What's your favorite FPS game from each year of the '90s?

Well the '90s were definitely the time the old school shooters came out, bar rather few (Serious Sam would be one of them). But from 1992-1999, what is the best FPS each year in your opinion?

Answers are preferably limited to one game, EXCEPT that if two are clearly part of the same series, combining them is allowed. Here's mine, potentially:

1992: Wolfenstein 3D and SoD. Do I even need to explain why?
1993: DooM. Again, inexplicably no competition for this one.
1994: DooM II. A good base game that adds some to the original and makes it easier to keep a classic status.
1995: Nothing super huge came out so this becomes the toughest year for a pick of mine. I'd have to settle for Heretic. Doom clone, but it's my favorite one.
1996: Duke Nukem 3D. Yes, it's funner than Quake, so ID doesn't get the title this time.
1997: Blood. Creepy and scary. Build engine (Duke Nukem). Technology getting a bit out of date? I don't care; fun is fun.
1998: Half Life. Starting to get a bit more complex with games already than I'd like, but classic status is undeniable and until Xen it was undoubtedly fun.
1999: Second hardest year to pick. I have to go with Opposing Force. Rock solid expansion to a classic. But maybe an argument to is System Shock 2 is FPS enough to count? I haven't played it myself but it's got rave reviews no doubt.

WolfForever wrote:..Answers are preferably limited to one game, EXCEPT that if two are clearly part of the same series, combining them is allowed..

You mentioned eight games.. one game series.
The question - of how games can be called?

Series can be considered one entity if all of the following are satisfied:

-Released the same year
-Same company developed it
-Uses the same engine
-Has the same overall look/feel/atmoshpere

Wolfenstein/SoD in 1992 satisfied all of these. The only other game I mentiond twice as top pick was DooM. Since they (DooM, DooM II) were not released the same year, they couldn't go together as a combined entity.

By the way, shame 'Final DooM' wasn't released until 1996 and it's clearly not better than Duke Nukem 3D. If it was 1995 it would be my favorite over Hertic. It's two full mapset replacements for DooM II, and one of them, 'The Plutonia Experiment', is a mapset I always actually liked on par with or better than ID Software's levels (snd is, in fact, the only official, non-freeware DooM game that isn't by ID that I am willing to say this for).

WolfForever wrote:Series can be considered one entity if all of the following are satisfied..

With a "series of game" is clear ..
But quantity..
Write double answer

WolfForever wrote:What's your favorite FPS game from each year of the '90s?

If I had to pick one game (the best of the best) created in the 90s, I would choose the "Marathon".
More precisely, this trilogy..

"Marathon" (1994)
"Marathon 2: Durandal" (1995)
"Marathon Infinity" (1996)

The reason is simple - a perfect combination of plot and dynamics. But it's important that the story is not just text at the beginning of the episode or text instructions . The plot of the "Marathon" is a scientific fiction novel.. interactive book for a player. Dynamics (action) - in the game a lot of episodes that resemble a sports arena (deathmatch). Along with this - "Marathon" is a great level design, many of which are nonlinear. And of course the "Marathon" is a series of innovations - mouse overview for fire weapons, reloading weapons, mass shootings involving non-player character, swimming under water and the presence of realism: under water gun did not work, a variety of quests in the game (no color keys and doors), for some types of weapons involved the possibility alternate shot, radar for the observation of the enemy, terminals to save the game and recharge protection and oxygen.. Add to this the interesting modes for online play..
Some of the above was in earlier games (radar and terminals for health). Other gameplay elements first appeared. In any case - "Marathon" was the first game that connected all of the most great ideas in the genre First-person shooter (FPS).

Maybe someone would be interested..
Continued (development) official story trilogy in subsequent episodes ..
.

.
.. and it's not all additional episodes.


If choose a few games 90s .. there were a lot .. Wolfenstein 3D, SoD, DooM I&II, Rise of the Triad, Descent and Witchaven (although the two games the result of mixing genres..), Star Wars: Dark Forces, Duke Nukem 3D, Blood, Shadow Warrior, Redneck Rampage, Quake I&II&III, Half Life, Outlaws, Unreal and Unreal Tournament and many others..
In general, it seems to me that the 90s were a golden age for the genre FPS.
And if you choose the minimum name, then ..

