Which 90s fps games have the best story, gameplay, and soundtrack?

[Ralseiwithagun]

For gameplay and story I’m saying Half-Life

For soundtrack I’m saying rise of the triad

[Murdoch]

Best gameplay: Doom, obviously.
Story: ...ehhhh probably Half-Life? If only by default because it's story is a bit more complicated than "Them bad, you good, go shooty shooty."
Soundtrack: Quake II, with Rise of the Triad a close second.

[Skullzrawk9]

Gameplay - Blood with Doom as a close second.

Story - I would put Half Life but I haven’t actually played it yet. Powerslave Exhumed has a cool backstory and theme.

Soundtrack - Quake II’s soundtrack goes pretty hard. 

Edited October 4, 2023 by Skullzrawk9

[BGreener]

ROTT wins for the music, Marathon wins for the story, Doom wins for the gameplay.

[Lila Feuer]

Unreal. The story isn't anything special but it's done well with a cool albeit nihilistic ending if that ain't your thing, the gameplay is intense and the soundtrack is phenomenal, really tying it all together. And while it wasn't mentioned graphically it's also a winner and easily the nicest looking FPS game of the 90s.

[LadyMistDragon]

Doom wins for the gameplay, Marathon wins for the story and...probably Duke Nukem 3D for the soundtrsack. Though if we're talking later, Quake II would obviously win.

[Noiser]

Gameplay: Plutonia

Graphics: Blake Stone\Heretic

Story: Don't care tbh
Soundtrack: Rise of the Triad

Edited October 5, 2023 by Noiser

[DNSKILL5]

Duke Nukem 3D.
 

It was this game that got me interested in game design because of its story, the gameplay, the art, the sounds, the music, the main character, and the real world locales and outer space feeling truly like outer space. It blew my mind at the time from all the interaction that was possible, and of course, the combat against the alien bastards just felt really epic. 
 

I don’t think I would even still be a gamer today had I never been introduced to Duke 3D at the age that I was. It was that significant to me. 

Edited October 5, 2023 by CAM-7EA

[ENEMY!!!]

Story: Half-Life.  I don't think any other FPS of the 90s comes close.

Gameplay: For single player, Doom 1, but for multiplayer, Unreal Tournament.  If you include user mods and maps, then for single player Doom 2 overtakes Doom 1, and Quake 1 is increasingly up there.  Quake 1 is also second only to UT for multiplayer.

Soundtrack: That's a tough one, as I like the soundtracks of Doom 1 (PC and PSX versions equally), Hexen 1 and Quake 1, all for different reasons.  On balance I'm going to go for Hexen as that's the soundtrack that I come back to most often.

 

Others have mentioned Duke Nukem 3D, I think it's definitely in my top five for single player FPS experiences in the 90s, but just a bit behind the other games that I mentioned for me.

Edited October 5, 2023 by ENEMY!!!

[Eon Toad]

Story and music: Dark Forces. Nothing else at the time felt quite so immersive. It really captures the feeling of being in the Star Wars universe. And the music is so spot-on it's easy to forget that most of it is original and not from the movies.

 

Gameplay: Doom 2. It's amazing how Doom got so much right so early. The game feel and balance are so fine-tuned you'd think they spent years making it. The core gameplay loop still holds up and probably always will.

[ReaperAA]

7 hours ago, BGreener said:

ROTT wins for the music, Marathon wins for the story, Doom wins for the gameplay.

 

The most correct answer in this thread. Though I can put Quake 2, Unreal and UT99 for music as well

 

Also surprised how many confuse Story with worldbuilding. Half Life's story is no better than Doom tbh. Experiment goes wrong and aliens/demons start invading.

Edited October 5, 2023 by ReaperAA

[Captain red pants]

10 minutes ago, ReaperAA said:

Also surprised how many confuse Story with worldbuilding. Half Life's story is no better than Doom tbh. Experiment goes wrong and aliens/demons start invading.

World building *is* storytelling and their isn't anything as conceptually interesting as the US army being sent in to cover up the invasion by killing everyone directly involved with project in Doom.

[ReaperAA]

7 minutes ago, Captain red pants said:

World building *is* storytelling

 

Eh I don't think it that way. At any rate, even if I agree with you, I don't really think Half-Life's story is all that good tbh. Mind you, I like Half Life as a game, but story isn't it.

[durian]

Doom/2 for gameplay, obvs. Quake for soundtrack, easily (Quake 2 music is actually terrible). What is story?

[Murdoch]

14 minutes ago, durian said:

Doom/2 for gameplay, obvs. Quake for soundtrack, easily (Quake 2 music is actually terrible). What is story?

 

Get over yourself. Just because you don't like something doesn't make it terrible.

[TasAcri]

Gameplay: DOOM

Story: Half-Life

Soundtrack: Goldeneye

[durian]

1 minute ago, Murdoch said:

 

Get over yourself. Just because you don't like something doesn't make it terrible.

I was being facetious. 

[TheUltimateDoomer666]

Story: Half-Life. I really can't think of anything else.
Gameplay: DOOM and Duke Nukem 3D.

Soundtrack: Quake II and Turok 2.

 

[Professor Hastig]

Gameplay: Doom - absolutely no contest here. There's a reason, after all, we are all still here.

