I'm replaying Dark Forces and it's struck me how map design has regressed over the years. From sprawling enemy bases and cave systems to linear corridors, from getting lost in multiple branching paths to constant guided narration via comms chatter that is always telling you what to do, Dark Forces was a breath of fresh air from a source that should be way too stale by this point.

Are there any modern shooters that have that old map design going strong?

Not exactly modern but newer than Dark Forces:

- Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight (obviously, to use forces is pretty fun but Dark Forces was way more badass IMO)
- Jedi Knight 2
- Jedi Academy
- Mace Griffin: Bounty Hunter
- Alpha Prime
- Red Faction
- Soldier of Fortune
- Half-Life
- SiN
- Daikatana
- Requiem: Avenging Angel
- Shogo
- No One Lives Forever

Serious Sam?

OP: Not that I can think of. FPS now seem to all be in the vein of linear walk through sparkly graphics stopping for the occasional cutscene or set piece event, know as the COD effect. Painkiller is not bad, though not sprawling by any means, same with the newer shadow warrior.

I barely touched Hard Reset but I believe it's supposed to be more old school without the typical shortcomings found in older games.

AAAAAAAAAAAA

Modern-ish FPS games with open level design:
STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl, STALKER: Clear Sky, STALKER: Call of Pripyat, Far Cry, Far Cry 2, Far Cry 3, Far Cry 4, Far Cry: Blood Dragon, Crysis, Crysis 2 to an extent, Crysis 3, Bioshock, Bioshock 2 (not Infinite tho), Chronicles of Riddick, Dishonored(I suppose), Deus Ex: Human Revolution(I suppose), ArmA: Cold War Crisis, ArmA 2, ArmA 3, Borderlands (kinda bad otherwise tho) and the list goes ON

God damnit people, one takes a peek into this forum once in a lifetime and you can't even come up with a single recent open FPS from a massive list, what's wrong with you!?

*Fenixp out*

Kingpin, Unreal..
I think also Rise of the Triad (2013) has quite good level design.

I agree that the shooters I mentioned are linear but they don't feel like it, because like the OP mentioned of the leveldesign.
Serious Sam and Painkiller are completely different style shooters and can be compared better with arcade games like Robotron 2084 or SmashTV while the singleplayer of Call of Duty is more of a shooting gallery, the levels are too simplistic for even a linear experience.

Each map in Minecraft is several times bigger than earth. It really give you a sense of being in a tiny creature in a universe of unfathomable proportions. Best use of procedural generation ever!

Rise of the Triad (2013) also has some good maps, I think.

Sorry, that OP:... was to the original post, not to yours :o) I stand corrected. You are quite correct, STALKER, Far Cry 1, Crysis 1, are all great games and pretty open. I would point out that Bioshock was not open at all, ok in one of two places you could go left round the pillar or right, but that is it.

I need this on GOG!
The level design made me feel like it was taken straight out of reality and made for great fun combined with the feel of the weapons and the occasional shooting off caps.

I was going to answer, but then you said "modern". No, linear corridor shooters OR "open world" games. They don't make games with good level design any longer.

Yeah, replayed this a while back and it's still pretty fun, unlike it's sequel. :^/

The best ones I can think of are the last two Operation Flashpoint games, Dragon Rising and Red River.
Perhaps even the last two Rainbow Six games....I'm not including Siege since its just about multiplayer.

Far Cry 1 and 2 don't have the same hand-holding as #3 and 4.

I haven't played these in a long time but perhaps they are worth a look:
* Singularity
* Wolfenstein (2009)
* Prey
* The Chronicles of Riddick
* Fear 1 & 2
* Timeshift
* Call Of Juarez

In general I think FPS games from before 2010 could be worth looking into.


Agree, open-world and multiplayer-focus have become good excuses for not making interesting level designs.
The level design was part of the challenge in the past, now its merely part of the scenery.

Maybe Payz4Days2 has decent map design?
Not exactly old school though.
To be fair though, old games also had a ton of really bad designs.
Dark Forces has multiple levels where you can get lost in nearly identical looking maze-like corridors, something which a lot of the old shooters suffered from.

Ehh not really. Both HR and Shadow Warrior 2013 put up an illusion of open level design but they're still linear for a large amount of time.