A Game Mode Or Mechanic You'D Like To See In Your Favorite Games

Gordon_4

The Big Engine
Legacy
Apr 3, 2020
6,045
5,345
118
Australia
More reaction to bodily damage, in both multiplayer and singleplayer shooters. You get shot in the legs, your character is limping now. But it's not just, hey, you're slower now. You hobble, your vision bobbing as you move, your aim is worse when you move, your gun swaying heavily. Getting shot in the arm with a high enough caliber would make you lose function of that arm, forcing you to use your side arm permanently, and making reloading take much longer.
And of course on the flip side, seeing your enemy react similarily, especially in single player experiences. We need more people crawling away after losing their legs and other such dismemberment reactions in video games.
The original Rainbow Six games called, they and SWAT4 are very hurt that you forget that they did that years ago. And very few people liked it since it knee caps fast paced action multiplayer.

However, it would be a very neat option for a sort of hardcore mode multiplayer shooter. Which ironically is exactly what Rainbow Six used to be.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DJShaddycat

Dirty Hipsters

This is how we praise the sun!
Legacy
Feb 7, 2011
7,885
2,233
118
Country
'Merica
Gender
3 children in a trench coat
The original Rainbow Six games called, they and SWAT4 are very hurt that you forget that they did that years ago. And very few people liked it since it knee caps fast paced action multiplayer.

However, it would be a very neat option for a sort of hardcore mode multiplayer shooter. Which ironically is exactly what Rainbow Six used to be.
Wouldn't be out of place in a rainbow six seige type game. Would definitely be more interesting than just having someone go down when they take enough damage, and if it's round based and rests between rounds it shouldn't be too frustrating. Balancing it properly would definitely be a lot of work.
 

Trunkage

Nascent Orca
Legacy
Jun 21, 2012
8,684
2,879
118
Brisbane
Gender
Cyborg
2 modes for Just Cause 2, and 2 modes for HITMAN.
JUST CAUSE 2
1st one: Infinite C4 mode. You are invincible and have infinite C4.
2. High speed mode: A mode in which your car goes at stupidly high speeds on a straight line with nothing blocking it.
Sounds like someone should make mods for that
 

Gordon_4

The Big Engine
Legacy
Apr 3, 2020
6,045
5,345
118
Australia
I was fond of the multiplayer setup for Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow where the ones with actual guns were in first person and could kill the opposing team but were otherwise limited by FPS movements. The other team were in third person and moved like Sam Fisher but only had non-lethal weapons and flash grenades. That always struck me as interesting.
 

laggyteabag

Scrolling through forums, instead of playing games
Legacy
Oct 25, 2009
3,301
982
118
UK
Gender
He/Him
I actually really miss Assassin's Creed's multiplayer. It was really interesting, with nothing like it since, and it is a shame that the mode died with Black Flag.

For the unaware, AC's multiplayer was basically a game of hide and seek. All players would select a character, and the map would be filled with identical looking characters, so you could blend in. Then, you were given a target, and a little compass that would lead you to who you were looking for. When you got close, the compass would stop working, and you had to figure out which of the 10 same-looking dudes, was actually the player that you were looking for - and if they spotted you, they could just kill you, instead.

It was just really interesting, especially because this was the time when games were tacking on multiplayer modes, because "singleplayer-only games no longer sold" or whatever. Its surprising that AC was probably forced to ship with some kind of multiplayer, and we ended up with one of the most creative modes that I have ever played.

I was fond of the multiplayer setup for Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow where the ones with actual guns were in first person and could kill the opposing team but were otherwise limited by FPS movements. The other team were in third person and moved like Sam Fisher but only had non-lethal weapons and flash grenades. That always struck me as interesting.
Asymmetrical multiplayer modes are quite rare, and that is kind of sad.

I suppose when games like EVOLVE flop massively, it kind of sets a bad precedent, but I've always found them interesting.

As much as I like a good team deathmatch, there are a lot of interesting modes that are just aren't explored as much as I would like.
 
