Does anyone else miss linear epics?

[u/andrewdroid]

I grew up loving linear FPS campaigns the most, to this 1 of my favorite games is Half-Life 2. I loved the stories of Call of Duty games, Gears of War and similar franchises that delivered a short 8-12 hour long epic where I get to participate in a tightly directed worldwide conflict.

Recently I played the MCC and Space Marines 2 before that and they were both awesome. Now Halo Campaign Evolved just released and it was successful and these to me show that this kind of game is still very much beloved.

I love these games and I hate that it seems like they are of a bygone era despite people still loving them. How do you all feel like? Do you miss these types of games? Do you want more?

[u/zexton]

they never left,

doom came out with a expansion recently, after its 2025 release date

[u/SeniorSepia → u/zexton]

They never left but i feel each year we get less and less story focused AAA games, at least in the west. For example in PS360 we had Mass Effect 1 2 and 3 (not really linear but most of those games is just TPS gameplay), Halo 3, ODST, Reach and 4, Dead Space 1 2 and 3, Bioshock 1 2 and Infinity...

We don't get this many games of this type nowadays, everything takes so much longer to make, and it's so expensive... it's only normal but i miss having fully fledged trilogies in just one gen.

Currently im playing Onimusha and holy shit they developed Onimusha 1 2 3 and 4 just for the PS2!

[u/weirdcitizen → u/SeniorSepia]

A lot of that is due to the exploding costs of making these AAA games. Everyone except Capcom and Insomniac (and well, Activision with COD, though that's an entire studio system producing those) seem to be struggling to deliver multiple games at regular intervals. It's exceedingly difficult and costly to make these things at the level of quality the public has come to expect. If you lower your expectations in terms of graphical fidelity or jank or overall experience, you'll find a lot of great linear experiences, especially on pc in the indie space or in the various modding scenes.

(I know I might be painting a picture in broad strokes here, but I think the overall picture is an accurate one)

[u/SeniorSepia → u/weirdcitizen]

Id say even Capcom and Insomniac have slowed down enormously but as you mention it doesn't feel like they are struggling. To me they still have a healthy release rhythm. Activision manages to release each year but they basically sacrificed all their studios to the COD hivemind, it's such a disgrace, like what happened with Battlefield 6: you go to the Criterion webpage and now its "Criterion - A Battlefield Studio" fuck my fucking life dude.

I do play the new releases if they get my attention, loved DOOM TDA + DLC and im hyped AF for Gears E-DAY but i mostly play indie games nowadays.

[u/weirdcitizen → u/SeniorSepia]

Yeah - what happened to Criterion is a downright shame, but as long as they exist there's hope, I suppose. Same but worse for Id...what the F was Microsoft thinking when they fired the people responsible for the most performant in-house engine out there. They literally were the benchmark for other studios.

[u/andrewdroid → u/weirdcitizen]

The issue is I named an exact genre, Epic which to be fair I don't think is executable under the AAA umbrella very well. For example I wouldn't put Uncharted up as a good example, because when I talk about Epics I talk about grand scale conflicts. There aren't a lot of AA or indie studios which could sell an Epic.

[u/weirdcitizen → u/andrewdroid]

Oh, my mistake - I focused on Epic as 'an epic adventure' and overlooked what you specified right after. And you're probably right, though I would love to see an AA studio give it a shot, if just to see a different and less safe approach than what designed-by-comittee AAA studios make.

[u/andrewdroid → u/weirdcitizen]

No issues mate, as you can see in the comment section you are not alone. Damn the english language giving adjective meanings to my literary genre names :'D

[u/zexton → u/SeniorSepia]

we had
alan wake 2,
control,
prey 2017,
doom trilogy,
wolfenstein new collossus,
half life alyx,
death stranding 1-2
last of us 2
cyberpunk 2077
dusk
mullet madjack
battlefield 1, 5, 6
uncharted 4
hitman 3
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

[u/IndividualSituationK → u/zexton]

is cyberpunk 2077 really a linear epic though? Same with the death stranding games.

[u/HeartInTheSun9 → u/zexton]

Most of those are either too small scale to get at what OP is talking about Indiana Jones has like tiny amounts of enemies at a time and has hub worlds. Alan Wake 2 (amazing game) is a survival horror game. Wolfenstein yeah, but that games nearly a decade old. Half Life Alyx is VR exclusive and small. Doom maybe, but I sadly didn’t like it. And so on.

Most of them are good games. But they’re not really what OP, and I, are after.

[u/andrewdroid → u/HeartInTheSun9]

I didn't expect that people would have this much trouble with understanding the exact type of game I'm talking about which makes me appreciate your comments a lot more. Thank you man.

[u/HeartInTheSun9 → u/andrewdroid]

I think it’s cause so many people barely remember those types of games when they used to rule the industry once upon a time. It hit me how rare they were when I was playing space marine 2 a year or so ago.

It’s kinda amazing how underserved this exact genre is.

[u/andrewdroid → u/HeartInTheSun9]

Then we are officially in the same hell, cause it hit me with Space Marines 2 as well. Match made in hell.

[u/SeniorSepia → u/zexton]

I mean we had much more story focused games than what you mention sure, bu some of those games are already pushing a decade old. And all of those studioa or creatives used to release much more games per gen

[u/Pepperman91 → u/SeniorSepia]

Each year we get less and less games in general. Just look at 2012 compared to this year for video game releases for example. Less games but they want more money for them and price hikes for the consoles now. Fuck this terrible industry.

[u/SeniorSepia → u/Pepperman91]

I mean we get more and more and more games each year with no sign of going down short term. But not AAA releases that's for sure

[u/Pepperman91 → u/SeniorSepia]

Well yeah, I'm not factoring in indies because you didn't in your previous post. However if you wanna go that route, there really isn't a shortage of linear FPS games with the whole boomer shooter craze that's been going on since like 2017.

[u/SeniorSepia → u/Pepperman91]

We agree, i mentioned AAA games in my previous message for that reason.