What, in you mind, is the definition of a "boomer shooter", both historically and among current releases?

[FaultierHeart11]

I just consider games that have both 2D sprites or low polygon 3D models for characters, items and props and puts the main focus on gameplay instead of story a boomer shooter.

[Matt Mello]

Okay, here's my own personal take on the idea of a "Boomer Shooter", they come in two variants: Classics and Throwbacks and the first variant actually is divided into two subgroups.

Throwback shooters are games like Ion Fury or DUSK where they aim to replicate the feeling of older FPS games from the pre-Halo and pre-HL2 eras.

Classic Shooters are pretty much any FPS before Half-Life 2. The original Halo was the big turning point for FPS games but you still had a handful of "classic shooters" come out in 2002 and 2003. The release of Half-Life 2 (and also Halo 2 that same year) along with Doom 3's release more or less ended the era of Classic Shooters.

With Classic Shooters, I'm gonna divide them into two subgroups and yeah, I'm gonna have to use insufferable generation-based terminology for it too. I call these two subgroups Boomer Shooters and Gen X Shooters. 

Boomer Shooters are the real OG's. Wolfenstein 3D, the Doom IWAD's, the Raven games, all the original games that were made with the Build Engine, the various and sundry Wolf3D engine games like Rise of the Triad or the Capstone shovelware titles like Operation Body Count or Corridor 7, Alien Trilogy, Jaguar AVP, as well as whatever the fuck Isle of the Dead and Island Peril were supposed to be. If it's a 2.5D or sprite-based 3D shooter released before 2001, it's an authentic Boomer Shooter, IMHO.

Gen X Shooters are the classic FPS games that are definitely old but not as old as the "true" Boomer Shooters. The leap to 3D polygons was a big deal, and that's the main thing separating the Boomer Shooters from the Gen X Shooters. Quake is the main flagship for this era much like how Doom was for the previous one. Some of the "Gen X" Classic Shooters worth mentioning include Quake, Quake II, Quake III, GoldenEye 64, Half-Life 1, the PS1-era Medal of Honor games, Kingpin: Life of Crime, Soldier of Fortune, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Aces and Eights, the two Alien vs. Predator PC FPS games, and the first Unreal game. 

Edited September 16, 2023 by Matt Mello

[fruity lerlups]

a marketing term to prey on people nostalgia. The only legit "retro shooters" have been stuff like Dusk, Ion Fury and Amid Evil.

No fps games in the 90s had "push forward combat", enhanced mobility, skill trees, etc.

Its a stupid term.

I say this as someone who actually likes Ultrakill and stuff, these games just take the aesthetic of 90s shooters but mechanically they are worlds apart. Also in Hakita's defense I dont think they called UK a boomer shooter, but Turbo Overkill is absolutely advertised as such.

Edited January 4, 2024 by fruity lerlups

[jmpt16]

Great minds think (sorta) alike; I asked a while ago what components must a boomshoot have.

 

If you're asking me "point to an example of what you define a boomshoot", I say DUSK, period. The level design, the action, the mood, it all perfectly encapsulates what I believe a boomshoot is.

 

[Agent Strange]

Boomer Shooter is a category on Steam now incidentally 

[fruity lerlups]

21 hours ago, Agent Strange said:

Boomer Shooter is a category on Steam now incidentally 

💀

[The Doommer]

On 6/16/2023 at 11:15 PM, treulosetomate said:

You can carry lots of weapons, no 2-weapons-limit.

This is thankfully a lot more occurring these days.

The only games I found to be still using a 2-weapon limit are Military shooters and CS/Valorant

 

On 6/18/2023 at 11:26 AM, heliumlamb said:

boomers were young

That would be 50s-60s

An era where Computers were still an entire room

 

On 6/17/2023 at 3:04 AM, Dreamskull said:

extremely dated looking graphics.

Nah I'm pretty sure it's about the gameplay than the graphics

 

On 6/17/2023 at 3:04 AM, Dreamskull said:

You wanna get real for a second? Its always been Doom vs Halo. Thats the real crux.

Back in the early 2000s, yes

Now, nope

 

On 6/18/2023 at 11:44 AM, Biodegradable said:

It's just a meme, kids. A joke.

If only people stopped taking everything seriously...

 

On 6/28/2023 at 8:23 AM, Gibbitudinous said:

Going from "doom clones" made by scrappy little teams of 20-something computer nerds in the 90s to "cod clones" being the backbone of the nascent AAA game industry by the mid-2000s was such a horrible fate for the genre, and it frankly seems like it took longer than it should have for FPS games to join the indie renaissance scene.

Yk how it goes. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

People kept buying COD no matter the dip in quality so

It's only recently that it's getting so bad people are starting to realize it IMO

 

On 6/28/2023 at 8:37 PM, TheHambourgeois said:

"boomer" as an insult almost always refers to gen x

Far as I noticed it's towards both Gen X and Boomers.

 

On 1/4/2024 at 3:31 AM, fruity lerlups said:

a marketing term to prey on people nostalgia.

It's probably also used as that but I don't think that's the entire story

 

On 9/12/2023 at 9:41 PM, Matt Mello said:

Wolf3D engine games like Rise of the Triad

Wait Rise of the Triad was made with the Wolf3D engine??

I always figured it was something based on the Build engine

[Patrick_Plays_Doom]

just anything between 1987- 1999

[jmpt16]

1 hour ago, The Doommer said:

Wait Rise of the Triad was made with the Wolf3D engine??

I always figured it was something based on the Build engine

A modified version of the Wolf3d engine, but still... you can tell because of the map being blocks instead of lines

[The Doommer]

9 minutes ago, jmpt16 said:

you can tell because of the map being blocks instead of lines

Wonder why they didn't just use the Doom engine for that.

 

Well a modified version but yk...

 

 

[Fonze]

1 hour ago, The Doommer said:

Wonder why they didn't just use the Doom engine for that.

 

Well a modified version but yk...

 

 

Probably because ROTT was originally supposed to be a wolf 3d sequel. The game began as a follow-up game to Wolfenstein 3D, but was soon altered and became a stand-alone game.

[Maximum Matt]

Obviously it's any shooter from the 90's/before these little hipster douches were born. 

[D4NUK1]

Our boomers dude for the 90's are winning dude

[jmpt16]

On 1/6/2024 at 5:07 PM, Maximum Matt said:

Obviously it's any shooter from the 90's/before these little hipster douches were born. 

How is a boomer shooter a "hipster" thing when it's mainstream enough to be recognized as a genre? If anything, it's played out given just how many boomshoots have come out recently. 

 

You boomer.

Edited January 9, 2024 by jmpt16
damn autocorrect 2

[Maximum Matt]

No, it's the hipsters that popularise these cringe names to begin with.  That's what I meant. 

You little hipster.

On 1/7/2024 at 10:18 PM, jmpt16 said:

damn autocorrect

Shit, even I know how to use a keyboard.  Perhaps it's a generational thing ;-)

[orffen]

On 6/18/2023 at 12:35 PM, Eurisko said:

A Boomer Shooter is a fast , no bullshit straight to the point gunfest. 

 

That's what I've always thought too, it's a pun about FPSes that are designed like they were in the past - fast, furious mayhem - as opposed to Halo/Call of Duty type shooters which were slower.