What was the first ever first person shooter to feature a secondary fire mode? I can think of a couple of 1997 examples (Outlaws, Blood) but I wouldn't be surprised if it had been done a year or two earlier. I think Duke Nukem 3D had a secondary fire for throwing additional pipe bombs, but I'm not sure that really qualifies.
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I don't know if this falls under what you're asking, but Ultima Underworld (1992) had both melee and ranged weapons, some weapons allowed for different types of attacks depending on where the cursor was held.– pinckermanSep 17, 2021 at 13:39
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Thanks - that's an interesting bit of info to add, though I'm really thinking more about first person shooters as opposed to first person games in general.– SamSep 17, 2021 at 13:41
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2what do you define as secondary fire? a different button doing the secondary fire action? or a button to switch modes?– RapitorSep 17, 2021 at 13:51
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I hadn't considered the latter actually. I'm thinking standard secondary / alternative fire e.g. Unreal Tournament, Half-Life etc. What did you have in mind though?– SamSep 17, 2021 at 13:55
1 Answer
My answer is Star Wars: Dark Forces in 1995.
The game is often referred as a Doom clone, but it also added gameplay features that were uncommon to the first-person shooter genre at the time of release.
This comes from its original manual:
For combat, the player may use fists, explosive land mines and thermal detonators, as well as blasters and other ranged weapons. All weapons, with the exception of the fist, have a secondary mode which makes it have a different effect than in primary mode.
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1Thanks! I actually revisited this game just a couple of weeks back (but bounced off it pretty quick). Not sure if I remembered when I played it that there was a secondary fire.– SamSep 20, 2021 at 7:38