Classic First-Person Shooters

[Edmond Dantes]

So lately, I've been playing a lot of older FPS games. Two nights back I marathoned Episode 1 of Wolfenstein 3D (tried to speedrun it, got killed) and followed up with Blake Stone. Then a copy of Blood arrived in the mail and I've been on that non-stop.

An IRL friend let me borrow his copy of Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and to be honest... it reminds me of Medal of Honor more than its namesake. I'm not saying Medal of Honor is bad (it's actually pretty fun) but I find with more modern FPSes (to me, "modern" FPS begins with the original Half-Life and goes from there), I have to be in a certain mood, because they focus more on being cinematic and telling a story, whereas the classic style was more about visceral thrills--you turn a corner and OH SHIT THERE'S THIRTY IMPS AND THREE CYBERDEMONS, and an Arch-Vile just because the game REALLY wants you dead.

Wolfenstein 3D, lately, I've found is really fun because of the tension it places on you--a room full of enemies is a legitimate threat because just one well-placed shot can drain two-thirds of your energy, and there's always this sense of relief whenever you clear a room without taking too much damage and realize those three blue-suited guards were the only guys guarding that health kit... but then you keep watching the door, worrying that your gunshots might've alerted nazis in other parts of the level and they might be coming for you, and if they sneak up behind you then, well...

PROTIP: These games are more fun if you DON'T quicksave after every encounter. In fact I've learned to only save at the end of each level when I'm standing in front of the exit, or else at the beginning of each map. This helps keep that all-important tension and also helps me learn the map.

So, what are your favorite classic First Person Shooters?

[Atarileaf]

I loved Blake Stone when it came out. I was actually playing it Dosbox last week. For whatever reason, I enjoyed those earlier FPS's.

[Edmond Dantes]

I was playing Blake Stone in Dosbox just five minutes ago.

Also just placed an order for the id Anthology... I was gonna buy the Spear of Destiny Super CD but that jumped in price after my paycheck came in, while I found the Anthology for like $50 (a good price for that set). I'm missing out on the two FormGen expansion packs, but I'm sure I'll have a chance to get them eventually.

By the way, when you play classic FPSes, do you use Mouse+Keyboard or are you Keyboard-only? I hear John Romero used Mouse and Keyboard on Wolfenstein, and honestly... I can't see doing that. It sorta feels weird.

[Atarileaf]

just keyboard at the moment to try it out. It's a laptop so not really great for gaming.

[Greg2600]

Those games were fantastic. Dark Forces is still one of my favorites, when they gave you the ability to jump and climb and such, I was in heaven. I don't think I've ever played Black Stone, granted it and several other games were just Wolf3D with different characters! I do appreciate that even to this day FPS games have not gotten overly complicated.

[wizardofwor1975]

Those games were fantastic. Dark Forces is still one of my favorites, when they gave you the ability to jump and climb and such, I was in heaven. I don't think I've ever played Black Stone, granted it and several other games were just Wolf3D with different characters! I do appreciate that even to this day FPS games have not gotten overly complicated.

Dark Forces is also one of my favs. I never get tired of it. Even Mission three: Anoat City (the sewer level) which at first I absolutely hated has actually grown on me over the years. I recently picked up Dark Forces 2 and Mysteries of the Sith on Amazon. Have you played Dark Forces 2 or Mysteries of the Sith? If you have, what'd think of them? So far I like Dark Forces 2 and I haven't played too much of the Sith game probably will after I beat Dark Forces 2.

[Gregger]

My favorite is Marathon on the old Mac. I'm also quite fond of The original Quake, Dark Forces and Unreal Tournament 1999.

[wizardofwor1975]

My favorite is Marathon on the old Mac. I'm also quite fond of The original Quake, Dark Forces and Unreal Tournament 1999.

Quake is definitely good times. I like Dark Forces slightly more. But Quake was freakin great.

[BricatSegaFan]

Chex Man was fun too. Ahh I remember getting that game for a lousy box of cereal I didn't even want.

[Tanooki]

An IRL friend let me borrow his copy of Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and to be honest... it reminds me of Medal of Honor more than its namesake. I'm not saying Medal of Honor is bad (it's actually pretty fun) but I find with more modern FPSes (to me, "modern" FPS begins with the original Half-Life and goes from there), I have to be in a certain mood, because they focus more on being cinematic and telling a story, whereas the classic style was more about visceral thrills--you turn a corner and OH SHIT THERE'S THIRTY IMPS AND THREE CYBERDEMONS, and an Arch-Vile just because the game REALLY wants you dead.


