What happened to all the WWII FPS?

[Mike Rotch]

As the title says, where did they all go?

I grew up on a diet of Medal of Honor

Brother in Arms

And of course the first iterations of Call of Duty

.

But it seems that in the last 3 years, WWII themed FPS are just completely ignored - despite all of the above games getting huge critical acclaim of selling well enough to set the trend for FPS we have now.

I guess 'more recent' conflicts are in fashion, but I find it a huge shame that WWII themes are just cast asunder completely.

I wish MoH would return doing what is does best - WWII.

 

[F1 fan]

Call of Duty 4 happened.

 

[Prosthetic]

The Vietnam fad happened.. then the modern combat fad happened.

 

[Akira AC]

Modern warfare happened, COD WaW also was WWII themed, and was like the only good one in recent years.

(I don't really liked Brothers in Arms Hells Highway, it was bad and it was filled with flaws, this comes from a guy who used to love Road to Hill 30 and Earned in Blood, probably one of the most realistic shooters, as well one of the most entertaining).

 

[F1 fan]

I have a friend who is a huge Brothers in Arms fan. He took the week off work for Hells Highway and I bumped into him on the monday afternoon shopping for another game at Game (the store).

Bit of a shame, he was really looking forward to Hells Highway's release. Funny nonetheless.

 

[RTSolvalou]

War shooters became a dime a dozen and it blandified the genre.
The original Medal Of Honor was awesome, back in EA's glory days, I liked the Dreamworks collaboration. When Rising Sun landed it was clear we were going to get a new MoH every 6 months.

 

[Syntax error]

Massive fan of the genre and Allied Assualt is by far my favorite, which I still boot up occasionally. I too am disappointed that the WWII shooter has been ignored. Airborne had the opportunity to be great but I was disappointed that they deviated so much from reality with the stupid Nazi Death tower thing. I hope MOH return to their roots, I didn't buy the latest modern incarnation of the series as I feel that CODMW and Battlefield fill that part of the gaming market nicely.

 

[Darren.]

Call of Duty WAW? No more WW2 game because Duke Nukem Forever Happened.

 

[E28]

Call of Duty WAW? No more WW2 game because Duke Nukem Forever Happened.

WWII FPSs dissapeared before Duke Nukem Forever happened. What actually happened was that 'all da cool kidz thought that CoD4 was like, todally awesome, innit'

 

[granturismite]

Bleeding Cod went modern along with popularising multiplayer. So every developer and their dog decided "modern setting" FPS is the way to go. Plus every storyline has been extracted from WWII. Modern settings can make up stories for their 2 hour singleplayer movies campaigns

WWII games may have had a more balanced weapon classes, a better attempt at a storyline and a more involved singleplayer, but there are only so many Nazi's to shoot.

and to conclude, damn CoD to a place with lots of fire

 

[Mike Rotch]

Thanks for your contributions everyone

Bleeding Cod went modern along with popularising multiplayer. So every developer and their dog decided "modern setting" FPS is the way to go. Plus every storyline has been extracted from WWII. Modern settings can make up stories for their 2 hour singleplayer movies campaigns

WWII games may have had a more balanced weapon classes, a better attempt at a storyline and a more involved singleplayer, but there are only so many Nazi's to shoot.

and to conclude, damn CoD to a place with lots of fire

I agree that everybody is playing follow the sales-leader now. Pity.

Multiplayer is still possible in a WWII setting - Americans, Russians, Italians, French Resistance - all possible nationalities to include (Nazi's may be a bit sensitive).

I disagree on story line angles too - as has been said, all current FPS are duplicates of each other. MOH was epic because it was espionage based. So continue that in single player and then branch out to the aforementioned nationalities for multiplayer 👍

Massive fan of the genre and Allied Assualt is by far my favorite

That opening stage where you get off the landing craft to a hail of bullets was epic!

 

[Darren.]

WWII FPSs dissapeared before Duke Nukem Forever happened. What actually happened was that 'all da cool kidz thought that CoD4 was like, todally awesome, innit'

It happened in 1997. DNF Did.

 

[MeanElf]

If it's WWII you want, IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey is a fine air combat game. There are others coming out too, on PC only though.

Not the same as ground but you can do the whole thing in sim mode cockpit view.

 

[Sharky.]

Call of Duty 4 happened.

