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From 1974 to 2020, 3D shooting game has gone through its own development process of nearly 46 years. In these 46 years, from the beginning of the epiphany to the present, the stars are shining, and it is telling its wonderful things in a unique way.

From the enlightenment of "Labyrinth War" to the multicultural shooting world, 3D shooting games have been repeated in the process of evolution but never ended. From the zero drawn in the maze war to the zero written in the German headquarters in 3D, to the first dynasty written in Half-Life, Duke of Destruction and Thor's Hammer, and finally to the realistic era created by call of duty, battlefield, delta special forces and armed assault, 3D shooting games are gradually becoming multicultural.

The development of 3D shooting games has no end, and it will only experience the change of dynasties. People were fascinated by bloody shooting at first, and its world was full of blood and killing. Since then, people have gradually smelled the taste of rationality, and 3D shooting games with the theme of anti-war came into being. Later, people began to fall in love with the zombie crisis, so a zombie era dominated by H 1Z 1 Dayz appeared in its world, Warz. Finally, with the continuous decline of traditional themes in recent years, the culture of fleeing and killing has gradually spread to deus ex, once again pushing this enduring dynasty to the world's attention.

In this article, we will talk about the years of fighting in 3D shooting games. We will not only talk about the evolution of TPS and FPS games, but also pay attention to the design ideas or business ideas behind them. In addition, we should think about why 3D shooting games have such strong integration ability from beginning to end. So that in the years when RPG and RTS gradually retired, 3D shooting games can still be unique and lead coquettish.

From the simple code that the first designer thought of to the well-known German Command 3D, the initial evolution of 3D shooting game was extremely slow. But despite this, some people discovered the importance of this game in that era when electronic products were scarce. The first commercial 3D shooting game was called "War Zone", which marked the origin of the establishment of 3D shooting games.

Influenced by the design idea of Labyrinth War, Theater created this tank simulation game with the design idea of Labyrinth War, which is also called the first real shooting game. Although its picture is almost abstract with simple lines and dots, it still has the original characteristics of shooting games, that is, shooting and competition. In this game, players need to destroy enemy tanks to get points, and the final score is the key to surpassing themselves and competing with friends after a leisurely meal.

If you try to take one step in the development of shooting games, you will take the second step. Although you may walk unsteadily, only if you dare to walk can you really learn to walk. In 1980s, after War Zone started the era of commercialization of shooting games, there are still many creators who want to popularize this novel game mode to more players. However, at that time, due to the limitation of the big environment, the hardware level of the host platform could not make 3D shooting games rise, so most of the shooting games at that time were still stuck in the 2D shooting games initiated by Space Wars.

After that, what really made 3D shooting games popular was the midi maze, which introduced the concept of shooting games about multiplayer competition for the first time. Because it is the first 3D game that provides multiplayer online battle, and it is also the first game that provides LAN battle.

With the quiet departure of 1980s and the gradual arrival of 1990s, 3D shooting games are also preparing for the first revolution with the gradual maturity of technology. 1992, it has been nearly 20 years since the birth of the enlightenment shooting game "Maze Wars". In this year, the 3D shooting game really sprouted, and this budding work is "German Command 3D". "German Command 3D" marks the beginning of modern true 3D FPS games, and creates the true 3D era of FPS games with a powerful 3D engine.

But in fact, the first game using true 3D screen technology is not this classic FPS game, but another contemporary RPG game. This game is Genesis: Underground World, which was launched before German Command 3D and Doomsday. 1992 Genesis: Underground World was launched on DOS and PS 1 platforms. This is the first game with ramp technology in the game, which allows players to adjust their perspective up and down in the game, and even jump or squat in the level. Because its release is earlier than the release time of these two true 3D shooting games, most players also think that it is the first game to create the era of 3D games.

Genesis: Underground World suddenly appeared here because this game was rarely mentioned in many articles I have read about the evolution of 3D FPS games. The main reason why most articles ignore Genesis is that the first peak of 3D game created by ID software is so dazzling that it is hard for many players to think that this ancient game is revolutionary in the field of game theme and screen without the influence of ID software.

