10 First Person Shooter Clichés We're All Sick Of

Script written by Garrett Alden

X FPS Clichés We’re All Sick Of

Welcome to MojoPlays and today we’ll be going over 10 FPS clichés we’re all sick of. Though heads up in advance; you’re going to see a lot of Call of Duty on this list, since that series pretty much wrote the book on these clichés.

Shellshocked Moments

Stop us if you’ve heard this one – you’re playing an FPS, it’s some kind of military shooter, and suddenly, you and your unit are attacked by some heavy explosives in a cutscene, which leaves your point of view all hazy as you recover from the effects of the explosion. There might also be some high-pitched ringing involved. This all too familiar scene is usually followed up by your commander yelling at you to walk it off and urging you to fulfill whatever objective you have at the moment. For as unlikely as this is to happen to most of us in real life, it’s an all too frequent scenario in games.

Random Stealth Level

Despite most FPS games encouraging players to shoot everything that moves to complete your objective, sometimes they call for players to exercise a bit of finesse. While there are First Person Shooters out there that make stealth a fundamental part of their gameplay. There are many that are not built with stealth in mind, so stealth missions often feel like tonal whiplash for many, or else slowing down the pace of the game to a crawl, particularly if we keep getting caught and have to do them over and over again!

Useless Friendly AI

Computer characters are rarely anything more than a nuisance in FPS games, as well as video games in general. From running into enemy fire, to neglecting to heal you when you’re dying, to just driving you off a cliff, ally NPCs are a straight up pain to deal with. In some cases, it can feel like they add more to a game’s difficulty curve than the actual gameplay objectives. While granted, playing with friends can often lead to these sorts of shenanigans, at least you can yell at…er, reason with them. There’s no convincing a computer to do something in the best interest of the group. You’d think developers would make this more of a priority.

The Protagonist Does Everything

On a related note, not only are friendly NPCs seemingly devoid of self-preservation, but they’re also frequently unable to contribute anything meaningful to your objectives. You, the protagonist, have to perform any and every task you encounter, regardless of whether it’s your character’s specialty or not. Sure, having the option to do everything is nice, but the key here is that we rarely have a chance to refuse to something. Of course, with companion AI being as bad as it is, doing as much as possible is basically required if you want to get anything done at all.

Voiceless/Faceless Protagonist

Silent protagonists have been a staple of video games since their beginnings, but in the early days it was more of a case of hardware limitations. These days, protagonists without a voice or sometimes a face, usually hidden behind some sort of armor, or a mysterious lack of reflective surfaces, are still surprisingly common. Ostensibly this is in order to make it easier for players to relate to the character by projecting their own personality or appearance onto the protagonist. Still, we feel like this is a cliché that can be retired – after all, every other storytelling medium manages to make characters relatable just fine by giving them a face and voice, so why not First Person Shooters?

Shoehorned Plot Twists

Plot twists are great…when executed well. The problem is that everyone thinks they can pull them off, and that not every story needs one. FPS games too often try to work in some kind of twist to make a campaign more memorable. While we’ll grant that there are plenty of good ones, for every one that works, there are another three that don’t. Oh, the shady government official or military officer turned out to be a double agent? Never seen that one before! Oh Cortana; your main companion for the last 4 Halo games is now the villain in the 5th? Huh What? At this point, a straightforward narrative would actually be a refreshing change of pace.

Main NPC Dies

NPCs aren’t exactly built to last. When they aren’t dying during gameplay, they have a cutscene devoted to their very tragic and inevitable death. Basically, if a character gets close to you in an FPS, they’re pretty much doomed to die eventually. Whether it’s buying time for you to get to safety, or a sudden death for shock value, your teammates and other allies are alarmingly death prone. Sure, they’re given their own unique personality quirks or sad backstories, but at this point, teenagers in horror movies have better life expectancies. Is a happy ending too much to ask?

Turret Sections

Listen, we love mindlessly firing big guns in video games as much as the next folks, but there’s a limit! Turret sections in FPS games usually feature the protagonist grabbing onto a stationary or moving big honking gun and shooting at whatever passes by or approaches you. Although novel the first time it’s experienced, FPSes have been running this trope into the ground. It’s one thing if we can move where we want to and still fire the turret, but by taking control away from the player, developers are only lessening our enjoyment of something that should be a highlight.

On-Rail Vehicle Section

If you jump into a vehicle and you’re not in the turret seat, then you’re most likely the one who has to drive. But as soon as you take the wheel, you may find yourself merely moving the car between lanes. Often the problem is that they’re really only designed to be played for this level alone, so they lack the more refined control you’d get in a driving or air combat game. This can be particularly aggravating for PC players, as while many may choose this platform for First Person Shooter for the extra precision of a mouse & keyboard, the driving sequences throw that comfort out the window.

Drama Drama Drama Drama Drama

First person shooters got their start with crazy over the top PC games, with absurd weapons and worlds. However, these days, each seems to be trying to one up the next with how serious and realistic they can be, with a heaping helping of dramatic weight to their storylines. Even games that don’t take themselves entirely seriously will still throw in a bit of drama to stay relevant. We’ll grant that games based around shooting people can be difficult to lighten up, but plenty of people have managed to do it before, and we’d like to see a little more levity.