You pegged it there for sure. Outside of Serious Sam, within the realm of 3D FPS versus the older pre-polygonal era stuff it's all about being showy and high fps me-too action. You get your bursts of visceral play here and there, but mostly it's not like the old days. I had REturn to Castle Wolfenstein years ago and it felt like another MoH wanna be too and I never went back to the series because of it as the charm was gone. If you want more real Wolf time, get the follow up using the same engine - Spear of Destiny.

Since you brought up Blood I think that shares the same Build Engine as a few other games like Duke Nukem 3D and Witch Haven 1 and 2, so that might be good for you. If you want brainless high action gore, RIse of the Triad fits the mold of Wolf3D/Blake/DOOM era stuff and has some bad jokes thrown in. Dark Forces I agree with from others comments. Also if you can find it, there's the DOOM Collector's Edition that comes in a black soft CD case and it has DOOM1, DOOM 2, Ultimate Doom and Final Doom all rolled into one, everything they legit released as part of being official Doom on one disc.

[wizardofwor1975]

You pegged it there for sure. Outside of Serious Sam, within the realm of 3D FPS versus the older pre-polygonal era stuff it's all about being showy and high fps me-too action. You get your bursts of visceral play here and there, but mostly it's not like the old days. I had REturn to Castle Wolfenstein years ago and it felt like another MoH wanna be too and I never went back to the series because of it as the charm was gone. If you want more real Wolf time, get the follow up using the same engine - Spear of Destiny.

Since you brought up Blood I think that shares the same Build Engine as a few other games like Duke Nukem 3D and Witch Haven 1 and 2, so that might be good for you. If you want brainless high action gore, RIse of the Triad fits the mold of Wolf3D/Blake/DOOM era stuff and has some bad jokes thrown in. Dark Forces I agree with from others comments. Also if you can find it, there's the DOOM Collector's Edition that comes in a black soft CD case and it has DOOM1, DOOM 2, Ultimate Doom and Final Doom all rolled into one, everything they legit released as part of being official Doom on one disc.

Good recommendation on Spear of Destiny. I can't believe I forgot about Doom.

[CRTGAMER]

Good recommendation on Spear of Destiny. I can't believe I forgot about Doom.

Also the tons of add on wads for Doom, love the Aliens Total Conversion levels. There are voice sound bites from the Aliens movie "Check those corners". The gunfire sounds are also from the movie, love the machine gun!

[wizardofwor1975]

Also the tons of add on wads for Doom, love the Aliens Total Conversion levels. There are voice sound bites from the Aliens movie "Check those corners". The gunfire sounds are also from the movie, love the machine gun!

Cool, were can I find the Aliens Total Conversion levels for Doom. That would be freakin great to hear Sgt. Apone in the background while your blastin' away. Sgt. Apone + smart gun=awesome. I can't believe I've never heard of Aliens sfx for Doom. 8-)

[Edmond Dantes]

Oh man, Doom. I got that Collector's Edition set back in the olden days when you could find it for $10 at Wal-Mart... I wound up ditching the bonus Doom3 preview (which was nothing but movies and such) and replacing it with a burned CD of WADs and source ports.

Oh, you might love this: The Best 100 WADs of All Time (http://www.doomworld.com/10years/bestwads/), ten per year, and it includes links (it mentions that Aliens TC, too).

I have Duke Nukem 3D, twice actually--both the original release (which included full versions of the original side-scroller Duke Nukem games) and the Atomic Edition, which I happened to find in a flea market. Spear of Destiny should be coming in the mail soon, as should Rise of the Triad (I've heard the remake of that which just came out is surprisingly faithful to the original). For me though, Doom (including its expansions and games which use the same engine, such as Heretic and Hexen) is pretty much the FPS to end all FPSes, because they were never that good again. I mean, the Build Engine games are good fun but they feel like they lack the frenetic pace and general immediacy of Doom and seem more about exploration, which has its own charm but just isn't my thing. Although throwing a stick of dynamite into a mob of cultists never gets old.


