Recommend some Good Story Driven Single Player FPS games?

Zarathustra[H]

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So,

Most recently I've played through some really good story driven FPS games, and I'm hungering for more, but I can't think of any obvious choices.

Recently I've played through:
All the Deus Ex Games (yes, even re-played the original)
All the Bioshock Games
Fallout 3, New Vegas and 4

I've also previously enjoyed:
The STALKER series
The Half-Life series
Metro 2033/ Last Light

Are there any really good story driven FPS games I've missed out on, current or older, I really should play?

I never actually played Crysis. Was it actually a good game, or just ranted about for its awesome visuals for the time?

I'd appreciate some recommendations!
 
Crysis is good but the story isn't Deus Ex or Mass Effect good by a long shot. It is worth replaying the earlier levels a few times to because you can approach areas in different ways, for example via the ground stealthily or by boat. Crysis 2 and 3 were not as good but still very solid FPS games. The recent Wolfenstien games are good, the first being better than 2 though.
 
Singularity is very Bioshock like, but VERY good.. Darkest Of Days has an OK story, but what you can do once you beat the game is worth it.. Both are dirt cheap right now but also a bit unknown.
 
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Lets see.. the Dishonored series is certainly worth playing if you enjoyed Deus Ex and or "Thief" type games. It can be played combat focused or stealth focused, with story elements and whatnot linked to how you progress - there are lots of ways to approach a given problem and the amount of "Chaos" you cause (ie killing too many people ) will impact both story/ending and gameplay mechanics (more of certain types of monsters). Even the "boss" encounters and main missions have multiple solutions - I can recall the first "real" mission has 4 possible endings based on what you do and how; as expected, the "hardest" thing to do often rewards the "best" outcome Give the original a try as its cheap now - be sure to pick up the Definitive Edition which comes with a couple pieces of DLC which are actually mini-expansions that introduce a noteworthy character that will return in later titles (play through the main campaign first though)! Its $10 right now on sale!

The "Borderlands" series is a noteworthy FPS series that mixes FPS dynamics with "Diablo" style loot-n-shoot to great acclaim. There are 3 "mainstream" titles - Borderlands, Borderlands 2, and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel . Some people suggest skipping the first one and going right for the second - be sure to get all of the game content DLC (there are cheap costumes/colors too, but most of the DLC are entirely new character classes or expansions!) so I'd pick up the GOTY edition of Borderlands 2 to start and then any of the DLC you missed . At its worst it can get a little "grindy" as Diablo-style titles but all 3 games have a novel storyline, which really starts to come alive in BL2 (and The Pre Sequel, which is the 3rd game released in the series but takes place chronologically after BL1 but before BL2 and the player characters are actually some of the enemy faction from BL2) with humor. It can be played through solo just fine and you'll have 6 chjaracter classes to play, each with 3 talent trees to specialize in so there's lots to do to find something you enjoy. If you decide to play multiplayer, you can play the entire campaign in up to 4 player co-op, drop in drop out if you wish! Many many hours of fun! If you enjoy BL2, then pick up The Pre Sequel and its content as well.

Prey (recent version) is a noteworthy, bioshock-esc title with a good story. You gradually unlock more abilities over time and the story reveals itself in a very Bioshock-ish manner, so that's to be enjoyed I'd think.

Quantum Break is story heavy - I've not played it myself as of yet, but I hear that the story/acting is definitely one of its highlights. All rthough, its more Third Person than first. If that's okay I can offer quite a few others like..

Resident Evil 5, 6 and 7 - All 3 of them are enjoyable for different reasons that bring survival horror story and combat together. 5 and 6 are "over the shoulder close follow" style not unlike Quantum Break etc... and 7 is first person.

The Evil Within (and its sequel) - From the creator of Resident Evil, this is another survival horror 3rd person title! It has some different mechanics that I've heard are worth checking out - its on my backlog.

