Best FPS mechanics
- Thread starter RubyT
- Start date
I'm getting my copy of Borderlands 2 in a few days ;_; (Waiting for my local gaming store to get stock, I din't pre-order it since my financial situation was rather constricted)EHKOS said:
The.Anticipation.Is.Killing.Me!
Games with few or no limitations on how many weapons you can carry. Instead of iron sights they put some crazy secondary fire on it. Health bar and refills instead of regenerating.
Those games are fun on a bun! Serious Sam did the whole over-the-top crazy fun shooter very well for me. Just Cause 2 as well, if you count 3rd person stuff.
I do also like CoD (in small doses) and BF3, for it's size and relative realism, as well as vehicle warfare, yay!
Those games are fun on a bun! Serious Sam did the whole over-the-top crazy fun shooter very well for me. Just Cause 2 as well, if you count 3rd person stuff.
I do also like CoD (in small doses) and BF3, for it's size and relative realism, as well as vehicle warfare, yay!
First of all, I'll mention Borderlands. I love the way the guns are all generated randomly, adding in the RPG elements to them as well. Being able to burn an enemy after shooting them is awesome.
Another one, that is an oldie, is C&C Renegade. For those of you that aren't aware of the C&C franchise, the games are (with the exception of Renegade) RTS where you build a base so then you can build units to then send them to destroy the enemy. It's a simple concept, and there are a lot like it. However, Renegade puts you in that from a first person perspective. You don't get to construct buildings, but you can build vehicles and buy different characters to play as, which are earned through harvesting tiberium. It's a shame Westwood never properly finished it or never gave it a sequel really. It came out in 2002 and it's still alive, even if it is nearly dead.
Another one, that is an oldie, is C&C Renegade. For those of you that aren't aware of the C&C franchise, the games are (with the exception of Renegade) RTS where you build a base so then you can build units to then send them to destroy the enemy. It's a simple concept, and there are a lot like it. However, Renegade puts you in that from a first person perspective. You don't get to construct buildings, but you can build vehicles and buy different characters to play as, which are earned through harvesting tiberium. It's a shame Westwood never properly finished it or never gave it a sequel really. It came out in 2002 and it's still alive, even if it is nearly dead.
Iron sights are pretty pointless unless they're on console. They're basically making up for the lack of accuracy that you get with joysticks.Metalhandkerchief said:
And no, I'm not a PC elitist, that's just my experience with console shooters.
As one person said, the feel.
Call of Duty has beautiful reload animations, but the guns dont feel to powerful.
Guns feel powerful in Counter-Strike, but they have terrible reloads (although they fixed that in CS:GO)
So far, the game with the best gun mechanics has to be killing floor. The guns in that game have the best feel to them that no other game has quite reproduced. It is probably because of the slow motion mechanic they need to comply with, but the guns have beautiful textures, animations and sounds. Not to mention the way the enemies react to your shot. And the game play of the game is great in that you can fire from the hip without missing your target, and you can use the iron sights for those crucial moments when you need to aim in. The game has no cross hair what so ever, but they position the HUD and the guns in a way that just direct you to the aiming line.
Call of Duty has beautiful reload animations, but the guns dont feel to powerful.
Guns feel powerful in Counter-Strike, but they have terrible reloads (although they fixed that in CS:GO)
So far, the game with the best gun mechanics has to be killing floor. The guns in that game have the best feel to them that no other game has quite reproduced. It is probably because of the slow motion mechanic they need to comply with, but the guns have beautiful textures, animations and sounds. Not to mention the way the enemies react to your shot. And the game play of the game is great in that you can fire from the hip without missing your target, and you can use the iron sights for those crucial moments when you need to aim in. The game has no cross hair what so ever, but they position the HUD and the guns in a way that just direct you to the aiming line.
Ghost Recon. The first one.
It does one thing better than any other game on the market, this one simple thing it got right. I just can't remember what it was. Oh, yeah. When you shoot people, THEY DIE. You don't have to spend several mags to the face of someone to kill them.
You also get to see what's happening, they realised that a computer screen is a very poor representation of eye-sight, so they didn't clutter the screen with junk. Sure, you don't see a pretty gun or reload animation, but it's much more realistic anyway, because you can actually see what you're doing.
It does one thing better than any other game on the market, this one simple thing it got right. I just can't remember what it was. Oh, yeah. When you shoot people, THEY DIE. You don't have to spend several mags to the face of someone to kill them.
You also get to see what's happening, they realised that a computer screen is a very poor representation of eye-sight, so they didn't clutter the screen with junk. Sure, you don't see a pretty gun or reload animation, but it's much more realistic anyway, because you can actually see what you're doing.
Yeah, I loved the cooperative AI in FEAR, especially since you could overhear their radio chatter. It was really interesting. The animations were pretty good too.
I liked the Farcry 2 approach to health, having a mix between a health pack system and regen. It made the run and gun and cover style gameplay possible, whilst forcing the player to be careful. The fire mechanics in that one were nice too actually.
I liked the Farcry 2 approach to health, having a mix between a health pack system and regen. It made the run and gun and cover style gameplay possible, whilst forcing the player to be careful. The fire mechanics in that one were nice too actually.
COD single player, because of iron sights, strafe leaning, health regen, gun spraying, and yearly installments.
All joking aside, I like the blocky but precise feel from Valve's newer games. IDK why exactly, but it's easiest to play, and somehow much more intuitive than "realism" mechanics.
