this: video games

In the modern era of video games, FPS was one of the first genres to use key technologies such as 3D graphics, online play, and modding. Enhanced realism combined with graphic violence has also made FPS a common topic in ongoing controversies over video games.

Gameplay

All FPSs feature the core gameplay elements of movement and shooting, but many variations exist, with different titles emphasizing certain aspects of the gameplay. The lines between sub-genres are not distinct; some games include stealth elements in addition to action-packed sequences more typical of a "run and gun" FPS.

Structure

Most FPSs employ the videogame convention of being split into distinct levels separated in time and space, each set in a specific environment such as a warehouse, desert, laboratory, or castle. The most common style in earlier days of FPS gaming was the "level" system; however, Half-Life popularized a progressive system where the point-of-view never leaves the character and the entire game is a single continual campaign with no breaks in time. Both styles are now utilized extensively. The linearity of FPSs also varies, with some leading the player as directly as possible through the game through as many gunfights as possible, while others give the player numerous options regarding how they tackle each section. More recent titles, such as S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl and Crysis, have allowed the player to wander around large sandbox environments.

Environment interaction

Different FPSs allow different types and amount of environment interaction. The most common are simple doors which can be opened (either by pressing a specific "use" button or automatically) and the health and ammo packs and new weapons that can be collected (the player character gets the effect simply by walking over them in most games). Buttons in the game environment allow a bit more interaction: they can open a door, start or shut down some machinery in the game environment which do a certain task (create a lethal trap for enemies, lower a bridge over a chasm) or whatever the programmers have scripted. These have been used in FPS games since Doom, although the variations have slightly increased.

More recently games in general, but especially FPSs, have provided more realistic interactive environments. An old addition was the use of blood splatters and bullet holes as a graphical decal that are displayed on top of texture. Barriers and specific objects that can be destroyed are now common, while the walls and such are still immovable and indestructible. More realistic physics have allowed for background objects (tables, cars, garbage bins) to be interacted with; for example Half-Life 2 (2004) was among the first games to incorporate the manipulation of objects both as weapons and as keys to environmental puzzles.