![]() ![]() Firstly, Looking Glass boldly spun the whole central appeal of the ‘shooter’ on its head – by making a game which demanded you work to actively avoid combat. Thief transgressed the firm rules of FPS design in at least three critical ways. While both games served as shining beacons of how to present players with interactive narratives, it was the latter that, we’d argue, pushed the mechanics of first-person gaming even further than Valve’s celebrated masterpiece. The other, came in the form of Looking Glass Studios’ stealth genre cornerstone the all too often overlooked Thief: The Dark Project. The first, Valve’s revered Half-Life, had a prominent impact on gaming that has been widely documented. That all changed with two decisive releases, notably dropped in the same two-month period during the final quarter of 1998. Any sense of narrative would play second (or even, third) fiddle to visceral action. Variations of ID Software’s overpowered space marine, mowing down endless corridors of demonic entities with an ever-expanding arsenal of ridiculous weaponry abounded. The root of the diversification of first-person games can be traced back to the late 1990s when FPS design was still slavishly in thrall to Doom. READ MORE: Why ‘Dragon’s Dogma’ deserves more from Capcom.Each of which differently illustrate how malleable the ’through-your-own-eyes’ concept can be, in the hands of imaginative, ambitious designers. We’ve enjoyed the likes of cerebral comedy Portal 2, the recent time-bending thrills of Deathloop and the haunting tranquillity of the solitary Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture. The reality is, that players who favour originality over blood ’n’ guts have been extremely spoiled over the last twenty-something years. This artless impression of first-person gaming has sadly persevered, despite a great splintering into an assortment of sub-genres. For many non-gamers, it’s entirely possible that the mental image conjured when hearing the broad term ‘first person shooter’ (FPS) is something along the lines of a headset-wearing sofa-dweller, all-consumed by the likes of multiplayer military blaster Call Of Duty, furiously hurling insults at an eight-year-old in Fort Lauderdale and stubbornly avoiding doing the washing up. ![]()
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