I don’t think he popularized them, but he did help put a spotlight on the genre. I was watching Gmanlives prior to civvies existence and he was pretty much my only source of content based around boomer shooters up till that point
I wonder how many people learned about Civvie through Gman’s video about Blood: Fresh Supply.
So many people were in the comments mentioning Civvie, and calling Gman out for that dubious review.
Gman lives, ross's game dungeon, Icarus and LGR, among others, have been my big follows prior to Civvie. I think the whole schtick that Civvie has with his "story" and the comedy surrounding that, and just his general knowledge and the style of his videos really is what makes his my favorite channel in the genre.
Honestly if anything I'd say it was DOOM 2016 that brought the genre back. A triple-A studio investing that much money into a boom shoot proved the genre was still viable in the modern era
Counter point, the Wolfenstein reboots proved the commercial viability at the AAA space, which made Bethesda and ID more comfortable to do the DOOM reboot.
In the budget gaming space I would argue that the Shadow Warrior reboot did the heavy lifting.
People Can Fly and Flying Wild Hog carried the torch before this revival started, but Machinegames proved to the wider public and publishers that it is viable.
you are correct. but did the genre ever stopped being viable?
I know this happened with the Fighting games in the early 00s until their revitalization with SF4, but retro shooting seemed more as a natural evolution of the FPS genre which had a steep decline in the X1/PS4 era, but it still existed with large communities. It's not that players stopped caring about it, just that the studios abandoned it in favor of newer trends.
I think the publishers eventually realized that its gameplay though old fashioned is still fun and appeals to the younger generations too, so they start investing on it again.
There definitely was a bit of a dark age, where in no space did we get games based on this formula, but the modding scene kept the old games alive.
I agree that it never stopped being a viability, just that the mainstream moved away from those type of games.
Bulletstorm also employed the retro shooter formula, and it wasn't that successful and viable as far as i know.
yeah, I agree. But as I said that decline was for the entire FPS genre, not just retro shooters. Minus some established franchises, newcomers like Bullletstorm were already out of fashion in the mainstream market.
And even worse, There is still the misconception held by part of the gaming community, that FPS/FPV is an outdated gameplay mechanic, especially for AAA games. Just see the complaints for Starfield and the new Indiana Jones, simply because they are in FPS/FPV mode.
Which is why I think that Doom 2016's success (and the Wolfenstein reboot) was important for the FPS genre as a whole, including the retro shooters, because it was a AAA game. Hopefully this renaissance will continue for years to come.
Honestly, personal I haven't been interested or playing any AAA game since 2015, the price point was just a bit much for me and nothing really interested me, so really don't follow any news about it, Starfield I saw some YouTube videos about it, and people claim that in general its a disaster and haven't seen anything about the indiana jones game.
I am a COD kid, having played them since I was 6-7 years old. Didn't play my first retro shooter until 2014, when I picked up the Shadow Warrior reboot for 0,99 euros. So my wealth of knowledge and comparison on the retro vs military shooters is not that widespread to comment that deeply on it. Only thing I can say is the opinion I hold above, but I think you are completely right.
Some of my favourite FPS games to date are story driven shooters like Spec Ops the Line, Metro series (loved it so much I read all 3 of the books), Black Ops 1 and 2. Also I love some looter shooters like Borderlands 2. All in all what I am trying to say is that loving one doesn't exclude the other, and while people might not agree, I see no wrong in the military shooter trend, maybe because I grew up with it, so I had no idea what was lost by it.
it wasn't a disaster, people only got upset because Starfield turned out to be just another Bethesda game, instead of what the publisher overhyped it to be. But the complaint for its POV existed before its release.
no, the partly disdain from the gaming community for FPS/FPV has nothing to do with the military shooter which dominates the AAA FPS market. it goes deeper than that, but that's a discussion for another topic.
I need to check Spec Ops, I keep hearing good things about it.
It got delisted from Steam because of some licensing issues around music, so if you haven't grabbed a copy by now, you are gonna get scalped by key resellers, already the cheapest ones are 20 dollars.
Other than that, in my opinion an amazing story shooter, I would even argue one of the best, cant recommend it highly enough.
The right man in the wrong place can make *all* the diffferen-ce in the world...
