'Generic' Shooter

Inazuma · 3 May 2008 at 22:42

I've been seeing this term quite a bit in the past year. I've seen it pasted on Dark Sector, Battlefield: Bad Company, MOH: Airbourne, Haze and others. When someone says "Generic Shooter" I think about a game with average graphics, AK's/M4's as standard weapons, little/no new gameplay features, set in one location and with little story.

What annoys me most though, is when someone says "X looks like a generic shooter," and then follows up with "I think I'll stick with Call of Duty 4." (I'm pulling my hair out even as I'm typing this) I don't want to hate on COD4, but to me it is more generic than the above named shooters. The graphics are very static and lifeless, and the gameplay is basically the same as the first one, which was basically how a standard FPS used to play - except with a lot of big explosions. I'm not saying it's a bad game (I've played it quite a lot actually - rank 45), but it is quite generic.

In my opinion, game developers have moved forward in the last two years. This next gen era has allowed them to do a lot of things (because of the increased experience as well as the better hardware) - So I haven't really seen a 'generic' shooter in a long time. Dark Sector has that intriguing story and glaive (although used little of its potential); Bad Company offers a light hearted and 100%-destruction take on PMCs in modern warfare; Airbourne has you parachuting into the thick of battle; and Haze looks like it'll have a great story along with some crazy business involving messing with perception and reality.

You can call those games (and others) "bad" but I wouldn't say they're "generic". Better examples are: Turok and Turning Point: Fall of Liberty - Not generic, but bad. Really bad.

KittensCake · 3 May 2008 at 22:50

When I think of generic shooter I think of something with basic gameplay that has no depth, something like Halo 3. I don't think graphics really comes into it.

It's sad really that we're still seeing 'generic shooters' pumped out left right and center, and for some reason they get high review scores and lots of attention? They have little or no innovation, lack any originality. Look back at Deus Ex for example, that game is very old now, and it has more depth and originality than so many FPS's we see today.

wedgie · 3 May 2008 at 22:56

Say what you want about the gameplay, but CoD4 has superb graphics.

Shamikebab · 3 May 2008 at 23:01

See that ****es me off, Halo 3 is far from generic. Lets face it though, if we look at things strictly then nearly every game is generic bar the odd gem (Portal, Deus Ex, Assassins Creed, Chronicles of Riddick off the top of my head are a few examples)

KittensCake · 3 May 2008 at 23:08

Shamikebab said:
See that ****es me off, Halo 3 is far from generic.

?

Generic storyline, OMG BADDIES/ALIENS/TERRORISTS ARE ATTACKING/INVADING WE MUST KILL THEM. Run through linear levels shooting enemies, rinse and repeat until the end.

Margaret · 3 May 2008 at 23:15

Shamikebab said:
See that ****es me off, Halo 3 is far from generic. Lets face it though, if we look at things strictly then nearly every game is generic bar the odd gem (Portal, Deus Ex, Assassins Creed, Chronicles of Riddick off the top of my head are a few examples)

Assassins Creed is generic though lol, the only thing different is that you can jump around the place, it's very linear and repetitive.

Shamikebab · 3 May 2008 at 23:17

KittensCake said:
?

Generic storyline, OMG BADDIES/ALIENS/TERRORISTS ARE ATTACKING/INVADING WE MUST KILL THEM. Run through linear levels shooting enemies, rinse and repeat until the end.

So it has baddies and you go through every level shooting them until the end of the game? You just described every shooter ever. It has revolutionary features (such as forge and the ability to edit any replay of any level, single player or multiplayer and share them) the multiplayer options are without equal (both local and online, co-op and versus) Excellent developer support (more so than most games)not to mention one of the best scores in video games, excellent voice acting, a good story. It was the first FPS to really integrate vehicles into the levels (as supposed to walking section, driving section) Amazing stats tracking on Bungie.net (something I haven't seen bettered in any other FPS)

Shamikebab · 3 May 2008 at 23:18

Jihad said:
Assassins Creed is generic though lol, the only thing different is that you can jump around the place, it's very linear and repetitive.

Really? I can see reptitive, but generic? Its fairly unique, you can do a game 1 meets game 2 meets game 3 but its really quite different to anything else.

KNiVES · 3 May 2008 at 23:22

Halo is archetypical, not generic. Big difference.

Bengaboy · 3 May 2008 at 23:24

The biggest evolution in modern day gaming to me is GTA 3.

It was massively new at the time, never been done before and was briliant in every way.

Would love to see another game that does the same thing as gta 3 - revolutionise gaming.

Darkwave · 3 May 2008 at 23:33

KittensCake said:
?

Generic storyline, OMG BADDIES/ALIENS/TERRORISTS ARE ATTACKING/INVADING WE MUST KILL THEM. Run through linear levels shooting enemies, rinse and repeat until the end.

If you believe that then pretty much every game in the last 5-10 years has been generic as pretty much none have revolutionised their genre since the genre was first created.

"Generic" is now a buzz word for people who don't have a clue what they're talking about.

As KNiVES said, the word these people are looking for in most cases is archetypical, not generic.

Alrik · 3 May 2008 at 23:36

If you're looking for something that isn't generic then don't play FPS's since they have more or less followed the same formula for the past 10 years.