Pretty much this. Up until COD4, the vast majority of FPS titles were set in and around the WW2 era - Medal of Honors, pre-COD4 Call of Duties, BF1942. COD4 burst onto the scene with a contemporary setting, sold over ten million copies and became the benchmark FPS. From that point on, passing up a "modern warfare" setting in favour of the WW2 genre (which had been well and truly done to death by then imo) was development suicide unless you were a Call of Duty studio. BF2 was contemporary back in 2005, but it was COD4 that really kickstarted the modern era type of games.

When you think about it, it makes sense - you'd expect people would be more interested in fighting with current-day weapons and tech like the AK47, M16, AUG, Uzi and jets instead of old antiques like the Sten, M1 Garand, Type 88 and Tiger tanks.

 

[Bigbazz]

To be honest, the world war 2 thing had been done to death, nice to see a change. Also, the AK47 isn't a modern era gun.

 

[dxm8975]

I'm also a fan of this genre and discouraged that WW2 themed/related games has been disregarded, although there's only one I own... But I've heard MoH is of great treat and especially the multiplayer is well set up so as to continue entertaining us with co-operated playing we hadn't much experienced before..

To be honest, the world war 2 thing had been done to death, nice to see a change. Also, the AK47 isn't a modern era gun.

So are you in favor of current instalments with simulated in a conflict between two nations or so, likely to happen in the foreseeable future?

 

[DustDriver]

I started playing World Of Tanks the other day. Some nice WWII tank action in that.
Still, a new Battlefield style game in a WWII setting would be welcome.

A Spitfire on a strafing run sets the mood way better than the sound of a jet engine.

 

[Akira AC]

However, I have to say that the WWII theme was indeed used to death, there is at least 5 CODs, almost all of the Medal of Honour series and a whole bunch of dreadful games around that I can count until 2006(at least 25).

I'm not defending MW games, but in WWII games is always the same story, except in COD series(with the introduction of Russian playable faction), the rest is just exactly the same battle of the bulge or the same operation overlord, and everyone knows how it is going to end, there is plenty of conflicts to cover, for example the medieval crusades or the ancient Greek wars, or the american civil war, or WWI, and so on.

 

[dhandeh]

FPS of any description has been done to death. I'm sure the cycle will start again soon.

 

[Seismica]

Medal of Honour European Assault pretty much killed the franchise. Frontline and Allied Assault were excellent games.

I didn't like World at War, it tried too much to be modern warfare. I'd rather a game took a different take on it and went third person, like a Metal Gear Solid 4 type game but set in WW2, but with less stealth. There were certain parts of that game where I would ignore the objective and just help the rebels defeat the enemies and that was where the fun was. A game like that in WW2 would be excellent.

 

[X-Power]

Medal of Honour European Assault pretty much killed the franchise. Frontline and Allied Assault were excellent games.

I didn't like World at War, it tried too much to be modern warfare. I'd rather a game took a different take on it and went third person, like a Metal Gear Solid 4 type game but set in WW2, but with less stealth. There were certain parts of that game where I would ignore the objective and just help the rebels defeat the enemies and that was where the fun was. A game like that in WW2 would be excellent.

If that's what you're looking for, then you could try The Saboteur. I haven't played it, so I don't know if it's any good or not, but, it seems to fit your criteria.

 

[MarinaDiamandis]

Battlefield 2 + Forgotten Hope 2 (Free downloadable mod) = Awesome. Willys MB jeeps with rockets mounted on them, anyone?

Just checked the website and a new patch has just been released. Looks like we're headed to the frozen Ardenne!

 

[Greycap]

Medal of Honour European Assault pretty much killed the franchise. Frontline and Allied Assault were excellent games.

Nothing more to say. The old school MoH series (original, Underground & Frontline) got progressively better to the point in which I don't know if it could have been improved any more. I actually bought the new PS3 Medal Of Honor - not Airborne (which I have too, interesting but quite confusing) but the modern version - just to play Frontline in HD, and wasn't disappointed a bit.

Allied Assault with its expansion packs was a great game too, and it makes me wonder why they didn't make sequels for Frontline from both Spearhead and Breakthrough. Keeping the Frontline engine, graphics and objective system they would probably have been brilliant games for the PS2. Instead they tried Rising Sun (not that bad but didn't hold a candle to Frontline), European Assault (fail) and Vanguard (Airborne wannabe for PS2, even more fail) - taking away the good sides one by one and adding bad ideas to replace them.

