What happened to fps campains??

There soo damn short nowadays... i love playing the story in fps games and i understand that soo much is put into the multiplayer aspects of the games but i buy a 60 buck game for the story more then the multiplayer... even though ill play the multiplayer part of a game way more than the singleplayer... I just hope this trend changes cause i wanna play a fps storyline for more than 7 to 8 hours... anyone else feel the same???

I agree with the FPS campaigns being insultingly short these days or lately...The only FPS i have bought in the past several months is Crysis 2 ONLY because it is like 10-12 hours long..

alot still have good campaigns for fps like borderlands, fallout(this mainly a wrpg), and bioshock. the fps with more focused multiplayer have really short campaigns

I feel exactly the same way. I'm really not much of a multiplayer fan at all. So when I pick up a game, I'm hoping for good characters and an interesting plot, a very close second to the quality of the basic gameplay imo. I don't mind relatively short campaigns as long as they are engrossing enough to warrant extra playthroughs on harder settings (I liked Crysis, CoD4, Gears). Even if developers considered investing more time and money in their campaigns, I think MP is the biggest selling point for some (if not most or all) of the FPS's out there. I've see some people saying they don't even beat campaign. If their largest demographic will still buy their game even if they are sore about the length of the SP portion, it's probably kind of a 'why bother?' situation.

But who knows, maybe MW3 will have an epic 18-20 hour campaign or something, though I highly doubt it. Plus, when it comes to games with a lot of action (like battlefield type action), it's all pretty fast-paced. If FPS's did have much longer campaigns, the story would need a lot of juice to motivate the player to want to invest enough energy in it to make it through to the end. Which would be nice.

I tend to rent these types of games or maybe skipping it and buying it when it's around $10 or less, $60 isn't worth it.

alot still have good campaigns for fps like borderlands, fallout(this mainly a wrpg), and bioshock. the fps with more focused multiplayer have really short campaigns

redskins26rocs

Oooooow Borderlands, what a sweet sweet campaign you had, and with such amazing dlsc :)

Loved that game, may give it a second playthrough with a new character.

Half-Life 2 plus its expansions lasts for a good while. I've also read that Crysis 2 has a few more hours of gameplay than your average fps. Of course, I wouldn't call 9+ hours a huge leap, but its lengthy by comparison, I suppose.

I totally agree. Campaigns in shooters in general have been kind of lackluster as of recent times. It has to do with the popularity of multiplayer.

They very short theses days,I wonder if its because of the better technology of games(Like complex graphics.etc) and only having DVD's to cram all this into one disc?

Shorter compared to what? It's not like any of the classic fps's were that long. Perfect Dark, Goldeneye, Duke Nukem, Doom, Wolfenstein, all of those were really short. If anything, I think that fps campaigns have gotten longer.

It just seems like they've gotten shorter because other genres have gotten longer campaigns, and the genres that are typically longer like RPG's have gotten more mainstream so more people who used to only play shooters are now playing games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

They very short theses days,I wonder if its because of the better technology of games(Like complex graphics.etc) and only having DVD's to cram all this into one disc?

CUDGEdave

No, the reason why campaigns are crap recently is because single player does not make money. MP is where the money is. For developers (extra maps and useless stuff like that) and for Microsoft (you have to have LIVE after all)...

Sinlge player is harder to make money off because majority of the gamers play it one time and then leave it alone. I am saying the "majority" not all.

Shorter compared to what? It's not like any of the classic fps's were that long. Perfect Dark, Goldeneye, Duke Nukem, Doom, Wolfenstein, all of those were really short. If anything, I think that fps campaigns have gotten longer.

It just seems like they've gotten shorter because other genres have gotten longer campaigns, and the genres that are typically longer like RPG's have gotten more mainstream so more people who used to only play shooters are now playing games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

bessy67

I have to agree with this statement.

When thinking about campaign length, I have a hard time remembering when FPSs ever had a lengthy single player. It seems the obvious culprit to a short single player is Call of Duty, but when was the Call of Duty series ever touted as having a long campaign? FPSs typically don't have long campigns, especially with multiplayer at the forefront. You'll have nice exceptions to this like Half-Life, Stalker, BioShock, and Crysis but I don't think anything has really changed.

I think part of the problem is as people age, become more educated about available games, have higher incomes, less time; games just don't hold anyone's attention for as long as they used to when you were younger.

[QUOTE="bessy67"]

Shorter compared to what? It's not like any of the classic fps's were that long. Perfect Dark, Goldeneye, Duke Nukem, Doom, Wolfenstein, all of those were really short. If anything, I think that fps campaigns have gotten longer.

It just seems like they've gotten shorter because other genres have gotten longer campaigns, and the genres that are typically longer like RPG's have gotten more mainstream so more people who used to only play shooters are now playing games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

Lanezy

I have to agree with this statement.