Tomb Raider and Rise of the Tomb Raider - Third person, but both are story-based action-adventure and greatly acclaimed

Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines - An older title but incredibly well received, this is a Deus Ex contemporary set in the VTM world. There are some really fantastic mods and total conversions/expansions of sorts, but I suggest to play the main game with the latest version Wesp's Unofficial Patch - http://www.patches-scrolls.de/patch/4647/7/ - and use the "Plus" version, which has an absolute ton of improvements including fixing bugs and unfinished quests. Definitely story heavy!


Wolfenstein The New Order (+ The Old Blood expansion ) and Wolfenstein: The New Colussus - Really well done indeed mixing old school action with an enjoyable alternate-history narrative! Many feel "The New Order" (and its expansion The Old Blood, which actually takes place prior to The New Order, so feel free to play it first I think) is a bit better than "The New Colussus" but they're both worth playing.

CONSORTIUM - A little known yet exceptional experimental title, Consortium is a FPS with an incredibly detailed world/lore (Note: lots of stuff is actually on their website + ARG if you are interested). In short, the game is quite "meta" in that its is posed that you are, by playing the game, connecting to a satellite that lets you inhabit the body of a person in an alternate dimension who is for lack of a better word, a military officer in part of a global peacekeeping force headed by an AI entity. You have 4+ options for every conversation and incredible freedom within the story - if you want to tell the first person you meet "I'm actually a guy playing a video game in another dimension" you will be suggested to go to sickbay and some people will think you've gone batty! Push it, and you migtht find yourself confined to quarters for psych eval...and then maybe you can stay, or breeak out or lots more. Want to blow away all of your allies, ignore orders, play by the book, act in a treasonous manner and try to join the enemy, be a top notch soldier who always follows orders etc... and it will impact the way the story plays out. The game's sequel "Consortium: The Tower" is in development and it will allow import of Consortium saves that will of course impact the situation. Hopefully The Tower does well too. If you can put up with older generation graphics, this is a unique title with novel narrative freedom indeed!

Alpha Protocol - If you want story focused, this is NOT TO BE MISSED! In third person perspective, its like playing an action-shooter-RPG within the world of your favorite spy novels. This is one of the few games that has really done a great job with a conversation and faction system too, along with branching storylines based upon it. Each character has a -10 to +10 rep scale and it affects how they relate to you in many ways. This is impacted by the conversation system that has at least 3 if not 4 types of responses (ie typically a "professional/Jason Borne" , "suave/James Bond", and "aggressive/Jack Bauer" inspired response, plus a special situational 4th option) that can make others love or hate you. The gameplay itself is also important in lots of choices will affect the future in big ways. I highly suggest playing on the "Recruit" class the first time through, as if you beat the game as a "Recruit" background, you will unlock the "new game plus" type mode with the "Veteran" background which has a ton of skill points to start and will actually let you do certain things the second time around you couldn't the first!

Think that's enough to get started, but I know I have more out there...
 
Lets see..

Think that's enough to get started, but I know I have more out there...

Wow! That's quite the write-up. Thank you for that. I'll have to go through this list.

Anything 3rd person tends to be a total turnoff for me, bit there are plenty of good ideas in this list.
 
I'd check out Alien Isolation. It's not a shooter, but it is first person view, it's an rpg similar to deus ex, but even closer to system shock 2. It's the scariest game I've ever played, I don't know if that's a plus or not for you.

I don't know if you played DX: Invisible War or not. It was very underrated, and it's definitely not as bad as it was made out to be. Much like ME:A recently.

Both games, I mean Farcry and Crysis are often remembered as having great graphics but otherwise forgettable, I think that couldn't be further from the truth. To me Crysis was an awesome game, but not for the story, but because of the no hand holding approach of it. Meaning you decide to go in guns blazing, sneak around, find a back way, or find a lookout point and snipe out the enemies, or even go in a tank, or any combination of these. I liked Crysis Warfare also, it's more of a classical shooter with lots of action instead of open areas to explore. And if you can get past the aging graphics I'd fire up the original FarCry as well. It's almost the same as Crysis gameplay wise, but with less scifi elements. It had some tense moments in it that I still recall to this day. I still prefer FarCry over Crysis. I'd recommend playing the games on realistic difficulty, that's where their true value lies. If you play on low difficulty it easily devolves into a generic uninspired shooter, but on realistic, well it's just that, realistic. For me FarCry was instant hit, as I finished the demo map of it at least half a dozen times, until I could not find any other routes to take to the objective. Yes it's so old that demos before release were still a thing.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare: It was hated by the cod fanboys, but it's one of, if not the best campaigns I've ever played.

