have gone through the entire game 5 times now, and each time although the story missions have the same objectives, the experience has been totally different. FC2 has a fairly unique, almost RPG-like "weapon loadout" system, where you can choose to take silenced stealth weapons, gung ho assault weapons, or a mix of both. And because you can approach each enemy area from whatever direction you like, at whatever time of day you like, each playthrough feels different. The AI is also superb (apart from some occasional glitches), and have some real personality.

But yeah, Medal of Honor definitely way up there. Like Steve said, the realism is so great, the campaign, although painfully short, is so well done the way each mission segues into the next, and as I have mentioned in other posts, the "weight" to the guns has yet to be matched by any other FPS I've ever played.

Farcry 2's gunplay is fantastic, and as a straight up shooter it's a fantastic game, I always felt the stealth mechanic is too underplayed and, frankly, a tad broken to be honest. Enemy AI is excellent, no doubt, but I always felt that their awareness was more of the "on or off" variety, and stealth was only ever employable for the initial strike, and then everyone and their dog just made a bee-line for your position, even if it was impossible for them to have picked up on or seen the sweet ass machete or silenced pistol kill you just landed.

To an extent, yeah. Depends on the mission/area. My stealth play through often ended up just that way – stealth worked for the initial couple kills, but after that it was guns blazing. The enemy AI in FC2 has “modes” – idle mode, alert mode, and the “make a beeline for the kill” mode. As long as you don’t get them into the 3rd mode – ie as long as they haven’t spotted you, you can get them to revert back to idle mode. No sh*t – one mission I stayed crouched down behind a big rock while dudes went running past looking for me, shouting out to each other etc, then after about 5 minutes of patient hiding, I heard one go “eh, it’s nothing” and they snapped back into idle mode – just wandering around, smoking, chatting etc. Then I was able to sneak into a building, hassle some guy in there to send a fake transmission, and then sneak out, without firing a shot.

[alexwagner]

I've never played a COD game but with each iteration gamers seem even more apathetic towards the SP portion. Interestingly I've been hearing the SP in MW3 is very strong. Not surprised though as Raven Software are very underrated developers. If you guys get a chance to play it update us with you're thoughts!

[Attrage]

Modern Warfare 3 -

Just finished the single player campaign this afternoon. It's far from fantastic, but in answer to you alex, it is definitely a step up from Modern Warfare 2's lackluster single player. MW2 definitely shortchanged single players in favour of the (admittedly massive) online multiplayer bucks. MW3 however, was a longer, better-executed campaign in general. But...still more of the same. You've got the straight-up point -A to point B firefights, the "fire missiles from an unmanned drone" bits, the on-rails vehicle bits, the "protect" and "capture" bits, etc etc. But as a whole, like I said its better-executed than MW2. And a tad longer too, which is always welcome from CoD. I finished it on normal difficulty in about 7 hours. By comparison, MW2 I whipped through in about 4 hours.

Overall, enjoyable, but a little "been there done that".

[alexwagner]

Thanks for the feedback!

I just scored the 10th Anniversary Medal Of Honor pack which contains all the pc titles along with their expansions. I look forward to going through Airborne. I antipcate some headaches getting these to work on Windows 7

[Steve T Power]

Thanks for the feedback!

I just scored the 10th Anniversary Medal Of Honor pack which contains all the pc titles along with their expansions. I look forward to going through Airborne. I antipcate some headaches getting these to work on Windows 7

The PC versions were pretty universally awesome as well - The early ones were all crafted by the creators of Call of Duty. I still love the hell out of Pacific Assault (the first "post-COD" entry in the series) and Spearhead was a fantastic expansion to European Assault, which still has the best D-Day level ever.

Pacific Assault actually still holds up pretty well in the graphics department as well.