Shooter. From Wolfenstein 3D to the present day

Start h4>


Maybe someone here expecting to see the logo and DOOM would have a right to it, however, is not. Most agree in the opinion that the beginning of the genre put Wolfenstein 3D, as we are told numerous sources, including Wikipedia and beloved by many. The first ever first-person shooter, the ancestor of the whole genre that thrives to this day, a child of the legendary Id Software , gave the world Doom and Quake. But that was then. Back in 1992 he was Wolfenstein 3D. It must be noted that the first game of the genre not only defined his canons, but also sets the basic themes of successful Single-shooters for the next 10 years. The struggle against the Nazis.



However, Wolfenstein 3D defined the most important - the vector itself game design such projects. What is a shooter in the classic view on this day? This is a game often bellhop who represented 'levels', enclosed room in three-dimensional space, with a clear layout of enemies loot own route. Most often, the purpose of the next level is to find the way out of it, for the further passage through the story and / or killing all enemies. Sometimes there are variations on the theme of the performance of any task, unobtrusively located upstream of that "route" in the level. If you exaggerate, any shooter, whether the product is game design twenty years ago, or the latest Call Of Duty - it's unobtrusive "corridor", the motion by which we must destroy everything that moves and not moves to move and destroy. Facing over this same "corridor" modern game designers diluted gameplay specific tasks like "blow up three barrels C4 charge", as well as colorful NPC, the similarity of thunderstorms all doors, Captain Price.

In general, merit Id Software And Джона Carmack particularly difficult to overestimate, as they have made a huge contribution to the development of the gaming industry, as we'll discuss below.

Doom h4>


Doom became an icon for a whole generation. Apogee popularity of the project was achieved with the release of the second part of the game, Doom II. Large selection of weapons, highly dynamic, varied enemies and captivating simplicity of the idea of ​​the game played a role. Thousands keyboards fell during the passage of the offspring Id. Additional charm added setting of the game and a fresh idea of ​​confrontation various "hellish" creature. Variety of weapons, as well as most of these hordes of creatures only added fuel to the fire.

Unfortunately the author's fame and popularity of Doom and Doom II eclipsed such successful projects studio Raven Software (unreleased game all the same Id Software ) as HeXen and Heretic, performed in a fantasy setting of.



When creating these projects, the basis was taken engine Doom, therefore, at first glance, it may seem a game modification, however, is independent projects. In Heretic were presented 8 weapons, as well as a number of artifacts that provide various bonuses and effects.
Released the same year later HeXen had more replayability to the background of Doom and Heretic, as players were available to choose from three different characters to complete the game: Mage, Warrior and Monk. Each of the characters has its own set of weapons (4 types for each character), and the combat model. For example, a Warrior in first-person shooter is actually a melee character with some spells, depending on the type of weapon, the Magician - typical for the setting character, ranged, and Monk - something in between the previous two. Just attended the features of interaction with inventory items. For fans of Doom and Doom II, are not familiar with the games mentioned series highly recommend to read, you will not be disappointed.

Quake h4>

The second contribution Id Software , went down in history is the creation of games Quake and Quake II in 1996 and 1997 respectively. Just played a significant role not only to the projects themselves, but also their "engine", actively used in the future by other studios. The guys from Raven Software again no luck, because their projects and Heretic II HeXen II again eclipsed brainchild Id Software .
However, the main merit of Quake is that it used a polygonal model of engine operation, unlike the engine Doom, which occur in drawing using sprites + information about the height of the object. Namely the establishment of such a game engine can be taken as the starting point of a new round in the development of the genre of shooters. An interesting fact is also that most of the engine personally wrote the previously mentioned John Carmack. Just Quake project gave the world such a thing as eSports, for which we should be grateful to him immensely. Subsequently, based on the Quake created a number of modifications, for example, Team Fortress, designed by Robin Walker, John Cook and Ian Coughlan in 1996. But flywheel igrostroya already been promoted and Quake is not long could regale on their laurels. In parallel with the Quake, in 1996 left the game Duke Nukem 3D . However, an attempt to catch up with rival Id Software guys from the studio Apogee Software, developer Duke Nukem 3D, failed. The project, which was announced as Duke Nukem: Forever , development of which began in 1997 was only released in 2011. The carefully selected names for their projects, perhaps it's karma. In contrast, epic fail Quake 2 came out fairly quickly, in the same 1997.

Interesting fact about the Quake: due to a number of hidden features the game can go in less than 15 minutes. The official record is 11 minutes 29 seconds, a full walkthrough - 48 minutes.

