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Was 2016 the best year EVER for shooters?

Overwatch and Doom are it and theyre B grade at best. BF1 is casual junk with no legs. Average year. 2007 goat.
I'm sort of with you but this is too over the top. Bf1 is pretty weak in terms of battlefield for me but casual trash? C'mon man. overwatch has issues but it's one of the strongest shooters I've played in a while. Right about doom tho.
 

Wensih

Member
I don't know if I'd consider Uncharted a shooter, unless any game that involves shooting is a shooter.

I mean Uncharted has always been classified as a third-person cover based shooter. I'm not sure why Uncharted 4 would magically challenge this classification, especially when a lot of the combat scenarios are cover-based shooting galleries, albeit ones where stealth or brawling is more helpful.
 

Th3-Pr0

Neo Member
2007 was a better year, and i like 2004 more too:

-Half-Life 2
-Counter-Strike:Source
-Doom 3
-Unreal Tournament 2004
-Halo 2
-The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay
-Far Cry
-Tribes: Vengeance
-Painkiller
 

TS-08

Member
I mean Uncharted has always been classified as a third-person cover based shooter. I'm not sure why Uncharted 4 would magically challenge this classification, especially when a lot of the combat scenarios are cover-based shooting galleries, albeit ones where stealth or brawling is more helpful.

I would challenge that classification. Also, you seem to be defining gameplay as combat. Uncharted 4 has substantial amounts of non-combat gameplay. Maybe the problem is "shooter" is so broad a label for a game that it really is borderline pointless.

I mean, I haven't played it, but can't you play Watch_Dogs 2 with little to no gun shooting if you prefer? Is a game a "shooter" if shooting is optional?
 

gow3isben

Member
Definitely up there for best FPS year of all time:

- DOOM
- Overwatch
- Battlefield 1
- Titanfall 2
- Deus Ex Mankind Divided
- Dishonored 2

Then a couple more middling level but high-profile ones:

- Call of Duty Infinite Warfare
- Battleborn

The first 6 especially were top tier in terms of critical reception even amongst increasingly harsher review scores.

As a third person guy I'm kinda salty about this.
 
1999:

Counter-Strike
Quake 3
Rogue Spear
Syphon Filter


Nothing comes close to that really. I even skipped some mediocre games like Team Fortress Classic, AvP, etc.
 

Ptaaty

Member
Best in a long while. I was around / gaming in both 1999 and 2007, 2016 is right up there. 2016 has just been great for shooters...really an embarrassment of riches.

I would say 2007 though, but barely.
 

SRTtoZ

Member
Yea thats pretty damn good. I'm ashamed to say that I didn't play Doom until Xmas day (I asked for it for Xmas) and its one of the best shooters ive played in a very long time.
 
Yes. Overwatch, Doom 3, Battlefield 1, and Titanfall 2 cement it as the culmination of a number of years of minor advancements leading up to really big results. BF4 and Battlefront begat Battlefield 1, Titanfall 1 and Black Ops 3 begat Titanfall 2. Modern Warfare remaster is also superb, and stuff like Division, Destiny, Watch Dogs 2, Mafia 3, Uncharted 4, etc are just amazing toppings on the beautiful sundae we all got to enjoy this year.
 

borges

Banned
I was going to post: "No, because Halo 5 got released on 2015", but man, that list you posted is undeniable. 2016 FTW.
 

Catvoca

Banned
It's definitely up there. Insane amount of good shooters for both multiplayer and single player. I was not expecting a good fps campaign revival but here we are.

Yep. Probably the best ever.

I can't believe more people aren't talking about Infinite Warefare's incredible campaign.

I finished it today and it was so good! Maybe the best Call of Duty campaign ever. That might actually sell it short since it's better than "just a good call of duty campaign". It's superb in nearly every way.
 

Rathorial

Member
2007 was a weird year where a ton of important ones of larger variety came out for people, and I don't think that has been beat.

2016 is probably the best year since then though, as I can't recall a single year between where so many shooters have been in my top 10 of the year.
 

avens

Neo Member
In order of importance, the best were 1994 (Doom taking over the world), 1999 (multiplayer games taking over the genre) and 2007 (CoD4 being the main influence of FPS games to this day).

