Obscure FPS Titles

[Mister Six]

I know that's using an old engine, but even so, going from that in 1995 to Halo in 2001 (which to me felt completely normal at the time) the pace of change feels absolutely fucking incredible when you compare it to game/graphical development in FPS' in the last 8 years.
https://youtu.be/VX8hRASKXaM?t=198

To be fair it's not just that it's an old engine - according to Wikipedia they dev team thought they were getting the Doom engine but it was actually an intermediary engine from between Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, and one that was riddled with bugs to boot. Your point is solid, but in this particular case the differences are a bit exaggerated.

Actually built with the Doom engine was Strife, a kind of prototype Deus Ex FPS RPG thing where you could talk to people and do missions and such. Way less complex than DE, obviously, but impressive for the time.

[New Jack]

I wish I played Zero Tolerance on the Mega Drive

[samadriel]

I wish I played Zero Tolerance on the Mega Drive

Nah, that was shithouse.

[New Jack]

Was it?

Fuck that then, back to Hexen I go

[Lemming]

Project IGI isn't as bad as I was making out, having played it some more. In fact, I ended up liking Mortyr quite a bit too, but it was objectively total shit.

Booted up Mortyr 2 to continue the adventure and it's running at somewhere well above 120fps. Everything's insane, way past light speed. It's so broken that when I jump I clip against mid-air and can fly, and if I run into walls I'm moving so quickly I actually go through them. It's like that Star Trek TNG episode where Geordi and Ro get out of phase with the rest of the universe. This is probably the best way to play the game.

Anyone know of a way to manually limit the framerate? Mortyr 1 had the same problem but the dgVoodoo wrapper seemed to tie the refresh rate to the framerate somehow, so 60hz equalled 60fps, which was just about playable.

[Lemming]

The Boss Fights thread just reminded me that I played 1999's Wheel of Time, but forgot to write about it here.



Based on the book series that has like 5000 fucking novels at this point. If you're a fan of the books, the game is apparently pretty lore-adherent, so you'll have FUN. If you're like me and have never read a single word of any Wheel of Time book, the story still holds together as a really cool standalone adventure. It's told in FMV cutscenes throughout the game that, added together, amount to over an hour's worth of video. Great writing, really cool protagonist, and engaging plot.



You play as a mage, Elayna, from a big fuck-off tower of mages. She's apparently shit at magic and everyone hates her. Stuff happens and she's forced onto a bit of a quest, during which she gains access to a shitton of spells.

The coolest thing about this game is that it has a huge array of non-combat spells. From protective elemental shields to more strange uses for magic such as physically switching places with an NPC or gaining the ability to levitate, the game really makes you feel like an actual mage, rather than just someone with a staff that's basically a rocket launcher like most games with mages.

All the spells feel unique, and different enemy types have different skill sets that you'll need to respond to accordingly. There's even a level with no combat where you're forced to cleverly use some of your non-combat spells to navigate a maze of traps. Really good.

[ASFTSN]

Here's another obscure FPS anyway, which I've been checking out alongside Mortyr - it's Witchaven!



Dare to enter indeed, because within lies a bunch of stupid bullshit.



The way this game approaches level design isn't up my street at all - mucho backtracking, constantly running into doors locked by keys or switches, etc. It took me a while (no manual) to figure out how to use the spellbook, but the spells themselves are pretty cool.

In fact, it's a good thing the spells are cool, because you have to use them - weapons break. Weapon durability sucks shit in the best of games, and in Witchaven, it means that you'll be resorting to the useless short-sword because the big fuck-off Axe of Slaying that you just picked up shatters into a thousand pieces when you swipe it against a goblin's face.

Probably unfairly, I'm comparing it constantly to Hexen in my mind and wishing I was playing that instead. Just so I don't appear overly down on Witchaven, the monster design and animations are really good, the weapons all feel unique (for the 5 seconds you get to use them before they shatter), and enemies seem to have spell weaknesses which calls for tactical spellcasting. There are also a variety of potions you can use, which helps add to the "tactical" feeling the game sometimes gives you, that makes you feel like it's a little more challenging than just mowing through hordes of enemies.

Tell ya what Lemming, I've actually downloaded this game because of this thread, and the fantasy setting plus lo-budget jankiness of it is somewhat appealing to me. I like the way most of the enemies are clearly sprite-rendered claymation and there's some sort of knife edge balancing of taking itself too seriously and also embracing its own shoddiness. It's like stabbing a PG-13 rated version of Trapdoor with a poundshop plastic sword or something. Music's quite entertaining too.

If there was a way to set it so you could properly play with WASD + Mouse and mouselook then I might be tempted to actually give it a serious play past the first level. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to have enough love to have ever had proper work done on a source port for it, which so many other old FPS games benefit hugely from.

[Lemming]

There is actually a patch for Witchaven that adds mouselook! It's still pretty shit, though: looking left and right is normal, but looking up and down is slow and laboured. Still, it makes the game a fraction more playable.

Can be found here: http://dukertcm.com/knowledge-base/downloads-rtcm/witchaven-patchs/

[ASFTSN]

There is actually a patch for Witchaven that adds mouselook! It's still pretty shit, though: looking left and right is normal, but looking up and down is slow and laboured. Still, it makes the game a fraction more playable.

Can be found here: http://dukertcm.com/knowledge-base/downloads-rtcm/witchaven-patchs/

Thanks! I messed about with the dehacker and now it works more like a drunk Hexen on ice skates, so that's a definite improvement!