Before the genre's fundamentals were codified in the early 2000s, FPS games went through their Wild West phase, as developers searched high and low for that elusive control scheme that would unlock shooters. This period produced plenty of fantastic and experimental releases, quite a few of which have aged like milk in the hot summer sun. Don't get me wrong, these classics should still be hailed as masterpieces, but revisiting them nowadays tends to be an exercise in frustration.

Time is a cruel mistress, and it's not fair to hold a 1998 or 2002 game by the standards of the mid-2020s. We just live in a different time, with different technology and knowledge. However, that doesn't mean all that much when you're trying to walk and aim with the D-pad and fire with the circle button. Also, I'm not going to pick solely on console shooters, as a few legendary PC FPS games have suffered the same fate.

In the name of variety, I'm going to try to cover different types of "unplayable," as it wouldn't be interesting if this whole article just consisted of classics like GoldenEye 007, Turok, and Perfect Dark. These games have a specific reason they might feel unplayable to some players; however, these are still masterpieces, so they have enough positives to warrant pushing through regardless

I'm also talking about playing these games in their original form, so not with a bunch of mods or emulator workarounds.

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