You pegged it there for sure. Outside of Serious Sam, within the realm of 3D FPS versus the older pre-polygonal era stuff it's all about being showy and high fps me-too action. You get your bursts of visceral play here and there, but mostly it's not like the old days. I had REturn to Castle Wolfenstein years ago and it felt like another MoH wanna be too and I never went back to the series because of it as the charm was gone. If you want more real Wolf time, get the follow up using the same engine - Spear of Destiny.

Since you brought up Blood I think that shares the same Build Engine as a few other games like Duke Nukem 3D and Witch Haven 1 and 2, so that might be good for you. If you want brainless high action gore, RIse of the Triad fits the mold of Wolf3D/Blake/DOOM era stuff and has some bad jokes thrown in. Dark Forces I agree with from others comments. Also if you can find it, there's the DOOM Collector's Edition that comes in a black soft CD case and it has DOOM1, DOOM 2, Ultimate Doom and Final Doom all rolled into one, everything they legit released as part of being official Doom on one disc.

[Greg2600]

Dark Forces is also one of my favs. I never get tired of it. Even Mission three: Anoat City (the sewer level) which at first I absolutely hated has actually grown on me over the years. I recently picked up Dark Forces 2 and Mysteries of the Sith on Amazon. Have you played Dark Forces 2 or Mysteries of the Sith? If you have, what'd think of them? So far I like Dark Forces 2 and I haven't played too much of the Sith game probably will after I beat Dark Forces 2.

Yes I played them when they came out back then. DF 2: Jedi Knight was incredibly good, with some decent live action cut scenes. MOTS was an okay add-on. Back then Lucasarts games were played online using MSN Games. Jedi Knight was really popular, because you could play the Bespin level and be Luke, Vadar, etc.

[wizardofwor1975]

Yes I played them when they came out back then. DF 2: Jedi Knight was incredibly good, with some decent live action cut scenes. MOTS was an okay add-on. Back then Lucasarts games were played online using MSN Games. Jedi Knight was really popular, because you could play the Bespin level and be Luke, Vadar, etc.

So far I'm liking DF 2. I'm hoping its atleast as good as Dark Forces or even close. I didn't know you got to be Luke or Vader in Jedi Knight, sweet!

[Greg2600]

So far I'm liking DF 2. I'm hoping its atleast as good as Dark Forces or even close. I didn't know you got to be Luke or Vader in Jedi Knight, sweet!

In multi-player.

[wizardofwor1975]

In multi-player.

Crap! Vader said it best:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWaLxFIVX1s

Still a cool game though.

[Tanooki]

For anyone like myself stuck with win7 64bit, do a quick google search on duke32, someone made a nice modern frontend loader for it much like the various ones for Doom out there so it can run with added perks on a modern OS. When I get the itch to play I have my game files dumped into that program and it works great. Im on my tablet here so I cant dig up the website on my computer. It will probably if I remember right work on other build engine games too.

[Daltone]

Whilst I doubt it will ever be considered a classic, I really enjoyed Requiem: Avenging Angel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBnm4ed9nSw) when it came out. The angelic (force) powers you got were pretty fun. Unfortunately, it made the fatal mistake of being released at around the same time as Half Life. It is a right bugger to get running on a modern OS too, which is a shame.

Other favourites from the hall of also-rans include: No One Lives Forever (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kMmB9DGIQE) (and its sequel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S14X1JQVftI&list=PL_9clIRj0oAEJaOd7SlnN1VUdCQyz6Is9)),Shogo MAD (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTSNJA2OfTY), Terminator: Skynet (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XoT38flG7A), and SiN (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0RqWYx40vo)

Secretly, of course, I will always have a soft spot for William Shatner's TekWar (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAzCldDSIju) and Star Trek: Klingon Honour Guard (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TToph5EJmnM)

If you like fast paced FPSes then you should definitely try Hard Reset (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdhXEDX6h4c) and the remakes ofROTT (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A872uvSwcY8) and Shadow Warrior (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE-sjUUReJU) (the latter is particularly enjoyable)

If you can't tell, I quite firmly believe that the period 1997 - 2000 (ish) was the golden era for the FPS. Not that I didn't spend a lot of time playing Doom, Blake Stone etc etc. There was just something about those first tentative steps in 3D which appeal to me.