"Wolfenstein 3D" (1992)- the first FPS ..
"Rise of the Triad" (1994) - the first and probably last FPS-transformer that combines arcade and shooter genre
"Marathon" (1994/1996)- about this game I said .. above
"Unreal" (1998) - beautiful game world, excellent level's, a good story .. in this game interesting to travel
"Unreal Tournament" (1999) - best game for online battles and single player

Never even heard of Marathon! And I hear it was made freeware, but most of the downloads I find are for Mac. Is there on for PC (if so, link)? Also is this a straight shooter like Wolfenstein 3D/DooM/Quake or is it more like Unreal or Half Life?

Anyways, the other games:
-Wolfenstein 3D/SoD/Classic DooM series/Blood/Half Life: Already covered because they were in my favorites.
-Rise of the Triad: I do recall enjoying this if in small doses.
-Descent (series): Rarely mentioned, and I actually did like these; they were underpopular IMO, although the games did have some flaws, especially that I find most of the new primary weapons in Descent II to be much too powerful. There are some good custom missions for these games though. That said I'm not sure how many (if any) realized the overpowering of Descent II's new primary weapons and used them sparsely in their custom levels to make better flow with mainly just Descent I primary weapons. Also the code is jam packed full of "hacks", as in ways the game ends up doing the right thing but through very convoluted coding tricks rather than proper coding.
-Dark Forces (series): Could never get into these that much for some reason.
-Shadow Warrior: The third best of the Build games I'd consider good. But I always recall enjoying Blood more, which was from the same year.
-Redneck Rampage: Cheap build engine knockoff in my opinion, to be honest. Didn't give me more than brief enjoyment.
-Quake: (Not calling this a series because the engines and looks are materially different.) Anyways for the first Quake I like it pretty highly but it couldn't quite outtake Duke Nukem 3D when picking a yearly favorite. It is a really close runner up for 1996 though. Second place for sure.
-Quake II: Liked it, very little resemblance to the first Quake. But the main problem is I don't know of any good source port that works on modern machines flawlessly for both the game and its user created add-ons. I can play Blood in DOSBox. So it didn't quite make it as my favorite of the year, though 1997 had multiple quite good ones.
-Quake III: Not a fan of multiplayer-only games.
-Outlaws: Haven't played it and mixed reviews are constantly making me think twice.
-Unreal: Somehow couldn't get into it; it seems like Quake II taken further than my preference.
-Unreal Tournament: Multiplayer game. See Quake III

WolfForever wrote:Also is this a straight shooter like Wolfenstein 3D/DooM/Quake or is it more like Unreal or Half Life?

Games "Unreal" and "Half Life" similar to "Marathon". This is especially true "Unreal". "Unreal" is the same game with narrative (book.. story..)..

WolfForever wrote:Never even heard of Marathon! And I hear it was made freeware, but most of the downloads I find are for Mac. Is there on for PC (if so, link)?

Thanks "Microsoft" - now there are no problems with the "Marathon". "Microsoft" owning company "Bungie" ("Halo" time of development) has opened the source code of the game "Marathon" and gave official trilogy free use.. Accordingly there is a community of developers "Aleph One" engine (Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux)
.
http://source.bungie.org/ - Here the official trilogy with the engine .. new textures, etc.
New episodes (scenario) are sometimes lined with no engine. The engine "Aleph One" must download separately.
.
Some scenarios for "Aleph One"
"Rubicon X"
"Eternal"
"Gray Incident"
Some scenarios and updated texture and new special effects can be found here Simplici7y
A more complete list of scenarios
I must say - not all of the scenarios I liked..
More precisely two scenarios - "Excalibur: Morgana's Revenge" and "Tempus Irae"..
.

In fine - I suggest you try to start "Marathon 2: Durandal".. The first three or four levels ..
.
"Marathon 2: Durandal" with Shader Support & Hi-Res Graphics