I've written a few words (in some cases more than a few) about these games in the reviews thread.
 
I'd check out Alien Isolation. It's not a shooter, but it is first person view, it's an rpg similar to deus ex, but even closer to system shock 2. It's the scariest game I've ever played, I don't know if that's a plus or not for you.

I don't know if you played DX: Invisible War or not. It was very underrated, and it's definitely not as bad as it was made out to be. Much like ME:A recently.

Both games, I mean Farcry and Crysis are often remembered as having great graphics but otherwise forgettable, I think that couldn't be further from the truth. To me Crysis was an awesome game, but not for the story, but because of the no hand holding approach of it. Meaning you decide to go in guns blazing, sneak around, find a back way, or find a lookout point and snipe out the enemies, or even go in a tank, or any combination of these. I liked Crysis Warfare also, it's more of a classical shooter with lots of action instead of open areas to explore. And if you can get past the aging graphics I'd fire up the original FarCry as well. It's almost the same as Crysis gameplay wise, but with less scifi elements. It had some tense moments in it that I still recall to this day. I still prefer FarCry over Crysis. I'd recommend playing the games on realistic difficulty, that's where their true value lies. If you play on low difficulty it easily devolves into a generic uninspired shooter, but on realistic, well it's just that, realistic. For me FarCry was instant hit, as I finished the demo map of it at least half a dozen times, until I could not find any other routes to take to the objective. Yes it's so old that demos before release were still a thing.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare: It was hated by the cod fanboys, but it's one of, if not the best campaigns I've ever played.

I've written a few words (in some cases more than a few) about these games in the reviews thread.

Forgot to mention the Far Cry games, even Far Cry 2 was good (but had some flaws). CoD Infinite Warfare was certainly good for a CoD game. Decent length, not too short either. It is far from excellent and the story itself is very weak but there is some nice character banter which is enough to carry it. Probably the best CoD campaign to date though. CoD WWII isn't as good (they removed the ability to choose weapons before a mission) but it was a step up from some of the previous games. Certainly worth looking into as well.
 
Wow! That's quite the write-up. Thank you for that. I'll have to go through this list.

Anything 3rd person tends to be a total turnoff for me, bit there are plenty of good ideas in this list.

That knocks out Mass Effect, with its great story (and characters and evolving gameplay with RPG roots). The game does go first-person for most aiming though.
 
Far Cry 4 - It was the first of the series for me. Not an amazing story but I quite liked the format and the feel was kinda authentic to what I felt when visiting Nepal. A good balance for a casual game where you don't need mega reflexes to push through. Kind of like a more likable and engaging GTA V.

Titanfall 2 - Heaps of fun as a campaign. One of the best I've played actually. Do yourself a favour though and don't read any spoilers. It's hard to have a genre re-defining game as in the old days, but this title has some nice little story innovations rolled into a AAA experience.
 
Freaken Max Payne 1 & 2. (Yes I know its 3rd person, but it plays like a shooter). And the story is really good.
 
The best story driven single player games are mostly 3rd person, unfortunately for you OP. Even more unfortunate is that the best ones are made by Naughty Dog, which are PlayStation exclusives (OP has said before that the only reason he plays games is to use his PC, not necessarily for the enjoyment of the games themselves, which doesn't make much sense to me, but to each their own I suppose).

I think it's worth trying to push through the 3rd person phobia though if you want to experience the best stories games have to offer though. The Mass Effect series pretty much plays like a FPS for combat, so I would hope you could at least play that comfortably, as it's an amazing game series and story.
 