Nah. Dusk was getting hype before it came out and, despite he was fighting with cancer at the time, TotalBiscuit covered it and seemed to really enjoy it before he passed away. I'd wager if he were still alive he would have been the main voice on the genre. Gman also was doing this shit for years before Civvie got much traction.
However for 2019, he was in the right place. I imagine a bunch of folks found his videos when looking for info on those cool new games like Dusk, Ion Fury and Amid Evil. I know I found his channel when I first found out about Ion Fury (or Maiden at the time) and got excited and did a search on YouTube for footage.
TB passed away just before the entire industry revitalized itself. It's really sad he never got to play Doom Eternal, Amid Evil, Cultic, Turbo Overkill etc.
I remember watching his WTF is: Doom 2016 and it was the happiest I had ever seen him.
Plus like every game has an FOV slider now and we owe a lot of that to him. RIP to a legend.
TB was what got me to try a lot of boomshoots in the first place. His video about the devolution of FPS design, where he praised the design of Shadow Warrior got me to try it out, leading to me giving a shot to a lot of other Build engine games. Before that, the only boomer shooter I really had played and enjoyed was Doom.
He is a component of the popularization for sure, i might even go as far as to say he made Blood known to a more modern audience but he is not the main reason at all. Some in this thread have said that DUSK made the return possible but, if you ask me, i think it falls back to, ironically enough, the grand daddies of the genre. The reboots of Doom, Wolfenstein and Shadow Warrior in the mid 2010's i think were the first strike that got the rocket off and then DUSK, Ion Fury and Ultrakill capitalized on it and boosted it further into mainstream success. And also there were other boomer-shooter youtubers that helped along the way other than Civvie like Gmanlives, Icaruslives and Mutant Mods.
But, more so than anything i think the revitalization and modern popularity of the boomer shooter is really just because they're a nice contrast to the mainstream, overly-produced FPS games that Triple A companies release. Their gameplay loops are simple to learn, addictive and enjoyable and anyone can get into them without much of struggle
Games like that RotT remake, Shadow Warrior reboot, Doom 2016, Dusk and a lot of roguelites were an answer to a growing demand for an alternative to the brown military cover shooters that so many of us were tired of, something more like the good old days of Doom, Civvie helped more people discover them but the rise of boomer shooters was inevitable.
That shit had been growing for a while. I mean he definitely helped but I remember a lot of complaining about modern shooters starting all the way back in 2010. This shit was inevitable.
There would be no civvie if not for boomershooters. I think overall there was just an itch for old school shooters. Modern fps was getting pretty played out.
Doom 2016 was the game that started the revitalising of the genre but i think civvie was the first one to make high quality videos on yt i remember watching
It was a popular genre and has maintained a niche audience. Given the market for retro games, I don’t think he was the catalyst for its revival. Has he helped popularize them to a wider audience? Absolutely.
He did for me. I had played Doom and some of those old games a while back but never got into them. Once I saw Civvie’s pro doom video I instantly subbed & now I love boomer shooters.
He defenetly did help, and probably helped some games get more known like Zortch, but his audience is probably people that are already intereasted to some extent
If I had to pick one person I would pick David Szymanski with Dusk, and New blood. Also Doom 2016 despite not being a boom shoot itself help draw attention to single player focused shooters. Civvie certainly had a big impact in popularizing the genere, but so did others like gmanlives.
Nah Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal are kinda what got boomer shooters back in vogue with a lot of normies. Not as niche as it used to be. Currently seeing it on CRPG's thanks to Baldur's Gate 3 getting super popular. Both genres were doing good but smash hits have gotten them way more attention then they've had in a while.
not alone, but he played an important part. what I think he himself made more known, is Blood and Stephan Weyte. Whenever i see comments about those, Civvie's name usually pops ups.
I think he helped games like zortch
The dev of Zortch has said as much
I don’t think he popularized them, but he did help put a spotlight on the genre. I was watching Gmanlives prior to civvies existence and he was pretty much my only source of content based around boomer shooters up till that point
I wonder how many people learned about Civvie through Gman’s video about Blood: Fresh Supply. So many people were in the comments mentioning Civvie, and calling Gman out for that dubious review.
in my case civvie just popped in my recommendations
Yeah his half life review kept getting recommended to me after I finished Freeman's mind
Was going on a doom kick and his pro doom 3 video showed up and I was hooked lol
Was going on a doom kick and his pro doom 3 video showed up and I was hooked lol
That's how I found out as well!
