Favorite 90s contemporary 2.5D shooter?

[VikingBoyBilly]

This is the poll of ages. Which of these worthy games do you consider to be the top of it's peers in this genre? A question like this might seem well suited for Doom or Marathon or 3Drealmz forums, but the results from those places might be a little biased

I picked this community in particular because it is one that is familiar with these DOS-style (or otherwise) games and, being Commander Keen fans, I think it is established that we all have well-refined, discriminating palettes for video games, picking out and staying loyal to the obscure classics and enjoying the finer edge of gaming

Commander Keen is more ID oriented, but I think the resentment of John Carmack discontinuing the Keen series and causing Tom to resign balances things out of Wolfenstein and Doom dominance

I'll admit, some of these games I haven't even played (Cyclones and Rise of the Triad), but obviously they have the merit to be mentioned. My vote goes to Hexen followed closely by Marathon. Hexen MADE my childhood, I get the greatest sense of nostalgia and enjoyment of that one among them all.

The title is misleading as I included some true 3D ones, but if I missed anything important, please let me know and I'll add it

I at first made the sequels to games separate options, but it wouldn't let me post that as there were too many poll options =(

EDIT: Oops. Looks like I forgot Duke 3D. I hope none of you wanted to vote for it

[Lava89]

No Hovertank 3D but you got Chex Quest??

[Commander Spleen]

Somehow I don't think the poll is going to be terribly effective with so many options crammed into single items. Would be better off as a general discussion thread.

Duke3D is my all-time favourite. So many hours I spent playing Dukematches, editing levels, and patching and exploring other people's creations.

Rise of the Triad comes second. This was the first game that put my brand new 166MHz PC to the test, and I was surprised to discover all the extra details that were hidden to make it run on a 386. The soundtrack has always stuck with me especially.

Quake II comes in close behind them, but it never really seemed to have as much of a personality.

[Lava89]

I think you wouldn't have as much of a problem if you focused on either Quake era games (with models) or pre-Quake games (with animated sprites). Having both types leaves it to be cluttered.

[KeenEmpire]

There was a Chex Quest II?

I could never figure out how to finish the Arboretium in I.

[VikingBoyBilly]

There was a Chex Quest II?

Yeah and a third one just came out last year
And if it's not a great poll whose to say this can't be a general discussion thread?

[Roobar]

How in the garg Quake 1, 2 and 3 and Half-Life are 2.5D?!? And not to mention that with the exception of Quake 1 they're not DOS games! Yes, you forgot Duke 3D and Shadowarrior. I might vote for Doom 2 though. Definitely Doom and Doom 2 were the games that show the world what FPS is and they were leading the FPS genre. But I couldn't imagine the genre without any of these games.

[Galaxieretter]

I'm with I-4an on this one...

I was going to go off on how Quake isn't 2.5 and stuff but I'll stay silent.
Neither is HL-1.
And yeah, you forgot SW.

If you are talking about straight up 3D games you forgot "Unreal." Even though I wouldn't ever vote for it.

I'm going with Quake 2. I don't like Quake 1 (well really never played it) and I don't like Quake 3... (It had no single player.)

[K1n9_Duk3]

Yes, you forgot Duke 3D and Shadowarrior.

Not to metion all the other "Build" games such as BLOOD (which would have been my #1 ). So now I'll just go with Wolf3D and RotT.

[Lava89]

How in the garg Quake 1, 2 and 3 and Half-Life are 2.5D?

Basically my point here:

I think you wouldn't have as much of a problem if you focused on either Quake era games (with models) or pre-Quake games (with animated sprites). Having both types leaves it to be cluttered.

I also don't know where Viking is getting "2.5D" for a FPS in the first place...unless he talking about controls...like in Wolf3D, the graphics are 3D, but the controls and movement have no real height. But even ROTT fulfilled that with the rising platforms.

Basically: Blake Stone: Planet Strike was the last 2.5D FPS.

[IMA3HDDMNKY]

Classic DOOM had the biggest impact on me when I first played it, so I'll go with that one. But I really love pretty much all the games you listed.

[VikingBoyBilly]

Sorry my post is so hypocritical. I guess it's really more like 90s shooters (was unreal around in the late 90s?). And the Marathon games are 5D, which is twice as much as 2.5D

Something I never understood was the gravity on Phobos and Deimos in DOOM. I mean, they are martian moons so they should have gravity close to or even less that Earth's moon, yet the Doomguy falls so fast

And even in Doom3 with such a huge impact on realism Mars somehow had very weighty gravity

[IMA3HDDMNKY]

(was unreal around in the late 90s?)

The first Unreal was released in 1998, I think. I have the Gold Edition laying around here somewhere, which includes the expansion pack, Return To Na Pali.

[Genius314]

Oddly enough, the 2.5-D game that I've played is Corridor 7 (has anyone else heard of it? I don't know how popular it was...) It seems to me to have just been a cheap ripoff of Doom.

[IMA3HDDMNKY]

Sure have. More like a Wolf 3-D knockoff than Doom, I guess. It was pretty lame, from what I recall. There was going to be a sequel titled Corridor 8, but the company that was developing it went bankrupt during production. A prototype version was later leaked by an ex-employee and I think it's still floating around in some dark corner of the web.