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5 First-Person Shooters That Dared to be Different
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Half Life
Precisely nothing can be said about Half-Life that hasn't already been said. It revitalised the first-person shooter. It did away with the restrictive concept of levels and it introduced many key elements to the genre that often fail to be implemented as masterfully even in today's games.
Half-Life was an atmospheric and thoroughly groundbreaking game for its time, ushering in a whole new era of shooting games.
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Mirrors Edge
Mirror's Edge prioritised running over gunning, placing players in the shoes of nimble-footed freerunner Faith as she ducked, weaved, jumped over and crawled under the gunfire of attacking enemies.
While Faith had weapons at her disposal, you could opt to complete the game using a far less deadly approach and do away with them altogether, thus offering a very unique take on the genre.
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Portal
Portal is a puzzle game with first-person shooter aesthetics, so while it handles similarly to any other FPS, its gameplay is far more complex than that of your run-of-the-mill shoot 'em up.
You're armed with a gun, yes, and you will need that gun to help you progress from level to level, but unlike your RPG, LMG or LMAO, the Portal Gun requires your intelligence more than it requires your lust for wanton destruction.
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Receiver
Receiver was created for the 7-day challenge to explore gun handling mechanics before making its way onto Steam, and it's perhaps the most unique interpretation of the actual handling of a gun you'll see in any video game.
The solitary handgun you are equipped with must be reloaded manually via a series of keyboard inputs, thus making the game more about muscle memory than it is about shooting things. Defending yourself against the unforgiving enemy drones and turrets is challenging to say the least, but there's nothing quite like the moment when you figure out how to put the bullets in your gun and then fire them without having to revert to the in-game instructions.
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Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six
Those who claim that the Battlefield series is the definition of a tactical shooter haven't played Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six.
Attempting to take on an enemy team with a carefree trigger finger would never end well, as each and every shootout would need to be approached intelligently in order to achieve victory. Not many games have emulated the intensity of real-life combat in the way that 1998's Rainbow Six did.
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5 First-Person Shooters That Dared to be Different
The first-person shooter genre is often said to be oversatured. Each year an abundance of shooting games, typically of the military variety, are released that bear striking similarities to one another, but despite this lack of originality the FPS remains the most popular genre in gaming.
However, there are some FPS's that stray from convention and deliver something truly unique. The following 5 games are shining examples of this.