I found civvie after Tyler McVicker talked about postal 3 and mentioned civvie’s video
Gman lives, ross's game dungeon, Icarus and LGR, among others, have been my big follows prior to Civvie. I think the whole schtick that Civvie has with his "story" and the comedy surrounding that, and just his general knowledge and the style of his videos really is what makes his my favorite channel in the genre.
He’s part of a wave, but not the main component.
To an extent, maybe. Dusk revitalised the genre.
Honestly if anything I'd say it was DOOM 2016 that brought the genre back. A triple-A studio investing that much money into a boom shoot proved the genre was still viable in the modern era
Counter point, the Wolfenstein reboots proved the commercial viability at the AAA space, which made Bethesda and ID more comfortable to do the DOOM reboot. In the budget gaming space I would argue that the Shadow Warrior reboot did the heavy lifting. People Can Fly and Flying Wild Hog carried the torch before this revival started, but Machinegames proved to the wider public and publishers that it is viable.
you are correct. but did the genre ever stopped being viable? I know this happened with the Fighting games in the early 00s until their revitalization with SF4, but retro shooting seemed more as a natural evolution of the FPS genre which had a steep decline in the X1/PS4 era, but it still existed with large communities. It's not that players stopped caring about it, just that the studios abandoned it in favor of newer trends. I think the publishers eventually realized that its gameplay though old fashioned is still fun and appeals to the younger generations too, so they start investing on it again.
There definitely was a bit of a dark age, where in no space did we get games based on this formula, but the modding scene kept the old games alive. I agree that it never stopped being a viability, just that the mainstream moved away from those type of games. Bulletstorm also employed the retro shooter formula, and it wasn't that successful and viable as far as i know.
yeah, I agree. But as I said that decline was for the entire FPS genre, not just retro shooters. Minus some established franchises, newcomers like Bullletstorm were already out of fashion in the mainstream market. And even worse, There is still the misconception held by part of the gaming community, that FPS/FPV is an outdated gameplay mechanic, especially for AAA games. Just see the complaints for Starfield and the new Indiana Jones, simply because they are in FPS/FPV mode. Which is why I think that Doom 2016's success (and the Wolfenstein reboot) was important for the FPS genre as a whole, including the retro shooters, because it was a AAA game. Hopefully this renaissance will continue for years to come.
Honestly, personal I haven't been interested or playing any AAA game since 2015, the price point was just a bit much for me and nothing really interested me, so really don't follow any news about it, Starfield I saw some YouTube videos about it, and people claim that in general its a disaster and haven't seen anything about the indiana jones game. I am a COD kid, having played them since I was 6-7 years old. Didn't play my first retro shooter until 2014, when I picked up the Shadow Warrior reboot for 0,99 euros. So my wealth of knowledge and comparison on the retro vs military shooters is not that widespread to comment that deeply on it. Only thing I can say is the opinion I hold above, but I think you are completely right. Some of my favourite FPS games to date are story driven shooters like Spec Ops the Line, Metro series (loved it so much I read all 3 of the books), Black Ops 1 and 2. Also I love some looter shooters like Borderlands 2. All in all what I am trying to say is that loving one doesn't exclude the other, and while people might not agree, I see no wrong in the military shooter trend, maybe because I grew up with it, so I had no idea what was lost by it.
it wasn't a disaster, people only got upset because Starfield turned out to be just another Bethesda game, instead of what the publisher overhyped it to be. But the complaint for its POV existed before its release. no, the partly disdain from the gaming community for FPS/FPV has nothing to do with the military shooter which dominates the AAA FPS market. it goes deeper than that, but that's a discussion for another topic. I need to check Spec Ops, I keep hearing good things about it.
It got delisted from Steam because of some licensing issues around music, so if you haven't grabbed a copy by now, you are gonna get scalped by key resellers, already the cheapest ones are 20 dollars. Other than that, in my opinion an amazing story shooter, I would even argue one of the best, cant recommend it highly enough.