[Edmond Dantes]

Secretly, of course, I will always have a soft spot for William Shatner's TekWar (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAzCldDSIju) and Star Trek: Klingon Honour Guard (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TToph5EJmnM)

By "secretly" you mean "Confessing it on a public internet forum" ;)

But yeah, I know that feeling of knowing a game kinda sucks but you have a soft spot for it anyway.

[Daltone]

By "secretly" you mean "Confessing it on a public internet forum" ;)

But yeah, I know that feeling of knowing a game kinda sucks but you have a soft spot for it anyway.

You mean this isn't all a figment of my imagination? Shit.

[Tanooki]

Shogo was an amazing game I bought back in the day when I still would just 'borrow' stuff online. It was a blast going around in a mix of using a mecha or on foot in that game as those suits were awesome. Shame is if I recall right the game had a stick up its ass about even running on XP (guess it was coded pretty crappily) and I've never found it to run right on anything since as MS likes to keep old stuff from working the best they can.

I saw a sleeve/jewel case version of it at a half price books about a week ago or so and would love to do that game again some time but I imagine that won't happen and that it probably aged badly too since no one ever mentions it.

[Daltone]

Shogo was an amazing game I bought back in the day when I still would just 'borrow' stuff online. It was a blast going around in a mix of using a mecha or on foot in that game as those suits were awesome. Shame is if I recall right the game had a stick up its ass about even running on XP (guess it was coded pretty crappily) and I've never found it to run right on anything since as MS likes to keep old stuff from working the best they can.

I saw a sleeve/jewel case version of it at a half price books about a week ago or so and would love to do that game again some time but I imagine that won't happen and that it probably aged badly too since no one ever mentions it.

Shogo has been on gog for a while. It actually hasn't aged too badly imo. It is fast paced and the graphics still have a certain charm.

[Edmond Dantes]

I actually saw three different Youtube reviewers do Shogo. One was Era Game Reviews (a guy who sounds like a robot, but is interesting if you don't mind that), and another was Gggmanlives whose series is just called "Retro Reviews"--both said that Shogo was good but may be hard to get into due to some of its less well-thought-out features. The third was Trashed Classics, who was positive all around.

So Shogo is definitely not forgotten.

In fact I almost bought it just because its engine was used to make Blood II: The Chosen, but so far I haven't made the plunge.

[Wraith Storm]

Shogo is an awesome game.

You can tell the creators were huge anime fans, so it has a very unique flavor compared to other FPS.

From the Masamune Shirow inspired box art to the Evangelion NERV ahem... CURV suggestive posters scattered around.

I honestly have played it since 2002 or 2003, but I loved all the anime references and had a blast with the game.

[FrankSerpico]

I still play Unreal Tourney 2004 and Serious Sam all the time on my 2006 Dell. I'm trying to figure out Jedi Outcast but I'm playing with a faulty keyboard and there's sooooo many commands in that game

[bigbacon]

Corridor 7..

still love that game.

blake stone, blood, shogo, build games...NOLF

so many great FPS games from 90s and early 2000s.

[Wraith Storm]

I also spent a good deal of time with Lethal Tender (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhEavCaTui0) back in the day.

I have a lot of good random memories playing through it. One of which was me and my buddy playing through it on summer afternoon while watching Major Payne on TV.

The game used The Pie in the Sky engine that was eventually used in a game creation package. The engine was quite interesting. I always loved the Inventory system. It was more advanced than Wolfenstien or Blake Stone and even more advanced than the Doom engine in some respects. It allowed for your character to jump and had huge outdoor areas, but it was not full screen and lacked the lighting and color pallet of the Doom engine.

[Alpha2099]

How on earth did we get this far down the thread and nobody's mentioned Descent yet? That's one of the all-time great computer FPS games, and one of the first to incorporate six degrees of freedom by combining FPS and flight simulator. That game was my childhood!

[Edmond Dantes]

It's been years since I've played Descent and to be honest, last time I remember not really liking it due to how complex the controls were.

But that was a long time ago and its not unusual for my tastes to change in seconds.

EDIT: Just for the sake of discussion, I found this reviewer I like who does old PC games. Here's a review where he does three Capstone games (Corridor 7, Operation Bodycount, and Witchaven) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWG_uSwIqsw). Unfortunately he gives them all a low recommendation, but he's not bileous about it so it shouldn't offend fans of those games.