Last edited:

Bob_McMillan

Elite Member
Aug 28, 2014
5,175
1,851
118
Country
Philippines
I was fond of the multiplayer setup for Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow where the ones with actual guns were in first person and could kill the opposing team but were otherwise limited by FPS movements. The other team were in third person and moved like Sam Fisher but only had non-lethal weapons and flash grenades. That always struck me as interesting.
Wasn't this a thing in pretty much every "recent" Splinter Cell game as well? Don't know if they pulled it off though.

OT: I think pretty much every FPS out there could be improved by increased mobility. It doesn't even have to be fancy like Titanfall or even Doom Eternal, something as simple as being able to lift yourself onto a higher wall would be nice. And places that should be accessible to you in general. I suppose the closest a game has come to this is Dying Light, but I've never actually played it cuz meh zombies. Also maybe Cyberpunk 2077, though it doesn't look as robust as Dying Light.
 

Gordon_4

The Big Engine
Legacy
Apr 3, 2020
6,045
5,345
118
Australia
Wasn't this a thing in pretty much every "recent" Splinter Cell game as well? Don't know if they pulled it off though.

OT: I think pretty much every FPS out there could be improved by increased mobility. It doesn't even have to be fancy like Titanfall or even Doom Eternal, something as simple as being able to lift yourself onto a higher wall would be nice. And places that should be accessible to you in general. I suppose the closest a game has come to this is Dying Light, but I've never actually played it cuz meh zombies. Also maybe Cyberpunk 2077, though it doesn't look as robust as Dying Light.
I genuinely don’t know if other SC games did it after Pandora Tomorrow.

As for high mobility in FPS, I dunno, it’s always felt very disorientating because of the viewpoint.
 

laggyteabag

Scrolling through forums, instead of playing games
Legacy
Oct 25, 2009
3,301
982
118
UK
Gender
He/Him
OT: I think pretty much every FPS out there could be improved by increased mobility. It doesn't even have to be fancy like Titanfall or even Doom Eternal, something as simple as being able to lift yourself onto a higher wall would be nice. And places that should be accessible to you in general. I suppose the closest a game has come to this is Dying Light, but I've never actually played it cuz meh zombies. Also maybe Cyberpunk 2077, though it doesn't look as robust as Dying Light.
Oh man, I love high-mobility in shooters. Im terrible at it. But I love it. The mobility in something like Titanfall or Tribes is just amazing, and so difficult to go back from. Im pretty sure I went from Titanfall to Battlefield 1, and the first thing I did was run head-first into a wall, expecting my 1914 German soldier to suddenly become some kind of parkour expert.

Im not surprised that it isn't exactly popular, though. Super fast moving enemies, and controllers, aren't exactly a match made in heaven. I wouldn't even want to play DOOM on a controller, let alone a game where a guy could appear anywhere in a 3D space, moving at a million miles an hour.
 

Kyrian007

Nemo saltat sobrius
Legacy
Mar 9, 2010
2,564
646
118
Kansas
Country
U.S.A.
Gender
Male
I want to see an advancement with the "nemesis" system in Shadow of Mordor and its sequel, and then that system placed into all sorts of other games. I think most other game genres could benefit from a system where a random mob that got in a lucky shot or hit and killed you winds up being a legitimate nemesis and boss fight on down the line. Not to mention just having your actions affect the political advancement of your enemies in a real tangible way. Master of Orion 2 had that in a small way, but it usually just wound up creating a WW1 like scenario where one race would declare war on another and the network of alliances meant that shortly thereafter the apocalyptical galaxy war would shortly follow. That game generally devolved into trying to avoid that until you had enough death stars to send one to each planet allied against you and just kill them all at once. More nuance would have been nice.

And the nemesis system could easily work in a game outside of the Batman-like beatemup that was SoM. I could see it in a 3rd person open-world style Yakuza or GTA type game. The protagonist player is tasked with taking out a criminal organization and you could either tear it up from the outside like a Batman or infiltrate their ranks and tear them down from the inside, getting weak idiots promoted through the ranks while sidelining or eliminating people who could be actually effective. Or a mix of both with some clever disguises. With random lucky mobs who got in a lucky shot getting in your way at unexpected times and making sure that... "this time, its personal!"
 

