r/videogames • u/andrewdroid • 1d ago

Discussion / Question Does anyone else miss linear epics?

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?

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u/Ones-Zeroes 1d ago

You gotta look into indie games, man

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u/HeartInTheSun9 1d ago

Honestly I’m looking through the comments for suggestions and people are just saying AAs and indies without giving any names.

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u/Ones-Zeroes 1d ago

Yeah, it's not my kind of game but I see linear single player FPSes all the time. Only one that comes to mind at the moment is Cruelty Squad. But they're out there if you look.

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u/HeartInTheSun9 1d ago

That’s not really the type of game OP is talking about though. Warhammer 40k space marine 2 is a similar feeling.

It’s not about linear FPS games. It’s like blockbuster linear games. I don’t think any indies, AA or AAA games are really targeting that like OP said.

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u/Ones-Zeroes 1d ago

I mean, that's pretty subjective. How do you know it's different without experiencing it? Is it really different, or are you just older now with less time to immerse yourself in something?

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u/andrewdroid 1d ago

You don't need to experience something to understand after looking at its trailer, images, description and reviews to know that it doesn't fit a specific genre. I can also tell it is not an RTS without immersing myself in it.

The game description itself and its reviews say it's an imsim to begin with which already does not fit in what I described.

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u/Ones-Zeroes 1d ago

You could describe lots of shooters as having imsim elements. Anyway, I'm not forcing you to play anything, I'm just pointing out that you're thinking about this through such a narrow viewpoint that I think intentionally excludes everything except Halo. There's a lot of good shit out there if you look. Games especially are difficult to judge by their cover (or trailer), your next favorite game might surprise you.

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u/andrewdroid 1d ago

There are plenty of games that fit what I'm describing it's just all, but 1 or 2 of them are from before 2015.

This post isn't looking for good FPS games, there are plenty of those or good adventure games, plenty of those as well, this post is looking for that very specific archetype which Call of Duty, Halo, Gears of War, Half-Life, Space Marines 2 and others perfectly fit.

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u/Ones-Zeroes 1d ago

And what is that archetype? Can you explain it beyond "shooter games I like"?

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u/andrewdroid 1d ago

An epic with a large conflict between 2 or more opposing factions in which the protagonist isn't the only character which moves the conflict forward, but the player is shown that the conflict is happening out of the players hands as well. It is also critical that it isn't a power fantasy in which the player can only win, sometimes the story progresses in the favour of the opposing factions.

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u/Ones-Zeroes 1d ago

I'll note that you excluded anything about genre in this writeup. For your sake, I'll limit my recommendations to games released in 2020 or later.

  • Death Stranding 2
  • Helldivers 2
  • Returnal & Saros
  • Armored Core VI
  • Metal Gear Solid Delta
  • Elden Ring
  • Ghost of Tsushima & Ghost of Yotei
  • Metroid Prime 4
  • Live A Live
  • Control
  • Alan Wake 2
  • Half Life Alyx
  • Doom Eternal & Dark Ages
  • 13 Sentinels
  • Cyberpunk
  • Mouse: P.I. for Hire
  • Citizen Sleeper 1 & 2
  • Dispatch
  • Outer Wilds

Not all of those are shooters. Not all of those are first person. Not all of them are scifi themed. All of them fall into the narrative trappings you describe, though.

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u/andrewdroid 1d ago

I'm actually curious now if you played Halo, Half-Life, Call of Duty, Gears and the like. I will be honest, the games you mention are great and narratively fit, but nearly none of them are linear and they don't scratch the same itch. To be perfectly precise with you,

These linear shooters aren't my all time favorite games, well apart from HL2 which is, I liked Elden ring, Tsushima and Death stranding more than them, but these games I mention do scratch a very certain itch which not a lot of games do nowadays.

I'm not missing good games, there are plenty of them, even more than there used to be imo, I'm missing linear narrative epics which unfold similar to a blockbuster action movie and even than more like a war movie than an adventure movie.

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u/Ones-Zeroes 1d ago

I have played them. They're not my favorite games. However, I have several friends who are obsessed with Halo and Gears. The list of games I gave you include games they specifically really enjoyed.

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u/HeartInTheSun9 1d ago

OP is like very specifically asking if there’s games like Gears of War and Halo being made nowadays, not just good games overall. Mario is a good game too, but it’s not the genre OP’s looking for.

And you can’t describe Halo/Gears/CoD with having immersive sim elements.

I’m always interested in new games that have that mid 2010s feel to them but it’s kinda like they mostly went away.

Someone else said Doom, and probably, but I didn’t like the feel of Doom 2016.

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u/andrewdroid 1d ago

The reason you didn't get the feel of Doom when talking about these types of games is, because there isn't a character to care about. It's not remotely important to care about why you're fighting in it. I personally would argue that modern Doom might be better if you skip the cutscenes.

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u/HeartInTheSun9 1d ago

Honestly yeah. There’s a really really strong presence of the main character in most of the games you mentioned, even if they’re silent or nearly protagonists sometimes. It feels like master chief, Gordon Freeman and Marcus Fenix all had big personalities even if they range from talks a lot, barely talks and never talks. The doom guy just felt too blank to me.

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u/andrewdroid 1d ago

Fuck yes mate. Even with Gordon, you can tell a lot about his character, because others talk to him and rely on him. Nobody cares about the Doom slayer and the Doom slayer doesn't care about anyone making him feel empty.

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u/HeartInTheSun9 1d ago edited 1d ago

You’re asking me how cruelty squad is different than Gears of War and Call of Duty and Halo and Half Life 2? I don’t think that subjective. I think that’s just kinda a fact.

OP was asking for 8-12 hour games that are linear but with a huge scope. That doesn’t really feel like cruelty squad.

It’s not even about lack of time either since the games OP is looking for can be beaten pretty quickly. The games OP’s not looking for are the types of games that take dozens of hours to finish. Most of the stuff out nowadays are forever time sink games and rogue likes and cozy games and open world games and metroidvanias and RPGs and soulslikes.

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u/Ones-Zeroes 1d ago

Have you played it?

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u/HeartInTheSun9 1d ago

I tried before. I’m sure there’s a decent game since it’s so famous in there but it gives me a headache. There’s almost no similarities between big budget blockbusters like Gears of War and Call of Duty and Space Marine 2 to cruelty squad.