[QUOTE="AdobeArtist"]
[QUOTE="Master_ShakeXXX"]
No Metroid Prime? The f*ck is this?
jg4xchamp
Not an FPS. It's a first person adventure game. It's all about exploration and puzzle solving, just like the classic 2D games it's based from. The biggest factor which differentiates Prime from actual shooters is the "shooting" mechanic, which isn't free aim twitch based (like any other title from Doom, to Halo, to COD, to Killzone).
Instead you have a lock-on system (not aim assist that only nudges the reticle but still requires player aiming, actual lock-on) so player aiming isn't required once you have the lock. Samus can strafe and jump and still hold the target. This is a critical feature in boss fights to target their weak spots, often themselves being a puzzle challenge.
What you just described is more or less a hybrid or a game that borrows heavily from other genres. I'm not big on having genre discussions
Because A: they are f*cking stupid, and miss the entire point. Game is fantastic, who cares about the genre label(yes this means Mass Effect discussions, because this board gets too busy trying to label what type of game it is instead of actually discussing what worked and didn't work in that franchise).
B: it gets into dumb little semantics that really aren't the meat of genre. FPS games are glorified action games to begin with. They are action games, and they just happen to fall into their own sub genre due to the popularity and significance of that perspective change. For all intents and purposes Metroid Prime is a first person action game. The boss fights, the pirates, and plenty of moments in that game are action. Yes it has adventure elements. The same way Half Life 2 has adventure elements also. The same way System Shock 2 and Deus Ex have RPG elements(admittedly those are even more difficult to categorize into single genres).
Personally it should count on the sheer premise that it shows that you don't need to be a white knuckle or balls to the walls action game in this genre. Certainly Shadow of Chernobyl or Cryostasis never had to be. It's every bit an Action/Adventure game, and frankly nothing about how it handles its action should mean it shouldn't be matched up against those other guys. What it lacks in visceral thrills it makes up for on a more cerebral standpoint. But again this is just arguing dumb things that get away from the point. Metroid Prime is a work of excellence.
This is not to say I think a game like Portal is a FPS because I know someone in this thread is going to bring that up as some sort of sh1tty counterargument(and it will be 100% sh1tty, congrats in advance to this future jackass). Game is straight up puzzles. You couldn't even argue it as an action game if you wanted to.I'm certainly not arguing the quality or acclaim of the Metroid Prime series. But too many people classify it as an FPS purely on superficial and surface observation. Your example of Portal is a fine example of how flawed that can be. It plays from the first person perspective and your character is armed with a "gun" after a fashion. But that alone doesn't make it an FPS. The core of the game design and themes make it something completely different from Halo, Killzone, COD... well you get the idea.
For the very same reasons MP doesn't fit in that category either, and not just from a core game design and overall experience it's aiming for, but even the "gunplay" mechanics as I previously outlined.
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