The Five Best Single Player First-Person Shooters of All-Time

First-person shooters, or 'FPS', are games in which a player is given the perspective closely adhering to what he or she would actually see if in the game. This means you don't see the back of your character or even your face (unless your character can look in a mirror). Generally, you will only see your character's hands or hands and arms. This design allows a sense of realism that is well-suited for military games or games where you simply have to do a lot of stealth missions.

Most first-person shooters being released now have some form of online multiplayer feature available, but I would like to focus on the best single player FPS games ever made. Here are what I believe are the best five first-person shooters of all time. Note, however, that some of the games on the list do have limited multiplayer options.

5) Duke Nukem 3D: While this game does have a multiplayer feature, multiplayer gaming was still in its infancy at the time of this game's release in 1996, so I am including it on this list due to its superb single player experience. You play as title character Duke, who fights mutated policemen, aliens, and other baddies in this game set in the near future. There is little real story or plot, just a lot of violence and fighting. It is still tremendous fun and has spawned one of the most famous sequels to have never been released, Duke Nukem Forever(1).

4) The House of the Dead: This 1996 arcade game has since been ported to many home systems, and for good reason. While the graphics were certainly not the most spectacular ever seen, this on-rails game was top-notch in terms of creepiness and white-knuckle excitement. You play as an agent making his way through the Curien Mansion, where you fight zombies, worms, giant spiders, and more. The continually jerking perspective changes keep you off guard and heightens the tension as you make your way through the den of creatures(2).

3) Metroid Prime: Even though Nintendo did not classify this 2002 release as such, Metroid Prime is essentially a first-person shooter. There are moments in the game when you explore or can morph into a ball, but the majority of the game is from the first-person perspective. You play as female bounty hunter Samus Aran and must fight your way through space pirates and various bosses on your way to battling the game's final boss, the eponymous Metroid Prime. Mood, graphics, gameplay, and storyline made this one of the premier games for the Nintendo Gamecube. It also spawned two sequels(3).

2) Castle Wolfenstein: The first in the genre, this innovative game is the grandfather of all that followed. The object of the game is to steal war plans and escape the castle, but this is made difficult by the presence of numerous Nazi guards. The game featured voice (German spoken by the guards), which was also a novel game feature for the time (1981). The game was first produced for the Apple II but was later ported to DOS, Atari 8-bit home computers, and the Commodore 64. Groundbreaking in multiple aspects, this game spawned the sequels Beyond Castle Wolfenstein and Wolfenstein 3D. The original is still warmly remembered by those who played it(4).

1) Doom: Considered by many the greatest game ever made, Doom singlehandedly made first-person shooters the popular genre that they are today when it burst on the scene back in 1993. The game consists of battling through hordes of demonic creatures in an effort to save the earth from attack, but the graphics, weapons, and enemies were ahead of their time. Almost anybody who loved computer games had Doom, and those that didn't wished they did. This game was played for years, spawned numerous sequels and modifications, and still compares favorably in terms of gameplay with any first-person shooter ever made(5).

If you have never played any of these early FPS masterpieces but like the shooters, I wholeheartedly advise you to give them a try. If you start with Wolfenstein and go chronologically through the games listed, you will receive a pretty good hands-on history of the genre.

Sources:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Nukem_3D
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_of_the_Dead_%28video_game%29
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metroid_Prime
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Wolfenstein
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_%28video_game%29