Entry level shooter?

[Sanya]

Obviously I need to give shooters another shot - sounds like the storytelling has come a long way.

As I said in the other thread, though, the WASD/mouse movement is really hard for me. Jump puzzles are totally out of the question for the time being. And my reflexes are crappy. If I'd ever had decent reflexes I wouldn't have taken up D&D, you know?

So is there a story rich, but mechanically simple shooter I could try? Obviously I need single player games, multiplayer would just suck.

I have a top notch desktop and all the Playstations. I may even have copies of the games - my better half loves shooters, but his recommendations thus far have accomplished nothing but end with one of us cussing and the other one buying apology ice cream.

(We're well matched - he can't type, so in MMO play, I do all the "talking" for us both.)

[revlazaro]

On the consoles, pick up a game line called TimeSplitters. I recommend the latest iteration TimeSplitters: Future Perfect.

It's wacky fun but you can set it to an easy mode and still have a blast. It's done by the team who originally did Goldeneye for the N64, and they continue using the No-Jump formula. It's a great game that people who never really "got" into shooters can pick up and run with. The story is just pure sillyness but it's still prett fun and has good in-game cinematics.

Main reason I recommend it is the arcade mode. Aside from the single player story arc (which can be played Co-Op if ya need your husband for reinforcements) the arcade mode is just a bunch of silly challenges that keep track of timing and perfomance, and as you get better you unlock new game modes and new characters to play as.

Even though this is a game that involves shooting monkeys and zombies, once you get up to speed it's some crazy deathmatching and other competetive levels. Unlike Halo, you can play co-op on these matches against bots. So just make some bots set to Easy, pick a weapons set you like, and go kill some people with your husband in a wacked-out 70's disco. Good times I swear!

Once you get up to par with that using the dual analog sticks, I swear going WASD + Mouse on the PC won't be so bad. I've trained many friends and their spouses with this game to go from noobs to precise killing machines. Spending hours in this game in a CTF match against cyborgs and ninja monkeys has trained my best friend to be a deadly sniper shot in just about any game he plays.

[Jodou]

Yeah, Timesplitters is probably your best bet, as it doesn't really punish the player for sucking with a controller and is more user-friendly. However, those titles have weak plots and are mostly based off famous movies/themes and are linear corridor shooters a la Doom/Wolfenstein.

For story rich, BioShock comes to mind and it also contains some RPG elements such as leveling up of plasmids. The game is very easy on newcomers, because you can never really die; only be sent back to the nearest cloner in realtime. I don't recall many, if any, jump puzzles, so you should be safe there. No multiplayer/co-op exists for this title.

[Bishop]

Did you already try Portal? If not, start there. Although, technically, it's not all that much of a "shooter", I still think it fits the bill nicely.

[revlazaro]

Originally Posted by Bishop

Did you already try Portal? If not, start there. Although, technically, it's not all that much of a "shooter", I still think it fits the bill nicely.

Yeah but isn't that a game essentially filled with "jump puzzles"?
Don't get me wrong, it was pure awesome and I highly recommend it.

[Bishop]

Originally Posted by rev_lazaro

Yeah but isn't that a game essentially filled with "jump puzzles"?

I...suppose. But they're not so hard, and there's videos on the Intarwebs showing each and every level from start to finish, so I figure it's real hard to get stuck.

[Sensational]

Honestly, Half Life 2 and the Episodes that follow are by far my favorite FPS titles up to date. I just love the setting and the story, not to mention the gameplay, so I would strongly recommend that you start there. Not sure if they would be considered hard, I usually don't think about that in singleplayer games since I've been playing shooters since I was 3.

[Hagan]

A basic shooter with a decent story...

Alien vs Predator 2 (if you can find it). Its got a decent skill level depending on which side you want to play. Easy is marines, Intermediate is the Predator, and High is the Alien (No ranged weapons, pure stealth and wall crawling). Good for someone who wants to broaden themselves. The multiplayer WAS great, depending on your team (Having a paranoid with a flamethrower on your team was so much fun, they torched everything and were the trouble magnets).

I highly recommend F.E.A.R. and the expansions when your ready for something more challenging, and DOOM 3 for the atmosphere (Plus the 'Duct tape mod').

[Bishop]

After giving it some (more) thought, I'm going to come out and agree with Sensational that HL2 is pretty iconic of the genre and really the defining game out there at the moment.

There's several other good ones (SiN, FEAR, Doom, that-game-I-officially-didn't-play and the list goes on), but when you get down to sheer scale, coherency and good old fun, HL2 wins. I still fondly remember my first visit to zombie town.

Get the Orange Box, though. You'll want Portal anyway, at some point!

[Hagan]

Its such a pitty that nintendo have never updated 'duck hunt'.