On the topic of CoDs I've played (on PC) the original, the United Offensive pack for it and CoD 2. They were good but they felt so MoH for most of the time that I actually can't remember which levels were MOHAA and which were CoD. I also bought WaW for the PS3 and completed it on the easy level, it wasn't a bad game by any means but it didn't have the old time feel for it. It was pretty much what MoH Rising Sun and European Assault should have been though.

If that's what you're looking for, then you could try The Saboteur. I haven't played it, so I don't know if it's any good or not, but, it seems to fit your criteria.

Funnily enough I'd probably try it if it was first person, I can't stand third person shooters. The idea behind it sounds very interesting.

 

[Mike0105]

I agree the WWII theme probably needed resting. I did love Return to Castle Wolfenstein (2001). The recent 360/PS3 sequel was a bit naff though.

I really enjoyed how dark it was in places and i thought the Nazi an occult themes tied in well together, fighting 2 evils in one go!

Cod4 was a great game. I know many hate it, but it was something different and it felt good to play. The 'modern warfare' theme is fine, but is getting overdone now.

WW1 would be less effective, as so much of it was trench based.

A medieval FPS would be interesting, I remember playing Thief a good few years back. That was quite good.

 

[MarinaDiamandis]

I agree the WWII theme probably needed resting. I did love Return to Castle Wolfenstein (2001). The recent 360/PS3 sequel was a bit naff though.

I really enjoyed how dark it was in places and i thought the Nazi an occult themes tied in well together, fighting 2 evils in one go!

Cod4 was a great game. I know many hate it, but it was something different and it felt good to play. The 'modern warfare' theme is fine, but is getting overdone now.

WW1 would be less effective, as so much of it was trench based.

A medieval FPS would be interesting, I remember playing Thief a good few years back. That was quite good.

There are WW1 mods for BF2, pretty fun but hard to find games with many players. It's a shame as one in particular highlights how different periods of the war were (mass troop movement over open ground, more similar to WW2 than the image most of us have of WW1).

Medieval FPS = Mount & Blade/Mount & Blade Warband and the hundreds of free mods to go with it.

 

[Mike Rotch]

A medieval FPS would be interesting, I remember playing Thief a good few years back. That was quite good.

Heretic anyone

I dont understand people calling WWII ones predictable, and prone to endings everybody knows the conclusion of beforehand.

What does one call playing US soldiers fighting evil terrorists (Russian, Afghan etc). Same story: some threat presents, enter special ops soldiers, bang bang, 'good' triumphs.

The point was also raised about the potential for current users to be disinterested in older weaponry, in favour of modern guns. This is a possiblity if you confine your thinking to a traditional FPS - but I point out that MoH was all about espionage, not blasting your way out of an enemy infested stage.

If it's WWII you want, IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey

I have that actually. Too easy on "basic" with unrealistic flight controls and frustratingly difficult on "expert" with simulation flight controls

 

[Sharky.]

This is a possiblity if you confine your thinking to a traditional FPS - but I point out that MoH was all about espionage, not blasting your way out of an enemy infested stage.

These days the majority of FPS players (at least on consololololol) are squeaky 13-year-olds that haven't gone through puberty yet - at age 13 I know I was far more interested in blowing stuff up Rambo-style than sneaking around in the shadows with a silenced pistol. Given that's what sells these days, you'd be mad to make anything different. Yeah, it means there's a notable lack of variety in the FPS genre, but what can you do.

 

[Tesla]

These days the majority of FPS players (at least on consololololol) are squeaky 13-year-olds that haven't gone through puberty yet - at age 13 I know I was far more interested in blowing stuff up Rambo-style than sneaking around in the shadows with a silenced pistol. Given that's what sells these days, you'd be mad to make anything different. Yeah, it means there's a notable lack of variety in the FPS genre, but what can you do.

I disagree. Lots of kids my age like the 'stealth' games, but they aren't nearly as vocal about it as the kids that prefer the '7331 quickscoping' (which is one of the worst things to ever happen to FPS in my opinion).

 

[Prosthetic]

Counter-Strike: Source set the tone for modern combat games. Not CoD. If it wasn't that, it was the Modern Combat mod for Battlefield 1942.

Yet all these years later CS, essentially the same game it was in 99' is still kicking ass. CoD 2 is the largest still active WWII pew pew bang bang community.

EDIT: @ Sharky, don't do FPS on consoles. Match made in hell. This is why I've always avoided online console play for the most part. Consoles attract a younger audience.

 

[Darren.]

What about the Cold War??