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‘The mid-2000s was the golden era of first-person shooters’: David Syzmankski, creator of Dusk and Iron Lung, discusses the games on his PC
David Szymanski, the creator of Dusk and Iron Lung, says the late 1990s to mid-2000s were the “golden age” of first-person shooters because the genre offered unusually broad creative variety. Speaking about his Steam library, he contrasted that period with eras dominated first by Doom-like games and later by Call of Duty-style conventions, arguing that freer design produced more distinctive experiences.
Szymanski is currently playing the 2007 shooter Instinct, whose simple, slow-paced design he finds appealing. He cites games including Halo, Half-Life 2, Doom 3, Far Cry, Serious Sam and Painkiller as examples of the era’s diversity; Doom remains his oldest installed game and his choice for the best FPS. His highest Steam playtime is 324 hours in Counter-Strike 2, while he spent 186 hours in Elden Ring, and he keeps Infra installed as a recurring comfort game.
In short
- Szymanski calls mid-2000s FPS games the genre’s golden era.
- He values the period’s variety over standardised shooter design.
- Doom, Elden Ring and Infra remain key games on his PC.
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
The mid-2000s did showcase genuine creative diversity, with Half-Life 2, Halo, Far Cry and Painkiller each pursuing distinctly different design philosophies. The subsequent consolidation around the Call of Duty template—featuring regenerating health, linear progression and modern-military aesthetics—represented a measurable narrowing of mainstream approaches, making that earlier period appear notably fertile by comparison.
The case against
'Golden age' claims often reflect nostalgia and survivorship bias, overlooking the many mediocre shooters from that era now forgotten. Other periods, including the early 2010s and today's indie scene, have produced comparable creative diversity and innovation, and modern shooters represent genuine achievements in accessibility and technical sophistication that shouldn't be dismissed.
Explained simply
David Szymanski is a game developer known for creating independent games including Dusk and Iron Lung. He has recently discussed the history of first-person shooters—a genre where players see the action from the protagonist's perspective—and how its design has evolved over different periods.
The first-person shooter genre has gone through different eras, each dominated by particular design styles. In the late 1990s, games drew heavily from Doom's approach, whilst later the genre became dominated by conventions established by Call of Duty. Szymanski argues that the period from the late 1990s to mid-2000s stood out as different from these more uniform eras.
During this period, Szymanski contends that developers had greater creative freedom, resulting in more distinctive games. He points to titles such as Halo, Half-Life 2, Doom 3, Far Cry, Serious Sam and Painkiller as examples of the variety the genre offered during those years, suggesting that design diversity has diminished in more recent times.