[BricatSegaFan]

It's been years since I've played Descent and to be honest, last time I remember not really liking it due to how complex the controls were.

But that was a long time ago and its not unusual for my tastes to change in seconds.

EDIT: Just for the sake of discussion, I found this reviewer I like who does old PC games. Here's a review where he does three Capstone games (Corridor 7, Operation Bodycount, and Witchaven) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWG_uSwIqsw). Unfortunately he gives them all a low recommendation, but he's not bileous about it so it shouldn't offend fans of those games.

Decent was decent. However I remember Decent 2 being better. I'll fire up dos box later and give it a go.

But seriously am I only one who liked Chex man?

[Daltone]

I also spent a good deal of time with Lethal Tender (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhEavCaTui0) back in the day.

I have a lot of good random memories playing through it. One of which was me and my buddy playing through it on summer afternoon while watching Major Payne on TV.

The game used The Pie in the Sky engine that was eventually used in a game creation package. The engine was quite interesting. I always loved the Inventory system. It was more advanced than Wolfenstien or Blake Stone and even more advanced than the Doom engine in some respects. It allowed for your character to jump and had huge outdoor areas, but it was not full screen and lacked the lighting and color pallet of the Doom engine.

Ah Pie in the Sky! I had hours of fun with that. I don't think I ever managed to put anything worthwhile though.

[Tanooki]

Descent was a decent game back in the day, finished it I think once, but I didn't think of it as memorable as some others and also aren't you in a ship in that game so I really never mentally equated it with a first person shooter which typically is a dude or a dude in a powered suit using knifes, guns, and hand cannons or more against others.

Now if we were talking space shooters with a first person perspective I'd have brought it up, probably after Wing Commander 1+2 and X-Wing and Tie Fighter stand alone games too as they're all solid. Somehow because it's badass I'd have weaseled in Terminal Velocity as well as it was outstanding.

[Gameguy]

But seriously am I only one who liked Chex man?
I've been wanting to play it but haven't found a copy yet. This is Chex Quest, right?

I kind of wish I would have bought more cereal boxes for free software back then, I assumed most or all of these games were just crap at the time. The only game I remember buying a cereal for was to get the Atari compilation with 80 games.

[BricatSegaFan]

I've been wanting to play it but haven't found a copy yet. This is Chex Quest, right?

I kind of wish I would have bought more cereal boxes for free software back then, I assumed most or all of these games were just crap at the time. The only game I remember buying a cereal for was to get the Atari compilation with 80 games.

Yea Chex Quest! If recall they used the doom engine to them to make this game. It was a legitimately good game.

[FrankSerpico]

Y'all were far from the only people who enjoyed Chex Quest, it had a fairly large online cult following back in the day. You can download it for free here: http://www.geekosystem.com/play-chex-quest-1-2-3-free/

[Edmond Dantes]

"Descent is decent" almost sounds like a play on words.

I just got Rise of the Triad (original, not remake) in the mail. That's gonna be fun...

[gunswordfist]

Oh man, Doom. I got that Collector's Edition set back in the olden days when you could find it for $10 at Wal-Mart... I wound up ditching the bonus Doom3 preview (which was nothing but movies and such) and replacing it with a burned CD of WADs and source ports.

Oh, you might love this: The Best 100 WADs of All Time (http://www.doomworld.com/10years/bestwads/), ten per year, and it includes links (it mentions that Aliens TC, too).

I have Duke Nukem 3D, twice actually--both the original release (which included full versions of the original side-scroller Duke Nukem games) and the Atomic Edition, which I happened to find in a flea market. Spear of Destiny should be coming in the mail soon, as should Rise of the Triad (I've heard the remake of that which just came out is surprisingly faithful to the original). For me though, Doom (including its expansions and games which use the same engine, such as Heretic and Hexen) is pretty much the FPS to end all FPSes, because they were never that good again. I mean, the Build Engine games are good fun but they feel like they lack the frenetic pace and general immediacy of Doom and seem more about exploration, which has its own charm but just isn't my thing. Although throwing a stick of dynamite into a mob of cultists never gets old.

Yeah, that's what I hear the Build games are all about. Duke Nukem 3D was alright (beat it for the first time last year) but I popped in Doom 2 and played Suburbs and there was no comparison. Much better action, weapons and enemies in both Dooms.