BrawlMan

Lover of beat'em ups.
Legacy
Mar 10, 2016
26,689
11,191
118
Detroit, Michigan
Country
United States of America
Gender
Male
I would say to add Witch Time in a Musou style game, but Age of Calamity already done that for me. Granted, in execution, it acts more similar to Dodge Bursting in Killer Is Dead. Speaking of Dynasty Warriors, I would not mind saying a Sonic Dynasty Warriors game if Persona 5 can get one, Sonic can get one.

Shit, a lot of action games have been copying Bayonetta's Witch Time now. Even action RPGs are doing this now with YsVIII, God of War 4, & Nier: Automata being stand out examples. Some do it better than others, so not as good as the originator.
 
Last edited:

happyninja42

Elite Member
Legacy
May 13, 2010
8,577
2,981
118
Wasn't this a thing in pretty much every "recent" Splinter Cell game as well? Don't know if they pulled it off though.

OT: I think pretty much every FPS out there could be improved by increased mobility. It doesn't even have to be fancy like Titanfall or even Doom Eternal, something as simple as being able to lift yourself onto a higher wall would be nice. And places that should be accessible to you in general. I suppose the closest a game has come to this is Dying Light, but I've never actually played it cuz meh zombies. Also maybe Cyberpunk 2077, though it doesn't look as robust as Dying Light.
I would recommend Dying Light, it's great. It's honestly one of my favorite games of all time. I was never a huge zombie genre fan, but injecting really good parkour mechanics into a zombie survival/crafting game, was apparently the exact thing to hit all my sweet spots. It makes for a really dynamic game experience, as you try to stay elevated as much as possible, because it's safer. But sometimes you have to go on the ground, which means you have to deal with the hordes. And that can be really tense. It's especially tense if you are out after dark, and thus the night breeds come out. For one, the lighting just stops at night, it's REALLY dark, so you either have to try and navigate nearly blind, or risk turning on your flashlight....which will draw the attention of the zombies...which are much nastier at night, like...shit your pants nastier. So then you have to run if they spot you....in the dark...possibly blundering into another group of zombies. And you don't find guns very often, so it's mostly melee, and you REALLY don't want to be doing melee with a horde if you can avoid it. If you do find a gun, it's great...except for that whole "making noise attracts zombies" thing. So it's all about risk management on a lot of levels. And your primary defense....is mobility. And as you improve your mobility skills (by doing parkour related actions, that earn you agility xp) you get more options on how to just bypass threats. And it's frankly, just fun as hell.

But it's not just zombies, there are other survivor groups that are a threat that you have to deal with, to mix up the challenges. And they LOVE to use guns, so then you have the risk of returning fire, and drawing more zombies on top of all of you, or trying to melee dudes with assault rifles. Ooooor, drawing zombies onto them with various gadgets, to let THEM kill the dudes for you, while you watch from a safe perch.

Seriously if you really want to play a game with mobility being a key focus, you really should check out Dying Light. I think you might be pleasantly surprised by the game, even with your dislike of zombies. Very underrated game in my opinion.
 

DJShaddycat

Elite Member
Oct 14, 2020
104
54
33
Country
United States
Gender
Male
The original Rainbow Six games called, they and SWAT4 are very hurt that you forget that they did that years ago. And very few people liked it since it knee caps fast paced action multiplayer.

However, it would be a very neat option for a sort of hardcore mode multiplayer shooter. Which ironically is exactly what Rainbow Six used to be.
It would probably fit right in with games like Rising Storm and Red Orchestra. They have bodily damage, but it plays very little into the actual gameplay usually.
 