After that top 3, the next years come way behind. Out of those it could be 2004 and maybe 2016, which were good years but won't have nowhere near the impact of the said top 3.

And BTW, even though I really liked the 1999 era as I practically spent my teenage years playing Quake, still 1994 has to be the best year by far. It's a no contest. At that time Doom was installed in more PCs than Windows. Even my dad had it.
 
1994:
DOOM II
System Shock
Marathon
Heretic

1999:
Counter-Strike
Quake III
Syphon Filter
System Shock 2
Unreal Tournament
Team Fortress Classic
Rainbow 6: Rogue Spear
Half Life Opposing Force


2007:
Half Life 2: Episode 2
Portal
Team Fortress 2
BioShock
Modern Warfare
Halo 3
Crysis
STALKER
The Darkness
Quake Wars
Unreal Tournament 3
Metroid Prime 3


Doom, Titanfall 2, and Battlefield 1 are the only shooters that did anything for me this year. Of the others I played, CoD sucked, Uncharted 4 had some of the most godawful pacing I've seen in a game, OW was a snoozefest, and Deux Ex was mediocre.
 

Rathorial

Member
I would challenge that classification. Also, you seem to be defining gameplay as combat. Uncharted 4 has substantial amounts of non-combat gameplay. Maybe the problem is "shooter" is so broad a label for a game that it really is borderline pointless.

I mean, I haven't played it, but can't you play Watch_Dogs 2 with little to no gun shooting if you prefer? Is a game a "shooter" if shooting is optional?

Half-Life 2 also had decent amounts of non-combat gameplay from physics puzzles to full on vehicle sections with no combat. The minority of Uncharted 4's gameplay is non-combat sections.

I don't think a game can be a shooter when shooting is consistently just an option like Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Uncharted 4 though...regularly forces you into combat where you need fire-arms. They threw in more sequences where you can opt for stealth, but it's not consistently a way to get through every encounter, and instead you still shoot a lot. The previous entries were skewed even further towards shooting, and really the combat of Uncharted has more depth, mechanics and time in it than they ever dedicate to any other single aspect of gameplay.

Shooter like any big genre classification fits when that is that is the element given the most attention, and most of what you do.
 

TS-08

Member
Half-Life 2 also had decent amounts of non-combat gameplay from physics puzzles to full on vehicle sections with no combat. The minority of Uncharted 4's gameplay is non-combat sections.

I don't think a game can be a shooter when shooting is consistently just an option like Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Uncharted 4 though...regularly forces you into combat where you need fire-arms. They threw in more sequences where you can opt for stealth, but it's not consistently a way to get through every encounter, and instead you still shoot a lot. The previous entries were skewed even further towards shooting, and really the combat of Uncharted has more depth, mechanics and time in it than they ever dedicate to any other single aspect of gameplay.

Shooter like any big genre classification fits when that is that is the element given the most attention, and most of what you do.

I don't think this is accurate. But I'll admit I could be misremembering. But regardless, it's definitely pretty close to even with combat sections, and closer than I think you are remembering.
 

RBIYF

Neo Member
I think 2007, 2004 and 1999 beats this year...especially in terms of FPS releases that redefined the genre.

2007:
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
BioShock
Team Fortress 2
Half-Life 2: Episode Two
Portal
Halo 3
Crysis
STALKER
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
The Darkness
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
Unreal Tounament III

2004:
Half-Life 2
Halo 2
Unreal Tournament 2004
The Chronicles of Riddick Escape from Butcher Bay
Counter-Strike Source
Far Cry
Doom 3
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Battlefield Vietnam
Star Wars Battlefront
Tribes Vengeance
Painkiller

1999:
Counter-Strike
System Shock 2
Unreal Tournament
Quake III
Half-Life: Opposing Force
Team Fortress Classic
Medal of Honor
Rogue Spear
SWAT 3
Aliens vs. Predator
 

Zemm

Member
You also forgot devil daggers.

Devil Daggers
Titanfall 2
Doom
Overwatch
UC4
Quantum Break
Shadow Warrior 2
Superhot

This year is certainly up there with the best, I wouldn't say best ever but I think we'll look back at this year with very fond memories.
 
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