On the other hand, in fact, john carmack, the founder of Id software, is a fan of Genesis and Witchcraft series, so understanding the existence of Genesis is also convenient for us to understand the entrepreneurial road of Id software. John carmack left the floppy disk company at 199 1 (note: floppy disk company is the first game company in john carmack) and founded the Id software game company with his friend john romero, who is friends with floppy disks. That is, from then on, he began to give up his previous obsession with 2D games and focus on the revolution of 3D visual effects. Until the Id software went through a lot of hardships, it finally released the "German Command 3D" which is of great significance in the history of game development.

"German Command 3D" conquered countless players with unimaginable 3D technology at that time, and john carmack was very proud of it, but he didn't enjoy his scientific and technological victory alone. After the success of "German Command 3D" written by sales volume, john carmack resolutely made the source code of his hard-earned game public, so that other game manufacturers could share this scientific and technological wisdom.

John carmack's move is undoubtedly like personally sowing the seeds of 3D technology revolution for the game soil all over the world, so it is foreseeable that 3D games will be launched in groups like mushrooms after rain in the next few years. This time, however, after john carmack revealed the enlightenment caused by private 3D technology. Id software once again used the upgraded 3D engine to make the DOOM. Compared with the previous work, Doom has perfected the picture and has a more realistic static scene. It is also the first true 3D game with local area network (LAN) fighting function after the first revolution of 3D FPS games. Due to the continuous popularity of Command and Doom in Germany, we can even say that the 1990s belong to the era of Id software. A few years after the launch of Doom Warrior, Id software released Doom Warrior 2 and Ultimate Doom Warrior, which continuously consolidated the historical position of john carmack's works, so john carmack was recorded in the history of the game together with his valuable game wealth.

Near the beginning of the twentieth century, Id software has made numerous achievements. John carmack and the players' vision is no longer limited to simple adventure and killing. They need more multi-person interaction in shooting games, and online fighting has become the main purpose at this time. Therefore, under the Id software, the masterpiece "Thor's Hammer 3 Arena" was born, and at the same time, the work "unreal tournament" was also produced at the epic end. Both of these games do not consider the narrative of FPS games, but focus on the fun of multiplayer games. Since then, the multi-player competitive function of 3D shooting has been formally established, which also paved the way for the next e-sports career of 3D shooting games.

However, everything has two sides. If there are people who like sports, there will be people who like stories. In the year before the above two games focused on multiplayer function, V Club officially launched the first generation of half-life. This is the first time that a 3D shooting game has deeply emphasized the plot, in line with the aggressive feeling of shooting games. "Half-life" is no longer monotonous in simple bloodthirsty slaughter, but goes deep into the narrative function of the film. "Half-life" began to introduce a large number of NPCs into the game, and adopted a narrative system in which the plot and the battle complement each other. "Half-life" has also begun to make 3D shooting games have a unique meaning. Since then, the shooting game is no longer a simple and rude hormonal action, because in this world, a story world different from reality can be opened up. In order to explore the significance of "half-life" for multiplayer competition, some players love "half-life" and are willing to open up new MOD for it. This man is Mingle. Under his careful shaping, 1999 released the game "Counter-Terrorism Elite". As a classic, V Club was later willing to buy the copyright of this game, which led to the later "anti-terrorist elite" dynasty era. Multi-player competition is gradually emerging, and the story telling can not be ignored.

In addition to the shock of half-life, many producers have begun to yearn for telling a perfect story in 3D shooting games. Since this period, generate has produced numerous subsequent classic works, such as tom clancy series, Battlefield series and Call of Duty series. 3D shooting games begin to tell stories, and they are also good at improving players' sense of substitution. At the same time, 3D shooting games have begun to incorporate more elements, making the game more and more real, and there will be further development.

Tom clancy series, Battlefield series and Call of Duty series are all familiar to players who like war games. Tom clancy series created the first multiverse based on the novels of American best-selling novelist tom clancy. From tom clancy's Ghost Action to Rainbow Six, to Cell Division and finally to Total Blockade, every name here is familiar to players, and they also mark a completely different type of 3D shooting game. But in Battlefield and Call of Duty, two ever-changing games, we can experience one different story after another. From World War I to World War II to future wars, each story has its own characteristics. This also makes more players begin to understand the real war scenes, and of course, makes us gradually realize the importance of peace.

Since 2000, countless excellent games have stood at the peak of the history of shooting games. In addition to the mediocre and charming Call of Duty, there are several classic works that I can't forget. However, for the first time in my life, I have to talk about the ancient shooting game.