KittensCake · 3 May 2008 at 23:44

Shamikebab said:
So it has baddies and you go through every level shooting them until the end of the game? You just described every shooter ever.

Ulfhedjinn said:
If you believe that then pretty much every game in the last 5-10 years has been generic as pretty much none have revolutionised their genre since the genre was first created.

"Generic" is now a buzz word for people who don't have a clue what they're talking about.

As KNiVES said, the word these people are looking for in most cases is archetypical, not generic.

Come on, you really knew what I meant. That's literally the complete extent of the gameplay bar the multiplayer component. It has 0 depth to it. Of course basically every shooter has those features, but the original ones have MORE. I'm talking about the gameplay here, Halo's is entirely generic/archetypical/cliche whatever the hell you want to call it, you know what I mean stop being so damn pedantic.

Darkwave · 3 May 2008 at 23:46

KittensCake said:
Come on man, you really knew what I meant. That's literally the complete extent of the gameplay bar the multiplayer component. It has 0 depth to it. Of course basically every shooter has those features, but the original ones have MORE. I'm talking about the gameplay here, Halo's is entirely generic/archetypical,/cliche whatever the hell you want to call it, you know what I mean stop being so damn pedantic.

I think we can conclude that you're simply not a first-person shooter person.

KittensCake · 3 May 2008 at 23:52

Ulfhedjinn said:
I think we can conclude that you're simply not a first-person shooter person.

No, that's entirely incorrect.

Darkwave · 3 May 2008 at 23:58

KittensCake said:
No, that's entirely incorrect.

You're saying the gameplay is typical because you have to "shoot enemies, rinse and repeat until the end" though, which means that you just described pretty much every single FPS ever made since Wolfenstein 3D.

I'd love you to name for me some of the "revolutionary" FPS games that you like to play.

KittensCake · 4 May 2008 at 00:06

Ulfhedjinn said:
You're saying the gameplay is typical because you have to "shoot enemies, rinse and repeat until the end" though, which means that you just described pretty much every single FPS ever made since Wolfenstein 3D.

I'd love you to name for me some of the "revolutionary" FPS games that you like to play.

On your first comment, I've already responded to that. Yes basically every shooter includes that in terms of the gameplay, but some have more to it than that. Deus Ex for example wasn't just a shooter where you simply run through levels shooting bad guys until the end, there was so much more to it. There wasn't in Halo 3.

And I never said generic gameplay was necessarily a bad thing, I'm just arguing that Halo 3 is generic, or whatever term you want to use.

KNiVES · 4 May 2008 at 00:10

It's hard to be generic when it's the second sequel to Halo, which is one of the most archetypical games since the first Half Life.

You seem unsure about the definitions of some words being used here, so let me help out a little bit:

Archetype - An archetype is a generic, idealized model of a person, object, or concept from which similar instances are derived, copied, patterned, or emulated. In psychology, an archetype is a model of a person, personality, or behavior.

I will lol if somebody says Halo: Combat Evolved doesn't fit that. Before its release, the vast majority of FPS' were confined to linear corridor shooters, with non-existent vehicular action, a rigid health system where it's 100 points of health topped up only by random medkits, 9 or so guns in your pocket, no squad play, outdoor/indoor levels divided by separate loaded sections, little or no multiplayer with substantial features and so on and on.

Since Halo's release, the FPS climate changed dramatically. Nowadays it's in vogue for your character to magically regenerate health - or be able to only hold 2 guns. Or have squads by your side. Some other shooters even manage to try to have some outdoor action with some vehicles here and there. Halo blended the lot, and started the change in thinking and approaches to the genre.

That's archetypical. Not generic. And Deus Ex isn't an FPS.

Darkwave · 4 May 2008 at 00:14

KittensCake said:
On your first comment, I've already responded to that. Yes basically every shooter includes that in terms of the gameplay, but some have more to it than that. Deus Ex for example wasn't just a shooter where you simply run through levels shooting bad guys until the end, there was so much more to it. There wasn't in Halo 3.

Deus Ex wasn't a shooter, it was an action/RPG hybrid. There's been a few of them, so I guess Deus Ex is "generic" to you. By trying to compare Halo to Deus Ex your argument is falling flat on its face.

KittensCake said:
And I never said generic gameplay was necessarily a bad thing, I'm just arguing that Halo 3 is generic, or whatever term you want to use.

You're over-generalising, is what you're doing. I hate Halo 3, but I wouldn't call the Halo series generic in the slightest. Yes they follow the typical equation for a first-person shoter, but you're totally ignoring the things that make it and games like it fairly unique (the storyline/politics, level design, the technology and the characters.)

i-bert · 4 May 2008 at 00:15

KittensCake said:
On your first comment, I've already responded to that. Yes basically every shooter includes that in terms of the gameplay, but some have more to it than that. Deus Ex for example wasn't just a shooter where you simply run through levels shooting bad guys until the end, there was so much more to it. There wasn't in Halo 3.

And I never said generic gameplay was necessarily a bad thing, I'm just arguing that Halo 3 is generic, or whatever term you want to use.

I can't believe you are compairing Deus-Ex with Halo.They're 2 totally different genres.