Nigel

I remember playing Rise of the Triad, Heretic, all these early Sega 3D games, I have loved this genre since it began! I remember it was Heretic that “introduced” a new “hub-based” level design and that became pretty standard by the time Valve resealed HL. Also OP, no mention of Duke Nikes 3D?! Omg that was a bigger deal when it came out than it is remembered for! Pushing adult humor, elaborate boss fights, very novel at the time! I was an absolute boss at Goldeneye but lest we forget, it was Turok that really brought console audiences to FPS (I thought it was ‘meh’). When Soldier of Fortune 2 came out (first one I played was the sequel) it was the first time I’d ever seen destructible character models, and it was horrifying! Unreal Gold was the first game I played with “advanced” enemy AI (and an interactive soundtrack!) And love it or hate it (I didn’t love it) Unreal Tournament was more popular than Quake 3. Red Faction came out the same year I believe and was the first FPS to feature fully destructible environments. Serious Sam was a little later but it was notable because we got as much as 150 one screen enemies. It’s pedantic but saying Halo “saved” Xbox is misremembering things: Microsoft was an owner of the IP with Bungie studios and released Ninety Nine Nights and Halo with the console, so it’s a stretch to say it was “saved,” but it sure did work! There were lots of fun developments, thanks for the read!