For example, "Delta Special Forces", it was my first time to come into contact with real games. This game was first sold on the Windows98 platform of 1998. Few people have played its first work, but I think many people have played the sequel to this game. In this series of games, the special forces played by players will go deep into enemy camps to perform various tasks, and the game is constantly depicting real scenes. The weather effects in different areas describe the difficulty of the task. At the same time, it is also the first shooter who broke away from the magical elements before the anti-terrorism elite, and really provided local area network battles. Under the baptism of this game, the theme of FPS games will bloom for the first time in China. Unfortunately, because there is no sequel now, when it comes to Call of Duty and Battlefield, few new players know the existence of this work. The following is a comment.

Later, the realistic era led by Battlefield 1942 and Call of Duty 1 gradually emerged and became the mainstream. There are countless classic works in those years, which once attracted countless players and gained a huge player base, and also gave manufacturers the courage to implement the New Year strategy in the future. But as for the specific development history of these two games, I won't say much. I just want to point out one of the classic works, which is also a work worthy of being remembered by new players. This game is Battlefield: Hard Battle. It has been five years since the release of Battlefield: Hard Battle, but now it seems that this game is still necessary to play. This is the first battlefield game created by DICE with a theme other than real war. It tells the story of a life-and-death contest between a heavily armed gangster and the anti-terrorist special police team. Does it sound a bit like Rainbow Six now? But in fact, the connotations of these two games are far apart.

Different from Rainbow Six: Siege, Battlefield: Hard Battle is mainly about the presentation of a single story, in which the role setting and lines setting are also quite humorous, which will also attract players' laughter from time to time. But it is more important to provide various forms of customs clearance programs in this game. Players can play all over the court with guns, or they can choose to sneak around from beginning to end. It's really interesting. Although the player's evaluation of this game is relatively general, it is still worth playing.

Aside from these platitudes, there is also a very hard-core "ARMA". I have carefully evaluated the ARMA series before, so I won't say much in this article. We will talk about his MOD in detail in later chapters, because his MOD is really too important.

I think I talked about invisible elements in the last paragraph, so I have to talk about cell division and black boy series here. The most important masterpieces of these two series are Cell Division 6 and killer 5. Cell Division 6 and killer 5 represent the pinnacle of stealth theme games in recent years. Although killer 2 and Black Boy 6 were published after killer 5, I always feel that there is something missing in these two new works.

"killer 2" and "Black Boy 6" opened the assassination process with the help of the open world, which improved the value of repeated play of the game and increased the uncertainty of the game development process. However, compared with the traditional killer 5, the plot compactness and tension of these two works have declined. This is not to say that there is anything wrong with these two works. They really mark the rebirth of the "Black Boy" series, which is more suitable for the main gameplay under the current game design ideas. However, I still think that the key to better show the charm of this kind of games is to take a linear level.

The Black Boy series has gradually emerged, but on the other hand, Ubisoft's new work Cell Division has not released any new news. In fact, Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, once talked about why there is no new work on cell division in an interview with IGN.

Indeed, there are always strict requirements for diving gamers. If the production team modifies an important feature and introduces it in the new version, players may need to adapt to this mechanism again. For example, if the new work improves the damage value of the game props, then the traditional series players may say, "This change completely loses the essence of diving, and I can completely follow the props running all the way." However, if we inherit the difficulty of the previous game and don't modify the core content of the game, this game may become a classic for traditional players.

Sneaking into the game is like this. A little niche. People who like it really like it, and they are strict about its quality. People who don't like it really hate it. For example, for Tomb Raider: Shadow and Battlefield 5, the new attempt will make the old players feel headache after adding more stealth elements. I'm here to enjoy the plot. Why are you so disgusting to me? This is not to say that the introduction of stealth elements is not good, but about the proportion of design elements. One of these two works is to use diving to slow down the pace of the game, and the other is to improve the authenticity of the game protagonist experience. Whether the specific design is good or not depends on people's feelings.

Speaking of cell division, let's talk about Ubisoft's other works. As we all know, Cell Division, Rainbow Six, Whole Territory Blockade and Ghost Action are all works after Ubisoft bought the copyright of tom clancy's novels. These four works also contain completely different core contents. Cell division represents single diving, Rainbow Six represents multi-player strategy, territorial blockade tends to be online games, and the core content of Ghost Action is somewhat ambiguous. Call it an open-world shooting game for the time being.

