FPS games history can be traced back to 1973 with Maze War and ever since it has been the point of reference for the cutting edge technical advancements that have largely driven the industry, extending its branches into other genres and creating new ones, while also kickstarting what we now know as PC gaming with what is one of the most important games of all time, Doom. Nowadays, FPS games and its related genres are present in all consoles and platforms thanks to technology marching on.
For the sake of convenience, I’ve divided the genre into four major archetypes:
- First Person Shooters: The large majority of the games, also known as Doom Clones. Straight forward action games, rip and tear, shoot and destroy. Examples: Doom, Duke Nukem, Quake.
- Immersive Sims: AKA FPS/RPG. A niche genre that contains the FPS games that take a page from RPG games and add character progression, adventure, sneaking and conversation scenes mixed with pure shooting segments. Examples: Deus Ex, System Shock series.
- Environmental Narrative games: AKA Walking Simulators. A divisive genre for sure, but with a few brilliant games already. Most are first person based, worth discussing as an evolution of the genre. Examples: Soma, What Remains of Edith Finch, Dear Esther.
- First Person Puzzle games: replace the guns and shooting for tools and puzzles. Examples are Postal and Amnesia. A budding genre that has many branches.
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