First-person shooters reborn

I have a problem with first-person shooters. The market is saturated with them: Call of Duty, Battlefront, Halo; they're all variations on the same run-jump-shoot game which is fast becoming incredibly dull and predictable. They're worse than rail shooters in some respects: at least with House of the Dead 3 I still have that arcade-style feel which is fun and addictive. Even if I'm not controlling my character, it's still more fun than I have playing Nazi zombies.

So why am I talking about shooting games if I hate them so? If I so want to be rid of them, why mention them at all? Why not let them drift back into obscurity in their own time, and concentrate on other things? Well the answer to those questions is very simple:

I've found a couple of fps games I really, really like.

The first I'll talk about is Brink. As far as story goes, it's got an interesting one: you are on Ark, a massive floating city which appears to be the only civilisation left after some apocalyptic event. As more people arrived, seeking refuge from the dead world, it got overcrowded, and now only the rich and privileged are happy in their shining tower at the centre of the city. The poor live in slums around the edges, shanty towns and shipping containers. A sickness is spreading, and they want to leave, but the militant police force controlled by the rich wants to prevent that, because the rich need workers. It's pretty standard as a shooter: grenades, weapons, health bar, it's all pretty usual. But there are a few things which make it stand out from the crowd of mass-produced all-out-war shooters.

First off is the character customisation. It feels more like an RPG when you go through the customisation screen, designing your character and making him look the part. As you earn experience and progress through levels you unlock more clothes and accessories - it's part shooter, part Sims. You've got a choice of faction - Security, the military who try to defend the city and stop people leaving, or the Resistance, defenders of the poor and sick who are trying to escape and make for better prospects in the new world - and both come with their own choices of clothing and colour schemes. As well as that, both have a unique storylines which you can play through in solo campaign mode.

The gameplay stands out too. Whereas in other games you're running around as part of a computer-controlled team, all well-drilled and professional, everyone working with you in Brink feels like a unique player, each with their own motives and plans. And none of them seem to be working together. It's frustrating at times, hearing one of your teammates announce that they're going for a command post when you could use some help trying to get your primary objective to the exit. But you soon start to gel with the team, realise what needs doing and do it. The fact is, in any game you're probably going to be the best soldier in solo, but this takes it to hilarious levels when you're surrounded by enemies and trying to hack a missile system, only to hear your teammates shout that they want to go blow up the side barricade - while it is teeth-grindingly irritating, it makes the game feel more frantic as you play through, everything feels more fun, more friendly.

Along with your infuriating teammates, the gameplay feels smoother than any other game I've played, thanks mainly to the parkour abilities your character is apparently trained in. You hold the left button to sprint, and you simply vault or climb most obstacles in your way. There is little frustration, as with Halo's ridiculously high jumps which make you a good target for any enemies, or with the clunky feel of most games (where half the buttons were just for moving). The old controls are still there - pressing B puts you into a crouch, A makes you do a little jump - but these are asides, things you use once or twice in a level, maybe. Usually it's simply a case of "hold LB and run like Hell for your next target". And it works.

As well as the smooth movement, it has a "self-interact" feature which is one of the most useful things I've come across. If you're a soldier, you can give teammates extra ammo, but the same applies to you - if your ammunition is running low you can top it up yourself and carry on. As a medic, if you are knocked down you can self-revive. Engineers can give themselves damage boosts. That, coupled with the unique abilities you can unlock for each class, means you soon have several powerful weapons in your arsenal, and you can keep picking yourself up and using them, again and again.

So that's Brink. Sadly under-appreciated, and one of my new favourite games. The other one, however, eclipses even that.

Bulletstorm. The name was what inspired me to buy it - after all, with a name like that it's bound to be good! But when you begin playing it, it seems strange, slow. You're some sort of space pirate, interrogating a bounty hunter. Everything's wobbly, you're seeing double. Is there a problem with the screen?

Nope, you're just drunk. And you can stay that way if you choose - there are bottles of grog to find all over the place once you crash-land on the strange alien planet which makes up Bulletstorm's primary storyline. But that's not the best part.

It plays very much like any other first-person shooter. You've got guns, you aim and shoot, and you've gotta kill the enemies to advance. But if that was all there was to it, I wouldn't be talking about it.

So first off, your teammates. The first one you'll come across is Ishii, a half-human cyborg (that was your fault, by the way) who simply wants to get off the planet. Oh, and he threatens to kill you if you don't help him. Oh, and he's probably about ten times more badass than you, better at fighting, and because he's an NPC he's also technically invulnerable. He and any other team member you come across won't keep up with you, but that's because you use guns to kill the enemies and they just get up close and beat them to a pulp. Which you can totally do too, if you want.

Which brings me onto gameplay. It's nowhere near as smooth as Brink in terms of movement, but it does have it's own moments. When kicking an enemy, you send them into a slow-mo dive backwards, during which time you can shoot them or simply watch as they fall off the edge, or are impaled artistically on the local fauna. You can't jump, but you can sprint and slide with the "a" button, and sliding into the enemy produces very much the same effect as a kick, only more fun. There are slow-motion moments when you need to shoot an important plot point - usually something explosive - and most of the scenery is explosive or helpful to you in some way. Half the fun is in just kicking something at the enemy and watching it blow up. The other half is in the things you can do with your own weapons.

And here's where it gets interesting. You see, you've got a weapon called the leash, which allows you to grab enemies and pull them towards you. It's kinda fun, and useful once you get some of the closer range weapons. But what's more interesting is the points system which goes along with it. You've gotta score points to upgrade your weapons, and if you're low on ammo you need points to buy that too. You get more points for impressive kills - shooting them in the head or throat, tripping them up with a shot to the legs before finishing them while they lie on the ground - and the more impressive the kill, the more points you get. Along the way you unlock new guns and new achievements, as well as special kills for the bosses which give you tons of points all at once. The points system is one of the most interesting things I've seen - you have to make every shot count in a way you've never really had to before, especially when you're running low on ammo. If you don't practise, and really use your skills, you're likely to run out of ammo quickly. But as the game progresses, and the enemies get more aggressive, the opportunity to pull off impressive trick shots increases.

Bulletstorm is like your FPS on rage. It's faster, dirtier, bloodier and much, much more fun.

Before I go, one final word of advice: don't do today what you can put off until you inevitably run out of time and have to construct a hasty, ridiculous excuse as to why you didn't do it...