When thinking about campaign length, I have a hard time remembering when FPSs ever had a lengthy single player. It seems the obvious culprit to a short single player is Call of Duty, but when was the Call of Duty series ever touted as having a long campaign? FPSs typically don't have long campigns, especially with multiplayer at the forefront. You'll have nice exceptions to this like Half-Life, Stalker, BioShock, and Crysis but I don't think anything has really changed.

I think part of the problem is as people age, become more educated about available games, have higher incomes, less time; games just don't hold anyone's attention for as long as they used to when you were younger.

You both make excellent points. Comparing across genres, we probably feel like we're being cheated out of a lengthier experience, but such comparisons hardly ever reveal anything of much worth. After all, games fall into different categories for a purpose.

But those exceptions you mentioned are precisely the problem. If every FPS skirted the 6 hour mark, then complaints about campaign length probably wouldn't be as prevalent, though gamers would probably still cite long RPG's and wonder as to why their favorite FPS's don't receive the same treatment. But since we have Half-Life, Bioshock, etc., I think that we see the possibilties and wish these were the norm.

In fact, this is probably one of the mechanisms by which many (if not all) genres improve. For example, if an RPG nowadays conducts conversations in a textbox, it frustrates me to no end (though I can't say how others feel about this), whereas, back in the day, I spent hours playing games like Morrowind without any complaints. However, most of the RPG's currently on my shelf wouldn't even dream of such a mechanic. In the same way, I play through Half-Life and then I breeze through CoD, and wish there were something to bridge the gap between the two.

You both make excellent points. Comparing across genres, we probably feel like we're being cheated out of a lengthier experience, but such comparisons hardly ever reveal anything of much worth. After all, games fall into different categories for a purpose.

But those exceptions you mentioned are precisely the problem. If every FPS skirted the 6 hour mark, then complaints about campaign length probably wouldn't be as prevalent, though gamers would probably still cite long RPG's and wonder as to why their favorite FPS's don't receive the same treatment. But since we have Half-Life, Bioshock, etc., I think that we see the possibilties and wish these were the norm.

In fact, this is probably one of the mechanisms by which many (if not all) genres improve. For example, if an RPG nowadays conducts conversations in a textbox, it frustrates me to no end (though I can't say how others feel about this), whereas, back in the day, I spent hours playing games like Morrowind without any complaints. However, most of the RPG's currently on my shelf wouldn't even dream of such a mechanic. In the same way, I play through Half-Life and then I breeze through CoD, and wish there were something to bridge the gap between the two.

Armidion

I get what you're trying to say, but I just don't see how increasing single player length equals improvement. I'm all for longer single player campaigns, don't get me wrong, but the experience has to be compelling throughout and most games fail at this. I don't see single player campaigns getting any lengthier in the future, especially considering that most people have yet to finish or even touch the single player in Call of Duty.

[QUOTE="Armidion"]

You both make excellent points. Comparing across genres, we probably feel like we're being cheated out of a lengthier experience, but such comparisons hardly ever reveal anything of much worth. After all, games fall into different categories for a purpose.

But those exceptions you mentioned are precisely the problem. If every FPS skirted the 6 hour mark, then complaints about campaign length probably wouldn't be as prevalent, though gamers would probably still cite long RPG's and wonder as to why their favorite FPS's don't receive the same treatment. But since we have Half-Life, Bioshock, etc., I think that we see the possibilties and wish these were the norm.

In fact, this is probably one of the mechanisms by which many (if not all) genres improve. For example, if an RPG nowadays conducts conversations in a textbox, it frustrates me to no end (though I can't say how others feel about this), whereas, back in the day, I spent hours playing games like Morrowind without any complaints. However, most of the RPG's currently on my shelf wouldn't even dream of such a mechanic. In the same way, I play through Half-Life and then I breeze through CoD, and wish there were something to bridge the gap between the two.

Lanezy

I get what you're trying to say, but I just don't see how increasing single player length equals improvement. I'm all for longer single player campaigns, don't get me wrong, but the experience has to be compelling throughout and most games fail at this. I don't see single player campaigns getting any lengthier in the future, especially considering that most people have yet to finish or even touch the single player in Call of Duty.

I think that you're right on all accounts. When I say "bridge the gap", I mean it on multiple levels. There are some FPS's that I wouldn't want to play any longer than 5-6 hours, even if the mechanics are stellar.

But war and the ensuing political intrigue ought to be more than enough to fuel a good 15+ hour game, considering it's made for such great entertainment in other mediums in the past. I don't think the length alone would improve it, but a great story and a tight script would probably result in a fairly long playthrough. There are exceptions, of course, but the balance between length and substance is a subjective topic.

Ah, well, like you said, the length will most likely remain the same, and the third installment in the modern warfare series will probably clock in around 8 hours. You know what would solve this? If they made another Half-Life and bundled the SP portion of MW3 or Black Ops (or both) with it for the regular $60, or an extra $10 tops. Or did that with Bioshock Infinite. Then no one would feel cheated.

terrible game sliek cod 4/ battlefeild 2 get phenominal reviews and devs start to think they can have a half @ssed 2 hour campaign and still sell, and sadly they do, thank god duke nukems gonna be at the elast 16 hours