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GENRE FOCUS: FIRST PERSON SHOOTERS
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THE HOLY RAIL
“We look at everything when we are making a game,” says Infinity Ward’s creative strategist Robert Bowling. “I think it is important to appreciate the work everybody is doing, no matter what the genre. Really, when making Call of Duty we look at all genres such as racing games and RPGs, and incorporate elements of all of them. “We will play an RPG and go: ‘This xp, ranking and perk ability is awesome’ and that inspires decisions in our games. And that is why we are moving away from being a first person shooter to creating a first person action game.” Kikizo director Adam Doree, who has just launched FPSgamer.com, adds: “You can’t understate the contribution survival horror games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill have made to the shooters’ transformation from B-movie fare to something capable of real atmospheric nuance and narrative sophistication. Also significant on this front – as broader cultural influences – are Stephen Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan and the Alien films.” Indeed, today’s shooters are a far cry from the FPS of yesteryear, so much so that some titles – such as 2K’s latest Borderlands and Nintendo’s Metroid Prime series – have looked to drop the first person shooter moniker altogether. “We have developed Metroid Prime Trilogy with a viewpoint to seeing how Metroid – a 2D game – would change in 3D by utilising a FPS platform,” explains Kensuke Tanabe, who oversaw the Prime series as manager of production group No.3 at Nintendo’s Software Planning Development Division. “So it’s important to understand that the idea is based
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on pursuing a better Metroid on a FPS platform, rather than a better FPS title that utilises the Metroid franchise. In that sense, we adopted a unique categorisation for our game — the first person adventure.” LEFT FOR DEAD First person shooters may be the world’s leading video game genre, but breaking into the sector can be a tough task. For every BioShock or Far Cry that cuts through, there is a Haze, Turning Point or XIII that falls aside. In 2007, Midway put millions behind the launch of Blacksite: Area 51 even telling MCV that it expected the title to top the
Right now our sights are trained on Natal. It’s an opportunity to exercise some genre evolution. Mark Betteridge, Rare charts. But the game failed to even impact the Top 40. The latest publisher attempting to crack the tough FPS market is SouthPeak, with its multiplayer-based Section 8 – which launched last month. “It’s been tough, especially for a company the size of SouthPeak, to bring through games that compete on a similar level with established brands such as Halo and Operation Flashpoint; let alone the behemoth that is Modern Warfare,” comments SouthPeak’s European marketing director Ed Blincoe. “Bringing new, innovative features and gameplay with you doesn’t guarantee interest or visibility with
the consumers and you have to fight hard to make sure your voice is heard over the shouts of others.” FUTURE PERFECT Looking ahead there are plenty of new first person shooters on the horizon vying for attention. This year gamers will be enjoying Left 4 Dead 2, Modern Warfare 2 and Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, while 2010 boasts even more sequels, including BioShock 2, Ghost Recon: Predator and Red Steel 2. There’s new IP coming too, in the form of Activision’s promising Singularity and 2K’s Borderlands, while Sega is looking to crack the FPS market with the classic Aliens vs Predator licence. “The Alien and Predator are amongst the most iconic film characters in the history of Sci-Fi ,” says Sega’s senior product manager Ben Walker. “The Colonial Marine has pretty much been the blueprint for futuristic FPS characters in recent times; and all of this affords us with incredible awareness and familiarity, which is a rarity in the genre.” And what can we expect after 2010 – especially with the launch of Project Natal and Sony’s motion controller? Rare’s Betteridge concludes: “It’s still a booming business, you only have to look at the success of the Halo series to see that. And we’re obviously very happy about the excitement over Perfect Dark coming back to Xbox Live Arcade. “Right now our sights are trained on Natal, which is a great opportunity to break new ground with content and gameplay, It’s also an opportunity to exercise some genre evolution, so hopefully we’ll be able to develop something on that front.”
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A sub-genre to the FPS is the onrails shooter. These games were particularly popular in arcade rooms during the ‘90s, with the likes of Virtua Cop, House of the Dead and Time Crisis dominating the sector. However, as the arcade industry went into decline on-rails titles began to die out – with just a few enjoying moderate success on consoles. Until the arrival of Nintendo Wii, that is. Nintendo’s console is crammed with on-rails shooters, including House of the Dead: Overkill, Dead Space: Extraction and Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, which have all received postive reviews in the specialist press. And Capcom’s UK PR manager Leo Tan feels that on-rails games can do a job not covered by your typical first person shooter: “When the beauty of your product is in its simplicity, I don't think you want to risk losing that beauty by overcomplicating,” he said. “In that sense, you could argue that it's challenging to innovate, but within the limitations of that simplicity amazing things can happen. “When the director is free to tell the story that he wants, how he wants, a game becomes closer to the kind of experience that a film offers. Every aspect of the camera control and pacing is strictly directed and elements like plot progression can be masterfully orchestrated. That’s the kind of experience that our upcoming Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles on Wii is going to deliver.” Sega’s senior UK product manager Ben Walker adds: “Historically, Sega’s FPS line-up has been borne from its arcade roots. Titles such as House of the Dead and Ghost Squad have long been arcade favourites and with the advent of the Wii and its control system, there’s now a natural console home for these shooters.”