Looking for a single player FPS fix.

Casually Hardcore

So I just went through the single player campaign for BF3 and I need more.

I don't care about multiplayer. I just want a cinematic single player FPS experience that features a bunch of Americans beating up brown people or people with bad Russian accents.

Also, I prefer if it was longer then the 5 hours it took to beat BF3.

So, any suggestions?

Oh, I forgot to mention that I'm looking for PC titles.

iRevert

Battlefield Bad Company 2 and COD:MW2 are both semi-recommended single player games.

GnomeTank

Far Cry 3.

Can't recommend it enough.

bean23

So you only want military shooters? That's pretty easy. Counter-Strike, ARMA 2, Call of Duty series, Brothers in Arms series, Battlefield series, Operation Flashpoint, Rainbow Six series, Medal of Honor series.

Military FPS is a big cash cow and it is probably the most crowded genre there is around.

Steev

Aside from the usual stuff like Call of Duty and Medal of Honor, you could try Singularity. It's a pretty solid FPS set in some Russian place with some sci-fi elements.

Casually Hardcore

Well the thing with CoD and MoH is that (for the most part), they're short as all hell.

I really don't want to spend $20-$60 for a 5 hour long game.

I need something that lasts.

Steev

Well, Singularity is probably around 8-ish hours long. Took me about 10-11 hours, but I take my time. I'd say it's closest in mood to Bioshock than your typical FPS. Enemies pretty much range from Russians to Russian mutants.

bean23

Yeah, these games tend to be made for multiplayer. You can probably get some older ones on Steam for ~$20 and really low during their sales.

Honestly, the best bang for your buck in FPS isn't in this genre. The truly epic single player games (long length and high quality) are mostly sci-fi. Borderlands 1 & 2 have hours upon hours of gameplay, and if you haven't played Half-Life 2 and it's two expansions, you are missing out. You should also check out Portal 1 & 2. It's a sort of puzzle shooter as you get a portal gun that lets you place the entrance and exit points of a portal to be able to navigate levels and take out sentry guns. The writing is fantastic in all of these games too. The Portal games are fairly short, but they are also fairly cheap.

Jasconius

Have you played Borderlands 2 yet? It's quite nice.

GnomeTank

Yeah, it seems to me that BL2 and FC3 are the games you are effectively asking for. Deep single player content, long play times...just not real military in nature.

bowen

Some of the Call of Duty series might be a nice choice too, in that regard. I know CoD2 had a pretty great single player campaign, not sure how it's progressed since then.

Casually Hardcore

I have Portal 1 & , and I played BL1 for a long while but in the end it was just a FPS Diablo.

I'm looking for a Michael 'Explosions and Testosterone' Bay experience.

It sounds like Farcry 2 and 3 might be what I'm looking for, though I was far from impressed with Farcry 1.

GnomeTank

Far Cry 3 is much, much, much better than the previous Far Cry games. Made by a different company, who actually knows their shit. It certainly has it's quirks, but it's really a great game. I wouldn't even touch FC2, I couldn't stand FC2...but FC3 is really great.

e: FC3 also has one of the best villains of the year in it, even if by the end of the game his character isn't as fully realized as I'd like.

acidlacedpenguin

GnomeTank wrote: »

Far Cry 3 is much, much, much better than the previous Far Cry games. Made by a different company, who actually knows their shit. It certainly has it's quirks, but it's really a great game. I wouldn't even touch FC2, I couldn't stand FC2...but FC3 is really great.

e: FC3 also has one of the best villains of the year in it, even if by the end of the game his character isn't as fully realized as I'd like.

and it features an American messiah come to save the brown people by being a better native warrior than the natives while simultaneously beating up the other brown people.

But seriously, Farcry 3 is wonderful.

GnomeTank

Yeah, there is the whole white messiah angle which is...questionable...but almost inconsequential in the overall execution of the game. I'm still of the mind people were looking for something to nitpick with that entire mini-blowup we had about that. It's certainly an undertone, but I didn't like the leap people were making that the developers were racist scum.

e: As a side note, the white male fantasy of saving people by beating up the brown folks is pretty much specifically what the OP asked for, and FC3 certainly fits that bill real nice. As do most of the CoD games, and Battlefield, et al.

Lawndart

I'd heartily recommend Spec-Ops: The Line if you haven't already played it, but to be fair it's a rather different take on the military shooter genre.

It's short, but it's also been on sale for under $10 repeatedly, if you don't mind waiting.

GnomeTank

I'll second Spec Ops, if you're willing to question yourself a couple of times through out the game, and if you're willing to deal with an experience that will leave you emotionally drained at times. It took me a couple of weeks to beat, because it was quite draining (in a good way).

Great Scott

You know, although it might be a stretch, the Bethesda Fallout games can be played as FPS's and have insanely long main missions. It's not precisely what you're looking for but the length is good and replayability is really good.

The VATS system is entirely optional, although admittedly it makes those games more challenging. Which might be good from your perspective.

The Ender

Does it have to be first-person? I'm really tempted to recommend Just Cause 2 if you want a big, loud blockbuster experience that will last hours.


Have you tried Brutal Doom by chance? I don't know if you'll get 8 hours out of it, but Goddamn, re-experiencing that game shook my senses for just how talented Romero is/was at level design.

Casually Hardcore

Holy shit

Far Cry 3 features a crafting system and skill trees?

Freaking brought!

iRevert

We shouldn't forget about STALKER and Metro 2033 because well you know dem rooskies.

Mulletude

Second Metro 2033 so hard.

If you like FPS games then you really owe it to yourself to check it out.

And if you haven't played Half Life 2 and its expansions, get to it.

[edit]Good pickup with Far Cry 3. It doesn't necessarily have the set piece moments scripted in but you create so many of those on your own that it doesn't matter.

Hewn

It's not military, but BioShock is my favorite single player FPS ever. Brilliant game.

illig

if you're on a budget, and you don't play multiplayer, i highly suggest switching to a console and subscribing to a game rental service

i was in the same boat as you - i love FPS games but i don't really have the time for multiplayer, so i would spend $65 for a new title, finish it in 5-8 hours, and lose interest

now i use Gamefly, and i just have a queue of games that get in the mail, finish, and send back for ~$20/month... unfortunately they only service consoles AFAIK

TychoCelchuuu

For $20 a month you can buy like 800 FPS games on sale when Steam has a big sale. Project Snowblind, Republic Commando, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, Far Cry, Far Cry 2, Crysis, Crysis Warhead, BioShock, BioShock 2, E.Y.E., RAGE, SiN Episodes, Spec Ops: The Line, etc.

Gammarah

Bulletstorm definitely fits your description. So much testosterone. I would also try Painkiller

Eat it You Nasty Pig.

I need to buy FC3, apparently

I enjoyed Metro 2033, but it was kind of too 'on rails' for my taste. It does pretty much have the bad russian accent thing on lock, though

HyperAquaBlast

Syndicate is a pretty cool visceral FPS with some skill trees if you want that.

F.E.A.R. 1 & 2 are also good action FPS with a few scares for good measure.

TelMarine

If you can find it, I'd say Soldier of Fortune1. It's not on Steam or gog.com for some stupid reason though. I have no idea how the single player in Soldier of Fortune 2 turned out, only played the multiplayer.