Top 10 FPS Single Player Games
#4: Doom (1993)
Grunts and guns - it can only be Doom!
Ah, good old Doom. As fun today as it was fourteen years old - yes it really is that old. The formula that made it a success back then still works today; many of the elements in that winning concoction are very much prevalent in today's FPS titles: cutting edge graphics with new technology, user modifications, controversy in the non-gaming press, multiple ports/clones, and so on. However, what many games have failed to achieve by going through the Doom feature list and ticking them off are the real facets that are behind it reaching this position in the list. There's a near-perfect balance between minimal plot but goals to achieve, dozens of monsters to kill but without a sense of repetition, and a feeling of tension through lighting and audio, not cheap shock tactics. 
Better still, grunts and chainsaws!
Id had originally planned Doom to be more complex, with multiple layers to the storyline and characters, but an internal "reshuffling of staff" eventually resulted in it all being stripped back to the number rule in FPS games: gameplay is everything. Backed by a metal soundtrack, heavily inspired by classics from the likes of Pantera, Metallica and Megadeth, Doom is the perfect game for an adrenalin-boosting blast. The Doom series includes "more of the same" sequels, Doom II and Final Doom, and the most recent title, Doom 3. With an eight year gap between this and the last release, a marked change in gameplay and graphics was made to account for how FPS games have generally evolved since the birth of the original Doom (read more about that here). The original, the daddy of them all, still rules the roost though.
#3: Deus Ex (2000)If Doom is all about scrapping everything out of the game to focus on the gameplay, then Deus Ex is very much the opposite. The developers, Ion Storm, crushed a complex storyline with multiple endings, various gameplay modes, role-play elements and NPC interaction all together to create this title - "ambitious" would be a massive understatement here. Fortunately, it works and works well.
Set in 2050, the themes are far enough in the future to incorporate various science fiction elements, such as injectable nanotechnology, but not so far to prevent plot ingredients from having a certain present-day truth about them. Tales of multiple conspiracies, deals with the Illuminati and government agencies, and the absence of the WTC towers in the New York skyline (a year before they were destroyed for real) only add to the sense of "this could actually happen, you know." A clear sign of Deus ex's strengths is that the distinctly average graphics and animations never get in the way of how one plans and focuses on how the goals ahead. How many games can claim to offer non-violence (except under extreme circumstances) as a perfectly legitimate method of completing the entire thing? What other FPS titles put so much freedom in the hands of the player?
It could be argued that Deus Ex isn't really a FPS - it's just too complex for such a basic description - but whatever genre it does fall into, there's no denying that it is one of the greatest PC games around. It reached such lofty heights of success that the inevitable sequel was never going to top it, and thus when Deux Ex: Invisible War appeared in 2003, a sour taste was felt in the mouths of many a gamer. With a third DE title in development by Eidos, another repeat of the first classic would be most welcome!
Related Stuff Games: Call of Duty 2
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