How should I get started playing shooters - either first or third person? [closed]

Question

I have never played a First Person Shooter or a Third person shooter extensively (i.e. more than for a few minutes at a conference, launch event or friend's house). Never on PC's, never on consoles. Frankly I don't really understand (even after reading the Wikipedia articles) the nuances or differences between the two genres, if I've confused the two please suggest changes (or edit accordingly)

As someone who follows the game industry closely (and has for about 2 decades) clearly I've missed a key category of games (I've missed more - most of my gaming has been non-PC or console games).

But when I read about shooters - either PC or console much of the reviews and discussions seem to start from an assumption that the FPS/TPS genre is one that you have been playing for years and years - one that you understand and get the basic controls.

I do not.

I've tried playing FPS on my iPhone, I've tried playing them on various consoles. I've never been able to figure out how to move, aim, shoot and not die in a few seconds (or not die but also not find anything in the game at all - i.e. the few times I've tried playing Halo I spent the game lost and trying to figure out how to move).

About the closest I ever came to playing FPS was the old, arcade only MechWarrior games of the early 90's, but I was horrible at them due to being Red-Green colorblind meaning that I frequently would shoot my allies as often as I shot the opposing team. I understand that more modern FSP have generally managed to fix the all to common problems earlier generations of games had for players with colorblindness (though it is something that still worries me).

At present I only have Mac's (and an iPhone) but I plan on getting a console in the near future (haven't decided which yet) and while I do not run Windows on my iMac or my MacBook I could dual boot if necessary (I don't plan on getting a gaming PC but may consider that purchase in the future as well). I've also been considering getting Onlive and connecting it to our HDTV.

I'm less interested in specific game recommendations (which I understand are off topic here) than in how to find games which will be "newbie" friendly - something few if any critics whose reviews feed into MetaCritic talk about - as mostly they haven't been newbie players for many many years. I'm looking for how can a player who is unfamiliar with the basics of the genre get into to - are there specific series or platforms which will be easier for a new player (I'm assuming single-player modes will give me the most time to learn but perhaps I'm wrong)

I have no idea which genre(s) of FPS will most appeal to me - I've never played ANY of them - so I don't really get the differences between Halo, Gears of War, Call of Duty etc or all the many other games in the genre. Heck I'm not sure if something like Team Fortress fits into this genre at all (or if I would enjoy it).

Answer 1

I think the best thing to say about shooters is that they have a very steep learning curve. Modern shooters are very different to the shooters of the mid-late 1990s, simply due to the popularity of the internet.
Shooters released in the late '90s, like Half-Life and Medal of Honor were hugely successful, but were largely based around single-player gameplay. Modern shooters tend to be the opposite; focusing on online multiplayer gameplay, but with some single-player gameplay. This leads to the biggest problem in getting into shooters: the steep learning curve.

If I were to recommend a route for you to get into shooters, you have two main options:

• Get a really good single-player FPS (eg Half-Life 2), play it on easier difficulties in order to teach yourself something about shooters, ramp up the difficulty a bit, then when you feel confident try an FPS with a good online community.

• Get a really good multi-player FPS (eg a Call of Duty game, a Halo game) accept that there's a steep learning curve, dive in, die a lot, and slowly learn and get better.

Which approach you take is entirely up to you. I personally took the first approach, but mostly because when I was growing up we didn't have the internet, so I was playing games like Doom and Half-Life entirely offline in single player long before I was able to play shooters online.

With regards to some of the specific games you mentioned, I'll try and give you a quick basic rundown of the main players.

• Halo - As a series, this is largely a sci-fi FPS. There is a mixture of conventional weapons and alien weapons and technology, and the games typically have a strong single-player and multi-player experience.
• Call of Duty, Battlefield, Medal of Honor - these are the main FPS franchises which are based around modern (WW2 and later) military equipment, settings and personnel. Call of Duty in particular has very much gone down the road of "build a good multiplayer, and add on a quick basic singleplayer campaign".
• Gears of War is a third-person shooter, set in what could be called a near-future sci-fi setting.
• Team Fortress 2 - based on the Half-Life 2 engine, and is an FPS where you play as one of 9 classes, with set weapons and abilities, and the possibility to upgrade your gear permanently through drops or purchases from the steam store.
  TF2 is one of my favourite online FPS games. It's light-hearted and cartoony in nature, and is quite easy to get into, since beyond some small gear differences, a veteran player will have largely similar gear and abilities to a newer player, so will not have a huge inherent advantage (in comparison to a game like COD Modern Warfare 2, where a level 1 multiplayer player has almost no features or gear unlocked compared with a level 50 multiplayer player).

I find it quite difficult to try and explain some of these concepts from scratch, but hopefully I've done a decent job!

Answer 2

I don't think there is a significant difference between the a first-person versus a third-person shooter when it comes to ease of learning. Just pick a well-rated game of either type with a subject matter that interests you. As mentioned in the comments, recommendation of specific games to try is off-topic here, but you might want to checkout a site like MetaCritic to see some ratings and reviews.

Answer 3

Start with Doom and work your way forward; you could be like that xkcd comic, but be 18 years behind.

Answer 4

While it is not a shooter as in "shoot enemies", Portal

is my recommendation - with the exception of the timed puzzles you got all the time in the world to practice your aiming skills.