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[Africa's Toto]

What's the best long-running first-person shooter franchise?

I'm defining long-running as having 3 or more games in the franchise, as well as all the games being connected in some way by a single, multi-part story or setting.

Say you wanted to play through several games in the same story or setting, what's your go-to?
You have three choices in the poll

 

[jezhumphrey75]

Counterstrike.....oh story, halo

 

[Okamiden]

Half-Life is both most long-running and best franchise no contest. Every game and spin-off are best in class and most innovative for genre. Halo died with Bungie going to Activision, so fix year in the poll.

 

[Hitchyhero]

Borderlands or halo for me. I voted borderlands

 

[bellome]

Half Life

No contest

 

[Klik]

Where is Battlefield?

 

[Laptop1991]

As a franchise Half Life, on it's own, still FEAR 1 for me

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

Why is COD split? Should be 2003-2021. MW and BO are just small parts in an almost 20 year long running franchise.

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

Half-Life is both most long-running and best franchise no contest. Every game and spin-off are best in class and most innovative for genre. Halo died with Bungie going to Activision, so fix year in the poll.

It's easy to call a game longest running when you release a title once in 15 years. If there was no Alyx, people were pretty much content it was long dead franchise.

 

[Africa's Toto]

Why is COD split? Should be 2003-2021. MW and BO are just small parts in an almost 20 year long running franchise.

Fair point, it's an error from when I initially decided to make this story-based not franchise-.

 

[turtlepowa]

Why Halo just till 2015? I voted for Blood, this game deserves it.

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

Call of Duty

 

[Okamiden]

It's easy to call a game longest running when you release a title once in 15 years. If there was no Alyx, people were pretty much content it was long dead franchise.

It's much better than releasing shit-tier to mediocre games like halo and COD does.

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

Needs more than two multiple choices.

 

[mcz117chief]

The Modern Warfare trilogy is a truly incredible, highest quality FPS trilogy right next to Halo. Unfortunately Halo 4 and 5 are garbage which takes it down a couple of notches in comparison to the MW trilogy. If it would be just MW 1-3 vs Halo 1-3 then I would vote for Halo.

 

[Africa's Toto]

Needs more than two multiple choices.

Reason?

 

[Mokus]

Deus Ex is not a shooter. It's more first person RPG, like Cyberpunk. And where is Doom, Quake, Unreal?

 

[Diddy X]

Halo or Battlefield

 

[greencoder]

You should get rid of Blood, Marathon, Operation Flashpoint and Sniper: Ghost Warrior because they will not get (many) points anyway. And add some other options (how Doom is not there?).

 

[Calverz]

 

[Africa's Toto]

Deus Ex is not a shooter. It's more first person RPG, like Cyberpunk. And where is Doom, Quake, Unreal?

You should get rid of Blood, Marathon, Operation Flashpoint, Sniper: Ghost Warrior and add some other names

Maybe I didn't title this properly, but the poll concerns franchises that have a single story told across several games.

I was going to add Far Cry, Quake and so on, but they don't have a single narrative or setting tied together across their several games.

 

[Mokus]

Maybe I didn't title this properly, but the poll concerns franchises that have a single story told across several games.

I was going to add Far Cry, Quake and so on, but they don't have a single narrative or setting tied together across their several games.

Well, Quake still would qualify since the story is linked between Quake II, Quake IV and Enemy Territory - Quake Wars.

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

Reason?

Picking just two wouldn't cover my main favorites.

 

[Sygma]

If it's purely about the story and nothing else, Wolfenstein and Half life easily

 

[Kupfer]

I can't decide between S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Metro, Half Life, Wolfenstein and Killzone. All of them have pretty much flashed me.
So I didn't vote, choosing two just wouldn't be fair.

EDIT:
What about Bioshock? At least Bioshock 1 is close to a perfect game and two still holds up really well.

 

[German Hops]

I agree with greencoder

 

[VN1X]

Half-Life and Wolfenstein of course.

Do I get a prize now?

 

[Alright]

Half life wins.

No choice for bioshock though?

 

[Africa's Toto]

I can't decide between S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Metro, Half Life, Wolfenstein and Killzone. All of them have pretty much flashed me.
So I didn't vote, choosing two just wouldn't be fair.

EDIT:
What about Bioshock? At least Bioshock 1 is close to a perfect game and two still holds up really well.

I completely forgot about Bioshock.

And yeah, those are some great games, but if you think deeply you can probably find something to put the experience of playing through one over the other.

For example, I really like the Stalker games, but the jank cannot be ignored.

 

[Africa's Toto]

I agree with greencoder

The poll question and poll rules

3 or more games in the franchise, as well as all the games being connected in some way by a single, multi-part story or setting.

limit a lot of other games from being included. Besides the fact that fps itself isn't really a defined term anymore.

 

[TheStam]

Jesus, didn't read the story part. Voted for Battlefield

 

[kuncol02]

It's Doom and rest is not even close. Original Doom is best game ever (tie with Tetris) and Doom 2016 is probably best shooter of at least last 10 years.

