FPS campaign lengths - getting shorter?

Is it me or are the main campaign lengths been getting shorter over the years?

I remember playing Half Life 2 and the campaign seemed to go on forever - but now a COD campaign seems to only clock in at 6 or so hours......

Are there any FPS (or even 3rd person) games which have a decent campaign length anymore......?

:)

Well unfortunately, game developers' emphasis seems to be shifting toward mindless multiplayer while single player takes a back seat. Plus, the big online leaderboard is meaningless because of cheaters, which cheapens the entire experience further. I prefer story and campaigns over mindlessly blowing people up online.

Considering how boring and generic most FPS campaigns are, I don't mind at all. I think I could only get through a few missions in black ops.

Unless they do something new and interesting to FPS campaigns, I'll pass.

It goes a little something like this. Yes, online multiplayer sells. However, the reason they focus mainly on making good multiplayer games is because the standard HD DVD discs they use to make Xbox 360 games can only have so much information per disc. If you haven't noticed in general all video games for the Xbox 360 be it exclusive or non exclusive are very short. Examples, COD games, Fable, Halo 3, Battlefield and so forth. It's the games that take use of DLC that help prolong the life of their games. Short games focus are the graphics hince Modern Warfare 2 being as short as it was, they focused on high end graphics. Fallout 3's graphics weren't great but the story was long because they made the game well rounded.

Considering how boring and generic most FPS campaigns are, I don't mind at all. I think I could only get through a few missions in black ops.

Unless they do something new and interesting to FPS campaigns, I'll pass.

Considering how boring and generic most FPS campaigns are, I don't mind at all. I think I could only get through a few missions in black ops.

Unless they do something new and interesting to FPS campaigns, I'll pass.

MonkeyPulp

i think they definitely are, and they compensate with MPchaoscougar1

This.

Althought not an FPS I bought Dead Space 2 and I love it just like the first one but my first playthrough took just shy of 9 hours 2nd playthrough 7 hours and last night I finished my3rd playthrough and it took me just over 6 hours. Now I know that by the 2nd and3rd playthrough I know what im expecting but it annoys me when reviews are saying a game is coming in at around 12 hours. I mean the game is linear and im not the greatest gamer but unless these reviewers stood in one room (in game)not doing anything for 3 hoursthat is the only reason you will take this long. The same can be said for Bioshock.

The last lengthy game I played was Resi4 were I clocked around 19 hours on first playthrough Assassins Creed 2 at around 26 hours and I have just bought Darksiders which although I have not played all the way through is around 30hours. (so I have been told)

But the worst bunch is the FPS genre, I enjoy multiplayer but out of the 40 so games I have played there is only about 2 were the multiplayer has kept me coming back. I have always been a huge single player fan but booting up Halo 3 for the first time on release dayonly for 5 and a half hours later to be watching the end credits and CoD is getting worse every year for this. Try booting up CoD 2 and compare that to Black Ops.

I would like to stress that I never play games on the easiest settings and if I lke the gameusually return on a harder setting. Also putting a game on the hardest difficulty setting so you spend 5 hours dying is not a good excuse to use for making a game longer. I want 5 hours of content!

But since multiplayer is getting more and more popular animmersing single player experience is slowly dying. And the thing is RPG's and the like are not my cup of tea. Just never understood how they work or what I should be doing which is followed but frustration and a trade in. I would love to play games like these but without some one sitting down with me and explaing say the setups and stuff say in a game like Mass Effect which I have only spent a few hours on and keep getting my *** handed to me on a plate, then I ll just have to deal with short (very short) campaigns. A real shame I think

[QUOTE="MathMattS"]

Well unfortunately, game developers' emphasis seems to be shifting toward mindless multiplayer while single player takes a back seat. Plus, the big online leaderboard is meaningless because of cheaters, which cheapens the entire experience further. I prefer story and campaigns over mindlessly blowing people up online.

[QUOTE="chaoscougar1"]i think they definitely are, and they compensate with MPsharkbiscuit79

This.

Althought not an FPS I bought Dead Space 2 and I love it just like the first one but my first playthrough took just shy of 9 hours 2nd playthrough 7 hours and last night I finished my3rd playthrough and it took me just over 6 hours. Now I know that by the 2nd and3rd playthrough I know what im expecting but it annoys me when reviews are saying a game is coming in at around 12 hours. I mean the game is linear and im not the greatest gamer but unless these reviewers stood in one room (in game)not doing anything for 3 hoursthat is the only reason you will take this long. The same can be said for Bioshock.