 

Story: Half-Life - also no contest. It's too bad that the world design couldn't match up. The game would have been a lot better had they designed Black Mesa as a realistic facility with a layout plan that makes sense where you could re-enter previous parts by, say, a lift that had to be unlocked from the other side, instead of stringing together a random sequence of labs, corridors, storage places, etc. with little or no backtracking. As a result of this the gameplay feels far too linear.

 

Soundtrack: This is a hard one. It was a short time period in which the classic music style survived with PC games before it all degenerated into generic orchestral cues instead of strong thematic songs for a level. So all I can do is check how many songs of which game stuck, and in the end it'd be a wash between Doom 1, Duke Nukem 3D, Quake 2 and Unreal. I couldn't pick an actual winner between these 4.

 

[MS-06FZ Zaku II Kai]

1 hour ago, Professor Hastig said:

Soundtrack: This is a hard one. It was a short time period in which the classic music style survived with PC games before it all degenerated into generic orchestral cues instead of strong thematic songs for a level.

 

Yeah I miss that even in movies, where in 80's and 90's you had a strong scores (some even orchestral like Jaws and Star Wars) before it all degenerated into orchestral slop in 00's onwards.

That said there are still amazing soundtracks still being made, just not in the same quantity.

[Somniac]

Unreal Tournament has, to this day, probably the best soundtrack I've ever heard in a video game. The gameplay is immortal too.

 

Story-wise, a few people have said Half-Life and I have to agree. Very good soundtrack too. 

 

Gotta mention the Descent soundtrack too. Every song is a banger, and there are some really clever arrangements. 

[Chookum]

Best Gameplay: Doom II. Trickier than the original and as this forum's age and community shows, has withstood the test of time.
Best Story: Half Life. Not because of what was told, but how it was told to the player, really putting you in the shoes of theoretical physicist Gordon Freeman.

Best Soundtrack: Rise of the Triad. Going Down the Fast Way lives in my head rent free.

 

I'll add a couple extra categories of my own:
Best Vibes: Quake and Duke Nukem 3D. Their worlds are realised and paint vivid pictures of eldritch terror and sleazy action respectively. In addition, both of these game's respective strengths (Quake's 3D technology and Duke's interactive, real-ish world) gave Half Life great ideas to further expand upon.

Best Jump in Technology: Unreal. Did you really think you were stuck in a blocky space ship like every other game? Nah - look! It's the sky! A waterfall! Long distances! Scripted sequences! Dynamic lights! Colours instead of brown, grey and green!

[DynamiteKaitorn]

Gameplay? Unreal

Story? Err.... no idea... :l

Soundtrack? DooM/DooM II/Duke Nukem 3D

 

Most disappointing? Half Life.

[Jayextee]

DOOM and (console) Exhumed/Powerslave for gameplay. John Carmack quote for story. Quake II and (again) Exhumed/Powerslave for soundtrack; also if we count the Descent series as FPS (they kinda are?) then the first game.

Edited October 5, 2023 by Jayextee

[Professor Hastig]

33 minutes ago, Chookum said:

Best Jump in Technology: Unreal. Did you really think you were stuck in a blocky space ship like every other game? Nah - look! It's the sky! A waterfall! Long distances! Scripted sequences! Dynamic lights! Colours instead of brown, grey and green!

 

With this I cannot really agree. The tech wasn't really that much better than Quake2, but they used better game assets which was the crucial factor here.

The main difference between these two games is that Quake2 used a single palette while Unreal had a separate one for each texture, so it was more colorful.

 

[EduardoAndFriends]

Blood. Unapologetically Blood.

[Geniraul]

• Story: Half-Life. The meeting of science and alien invasion is something that can't be found in every 90s FPS game. Two different worlds, each with their own purpose, have collided with each other, and you are the one who can help.
• Gameplay: Quake III Arena: That's where the AFPS bot AI saw its best in the 90s. The unbelievalable number of combinations of enemies that you can add in a match, a unique scenario in each single game, several game types for every map and the opportunity to enjoy all the aforementioned with real people. Not only that, but also great-to-use and skill-requiring movement techniques: rocket jump and plasma climb, strafe jumping, circle jumping and an ability to manipulate with the frame rate to make jumps higher and longer.
• Soundtrack: Doom. Drive, drama, humour, spookiness, mysteriousness, motivation and hopelessness — it has it all. The variety in speed, rhythm, tonality and instruments along with the brightly and clearly expressed coloring is what makes it even better.

[Graf Zahl]

Doom wins for gameplay, Half life for story and for music I choose something less known: the Malice add on for Quake has a really good soundtrack that easily outclasses most games of its vintage.

 

6 hours ago, Professor Hastig said:

...before it all degenerated into generic orchestral cues instead of strong thematic songs for a level.

 

I generally find such soundtracks very unappealing. Quake 4, for example, has some cool music but it's all short cues that do not make a whole. I very much prefer the one song per level style of the older games.

 

[MemeMind]

Marathon has such a cool story. 

Also as a massive Halo fan its cool seeing concepts  that would be Halo stuff.

[Mr. Freeze]

Story: Half Life

Gameplay: Ultimate Doom

Soundtrack: Ultimate Doom