 

[Alandring]

My two favorite stories in FPS are the stories in Bioshock Infinite and in Killzone Shadow Fall (I haven't played Killzone 1-3 and Bioshock 1 & 2 are too scary for me).

Borderlands is an amazing IP, but not for its story.

Also, I don't think Deus Ex should be count as a FPS. For me, it's a RPG, like Fallout New Vegas or Horizon Zero Dawn.

 

[mxbison]

Half-Life easy.

Always pushing the genre forward.

 

[theHFIC]

As a longtime Mac user, thanks for including Marathon. No way it even is close to most of these other selections, but at least it is nice to see!

 

[Sygma]

My two favorite stories in FPS are the stories in Bioshock Infinite and in Killzone Shadow Fall (I haven't played Killzone 1-3 and Bioshock 1 & 2 are too scary for me).

Borderlands is an amazing IP, but not for its story.

Also, I don't think Deus Ex should be count as a FPS. For me, it's a RPG, like Fallout New Vegas or Horizon Zero Dawn.

Borderlands has very good writing its just a little over the place. 1 had a cool expositon, 2 and dlcs had really good stories / characters and 3 exactly nailed what Gearbox wanted to do with it, which is a parody mostly. However 3 still has very good story in dlcs and most of the lore you can find in the collectibles is PURE GOLD. There's potential to be had with the war of the vaults if they ever go toward this way for the next installment, like Borderlands is just a pretty hit and miss pop culture melting pot but when it shines, it shines

 

[GymWolf]

Not really a single correct chioce type of topic, a lot of good options so i'm gonna go with Modern wolfenstein and killzone.

Killzone is basically the only fps where the villains are kinda more sympathetic than the good guys (if you know all the lore), helgans also look way cooler than ISA.

 

[Africa's Toto]

Updated to allow three choices

 

[CatLady]

No question it's Halo for me. It was the first fps I ever played and the story and lore totally hooked me. I haven no interest in multiplayer but I've been a diehard fan of the campaigns ever since I first played Halo CE.

I also love the new Deus Ex games and really hope at some point we'll see more of them and/or remakes of the 1st ones as I never played those.

 

[.Pennywise]

Half-Life stood all this time against all the other ones, not only innovating in every new installment but with way less entries than the others.

No contest here.

 

[DonJorginho]

Half-Life
Halo
Borderlands

Very nearly picked the likes of Bioshock, Battlefield, Deus Ex, Doom and Wolfenstein however. So many great shooters when you think about it.

 

[Varteras]

Battlefield is my top pick just for the sheer number of moments and tons of fun I had playing with my friends. Battlefield V and Hardline were both low points in that franchise for me but all the other games just hooked me. Half-Life gets my nod for being the best single player FPS experience I've had thus far. Halo gets essentially my runner-up pick. It doesn't have the best multiplayer or campaign to me, especially not these days, but it's an overall very solid package and brings me more fun than any other entry in that poll. Though I will give honorable mentions to Borderlands, Killzone, Resistance, and FEAR.

 

[SpartanN92]

Halo and that’s not even a fair contest lol

1-3 are just remarkable. ODST is great. Reach was great (albeit some canon issues) and I even consider 4 to have an excellent campaign.

5 is utter dog shit though. Complete trash.

 

[Roni]

Extremely disappointed Deus Ex isn't topping this chart.

 

[Psychostar]

I'm confused, why aren't franchises like ratchet and clank being mentioned here? The games do follow up on each other and there are many to play through.

You've also got the uncharted series for example? That's 4 games leading into each other , building up strong side characters.

There's also the Witcher series and mass effect which had been running for some time right? Those games are quite connected.

 

[Africa's Toto]

I'm confused, why aren't franchises like ratchet and clank being mentioned here? The games do follow up on each other and there are many to play through.

You've also got the uncharted series for example? That's 4 games leading into each other , building up strong side characters.

There's also the Witcher series and mass effect which had been running for some time right? Those games are quite connected.

It's first-person shooters only. Or at least, anything that passes for fps as the term is less definite these days.

A poll for interconnected game storylines across all games would be way too large and probably need several threads, knockout tournament style.

 

[Bilbo Baggins]

Halo, easily. Nothing else comes close.

The Metro trilogy is also great & I gave Deus Ex a vote, although I don't really class it as an FPS. Even though the games are first person & you do shoot.

 

[kuncol02]

I'm confused, why aren't franchises like ratchet and clank being mentioned here?

"What is the best long-running, story based FPS franchise?"

Words. What they even mean? I'm confused by your confusion.

 

[LazyParrot]

Half-Life wins, but only because I wouldn't call Deus Ex and System Shock shooters.

A lot of the games on this list shouldn't be there to begin with, IMHO. Like, how is Blood a long-running franchise? And can you really call games like Duke 3D story-based? And if you can, where's Shadow Warrior?

 

[Croatoan]

In what world is battlefield story based? They basically dont have campaigns anymore, and only a few titles ever did.