Kingdom Come: Deliverance !!

It might be worth waiting a week for the major patch because the savegame system is expensive at the start of the game and there are bugs and crashes that can mean you lose hours of game time multiple times.
Even with that its an awesome experience, as long as you have the time.
Each run I do slightly different things or visit other areas and it doesnt disappoint.
its art in many different ways.
 
If you want an entirely different take on how a story can be told and still a bit of shooting (Stasis Rifle counts), I cannot recommend Subnautica enough.

I'm about to finish it and what a god damn masterpiece. Everyone should play this game.
 
My main issue with this is that the better shooters usualy have a worse story and vice versa which does not mean I find the games bad.

I'm gonna add my picks

Wolfenstein the new order + old blood and new colossus
Borderlands series (2 is best imho)
Rage
Titanfall 2
Crysis series (again the 2nd one holds my preference)
Mass effect series
call of duty Black ops was pretty good if you haven't played it already.
 
All of the Wolfenstein series after the original. Quake 4 is pretty good. The Crysis series is amazing, in my opinion. You can't go wrong with any Call of Duty, really. Battlefield 4's single player campaign was one for the books. Doom 2016 is one of the best I've played in years. All these titles have varying degrees in how involved the story is, but all of them are told through the gameplay instead of intruding the experience with lengthy cutscenes.
 
All you guys have a funny interpretation of FPS.
Yeah I winced when I posted Kingdom Come but its such a good story and you can use a bow and arrow :p
It might have the appeal he is looking for.
 
All you guys have a funny interpretation of FPS.


Yeah, many of these are 3rd person.

That being said, I have a pretty open interpretation of what constitutes FPS.

Is it first person? If yes, then I'll call it an FPS. I don't even really care if you shoot in it.

I've seen people get horribly nit picky, and refuse to call games like Deus Ex which have RPG elements in them but otherwise are first person shooters FPS. That is just silly to me.
 
If you've played The Evil Within


They just released a Patch for The Evil Within 2 which makes it first person.
 
Having just recently beat Titanfall 2 I recommend that. That campaign was just a lot of fun. And man was THAT one chapter amazing bit of gameplay and storytelling. I'm sure people who played know which level I'm talking about.
 
Yeah, many of these are 3rd person.

That being said, I have a pretty open interpretation of what constitutes FPS.

Is it first person? If yes, then I'll call it an FPS. I don't even really care if you shoot in it.

I've seen people get horribly nit picky, and refuse to call games like Deus Ex which have RPG elements in them but otherwise are first person shooters FPS. That is just silly to me.
I'm with you on that. Calling Skyrim or KCD a FPS, I'll let it slide. But calling a third-person game a first-person game makes me salty.
 
Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines - An older title but incredibly well received, this is a Deus Ex contemporary set in the VTM world. There are some really fantastic mods and total conversions/expansions of sorts, but I suggest to play the main game with the latest version Wesp's Unofficial Patch - http://www.patches-scrolls.de/patch/4647/7/ - and use the "Plus" version, which has an absolute ton of improvements including fixing bugs and unfinished quests. Definitely story heavy!

Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines is one of if not my favorite RPG of all next time to Witcher 3. I REALLY wish they'd make another game in this world with the same atmosphere, or just remake this one. Fun fact about it: it was the first commercial game to use the Source Engine before Half Life 2 even released.

Thank you btw for posting about that patch. I actually never completed the game... back when it first came out there was a game breaking bug in one of the later quests where you couldn't progress in the story anymore. So I quit it and never tried it again waiting for patches to be released that fixed it. I will definitely play it again now and attempt to finish it. I still have fond memories of the haunted house level. What a great game. Atmosphere, music, and everything.

That aside, here are some recommendations from me I recently enjoyed:
  • Elder Scrolls: Oblivion & Skyrim (liked Oblivion more)
  • South Park: The Stick of Truth and The Fractured But Whole
  • Fallout 4
  • Resident Evil 7
 
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Hmm. I never considered this one after it was nearly universally panned when it first came out.