All joking aside, I like the blocky but precise feel from Valve's newer games. IDK why exactly, but it's easiest to play, and somehow much more intuitive than "realism" mechanics.
I started playing Borderlands 2 this weekend, and it is so much fun. When I got my first Tediore weapon and saw that, I immediately started tossing exploding guns with near-full clips at enemies, and it's just ridiculous, I couldn't stop grinning. Until I realized that I was actually throwing away near-full clips ALONG WITH the exploding gun. Then I went on my usual ammo conservation effort.Thrashgrinder said:
I have to say, Borderlands' mechanic of a few different attributes randomly combined into any gun you pick up is really nice. For all I know there's a life-leeching sniper rifle out there that explodes into acid every time you reload.
Max Payne was not FPS if I remember correctly. It was TPS. Best FPS mechanics were obviously offered in Quake 1. The idea of health/shield regeneration was awful and threw genre to the swamp of despair.RubyT said:Playing BLACK MESA got me and some friends talking about shooters, how they evolved. Obviously, at some point we reached the part of the debate where it all comes down to which is the best FPS. And unsurprisingly, different people found different games superior for different reasons. Say, MAX PAYNE had this great, dense atmosphere. NO ONE LIVES FORVER was funny and off-beat. UNDYING had the horror down. DEUS EX had the story and RPG going for it.
The point of this thread: which FPS had the best shooter mechanics? That is enemy A.I., combat design, physical awareness, weapons. In essence, if you strip it down to just shooting, which game was best?
I found F.E.A.R. to be awesome in that department. The A.I. was very well coded and scripted, with enemies turning over tables for cover, actually using cover, sticking to it instead of rushing the player, flanking, retreating from danger, being able to jump over ledges and climb ladders. A lot of the combats also felt well-paced and "plausible" (as opposed to groups of enemies being randomly placed or, worse, teleported). Your avatar also had a real physical body, i.e. feet and you had a great feel of physical presence in the world. The bullet-time was a nice touch, although I always feel self-recharging game mechanics are killing the pace, because they make you wait for something to replenish. MAX PAYNE did it better by making you earn bullet-time through regular kills.
So - what were your favourites?
Not setting, plot or art direction, just shooting. And single-player only, please
You see, the concept of modern shooter is to make it as cinematic as possible. You more look then actually shoot. And if you shoot you shoot entirely cloned objects/targets. And not endless amount of health made combat more intense and interesting. Just remember meeting Shambler when you have just 3 HP and a shotgun. And after you survived this meeting you could be proud - Yeah! I did it! And now: I shot an evil russkiy - I jumped behind a crate - I did same shit again ten times. Then I watched a 3-minutes long cutscene before start shooting some shit from some mounted gun!
Painkiller is the first thing that came to mind. Just the original, with it's satisfying weapons, shooting mechanics and movement speed, it was near perfect and did everything right.
Now F.E.A.R will probably one of my favorite games forever and that's because the controls are super tight and the AI is great. Oh and it was spooky as fuck the first couple times I played.
Now F.E.A.R will probably one of my favorite games forever and that's because the controls are super tight and the AI is great. Oh and it was spooky as fuck the first couple times I played.
Think I gotta go with Crysis on this one, because it combines leaning, crawling, first-person legs (I haven't seen those since Tribes 2), fantastic weapon feel (sound design in particular) and weapon capacity limited enough to suspend my disbelief. The important part is that it feels like a human body you're controlling, not a hovering camera. The attention to detail is also top notch, like how when you reload a gun before it's empty the round in the chamber doesn't magically disappear. Biggest flaws, though, are shitty AI and the way vehicles explode if you so much as run into a garbage can.
I like Metro 2033 for some of the same reasons. Makes you feel like an actual human character in a story, since I actually believe in immersion.
For a run-and-gun style (no iron sight bullshit) game I think the Half-Life 2 collection is my favourite. Strikes a nice balance between "realism" and the colorful fun of classic shooters.
I like Metro 2033 for some of the same reasons. Makes you feel like an actual human character in a story, since I actually believe in immersion.
For a run-and-gun style (no iron sight bullshit) game I think the Half-Life 2 collection is my favourite. Strikes a nice balance between "realism" and the colorful fun of classic shooters.
That is the exact experience I had with the Tediore guns. But damn it they are just so fun to throw around.Scratch17 said:
I second this. If you are going to make a game where the gun-play is at the forefront, it helps to make the guns themselves satisfying to use. If there is a shotgun, it had better feel like a shotgun: Devastating at short range, moderately useful at medium range, and nigh-useless at long range unless specifically designed to be otherwise.RipVanTinkle said:
A sniper? Powerful at long range, decent at medium, and an absolute last resort at close range.
And this isn't just in terms of actual damage-dealing, but also the sound, the feel, even the overall aesthetics. Snipers crack out with precision, shotguns blast with sheer power, and machine guns rattle or even growl out death at a good clip.
Rifles and shotguns should look like they have the kick of a mule, even if their actual recoil is much more manageable. Machine guns should practically purr like an angry lion when they fire. (And yes, I am romanticizing this a bit. Cut me some slack, I love guns.)
Honestly, I think the Halo series, particularly Halo 1 and Halo: Reach, did it best. For third person shooters, definitely Mass Effect.
But, most of all, the game should be FUN. The gun-play should be easy to get into, but hard to truly master. Not that it should be hard to win your share of gun battles. But, it should take some real skill and finesse to come out on top often, consistently.