More often than not, games will disappoint rather than surprise us; however, once in a while, we get the exact opposite! A trailer for an FPS game comes out that gets absolutely savaged by fans, and every new detail just makes everything seem worse. Then, the shooter finally drops and, somehow, hits a complete bullseye, becoming one of the best games of the year.
As far as I can remember, this positive bait-and-switch has only happened a couple of times over the last few decades, at least with the FPS genre. The lesson might be to “never judge a book by its cover,” but that’s not really true since most games tend to meet our expectations. Let’s just enjoy these exceptions when they happen, as we only seem to get one surprisingly great single-player FPS game per generation.
DOOM (2016) Looked Like A Total Disaster
Dread Turned To Adulation In Seconds
- Rock bottom expectations due to DOOM 4 being stuck in development hell and a terrible multiplayer beta.
Hard as it is to believe nowadays, but DOOM seemed all but dead in the mid-2010s. Id Software had been developing DOOM 4 since 2008, with reports suggesting that it would copy from Call of Duty‘s playbook. After DOOM 3 shifted the franchise in a way that not everyone enjoyed, another “chasing the trends” game was the last thing that fans wanted, and DOOM (2016) didn’t ease those fears with its trailers, disastrous multiplayer beta, and lack of review copies.
While the multiplayer mode mostly lived up to everyone’s nightmares, the single-player campaign instantly shattered all expectations, and I do mean instantly. Within the first 10 seconds, the Doom Slayer smashes a skull, cocks a shotgun, and discards an exposition-dump, letting everyone know that DOOM has no intention of being just another modern shooter. Bolstered by an incredibly satisfying Glory Kill system, the game embraces pure arena-shooter design, effectively kickstarting the boomer-shooter renaissance in the process.
I almost went with Wolfenstein: The New Order, as it followed a similar pattern to DOOM. However, I feel like the trepidation was much higher for DOOM than Wolfenstein.
Metroid Prime Was Going To Kill Samus Aran
Maybe The Best First-Person Adventure Game Ever
- Nobody wanted first-person Metroid.
After the all-time great Super Metroid, Samus Aran went on a well-earned hiatus for 8 years, skipping the entire N64 generation in the process. As you can imagine, the gaming world was desperate for something new, and none of them were hoping that Metroid would change perspective and become a first-person shooter.
Early 3D console shooters were notorious for clumsy controls, and Metroid Prime confirmed its FPS status before Halo: Combat Evolved had a chance to show that the genre could work with a controller. Even though Nintendo stressed that exploration takes precedence over shooting, the move still seemed like a misguided attempt to revamp a neglected franchise by following others’ footsteps. Nintendo handing the IP to a Western studio didn’t help matters either.
You probably don’t need me to tell you what happened next. Metroid Prime is not only one of the best games of all time but also a true example of a massive transition that succeeded in retaining what made the original version great.
BioShock 2 Was A Blatant Cash Grab
The Only BioShock Game With Fantastic Gameplay
- More BioShock was good; a direct sequel to BioShock was puzzling.
Sometimes our fears can be proven simultaneously true and false.
When 2K Games announced BioShock 2 and a return to Rapture, the response wasn’t defined by excitement. The original team and creator weren’t involved, and the sequel was handed to a new studio that just screamed “B-Team.” 2K also revealed that you play as Big Daddy, the existence of Big Sister, and a multiplayer mode. All these things combined to make BioShock 2 seem like a cynical cash grab designed to exploit people’s love for the original masterpiece.
Well, BioShock 2 is a cynical cash grab designed to exploit people’s love for the original masterpiece. It also significantly improves BioShock‘s core mechanics, being far more enjoyable to play as an FPS game. Even with the release of BioShock Infinite, BioShock 2 holds up as the trilogy’s strongest game mechanically, and it’s the only one worth playing solely for the gameplay.
Honestly, BioShock 2‘s story isn’t bad either, and Dr. Sofia Lamb’s collectivism ideology serves as a sharp contrast to Andrew Ryan’s individualism.
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare Drowned In Hate
A Top-Tier Sci-Fi Shooter Campaign
- People were sick of sci-fi COD.
Backlash against Call of Duty had been mounting for a while by the mid-2010s, and Infinite Warfare was the trailer that finally broke the dam wide open. Garnering millions of dislikes, the internet straight-up rejected the game and the franchise’s futuristic direction, which had already overstayed its welcome after Advanced Warfare and Black Ops 3. Activision also decided to lock Modern Warfare Remastered behind Infinite Warfare‘s Legacy Edition, throwing another gallon of gasoline onto the fire.
Putting aside the pretty generic multiplayer, Infinite Warfare ended up featuring one of the very best single-player campaigns in the series and, honestly, the entire FPS sci-fi genre. Despite taking place in Deep Space, the story grounded itself in war lessons and logistics, all the while focusing on a captain who must shoulder the burden of command. You also have a combat android, which is never a bad thing.
Even if you have no interest in the story or characters, Infinite Warfare also plays like a dream, combining traditional corridor shooting with zero-g battles and even space dogfights.
Prey Looked Nothing Like Prey
The Definitive Prey
At E3 2011, Human Head Studios dropped this epic cinematic trailer for Prey 2, a cool-as-heck open-world sci-fi bounty hunting game that we would never get to play. After canceling that project, Bethesda revealed Arkane Studios’ upcoming game at E3 2016: Prey. Sharing nothing in common with the 2011 trailer or the original 2006 Prey, the whole thing seemed like an attempt to squat on a registered trademark.
To be frank, I was annoyed by this whole ordeal, as I was (and still am) a fan of the classic Prey. Arkane had put together a couple of awesome games by 2017, but Dishonored 2‘s terrible PC launch was still fresh in a lot of people’s minds, and this whole thing just seemed wrong.
Nowadays, Prey is widely regarded as one of the greatest immersive SIM RPGs and as Arkane’s best game. It was such a success that it kind of wiped the original Prey out of existence, becoming the default masterpiece associated with that release.
