Octopus Overlords

Ok, face it, I'm a horrible person. I let my son play all shorts of horrible games. He has shown an interest in FPSs. Is there one a kid sort of could play without being an excuse for scaring him for life? Like one that has no blood and possible just shoots robots?

/:edited out the freaking likes.

Chex Quest!

http://doomlegends.com/chexquest/

ok, good start, maybe something less lame?

baron calamity wrote:Ok, face it, I'm a horrible person. I like my son play all shorts of horrible games. He has shown an interest in FPSs. Is there one a kid sort of could play without being an excuse for scaring him for like? Like one that has no blood and possible just shoots robots?

TRON 2

baron calamity wrote:ok, good start, maybe something less lame?

Hey, I liked Chex Quest.
I even have the CD rom version.
Uses the Doom engine IIRC. -edit- Doh! I should've read Lordnine's link more carefully. The screenshots for the update certainly look interesting.

The "Descent" series was bloodless and involved shooting robot flyers...

muttbunch wrote:

baron calamity wrote:Ok, face it, I'm a horrible person. I like my son play all shorts of horrible games. He has shown an interest in FPSs. Is there one a kid sort of could play without being an excuse for scaring him for like? Like one that has no blood and possible just shoots robots?

TRON 2

Yeah, I was about to say Tron too. But that's a hard game, not something you'd really want to start a beginner with.

Would Republic Commando or Jedi Outcast be good? RC has alien blood that splatters on your visor, but if you're kid has seen any of the Star Wars movies, the content isn't any worse.

In fact, in RC I don't think you ever shoot another human. It's mostly droids, with some scattered Geonosians and Trandoshans here and there.

When my nephew was 3, he jumped up on my lap and said he would "show me how it's done." The game was Doom.

He has gone on to play all sorts of games, including board games.

So that would be my suggestion. Doom. Or Doom 3, since it's newer.

How old is he?

My son is 9, and we play against bots in UT2004 whenever we get a chance. He's gotten pretty good at it.

I can think of lots of games in which you shoot robots and such, but none where you shoot them exclusively. If I had to give a recommendation for a game with the least gore, the fewest human targets, and the 'cleanest' approach, I would say Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force or its sequel.

Nerf ArenaBlast is an antiseptic foam version of Unreal Tournament or Quake 3 Arena.

Jeff V wrote:So that would be my suggestion. Doom. Or Doom 3, since it's newer.

For kids??????

I must be in a different universe.

I'll second the Descent recommendations. Descent II is one of my favorite games from the past. I've got D3 but didn't have time to play it when it came out. On my "to-do" list.

- shaggy

P.S. Let it be known that I think even I shouldn't even be playing Doom 3.

shaggydoug wrote:

Jeff V wrote:So that would be my suggestion. Doom. Or Doom 3, since it's newer.

For kids??????

I must be in a different universe.

I'll second the Descent recommendations. Descent II is one of my favorite games from the past. I've got D3 but didn't have time to play it when it came out. On my "to-do" list.

- shaggy

P.S. Let it be known that I think even I shouldn't even be playing Doom 3.

It all depends on opinion. I don't want to start a "Right vs Wrong" arguement, but I don't see the problem with Doom.

And I quote, from my childhood...

"But Mom, they're Nazi dogs!"

I turned out okay.

Valael wrote:

shaggydoug wrote:

Jeff V wrote:So that would be my suggestion. Doom. Or Doom 3, since it's newer.

For kids??????

I must be in a different universe.

I'll second the Descent recommendations. Descent II is one of my favorite games from the past. I've got D3 but didn't have time to play it when it came out. On my "to-do" list.

- shaggy

P.S. Let it be known that I think even I shouldn't even be playing Doom 3.

It all depends on opinion. I don't want to start a "Right vs Wrong" arguement, but I don't see the problem with Doom.

Doom 3 -> blood, gore, language (plenty of F-bombs) & satanic/occult themes. Most people would consider these not appropriate for younger kids. The question actually asked was: "Is there one a kid sort of could play without being an excuse for scaring him for like?"

Doom 3 is not one of those.

- shaggy

Almost forgot, those paintball games.

I think there's at least two possibly more. Paintball Heroes, or High Impact Paintball

I think there's also a Paintball Mod for SWAT3, so everybody shoots paintballs.

I second the Elite Force recommendation. The violence seems more "abstract" than other FPSes.

I was serious when I recommended Chex Quest. I had a lot of fun with it when it first came out; the update just makes it that much better.

I didn’t even think of Tron 2 but if he can handle it then definitely; one of the more interesting (and best) shooters in the last couple years.

I heard great things about Nerf Arena.
I also heard a lot about Paintball Extreme, or one of the paintball variations.

What about Soldier of Fortune? I hear that is a life alterring experience for kids.

