Out of all the types of video games ever made Fps games are some of the most popular. Today there are many huge franchises such as Call of Duty, Battlefield and Halo that are based solely on Fps games. The reason this game genre has been so successful is not only because these games look great but they are also incredibly fast paced; which appeals to gamers everywhere. But were these games always stunning? Were they always fast paced? Lets find out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7chDIySXK2Q
The link above leads to a game called Maze War. Maze War was developed in 1973 and was the very first Fps game. The idea was that 2 players have to find each other and kill each other, did I mention it was in a maze; hence the name "Maze War". This principle is very similar to the multi-player that most Fps games have today. Another game was made shortly after this game called Spasim, which followed a very similar idea.
Well now you know how it began but the question know would be, how did it evolve?
In 1992 a game called Wolfenstein 3d was released, you can see it here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=561sPCk6ByE
If you heard of a game called Doom you will probably notice how similar this game looks, this is because they are made by the same people and Doom was made just a year later. Despite the graphics looking bad by today's standards, back then they were quite detailed. Compared to Maze War, Wolfenstein looks good and you can see just how things were changing, it had a lot more option than Maze War and most noticeably it is in colour. In 1993 a modified version of Wolfenstein 3d was put on a games console called the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), this means Wolfenstein 3d was the first console Fps game.
So what came afterwards?
The next step of evolution was Golden Eye 007 which focused on 4 player split screen multi-player on the Nintendo 64. Here is some game play
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktwVEYqnpcc
This game was really good for it's time and is probably what made Fps popular, just like today's games this one was good looking (at the time) and was incredibly fast paced; overall a fun game.
After this loads of Fps games started appearing, all had similar graphics and mostly focused on multi-player. Franchises such as: Halo, Call of Duty and Medal of Honour started, all of them competing to become the best Fps game.
The game play changes are quite minor but still seem to make a big enough difference for the games to keep selling such as Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, which includes Exo skeleton suits. Graphics have and always will improve because they to help a game sell.
I think the next step would be to make a high quality Fps game for things such as the Xbox Kinect or the PS4 Camera. Then after that virtual reality Fps games, that would be awesome.
That's basically it, hope you enjoyed; please comment