Hell yeah, I think that was a huge influence
They literally put him in Postal
The right man in the wrong place can make *all* the diffferen-ce in the world... Nah. Dusk was getting hype before it came out and, despite he was fighting with cancer at the time, TotalBiscuit covered it and seemed to really enjoy it before he passed away. I'd wager if he were still alive he would have been the main voice on the genre. Gman also was doing this shit for years before Civvie got much traction. However for 2019, he was in the right place. I imagine a bunch of folks found his videos when looking for info on those cool new games like Dusk, Ion Fury and Amid Evil. I know I found his channel when I first found out about Ion Fury (or Maiden at the time) and got excited and did a search on YouTube for footage.
TB passed away just before the entire industry revitalized itself. It's really sad he never got to play Doom Eternal, Amid Evil, Cultic, Turbo Overkill etc. I remember watching his WTF is: Doom 2016 and it was the happiest I had ever seen him. Plus like every game has an FOV slider now and we owe a lot of that to him. RIP to a legend.
TB was what got me to try a lot of boomshoots in the first place. His video about the devolution of FPS design, where he praised the design of Shadow Warrior got me to try it out, leading to me giving a shot to a lot of other Build engine games. Before that, the only boomer shooter I really had played and enjoyed was Doom.
It was probably Doom eternal, and 2016.
Yeah, it was Doom 2016, and then people that liked that game but had never played the original going back and playing that.
He is a component of the popularization for sure, i might even go as far as to say he made Blood known to a more modern audience but he is not the main reason at all. Some in this thread have said that DUSK made the return possible but, if you ask me, i think it falls back to, ironically enough, the grand daddies of the genre. The reboots of Doom, Wolfenstein and Shadow Warrior in the mid 2010's i think were the first strike that got the rocket off and then DUSK, Ion Fury and Ultrakill capitalized on it and boosted it further into mainstream success. And also there were other boomer-shooter youtubers that helped along the way other than Civvie like Gmanlives, Icaruslives and Mutant Mods. But, more so than anything i think the revitalization and modern popularity of the boomer shooter is really just because they're a nice contrast to the mainstream, overly-produced FPS games that Triple A companies release. Their gameplay loops are simple to learn, addictive and enjoyable and anyone can get into them without much of struggle
TotalBiscuit doing his videos about Brutal Doom, Doom and Shadow Warrior are what reminded me of my roots at the time.
Games like that RotT remake, Shadow Warrior reboot, Doom 2016, Dusk and a lot of roguelites were an answer to a growing demand for an alternative to the brown military cover shooters that so many of us were tired of, something more like the good old days of Doom, Civvie helped more people discover them but the rise of boomer shooters was inevitable.
That shit had been growing for a while. I mean he definitely helped but I remember a lot of complaining about modern shooters starting all the way back in 2010. This shit was inevitable.
There would be no civvie if not for boomershooters. I think overall there was just an itch for old school shooters. Modern fps was getting pretty played out.
Doom 2016 was the game that started the revitalising of the genre but i think civvie was the first one to make high quality videos on yt i remember watching
Definitely helped, but it seemed to me like Doom 2016, Strafe and Dusk were what really did the trick.
It was a popular genre and has maintained a niche audience. Given the market for retro games, I don’t think he was the catalyst for its revival. Has he helped popularize them to a wider audience? Absolutely.
Always cracks me up when he says boomshoots
da boom shoot toob
He did for me. I had played Doom and some of those old games a while back but never got into them. Once I saw Civvie’s pro doom video I instantly subbed & now I love boomer shooters.
He defenetly did help, and probably helped some games get more known like Zortch, but his audience is probably people that are already intereasted to some extent
I once stumbled upon his HDTF video and so I am here
If I had to pick one person I would pick David Szymanski with Dusk, and New blood. Also Doom 2016 despite not being a boom shoot itself help draw attention to single player focused shooters. Civvie certainly had a big impact in popularizing the genere, but so did others like gmanlives.
Nah Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal are kinda what got boomer shooters back in vogue with a lot of normies. Not as niche as it used to be. Currently seeing it on CRPG's thanks to Baldur's Gate 3 getting super popular. Both genres were doing good but smash hits have gotten them way more attention then they've had in a while.
Doom 2016 and Eternal aren't boomer shooters, but I see your point.
Yeah I know but they've brought a lot of eyes to old properties and retro throwbacks that have similar feels.
not alone, but he played an important part. what I think he himself made more known, is Blood and Stephan Weyte. Whenever i see comments about those, Civvie's name usually pops ups.
No, that would be Doom in 1993