The audiences of the four works are different. We talked about Cell Division and Rainbow Six before. We won't comment on these two works any more. Here we mainly talk about the latter two. As a veritable brush game, Territorial Blockade actually has many audiences, especially after the introduction of the concept of dark area in the early stage of the game, which was originally a cooperative online game began to conflict. At this point, the player's main competitiveness-driven gameplay has become another leading force in this game. The setting of the novel is similar to today's elements of eating chicken. In dark areas, you can search for materials or get robbed. You can only take what you find when you board the helicopter. PVP's intrigue strategy war has really brought great interest to the game, and of course, it has also made many players like this game.

Another classic series is the Ghost Action series. I'd like to criticize that Ubisoft has been compromising on the open-world setting in recent years, but since Ghost Action: Breath of the Wilderness, many players have disputed the open-world setting of this game. The game is dominated by single-player and four-player online, and many RPG game elements are added to the huge open map. This is of course a good thing for those players who like to brush big pictures together. Especially in the first few years of "Ghost Action: fistful of dollars", almost no works of the same type in the same period can be played. Self-defense 3 is the pinnacle of the self-defense series, but it does not support online, and Cry of the Island: the barbaric era has completely become a different theme of Cry of the Island. At this time, the appearance of Ghost Action: Wilderness just made up for the lack of theme, so it was a good game.

Now, when the market capital has become a weather vane dominated by game themes, Ubisoft has begun to sit still a little, and the transformation of the same series of games is not obvious. Blockade 2 and Ghost Action: Breakpoint, which have been released one after another in recent years, have also made most players tired of the theme of such games, and their reputation has been declining. As for me, after the opening and globalization of Ghost Action, I began to lose interest in it. My favorite movie "Ghost Action" should also be "Ghost Action 4: Future Soldiers". Although this game was released on 20 12, I can still remember the game quality of its amazing players.

Ghost action 4: the future warrior has a powerful gun modification system and his futuristic optical invisibility cloak. At that time, he gave me the feeling that it was a game from the future, and the story was unparalleled with the game UI, which made me relive this classic work last year.

If the computer hardware brought the revolution of shooting game types at the end of the 20th century, it will become the key to dominate the shooting game industry for most players who have a certain hardware foundation today. The transition from war theme to zombie theme is the first revolution in the history of modern shooting games, and zombie series sprouted in DAYZ. Note that DAYZ here is not a later independent version of DAYZ, but a game MOD:《DAYZ is based on ARMA2. One of the seeds of DAYZ is the same kind of movie and TV theme. Those years coincided with the hit of the American TV series "The Walking Dead", which once set off a zombie theme craze, also affected the game industry and gave birth to DAYZ.

After DAYZ successfully attracted countless players, Bohemian Interactive decided to separate DAYZ as an independent game, so there was an independent version of DAYZ. However, at that time, Bohemia was not the only one who saw the potential under this theme. Another manufacturer, DAYbreak, took the time to launch "H 1Z 1" after hearing the popularity of "Japan". If I remember correctly, the original "H 1Z 1" should have only one version of the game, focusing on doomsday survival. Later, on 20 16, the game was divided into two versions, namely, H 1Z 1: the king of slaughter H1z1; A chance. The latter still focuses on the theme of survival, while the former opens the prelude to the era of great escape.

We can imagine the shooting game itself as a big tree. Rooted and sprouted a thousand years ago, thrived after a thousand years, and finally produced various fruits. The fruit fell to the ground and was picked up. It may not be big enough or sweet enough. After that, people will cultivate again until they have cultivated satisfactory fruits. Therefore, whether it is a zombie theme or a great escape theme, it is essentially inseparable from the prototype of this big tree. The initial morphological points of shooting games are "competition" and "slaughter": where there is a gun, there is competition, with people or with AI; Where there are guns, there are also killings, emotions or indifference. You can find that the evolution of modern shooting games can not be separated from these two points, whether it is the end of bloodthirsty fanaticism, or the wild rage, and then to the most essential and core two points in No Man's Land with Multiple Guns. As for RPG elements and survival elements, they are all artificially mixed, and the same is true for shooting games with the theme of escape.