The era of Half-Life h4>

It is not surprising, legs grow out again Id Software , but this time by the then young company Valve Software . Significantly reworked the original engine Quake (subsequently received the name Gold Source, or simply Source) Gabe and the company issued in late 1998 on the mountain of the game, which is becoming legendary and rightfully ranks alongside Doom, and in some aspects is above thereof.
First Half-life players won novelty ideas. In this part, we are not cool special forces soldiers or soldiers of the second world, but simply a theoretical physicist. Just Valve went on a very controversial step for the shooter - it's a long prehistory before the beginning of hostilities, which reveals what led to disasters in the world, Half-life. At that time, Half-life fascinates with its graphics and the idea of ​​having won a whole army of fans. The story Gordan Freeman in the second part of the game finally secured a position as HL one of the greatest projects of modernity, and fans had long been waiting for the third part. By the way, the rumors about the end of work on a new version of the Source engine provides tangible hope to see HL3 at least in this decade. Or not.
Just can not ignore the restart Wolfenstein 3D on existing capacities. Exit the game Return to Castle Wolfenstein once blew up the market, and new technologies have allowed the game to acquire new parts and features. This time the project is being developed studio Gray Matter Interactive, Id Software and only takes a leadership development as brand owners Wolfenstein. Against the background of Half-Life this project looks a little pale and belatedly, however, he won his niche among shooters dedicated period 2nd World War, on par with the Medal Of honor and the first Call Of Duty.

The beginning of the era of network shooter. Quake III Arena, Unreal Tournament and Counter-Strike h4>

The author deliberately shifted the relative chronology of the narrative for the sake of completeness.
Again ubiquitous Id Software leave their mark on history igrostroya. With the development of data networks and the Internet guys released in 1999, the game Quake III Arena. A special feature of this project is exceptional "Grind" under the concept of cyber and multiplayer competition. No plot, no hesitation. Just pull cards, opponents, loyal Rocket Launcher and hope to raise the Quad Damage. Quake III safely be called the next breakthrough in the history of shooters. The maximum stress on the personal skill of the player and focus on the competitive component of the inverted idea of ​​what should be a shooter, more precisely, the output of the game creates a new sub-genre within the shooter.

And now a little eSports Quake by Cooller. Patchy mesmerizing.


Parallel to Q3 developed Unreal Tournament (hereinafter UT), which was positioned as a direct competitor brainchild Id. Podospevshaya by 2000 Counter-Strike - multiplayer modification HL definitively determine the appearance of the market competitive shooters for a long time until the present day. However, we are not talking about e-sports here, right?

The separation of the genre and total domination network shooter h4>

After the release of CS, Q3 and UT market shooters split. Like mushrooms after rain, many studios have rushed to rivet "shooting", sometimes mediocre and miserable, hoping to snatch a piece of the fame and money. But the basic concept was outlined: you either do Single player shooter or team project network. Thus the world was infinite, if you look from the current point, a series of games Call Of Duty, Battlefield and Medal Of Honor, which is the underdog in this fight. Major battles unfolded between Call Of Duty and Battlefield, primarily due to their cross-platform. It is worth noting that the participation in the development of CoD took the guys from Raven Software, Activision who were absorbed back in the nineties, so it's safe to say that the new faces in the industry is not so much. Previously mentioned games are consistently in the top sales for consoles PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Similarly, Microsoft has its own line of space saga shooter «Halo» - exclusive for the Xbox. In essence, feeling goldmine developers are not going with her slazit, from year to year only offering new weapons and methods of extermination of opponents. Gives some hope recently released Titan Fall, however, there is not a purebred bellows happened the same Call Of Duty in profile, but with huge walking robot that press people claws.
In general, the console had, in the opinion of the author, the negative impact on the FPS as a genre. Certain limitations in the design of the gamepad forcing developers to cross-platform projects raping physics shooting, movement of the camera, as well as to come up with such a controversial thing as "cantilever body's regeneration." At the moment, almost none shooter you will not find canonicity strips and health kits only strawberry jam on whole screen in wounds. Rolls-harbored. The new word in game design shooters!
Creating cyber projects similarity Quake 3 or CS 1.6 was not commercially profitable, although the company Valve and released not long ago CS: GO, but as a logical replacement outdated CS 1.6 to maintain eSports market in the discipline (and was still CS Source, about he failed miserably with fantastic). Also on the background of total interpenetration of genres and other Assassin Creed'ov shooter in its purest form is not so interesting, although the yield of recycled Wolfenstein: The New Order gives us some hope for further development of the genre. Just at E3 2014 was announced the release of a new Doom by Id Software. B>

What do we have now? H4> In principle, all on so invariably, we have a cyber-discipline, cheer Battlefield and "call duty", restarting the old series. Perhaps develop this genre has nowhere to go, and maybe we are just not ready for any change in the established canon. In any case, the past dynamics of the genre is not observed. Yes, there are elements in shooters RPG, multi-million dollar budgets and new engines, however, the evolution of the genre remains a big question. Perhaps the situation will change dramatically in the general availability release devaysa Oculus Rift, the development of which, just do not be surprised engaged is the same John Carmack , which begins with this post. Perhaps the founding father of the whole genre can bring revolutionary changes in their offspring after more than a quarter century. For now we can only wait and believe.

P.S. Perhaps not all was covered. Maybe not in those details public wanted. I have not talked in more detail about the first part CoD, not mentioned Serios Sam, we do not talk about Crysis and its eternal backswing on grafon. And we have 3 parts Far Cry and a bunch of other projects. Nothing was said about Quake 4, which is a continuation of the plot Quake II. I deliberately did not pay much attention to shooters last ten years, because they look like brothers, talking about them stands alone, as too many nuances that look funny on the background of the general scope of the post. H6>
 With respect.

Source: habrahabr.ru/post/226353/