The last lengthy game I played was Resi4 were I clocked around 19 hours on first playthrough Assassins Creed 2 at around 26 hours and I have just bought Darksiders which although I have not played all the way through is around 30hours. (so I have been told)

But the worst bunch is the FPS genre, I enjoy multiplayer but out of the 40 so games I have played there is only about 2 were the multiplayer has kept me coming back. I have always been a huge single player fan but booting up Halo 3 for the first time on release dayonly for 5 and a half hours later to be watching the end credits and CoD is getting worse every year for this. Try booting up CoD 2 and compare that to Black Ops.

I would like to stress that I never play games on the easiest settings and if I lke the gameusually return on a harder setting. Also putting a game on the hardest difficulty setting so you spend 5 hours dying is not a good excuse to use for making a game longer. I want 5 hours of content!

But since multiplayer is getting more and more popular animmersing single player experience is slowly dying. And the thing is RPG's and the like are not my cup of tea. Just never understood how they work or what I should be doing which is followed but frustration and a trade in. I would love to play games like these but without some one sitting down with me and explaing say the setups and stuff say in a game like Mass Effect which I have only spent a few hours on and keep getting my *** handed to me on a plate, then I ll just have to deal with short (very short) campaigns. A real shame I think

I couldn't agree more - although i must admit i do like RPG mainly because of their story aspect and the fact you can spend many many hours engrossed in the game (but of course that isn't everyones cup of tea.....)

I am not a huge multiplyer but i do enjoy it but it isn't my first considerstion when buying a game......

I think the last long FPS shooter i played was Far Cry 2 (50+ hours) - although that was mainly having to do stuff again and again - i think the main story wasn't that long....

From the games i have played - Probably the longest FPS I played was the 3 Half Life 2 games in The Orange Box....... a fantastic story driven FPS (in my opinion)

20 years from now, single player campaigns will last 15 minutes.

....but it's gonna be amazing!!! O.O

You can sell more if you focus on multiplayer. So that's what developers are doing (or being forced to do).

Actually Games like B-storm are a perfect example of how shooters are going down the drain (IMO), not everything has to have a "Metal Gear" level of storyline but something besides, "Go shoot the bad guys from the bad place" would be nice once in a while.

There are some PC shooters that are lengthy and have multiplayer, but I definitely agree that on the console side everything is getting kind of shorter. The last genuinely lengthy singleplayer shooter that I can remember was F.E.A.R. And that game had great multiplayer too. So it goes to show you that you can in fact have great campaign and multiplayer together while combining that with quantity.

I don't get where people get off claiming that the Xbox 360 can't handle having a lengthy campaign with a solid multiplayer suite. Last I checked, The Orange Box all fit onto a single DVD and that game had over 20 hours of single player content and some fun multiplayer to boot. I just don't follow how people can jump to these ridiculous conclusions and not get to the point that maybe the developers want to advertise the multiplayer since that sells more.

Anyway, The Orange Box and F.E.A.R. come to mind for what you asked. I do enjoy games like Halo and Vanquish tremendously due to the immense replayability, but if you're looking for something to play through one time and that will last you I'm thinking you should go for F.E.A.R. or The Orange Box.

That or play Crysis on the PC because I'll bet you that Crysis 2 is going to be shorter, more streamlined and have a cliffhanger ending when it releases. :P

EDIT- BioShock was a fairly lengthy game too in my opinion. However I wasn't a fan of the braindead AI, the corridor shooter gameplay and the tedious fetchquests.

It goes a little something like this. Yes, online multiplayer sells. However, the reason they focus mainly on making good multiplayer games is because the standard HD DVD discs they use to make Xbox 360 games can only have so much information per disc. If you haven't noticed in general all video games for the Xbox 360 be it exclusive or non exclusive are very short. Examples, COD games, Fable, Halo 3, Battlefield and so forth. It's the games that take use of DLC that help prolong the life of their games. Short games focus are the graphics hince Modern Warfare 2 being as short as it was, they focused on high end graphics. Fallout 3's graphics weren't great but the story was long because they made the game well rounded.