We can discuss what the great escape gave to the shooting game like this. The basic components of the escape game are divided into three points: a huge area, a birth point chosen by the player, and randomly distributed equipment. Matching it is the misfortune of starting from scratch once you die, and the competitive drive of adrenaline. These points are the source of happiness for the players. As for the game mechanism of the great escape, I prefer to call it the immature first/third person shooter Roguelike. Here, you may ask me, shouldn't Roguelike be the only small game in 2D and 2.5D? How to put escape into Roguelike? In fact, what I want to express is that some Rogleyan mechanisms are almost identical in design to escape mechanisms.

Think about the three basic components of the escape game I mentioned before: huge area, birth point chosen by the player, and randomly distributed equipment. Then substitute you as a player, and you become a game character. The position where you start jumping determines the starting position of your level. The position of the weapon is similar to that of the treasure chest. Choosing a route is similar to choosing the next level. Killing an enemy and dropping equipment is similar to hitting a monster and dropping equipment. This is all part of the rogue element, but the attack mode throughout the game is still the same as the shooting game.

Therefore, the content of the great escape can only be called a new game element, and it cannot be an independent subclass of shooting games. Because the Great Escape was like this when it was just formed, H 1Z 1 only chose it as the game mode, but later, Survival of the Jedi lit a fire on it and made a completely independent game. Later, Night of the Fortress and APEX appeared one after another, both with the theme of escaping from the original game worldview. As for the later CSGO: DZ, Battlefield: Flame Storm, Call of Duty 15 and Call of Duty: Battlefield, they were all compromises to adapt to the mainstream of the market, but these models were originally based on ontology series. In addition to the escape of these shooting games, there was once a racing game that was also very popular. This game is Extreme Racing: Horizon 4. This racing game also has a big escape mode, but the elements are simpler than these shooting games.

After that, there is only one problem left for the designer. Nowadays, the theme of the great escape is gradually saturated. How does the designer define his position and gradually become an accessory of the game itself? Call of Duty: That's what the battlefield does. After Call of Duty 15 made a fortune, Activision was very satisfied. Then the traditional mode was announced in Call of Duty 16, and the chicken eating mode in Call of Duty 16 was launched as a separate free mode. Under this, it does include the business intelligence of Activision. According to the data released by Call of Duty official Twitter on April 1 1 6, Call of Duty 16 attracted 30 million players within 10 days of its launch in Battlefield, and the total number of players on that day exceeded 50 million.

How many players here will be transformed into physical players? There must be. Weapons in the game are unlocked according to the killing experience, so for those players who don't like liver weapons, entering the game itself is undoubtedly the best choice. Even when you look for body double to brush your skin, the customer service will first ask you if you have any body. Activision has done a good marketing, but only sells skin and body drainage Call of Duty 16. But here "Call of Duty" encountered one of the most intractable problems. The more gamers there are, the more gamers there will be. Even players on the host platform can't escape the fate of being hanged. This is especially true for me. Originally, I chose the XBOX end and began to practice the handle. When the handle is practiced to a certain extent, it is destroyed by the keyboard and mouse player.

So I started using the keyboard and mouse. When I get used to the keyboard and mouse, it will be hot escape mode. The players gradually spread out, and even the big battlefield mode of ontology was not spared. Although Call of Duty 16 has many equipment that can locate the enemy's presence and shoot the forward guns, open players and ordinary players can be completely distinguished. Hanging an early gun will lock your body center perfectly in advance, while ordinary players will aim at where you are about to appear and shoot through the wall in advance. What does suspension mean for the big battlefield mode? It means that with the equipment mechanism of Call of Duty 16, a person can completely use the number of enemies killed to suppress his opponent, so as to get out of the land of rebirth. So many players who bought ontology gradually began to give up the deep pit of Call of Duty 16. It can be said that Activision has ushered in the success of business, but it has also brought the pain of players.

Shooting games have experienced ups and downs in the past 20 years, pouring out endless sadness and frustrations, standing on countless design peaks, and of course bringing endless fun to players. We trace back to the passionate past of shooting games, and we look forward to the creative revolution of shooting games in the future. Only in this way, how will we feel when we go back to the past of shooting games again?