In a review by ShaggyMoose the reviewer states that this game, "System Shock", kicked off the hybrid FPS RPG.

But there was a game that is also a FPS RPG that came out in the year before called "Hired Guns" and was published by Psygnosis.

Does anybody know of a game that preceded "Hired Guns"?

Found a steam thread that referenced Pathways into Darkness by bungie, released in 1993, the same year as Hired Guns. Might have been a few months earlier or after.

I think another question to ask in addition to what came earlier, is what FPS RPG came out between SS1 and SS2?


After watching gameplay of Hired Guns and Pathways into Darkness, SS1 seems like the more advanced game from a ui/hud perspective, which is weird to say considering SS1's ui is the most antiquated aspect of it.

Pathways ui looks like a windows folder and Hired Guns has no weapon sprites. SS1 was ahead of the curve in these regards.

System Shock 1 isn't an FPS/RPG, it has no RPG elements. It is more of an FPS/Adventure hybrid. SS1 has no character stats to upgrade or any sort of character customization beyond picking up stuff (and if you consider that as the RPG elements, then all Doom was also an FPS/RPG hybrid since you pick up new guns :-P).

The RPG elements were introduced with System Shock 2.

Having said that, Hired Guns isn't a free roaming 3D game (which is part of what is generally considered a part of the FPS genre as shown via Wolf3D). It uses grid-based movement on predrawn tiles. With that in mind, the earliest known game (to MobyGames at least) that combines shooter and RPG elements from a first person perspective is Dimensional Fighter Epsilon3 for the PC-88 8bit computer. The game was released in 1985, well before System Shock, Hired Guns or most similar games.

Ultima Underworld is the prototype for System Shock, among others, and predates the ones that have been mentioned. (The bundle here lists 1992 as the release date because that's when the second Underworld came out. The first one came out a year or so earlier.)