Serious Sam *might* work in that it's colors and outdoor setting might make it seem cartoonish. Enemies, while startling are mostly freakish monsters and bear little resemblance to humans.... The jumps and omigods might be a little more startling depending on his age. When those skeleton things start clattering at you, watch out. Bonus feature is that you can play co-op and observe his reactions and pull the plug if necessary.

Nerf Arena blast had some cool features and ideas, but might be hard to find, and was an Unreal tourney type MP game, for which there might not be many people still playing..

The Harry Potter games are not quite FPS's but use the Unreal engine and are actually really quite fun. No Multiplayer. The console and PC games were wildly different for #'s 1&2 (i really prefer the PC versions). haven't tried 3 yet.

DOOM3 for children? That would be a nice quick way to scar a child.

I will second Tron 2.0.

One of my old favorites, Slave Zero, just had you shooting robots. You can probably find it real cheap by now too.

Are you familiar with the GamerDad site? They're pretty savvy gamers, and their reviews focus on appropriateness for play by or with children.

Wouldn't Flying Heroes be a good fit here?

There are things to not like about Flying Heroes.
I don't know if you can find a copy (or two).

But the violence is well contained within it's own mythos and there is a bit of a story and progress to it.

Seems to be a natural fit.

ChrisGwinn wrote:Are you familiar with the GamerDad site? They're pretty savvy gamers, and their reviews focus on appropriateness for play by or with children.

I'm on there. I just forgot my password.

Hasbro Interactive put out 'Nerf Arena Blast' (using the first Unreal Engine - if I'm not mistaken).

I only played the demo and it was damn fun. You get to use the Nerf guns that were out in stores back then (5-6 yrs agoish).

You could probably score a copy cheap on ebay or something.

EDIT:
You can get a copy off of ebay for 5 bucks.
Heh, I'm tempted - I really liked this game.

Jeff V wrote:When my nephew was 3, he jumped up on my lap and said he would "show me how it's done." The game was Doom.

He has gone on to play all sorts of games, including board games.

So that would be my suggestion. Doom. Or Doom 3, since it's newer.

Haha that reminds me of my nephew. I let him play games like Soldier of Fortune. When my sister came in to check up on us, he blurted out "look ma I shooted the guys head off" Yeah, she wasnt too happy

With Star Wars 3 coming out, how about a retro SW FPS like Dark Forces? I haven't played it in ages and don't remember what the fighting is like but I do recall being blown away by how well they got the SW universe down.

The Anomaly wrote:

Jeff V wrote:When my nephew was 3, he jumped up on my lap and said he would "show me how it's done." The game was Doom.

He has gone on to play all sorts of games, including board games.

So that would be my suggestion. Doom. Or Doom 3, since it's newer.

Haha that reminds me of my nephew. I let him play games like Soldier of Fortune. When my sister came in to check up on us, he blurted out "look ma I shooted the guys head off" Yeah, she wasnt too happy

Hilarious!

Also, I wouldn't really think Serious Sam would be good for kids. It scared me, for crying out loud (those guys that run at you with the bombs ... *shudder*)

Butterknife wrote:

The Anomaly wrote:

Jeff V wrote:When my nephew was 3, he jumped up on my lap and said he would "show me how it's done." The game was Doom.

He has gone on to play all sorts of games, including board games.

So that would be my suggestion. Doom. Or Doom 3, since it's newer.

Haha that reminds me of my nephew. I let him play games like Soldier of Fortune. When my sister came in to check up on us, he blurted out "look ma I shooted the guys head off" Yeah, she wasnt too happy

Hilarious!

Also, I wouldn't really think Serious Sam would be good for kids. It scared me, for crying out loud (those guys that run at you with the bombs ... *shudder*)

Just reading that made the sounds pop into my head:

Aaaaaaaaaah! Aaaaaaaaaah! Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Blam! Blam! Aaaaah! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Blam! Aaaaaah! Blam!
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Blam! "Motherf--" Aaaaaaaah! Blam! Blam!

Freakin' game never even gave you enough time to switch guns!

Grundbegriff wrote:Nerf ArenaBlast is an antiseptic foam version of Unreal Tournament or Quake 3 Arena.

Another one that just came to mind, also made with the Unreal engine: Bionicle, available at Target for $9.99. Kids already invested in the Lego Bionicle scene will probably love it.

UT2004 is a great recommendation actually. You can add the instagib mutator to get rid of any guns that approach anything realistic, and you can disable blood, and set the bots to be robotic skins, in which case they give a very metalic crunch when they die instead of a squishy sound like the human skins.

There is a Disney Atlantis game based on Quake3 engine that is FPS.

You really should try Nerf Arena Blast, as has been mentioned a couple of times. I really had a lot of fun with it.