Phoenixmgs

The Muse of Fate
Legacy
Apr 3, 2020
8,916
783
118
w/ M'Kraan Crystal
Gender
Male
I want to see an advancement with the "nemesis" system in Shadow of Mordor and its sequel, and then that system placed into all sorts of other games. I think most other game genres could benefit from a system where a random mob that got in a lucky shot or hit and killed you winds up being a legitimate nemesis and boss fight on down the line. Not to mention just having your actions affect the political advancement of your enemies in a real tangible way. Master of Orion 2 had that in a small way, but it usually just wound up creating a WW1 like scenario where one race would declare war on another and the network of alliances meant that shortly thereafter the apocalyptical galaxy war would shortly follow. That game generally devolved into trying to avoid that until you had enough death stars to send one to each planet allied against you and just kill them all at once. More nuance would have been nice.

And the nemesis system could easily work in a game outside of the Batman-like beatemup that was SoM. I could see it in a 3rd person open-world style Yakuza or GTA type game. The protagonist player is tasked with taking out a criminal organization and you could either tear it up from the outside like a Batman or infiltrate their ranks and tear them down from the inside, getting weak idiots promoted through the ranks while sidelining or eliminating people who could be actually effective. Or a mix of both with some clever disguises. With random lucky mobs who got in a lucky shot getting in your way at unexpected times and making sure that... "this time, its personal!"
Nemesis would be great in any game where the character actually dies like a Souls game or rogue-like.

I would say to add Witch Time in a Musou style game, but Age of Calamity already done that for me. Granted, in execution, it acts more similar to Dodge Bursting in Killer Is Dead. Speaking of Dynasty Warriors, I would not mind saying a Sonic Dynasty Warriors game if Persona 5 can get one, Sonic can get one.

Shit, a lot of action games have been copying Bayonetta's Witch Time now. Even action RPGs are doing this now with YsVII, God of War 4, & Nier: Automata being stand out examples. Some do it better than others, so not as good as the originator.
Funny thing is that Bayonetta is best played without Witch Time on NSIC.
 

hanselthecaretaker

My flask is half full
Legacy
Nov 18, 2010
8,738
5,905
118
Like the thread titles suggests: pick a favorite game and a mode/mechanic you’d like to see within them.

Dark Souls: Competitive Co-Op. I think it’d only work in DS1 as DS2 and 3 are more linear with a singular hub for leveling up, but I imagine a mode in which two “Chosen Undeads” both start in the Asylum with a race to defeat Gwyn. PvP damage would be turned off (to incentivize progress over screwing the other player over, maybe toggled if skill merits the additional challenge,) but everything within the game would stay the same as the normal single player game; i.e.: since both are likely alive when they reach the Asylum Demon, the game is “jolly cooperation” until it falls, then, it’s every man for himself.

The game becomes being the first to reach unique items, rack up souls and beat bosses in the order each player feels most fortuitous with the understanding that what you don’t go for, the other player can get! Bosses could still be co-op’d and loot split if both reach the fog wall at the same time, but if a single player manages to beat one without the other inside the fog wall, the Boss Soul and regular souls are awarded to the victorious player who kills it.

The world wouldn’t reset on any single player’s death as in the core game, rather a player who dies must sit out a 1-minute delay (also adjustable) before respawning at their last bonfire; should the surviving player die during that runoff, THEN the world would reset. No requirement both players be in the same area at the same time; the open world left to be tackled as each sees fit.

Certain items that gate progress are shared, like embers and the Lord Vessel, etc.; if a single player gets an ember and turns it in, those upgrades become available for both players. I’m sure there are a lot of problems with this that I haven’t foreseen, but the idea is kinda cool and I feel might be worth the added layer of gameplay it'd offer.
Fixed block of text so it doesn’t look like a grammatical fog gate.

On topic, I always have considered more dynamics and persistence to be the holy grails of game development. For example I want swords to react more appropriately with flesh vs armor, with damage models following suit. No more simply watching a health bar dwindle while you hack away at a mostly unresponsive character model. No more being stuck at basic door just because you didn’t have a key. Who would’ve thought it’d take til TLoU2 to simply break the glass to get around a locked door for instance.

