Finding the Fun in FPS Campaigns | Game Maker's Toolkit

Hey. Hi. Hello. Mark here, with Game Maker's Toolkit.

You know, I used to love first person shooters.
I grew up playing games like Doom, Half Life,

Blood, No One Lives Forever, and Duke Nukem
3D.

I used to adore this genre, but, more recently,
I've become pretty bored with these shooter

campaigns.

We see the same game mechanics and the same
combat loops and the same level design over

and over again, just with slightly different
hats. And maybe a flying section, if you're lucky.

But in 2016, two games came along that reminded
me just how much FUN a shooter can be.

Because when developers are more interested
in frantic firefights and varied gameplay,

than historical accuracy and set piece explosions,
we end up with games like DOOM, which is id

Software's gory tribute to 90s game design,
and Titanfall 2, which has more imagination

in one level than most games achieve in their
entire story mode.

And, yeah, everyone's already said how awesome
these games are. But considering how much

I enjoyed 'em, I think I'd be remiss not to
cover them on the channel, and take an indepth

look at how these two games, basically saved
the first person shooter campaign.

Starting, with Doom - which has the best combat
loop in a decade.

Wait, when did Resident Evil 4 come out?

Yeah. Best in a decade.

Each encounter in this game is a breathless
scrum between the demons and the doomslayer

- who richochets around the environment like
a pinball, bouncing off enemies and threading

through tight corridors to pick up health
and ammunition.

It's fast, basically.

Not just because your movement speed is high,
but also because id forcefully rejected just

about every piece of shooter design that has
been employed to slow this genre down.

Like, take aim down sights. In a normal shooter,
accuracy sucks when shooting from the hip

so you have to zoom in to look through an
ironsight or a scope - which... massively

reduces your speed. Doom ditches that: outside
of a few guns, there is no aim down sights.

Also, you're as accurate when running at full
speed, as you are when standing still, so

you can shoot when you're on the go. And because
you can strafe at the same speed as you can

run, you can orbit around an enemy, pummelling
them with bullets and avoiding their fire.

Oh, that's because enemies use projectiles
instead of hitscan. A quick reminder: hitscan

weapons hurt you as soon as the enemy pulls
the trigger. Projectile weapons fire physical,

slow-moving objects at you, that you can dodge.

If you do get hit, you won't be hiding behind
cover for your health to regenerate. Instead,

you'll need to hunt around the arena to find
a health pack. Or, even better, run towards

an injured enemy to unleash a glory kill,
which lets loose a shower of health pickups.

If most of Doom's design keeps you moving
around enemies, the glory kill system pushes

you towards them. It makes you feel like a
brutal predator, taking down your prey one

by one. Plus, that satisfying split-second animation
gives you much-needed time to blink, and consider

your next move.

Because Doom is a surprisingly tactical shooter,
where you're executing different plans all

the time - just, at a hundred miles an hour.

As I talked about in my episode on the original
Doom, this new game has a bestiary of unique

demons who all work in very different ways.

There's the Revenant, who batters you with
missiles. The bumbling Cacodemon, who floats

in close to munch on your face. This dude,
who chases you about like a quarterback. And

the pinky demon, who you take out like a bullfighter.
It has a shield on the front, so wait for

it to charge past you and then blast it in
the butt to kill it.

So you'll need to pick your priorities, which
might mean dodging pinkies and cacodemon fireballs

while you focus your fire on a deadly hell
razer or an annoying summoner. Each enemy

makes you move in a different way, too, as
you head for cover or snake through bullets

or just run the hell away.

And then there's the other piece of shooter
wisdom that Doom punches into a billion bits.

While most games limit you to a couple weapons
at a time, Doom lets you carry an entire Walmart's

worth of firearms on you at once - all accessed
from a radial menu that slows, but doesn't

stop the action.

Different guns have different uses. The fast-action
assault rifle is great for needling enemies

and stopping them from shooting, the shotgun
works great up close, the rocket launcher

is deadly but risky, and there's the one-hit,
one-kill chainsaw which showers you with ammo,

but runs out of gas quick. So pick your targets
well.

Juggling guns and enemies is something of
a puzzle. and you've got to figure out the

answer in the seconds before you get tackled
by a pinky and turned into a thick red paste.

This new Doom also adds verticality to levels,
with a satisfying double jump, a generous

system for quickly clambering up platforms,
and the ability to chain a jump into a glory

kill for a big leap between spots.

And so, between different enemies and different
level layouts, id software can effectively

cobble together an infinite number of combat
encounters.

But, and here's the rub, even the best firefights
in a decade get boring after a while and Doom

can be an intensely repetitive game.

Between endless battles you get some exploration stuff and some so-so platforming bits.

And you can divert from the path to pick up
secrets and collectibles.

Personally, I vowed to avoid hunting down
collectibles forever after shooting 100 pigeons

in Grand Theft Auto IV and seriously questioning
my life choices. And I think I'm becoming

allergic to upgrade trees, too.

But even if you do go after Doom's various
trinkets and upgrades, jumping at pipes and looking

for secrets can send the game's intensity
from 11 to 0 in painful, whiplash fashion.