[Night Driver]

Marathon Trilogy

[Edmond Dantes]

Yeah, that's what I hear the Build games are all about. Duke Nukem 3D was alright (beat it for the first time last year) but I popped in Doom 2 and played Suburbs and there was no comparison. Much better action, weapons and enemies in both Dooms.

Yeah. It's almost unfair to compare the Build games to Doom.

Though I still play Blood on a regular basis and am trying to beat it. It does have a pretty interesting plot, which is something I can't say about most FPSes.


Marathon Trilogy

Tell me about it. All I know is that its for Macintosh (which, unless there's a PC source port I'm unaware of, makes it beyond my reach) and that it was by the guys who later went on to make Halo... altho the latter isn't exactly something that makes me want to play it.

[Tanooki]

http://trilogyrelease.bungie.org/

Have fun playing the marathon trilogy in windows.

[Edmond Dantes]

What the heck is "Aleph One"? Do these require a Macintosh emulator?

[Tanooki]

No as I recall when I looked at it on my tablet last night there's a Windows SDL version so you download that 'aleph one' app, then dump the marathon trilogy of data to it and it works in windows. I remember it being a big deal years ago and when I saw the comment about it I just happened to remember something about it and went digging and found the original old page is still up I found long ago.

[Edmond Dantes]

Final question:

Does Marathon work on Windows 98SE? ;)

... at the moment I'm too busy enjoying Wolfenstein 3D (just nabbed Spear of Destiny as well) but well, it'll be something to keep in mind.

[Tanooki]

I suppose you may find that answer if you were a little less busy and checked the link?

[Edmond Dantes]

I actually did check the link. I saw it said it runs on "Windows" but it didn't specify which versions.

I'm probably just incredibly blind/stupid though, so I'll check again.

[gunswordfist]

Yeah. It's almost unfair to compare the Build games to Doom.

Though I still play Blood on a regular basis and am trying to beat it. It does have a pretty interesting plot, which is something I can't say about most FPSes.





I hear that Blood is the very best Build game. I really want to get my hands on it. Perhaps more than any other FPS.

[Edmond Dantes]

I wouldn't call Blood the "best" Build Engine game, but its pretty solid nonetheless.

You can buy the full version, with both expansions, on GOG.com for $5.99. It comes with a preconfigured Dosbox for playing on a modern machine (though if you're like me and prefer an actual Dos machine, you can actually run the installer and then copy over the resulting files and the game works just hunky-dorey).

You might wanna check out this topic on the GOG forums (http://www.gog.com/forum/blood_series/cryptic_passage_wont_launch) too. Besides discussing the resolution of a common expansion pack issue, at the end I pitch in to explain how to make it control like a modern FPS (with mouselook, WASD and everything). Incidentally if you can't find the patch for Cryptic Passage, PM me. I archive every patch I download.

[bioshockfan]

Those games were fantastic. Dark Forces is still one of my favorites, when they gave you the ability to jump and climb and such, I was in heaven. I don't think I've ever played Black Stone, granted it and several other games were just Wolf3D with different characters! I do appreciate that even to this day FPS games have not gotten overly complicated.

Loved Dark Forces wish they would make another one someday. Such a great FPS

[Eternal Champion]

Dark Forces is also one of my favs. I never get tired of it. Even Mission three: Anoat City (the sewer level) which at first I absolutely hated has actually grown on me over the years. I recently picked up Dark Forces 2 and Mysteries of the Sith on Amazon. Have you played Dark Forces 2 or Mysteries of the Sith? If you have, what'd think of them? So far I like Dark Forces 2 and I haven't played too much of the Sith game probably will after I beat Dark Forces 2.
I got into Jedi Knight years after the fact - PC gaming in general, actually - and I still fire it up every few years. Last time I did it with JK Enhanced. In some ways I prefer Jedi Outcast, just because of the Force (nothing better than Pushing enemies off of cliffs) and light saber abilities, but I love the design of the first Jedi Knight. Truly gets the size and scale of the Empire. And that gravity-failing ship level was and is very unique.

As for class FPS, I prefer Quake to Doom, I must say. What got me into PC gaming in the first place was Quake II, Hexen II, Half-Life, and what really impacted me the most, Thief: The Dark Project. (not a shooter, but still).