Basically I want the same physically based materials system used for rendering visuals to be applied to game objects and NPCs for more dynamic gameplay options.

I also want game worlds to feel more persistent to my actions. RDR2 has small examples of this like shooting up a bar and it’ll be closed down for a few days, or NPCs remembering you from some prior action and responding accordingly. It also has game world changes made over time regardless of your presence, like the loggers, the house builders or the railway workers.

But for player actions to have more lasting effects would be amazing. Like, instead of critical NPCs respawning after a while, maybe that alters the dynamics of things they’re involved with if they die permanently. Or procedurally generate a unique replacement that eventually fills the vacancy via a help wanted notice or something. Character model creators have gotten pretty detailed, so this should already be possible.
 
Last edited:

Bob_McMillan

Elite Member
Aug 28, 2014
5,175
1,851
118
Country
Philippines
As for high mobility in FPS, I dunno, it’s always felt very disorientating because of the viewpoint.
Im not surprised that it isn't exactly popular, though. Super fast moving enemies, and controllers, aren't exactly a match made in heaven. I wouldn't even want to play DOOM on a controller, let alone a game where a guy could appear anywhere in a 3D space, moving at a million miles an hour.
Well, as I said, it doesn't even have to be high mobility. Just having more options is great. Basically, not being restricted to just vaulting over chest high walls. To be fair, plenty of FPS games have started doing this, but unless you actually go out of your way, you'll never really need to use them. Like Far Cry, when you see what can be done with the movement mechanics by pros it looks amazing. But these are all essentially "exploits" that they don't really tell you much about in-game.

I want to see an advancement with the "nemesis" system
This would make any open world game so much longer after the games main story and even sidequests have finished. I guess the game would have to justify you "surviving" all your deaths to these NPCs, but hey that's what we pay devs for.

Seriously if you really want to play a game with mobility being a key focus, you really should check out Dying Light. I think you might be pleasantly surprised by the game, even with your dislike of zombies. Very underrated game in my opinion.
Maybe one day when I get my hands on my own PC. There's so few good parkour games out there.
 

happyninja42

Elite Member
Legacy
May 13, 2010
8,577
2,981
118
Maybe one day when I get my hands on my own PC. There's so few good parkour games out there.
Well it runs really well on the PS4 too. To give Dying Light further props, my wife, is a nerd, and a semi-gamer, but she doesn't play a lot of games. However, I was playing Dying Light on the PC years ago when I first bought it, and she came in to chat with me, and just kept standing there watching me play. She sat down, started asking questions, and was immediately engaged. And she's not a zombie fan either. But something about the setting, the tone, theme, and the parkour, really caught her interest. So much so, that we bought the game a second time, on the PS 4, so she could play it. And she would play that game for HOURS a day. I would come home from work, and she had taken a day off, and was glued to the tv playing that thing. She REALLY enjoyed it. Now personally, I don't like playing first person games with a controller, as I'm a PC gamer at heart, and I'm just more used to WASD and mouse for movement. But she loved the hell out of it. And we're both eagerly awaiting Dying Light 2.

So yeah my semi-gamer wife, who isn't into horror or gross zombie things, fucking loves a zombie parkour survival game. If that means anything. :D
 
Last edited:

BrawlMan

Lover of beat'em ups.
Legacy
Mar 10, 2016
26,689
11,191
118
Detroit, Michigan
Country
United States of America
Gender
Male
Funny thing is that Bayonetta is best played without Witch Time on NSIC.
That is one aspect I did not like about the original. There were ways you can get around it, but it involved a lot of tedious grinding to get certain items or tedious methods to unlock them. If you had the Moon of Khala, doing Perfect Parries would net you Witch Time. It's why I don't bother with that difficulty much anymore in the original. I felt Bayonetta 2 did that difficulty better, by just giving you less Witch time and that's it. NSIC can be mastered yes, but even I felt Hideki Kamiya was going overboard. I hate Grace and Glory so much. Especially there advanced counterparts.
 
