One of the most important things about classic FPS games is the variety in their selection of enemies and how intricately tied they are to the game design. Their different roles, strengths and weaknesses in conjunction with how they are placed in the environment was pretty much the biggest toolset available to the level designers. As the genre moved further further towards setpiece-focused design, and gameplay mostly centered around soaking up hitscan damage and then seek cover to regenerate, this is an aspect that was greatly diminished and has just about become a lost art.
Let's start off with one of the most iconic bestiaries which is Doom 1&2, largely responsible for setting the template for the first wave of shooters in the 90's.
You've got the bottom tier zombie dudes who are slow, have very low health but they do have instant hitscan weapons. Especially the shotgun and chaingun zombies can hurt a lot. So when you enter a room your instinctive reaction is typically going to be to find and take out these guys first. Experienced level designers have a nasty habit of putting shotgun guys around corners making you always look sideways.
Then you've got the other ranged monsters that rely on slower projectiles. The imps die pretty quick like the zombies, while the others have exponentially more health, but to balance this out most of them sans the hell knights and barons have a very low pain threshold so you can effectively "stunlock" them with rapid fire weapons. It can become a bit of an art to juggle your fire between several of them to minimize their fire rate. Mancubus (the big brown fattie) fires double fireballs but they go in a very specific pattern and with enough distance you can avoid them by just standing inbetween the 2 projectiles. Level designers also have a habit of using any of these as "turret" enemies by placing them in unreachable and often vertically elevated positions.
Then there's the melee-only monsters which are very few in this game. First you've got the instantly recognisable "Pinky" demon. He is really quite handicapped with several crippling weaknesses, such as a slow attack that can only be used while stationary, and like ED-209 the poor thing can't seem to use stairs. They are most effectively placed several at once in small corridors and other tight places where they can easily gang up and corner you if you don't watch out. And last you've got the Lost Soul (the little floating skull) which is pretty much the only enemy filling the "minor nusiance" role. Quite often they appear in medium to large packs and always manage to charge into one another and start infighting.
Compare this to how the monsters work in Duke Nukem 3D. On the surface, it might seem functionally very similar to Doom, but it does do several things to differentiate itself enough. Most notably is that most enemies have some trademark special ability they'll use every now and then.
The lowest tier aliens use projectile lasers instead of hitscan weapons, but their projectile speed is significantly faster than most you'd find in Doom. The red armored ones are also capable of teleporting around. The pig cops are the token shotgun enemies in this game, but their health is significantly higher than their Doom equivalents. They are also capable of firing while crouching, and they also pilot vehicles (surviving pig cops often emerge from vehicles after you destroy them). After that comes the chaingun alien (which only appears after Episode 1). He's quite agile and can jump around, but also has a rather distinct weakness in the form of frequently having to pause for bowel movements.
The Octabrain is pretty much the DN3D Cacodemon with a few twists. Most notably is that its attack has a fairly long charge time, and during this window any damage will cancel the attack. One of the other flying enemies is the small robot drone. They act as suicide bombers exploding on death and can also evade some enemy fire.
The little slime puddles are the nusiances of the game. They die in one pistol shot but can be difficult to hit. Plus, they can also move and attack from the ceiling. They attack by crawling up on the player's face and obscuring the view. For some reason you're still able to shoot or even kick them when that happens.
I would have liked to cover Quake as well but didn't want the OP to get too lengthy. Would be nice if some other savvy people can cover other bestiaries like Quake and Half-Life and explain what makes them great.
Let's start off with one of the most iconic bestiaries which is Doom 1&2, largely responsible for setting the template for the first wave of shooters in the 90's.
You've got the bottom tier zombie dudes who are slow, have very low health but they do have instant hitscan weapons. Especially the shotgun and chaingun zombies can hurt a lot. So when you enter a room your instinctive reaction is typically going to be to find and take out these guys first. Experienced level designers have a nasty habit of putting shotgun guys around corners making you always look sideways.
Then you've got the other ranged monsters that rely on slower projectiles. The imps die pretty quick like the zombies, while the others have exponentially more health, but to balance this out most of them sans the hell knights and barons have a very low pain threshold so you can effectively "stunlock" them with rapid fire weapons. It can become a bit of an art to juggle your fire between several of them to minimize their fire rate. Mancubus (the big brown fattie) fires double fireballs but they go in a very specific pattern and with enough distance you can avoid them by just standing inbetween the 2 projectiles. Level designers also have a habit of using any of these as "turret" enemies by placing them in unreachable and often vertically elevated positions.
Then there's the melee-only monsters which are very few in this game. First you've got the instantly recognisable "Pinky" demon. He is really quite handicapped with several crippling weaknesses, such as a slow attack that can only be used while stationary, and like ED-209 the poor thing can't seem to use stairs. They are most effectively placed several at once in small corridors and other tight places where they can easily gang up and corner you if you don't watch out. And last you've got the Lost Soul (the little floating skull) which is pretty much the only enemy filling the "minor nusiance" role. Quite often they appear in medium to large packs and always manage to charge into one another and start infighting.
Compare this to how the monsters work in Duke Nukem 3D. On the surface, it might seem functionally very similar to Doom, but it does do several things to differentiate itself enough. Most notably is that most enemies have some trademark special ability they'll use every now and then.
The lowest tier aliens use projectile lasers instead of hitscan weapons, but their projectile speed is significantly faster than most you'd find in Doom. The red armored ones are also capable of teleporting around. The pig cops are the token shotgun enemies in this game, but their health is significantly higher than their Doom equivalents. They are also capable of firing while crouching, and they also pilot vehicles (surviving pig cops often emerge from vehicles after you destroy them). After that comes the chaingun alien (which only appears after Episode 1). He's quite agile and can jump around, but also has a rather distinct weakness in the form of frequently having to pause for bowel movements.
The Octabrain is pretty much the DN3D Cacodemon with a few twists. Most notably is that its attack has a fairly long charge time, and during this window any damage will cancel the attack. One of the other flying enemies is the small robot drone. They act as suicide bombers exploding on death and can also evade some enemy fire.
The little slime puddles are the nusiances of the game. They die in one pistol shot but can be difficult to hit. Plus, they can also move and attack from the ceiling. They attack by crawling up on the player's face and obscuring the view. For some reason you're still able to shoot or even kick them when that happens.
I would have liked to cover Quake as well but didn't want the OP to get too lengthy. Would be nice if some other savvy people can cover other bestiaries like Quake and Half-Life and explain what makes them great.