Which brings us to Titanfall 2: a game with
an expert sense of pacing and the best FPS

campaign in a decade.

Wait, when did Half
Life 2 come out?

Yeah. Best in a decade.

BT-7274: Got you

Now, when I say pacing, i'm talking about
two different things.

One, is how often a game is introducing new
and original ideas to shake things up. And

Titanfall 2 is doing that constantly through
its tautly-wound single player campaign.

In this level, you grab a tool that can be
used to turn off fans, flip platforms, and

hack robot sentries.

Another stage takes place in a sci-fi Ikea factory, as you bounce through pre-fab

houses on a monster conveyer belt.

This level has you wall-running on a spaceship,
high above the planet. And, of course, there's

press Left Bumper to time travel.

Effect and Cause, as is the level is called,
lets you ping back and forth between two moments

in time - from a squeaky clean research centre
in the past, to its charred ruins in the present.

It's a visual spectacle and a brilliant idea,
but what makes it so rad is how it impacts

the two things Titanfall does best: combat
and platforming.

In shootouts, you can phase out of time, and
then phase back in, now behind a group of

soldiers. Then again, the present timeline
is crawling with these vicious dinosaur enemies,

so you have to juggle two combat encounters
at once - often jumping out of the frying

pan and into the fire.

And there are the platforming bits, where
you switch timelines mid-jump to phase in

walls and safe spots beneath your feet. It's brilliant.

And then, at the end of the level, Cooper rips the time
machine off of his wrist, and the mechanic

is gone for the rest of the game. Tossed away,
before you ever have a chance to get bored of it.

And that focus on keeping the player engaged
is how Titanfall 2 is always operating. Because

the other aspect of pacing is how well a game
manages to mix up its most fundamental pillars

of gameplay.

Titanfall 2 has firefights, it has platforming
bits, it has titan battles, and it has some

story stuff too. And the game does a brilliant
job of switching between these sections before

you ever have a chance to get tired of them.

Each style of gameplay moves at a slightly
different speed, and tests slightly different

skills - so you don't get fatigued from constant
action, but there are no lulls in the pace either.

Some aspects of Titanfall 2 are better than
others. The platforming's fantastic, though,

why isn't the grapple hook in the singleplayer?

The titan bits are pretty dull. And the combat
is really good... but it doesn't quite reach the

heights of Doom.

Like that game, Titanfall 2 wants to keep
you on the move - as seen in the flashy CGI

trailer at the start of the game.

TRAILER NARRATOR: The pilot is the true dominant force.

Fast and agile. Graceful, yet devastating.

So you get tools to move fast, like a super
long slide and a wall run that increases your

speed and your defence. And certain enemies
push you to run, like the tick: which is a

sort of frag grenade on spider legs that chases
you around the arena and will kill you if

you don't get moving.

But where Doom asks you to move around and
towards enemies, in my experience, Titanfall

2 more often makes you run away from the fight.

Part of this has to do with the shooter tropes
that Doom so confidently rejected. Aim down

sights and slow strafing encourage you to
get some distance from enemies before engaging.

Unless you've got a shotgun, that is. Plus,
hitscan weapons, regenerating health,

and even the need to reload your weapon force

you into cover and retreat.

And if Respawn really expects players to wall-run
and shoot at the same time then... well, for one,

that's pretty hard. Maybe it's easier on a
keyboard and mouse. But, also, the level design

doesn't exactly support it.

At the beginning of the game, you run a thing
called The Gauntlet which is a sort of obstacle

course where you jump, slide, and wall-run,
while simultaneously taking out foes.

The design of The Gauntlet, which is like
a winding corridor littered with pockets of

enemies, allows for a joyous moment of zig-zag
warfare as you bounce between walls while

letting off shots and grenades.

The game itself never really sees anything
like this. The arenas are mostly just big

boxes and the platforming sections are completely
devoid of enemies.

Because if you want gamers to play in a certain
way, you've got to encourage them, through

systems, like the glory kill; or level design; or incentives, like the scores in Platinum Games.

Otherwise, they'll more likely play it in the most safe and boring way possible.

Because even Call of Duty has wall-run these
days, but I still played Infinite Warfare

by cowering behind a series of walls and boxes.

Which is the same way we've been playing shooters for
years - because it feels like most FPS campaigns

have been working off the same blueprints
for the last decade.

Which is why games like Doom and Titanfall 2 - and other wacky shooters like Wolfenstein and Bulletstorm -

are such a breath of fresh air.

They remind us to question the design trends
that have built up in certain genres. They remind us

that variety comes from clever level design and expert pacing, not just historical set dressing. And, above all

else, games like Doom and Titanfall 2 remind us that first person shooters can be fun.

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Here's an interesting fact. The director and
singleplayer lead of Titanfall 2, Steve Fukuda

and Mackey McCandlish, were design leads on
Call of Duty 4. So while Activison might be

stuck making the same game every year, the
guys and gals in the trenches are capable

of doing much more interesting stuff. If they get the chance.

Anyway, after these credits have run I have a couple episodes you might want to check out.

Before Doom 2016 came out, I looked back at the original game to talk about

the importance of unique enemies.

And you can learn more about hitscan weapons and regenerating health,

in a video called "How Games Do Health"