Is it more Doom-like, or slower and more strategy based?

call of duty Black ops was pretty good if you haven't played it already.

Huh. I've never even considered playing any of the Call of Modern Battlefield games, just based on what little I know of their online play. I didn't evne realize they had single player campaigns.
 
Hmm. I never considered this one after it was nearly universally panned when it first came out.

Is it more Doom-like, or slower and more strategy based?

It's definitely more of a shooter than anything else. I would describe it as a id shooter with occasional RPG elements. I wouldn't say it was great though. Personally the texture pop-in is what kills the game to me. It's terrible and there is no fix for it.
 
Huh. I've never even considered playing any of the Call of Modern Battlefield games, just based on what little I know of their online play. I didn't evne realize they had single player campaigns.

The SP for Battlefield Bad Company 2 was top notch. Highly recommended. I always played the SP on all the Battlefield games prior to even touching MP and they're all worth playing, IMO.
 
Huh. I've never even considered playing any of the Call of Modern Battlefield games, just based on what little I know of their online play. I didn't evne realize they had single player campaigns.
They're pretty much if Michael Bay made a video game, but it's good because being interactive means you get emotionally invested.
 
Hmm. I never considered this one after it was nearly universally panned when it first came out.
Is it more Doom-like, or slower and more strategy based?

Huh. I've never even considered playing any of the Call of Modern Battlefield games, just based on what little I know of their online play. I didn't evne realize they had single player campaigns.

Rage has a bit of strategy in it but it is basically a post apocaliptic shooter with some driving around in it. You get to choose which ammunition you use with your guns like electric arrows for your crosbow so you can electrocute mobs in water.

I hear lot's of complaints about the texture pop in but I never had issues with it for some reason.

for COD I only play the single player campaign for them, I think they are at least decent to good although they are on the short side 5-7 hours usually is enough to get trough them.
 
No one lives forever 1 and 2 are good if you like secret agent type games. (With a bit of humor thrown in and also a female lead)
+1 to Vampires: Bloodlines. Absolutely love the haunted hotel level. Really really good with mods.
L.A. Noire is good game if you like the 40's-50's detective type of thing. Sort of like the Mafia games. (I like Mafia 2 the best though)
Also went back and started to replay Bulletstorm which while not the best game, does have it's moments.
Been also continuing my game of Singularity which is a decent FPS game.
 
Huh. I've never even considered playing any of the Call of Modern Battlefield games, just based on what little I know of their online play. I didn't evne realize they had single player campaigns.

Possibly a unpopular opinion here, but I am one of the few left who only buys Call of Duty games and Battlefield games for the campaign. That being said these Call of Duties had great campaigns and I am ranking them from my favorites to least favorites:

  1. Infinite Warfare (Big whoop wanna fight about it? In all seriousness, this campaign was fucking awesome)
  2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
  3. Modern Warfare 2
  4. Modern Warfare 3
  5. Black Ops 3
  6. Black Ops 2
  7. Black Ops
  8. Advanced Warfare
  9. Call of Duty
  10. Call of Duty 2
  11. Call of Duty 3
Battlefield games:

  1. Battlefield: Bad Company 2
  2. Battlefield 3
  3. Battlefield 4
  4. Battlefield 1
  5. Battlefield: Hardline
 
Damn, this thread has me rethinking my decision to stop buying COD titles after MW2. If only for the SP experiences.
 
Portal/Portal 2 are puzzle solving episodes, but the dialogue is pretty funny (mainly targeted at "mean girl" humor, but interesting).
 
Titanfall 2 for sure. It surprised me. I only played it for the single player. Its worth it. Also the new Wolfenstein games of course. Then you have Farcry 3 and 4. Alien Isolation if you like terrifying games that look amazing. Dishonored 1 and 2 maybe? Never played them. Call of Jaurez Gunslinger is actually really fun for a little arcade western shootem up with a compelling story, game is probably $10 or less too.
 
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