LycanBane

[QUOTE="LycanBane"]

It goes a little something like this. Yes, online multiplayer sells. However, the reason they focus mainly on making good multiplayer games is because the standard HD DVD discs they use to make Xbox 360 games can only have so much information per disc. If you haven't noticed in general all video games for the Xbox 360 be it exclusive or non exclusive are very short. Examples, COD games, Fable, Halo 3, Battlefield and so forth. It's the games that take use of DLC that help prolong the life of their games. Short games focus are the graphics hince Modern Warfare 2 being as short as it was, they focused on high end graphics. Fallout 3's graphics weren't great but the story was long because they made the game well rounded.

Funconsole

yeah - i must admit - GoW2 had a pretty decent length campaign.....

Bioshock.

nuff said.

i think they definitely are, and they compensate with MPchaoscougar1

gears of war 2 has a decently long single playerXbox360Gamer15

Not only the length is getting shorter by the day, but story-driven FPS are rarer and rarer these days.

Games like Bioshock, Metro 2033, Singularity, Half-Life 2 are extinct nowadays it seems and these are my favorite FPS games to play - campaign-driven FPS.

[QUOTE="Xbox360Gamer15"]gears of war 2 has a decently long single playerSkargamer

It has been, not gonna lie.

[QUOTE="Skargamer"][QUOTE="Xbox360Gamer15"]gears of war 2 has a decently long single playerBlueWord

It has been, not gonna lie.

Not only the length is getting shorter by the day, but story-driven FPS are rarer and rarer these days.

Games like Bioshock, Metro 2033, Singularity, Half-Life 2 are extinct nowadays it seems and these are my favorite FPS games to play - campaign-driven FPS.

Its seems like just about every FPS single player campaign I have played recently has taken between 4 to 5 hours to beat. I amlost always playthrough a campaign on the normal setting and then on a harder difficulty, so I haven't about 8 to 10 hours out of these short campaigns.

Right now, we are in a gaming era where FPS multiplayer gaming is extremely popular and sells. Just look at the sales of the last few Call of Duty titles, Reach, etc. Hardly anyone is buying these games for the single player experience. So for game developers to really cash in on their FPS games, they need to invest significantly on the multiplayer portion of the game. 4 to 5 hour single player campaigns are a byproduct of this.

Personally I am a huge fan of the single player experience in FPS games, so this is a trend I am not a huge fan of. I still enjoy playing multiplayer matches with friends, but I guess I am always left wondering what the single player campaigns in the recent call of duty games could have been if the developers could spend double the time on them.

You can sell more if you focus on multiplayer. So that's what developers are doing (or being forced to do).

Actually Games like B-storm are a perfect example of how shooters are going down the drain (IMO), not everything has to have a "Metal Gear" level of storyline but something besides, "Go shoot the bad guys from the bad place" would be nice once in a while.

LetsPlayer

Compared to what?

Doom? Nope.

Quake? Nope.

Goldeneye? Nope.

Call of Duty (1)? Nope.

I think they just seem shorter sure, but on the whole, campaigns have probably grown not diminished.

Yeah - i definitely agree with you....

I have just finished BC2 and am now playing Splinter Cell: Conviction - and both seem pretty short....

don't get me wrong - i am definitely not anti-multiplayer - i play fairly regularly online.....

I did enjoy the last Batman game because it was quite long and had great production values......

I must admit that Bioshock was a pretty special game in terms of story, length and production........

maybe the older games such as Half-Life 2 set the bar pretty high in the past........

anyway - thanks for taking the time to dicuss my topic :)

Yes they are sadly. Since developers i making games more multiplayer which is pretty sad since i prefer a long story mode than people mindlessy shooting the crap out of me.

Not only the length is getting shorter by the day, but story-driven FPS are rarer and rarer these days.

Games like Bioshock, Metro 2033, Singularity, Half-Life 2 are extinct nowadays it seems and these are my favorite FPS games to play - campaign-driven FPS.

EvilSelf

Uh, extinct? All of those games are current-gen. And to boot, two of them were 2010 releases.....

I will agree that there aren't as many as I would like, but I wouldn't call them extinct in any way at all. Not yet at least and not with Deus Ex just around the corner.

Games will probably become more polarized in the future: either as a multiplayer game, or a campaign game. For a multiplayer-driven game, the campaign is more of a formality. Hence, the shorter play times. Fine by me. I say make either an amazing multiplayer without all the glitches, or an amazing campaign with all the whistles and bells. I'll even pay (almost) full price for both if they're good enough. That would be better than having a mediocre version of both, which is what we seem to be getting now.