Last edited:

XsjadoBlayde

~it ends here~
Apr 29, 2020
3,216
3,354
118
This probably sounds terrible for a lot of people, so I'm going to save that potential ire by saying it should be an optional mechanic, a difficulty setting mayhaps, so no-one should be forced into it if they just wanna have fun. And that is with Spiderman, either one really...as they're essentially working class heroes struggling between paying rent and saving lives, maybe that struggle could be implemented into gameplay somehow? Like choosing between your time helping others and making money to keep afloat? Without too harsh a penalty, could be a lower health or special bar if you're not comfortably rested, I dunno. I don't have much faith in own ideas right now so don't want to put too much thought into anything most likely shit and useless, but was wondering how a game could balance being a working class hero in a way the player could, if they so wanted, experience the pull and struggle. As long as the money making jobs are not the soul-draining chore they are in real life? I mean, even commuting is fun when you're the spidermans.
 
  • Like
Reactions: happyninja42

happyninja42

Elite Member
Legacy
May 13, 2010
8,577
2,981
118
This probably sounds terrible for a lot of people, so I'm going to save that potential ire by saying it should be an optional mechanic, a difficulty setting mayhaps, so no-one should be forced into it if they just wanna have fun. And that is with Spiderman, either one really...as they're essentially working class heroes struggling between paying rent and saving lives, maybe that struggle could be implemented into gameplay somehow? Like choosing between your time helping others and making money to keep afloat? Without too harsh a penalty, could be a lower health or special bar if you're not comfortably rested, I dunno. I don't have much faith in own ideas right now so don't want to put too much thought into anything most likely shit and useless, but was wondering how a game could balance being a working class hero in a way the player could, if they so wanted, experience the pull and struggle. As long as the money making jobs are not the soul-draining chore they are in real life? I mean, even commuting is fun when you're the spidermans.
Yeah, a survival mode for Spiderman would be great! That was actually one issue I had with the PS 4 Peter spiderman game, the whole "I'm still unable to make money." trope. He even talks about how he had a possible deal for a Spiderman plushy, "but there was no way to market it without giving up my identity" Um...sorry what? That is just too easy to do in today's world. Have someone work the account for you, through a company or whatever, and have the proceeds go to an account that you have access to. I mean the whole idea of masked heroes keeping their identity secret in the technological era is ridiculous as it is, and it's why they didn't bother with the MCU thing for Spidey after a while. It's just too easy to find out who someone is. BUT, if you're going to stop one story element saying "technology makes it easy to find out who I am" you don't get to ignore that same risk on the other side, and just assume "well as long as he's got his mask on he's fine." It's just too easy to piece together clues in the digital age. So, if he's safe enough swinging around town, he's safe enough to run a side account where he markets his own persona for money. I dunno that bit just irks me. Embrace tech's threat on one hand, hand wave it away on the other. *rolls eyes* I mean Miles embraces the digital age, and having a social presence just fine.

But yeah a system where you have to meet a money quota per week or something would be really cool. The problem with the current spiderman games, is time doesn't actually just...progress. It stays day/night depending on the mission you are doing, which always annoyed me frankly. But yeah I would enjoy that kind of element a lot.

I'd also enjoy it if they had the various community services you do in the game, actually change the map in some way. The best example of this to me, was inFamous 1/2. As you clear the different sectors of the city, restoring power, clearing out the gangs, it directly changes the map. There is less debris on the streets, as people cleaned it up, you see more people walking around in a semblance of normal life. They wave and cheer to you as you pass by, thanking you for your help. They actively call you down to the street to help with someone in need, leading you to the person in trouble. They team up to help you in a fight, in some of the most satisfying examples of "people defending their defender" I've ever seen. It really is great to see, because I've been helping these people, a crowd of 12+ citizens, all rally together, and start hurling rocks and debris at the gangs I'm fighting, to help me out. And they are often VERY effective. You see posters of yourself being put up in places, buildings with lights and power making the night sequences that much cooler. Just, direct, visible impact. I LOVE that shit. If the Spiderman games did that too, they would make me so happy.