Bear with me here. Do you know about any FPS's that have a mechanic like XP? So that you unlock various skills & gear as you go along and/or customisable gear? The example I have in mind is Rainbow Six: Vegas 2. Are there any others? If the progression is only in multiplayer, I'm not intrested. Thanks in advance!
Borderlands. It has 4 different characters to play with, and they have each a unique skill, and as you level up you get a point to spend in one of 3 specilization trees that each character has. For example my favorite character Mordekai can specilize in either sniping, using a revolver or improving his pet hawk. There's also a very good loot system. You get different guns, shields, skill mods, grenade mods, etc... You can level up in both singleplayer or through a co-op campaign with friends or random strangers.
The only game that comes to my mind now is S.t.a.l.k.e.r series. And that's one hell of a good game. (even for FPS hater like me). It doesn't use XP but you unlock guns, gear with your "reputation" with a specific factions in the game. Moreover, it has artifacts to enhance your body. I guess Stalker should fill the bill you are asking...another one I'm thinking of is some old MMO shooter.
I played both Borderlands and STALKER already. STALKER got a bit tedious with the umpteenth walk from point a to point b & back. Borderlands was great fun.
Have you tried Dead Island? I can't recommend it as I have not played it, but it's been talked of as an RPG/FPS hybrid.
Played Deus Ex, loved it to death. Hhmm. Dead Island. I'll have a look into that, despite not liking zombies. Keep 'em coming.
EYE is mediocre despite great ideas (buggy and sloppy, bad UI and lack of good tutorials etc.), but in multiplayer, most games get better, so it's not bad if you have friends. I guess System Shock and System Shock 2 go without saying, as well as the Thief series. Fallout 3 and New Vegas are obvious choices too. Honestly, if you want a Deus Ex-like, there really isn't anything else out there... which makes me quite sad. Maybe BioShock or something?
Fallout 3 was boring and lifeless. Vegas was one of the best games I played this year. I'm more leaning to SF/current day games than fantasy.
You might want to take a look at some of the lesser known MMOs, like Blacklight Retribution or Hellgate Global. I also recall that NeoCron has a decent, though not spectacular, combat system, but I'm not sure if it's still active.
There is still a somewhat active modding community based around the single player Hellgate: London. It scratches much of the same itch as Borderlands for me, but has instancing instead of the more open world of Borderlands. Rage was another game that has some of the same feel as Borderlands. It didn't do great, but I had fun with it.
I only played call of duty modern warfare RPG/FPS and CF which has xp and can change outfit and guns.
Not that much of an fps and you have probably already played it, but Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines can be played entirely as an fps.
If September wasn't such an awfully busy game-month, I'd rush to find a digital Bioshock somewhere. First, there's Torchlight II, Borderlands 2, Dungeon Lords MMXII, Mist of Pandaran and hopefully The Secret World's update.
