Games that allow a focus on movement?

[Scootinfroodie]

So I was just watching mew (a veteran Quake player) zip around in Cubeworld using an old bug and a hang glider, and fly backwards through alleyways in a helicopter in Battlefield 4. I feel like there's not enough games in my library that promote skilled movement.

Currently I have Cloudbuilt, Quake 1, Quake 3 (with the CPMA mod), Mirrors Edge and a number of racing games.

Any suggestions? Additionally, any movement-focused videos of games you'd like to gush over?

 

[Danny Dowling]

not sure it's the same as what you're describing but the game i instantly think of with "movement" is Hohokum.

 

[Delerien]

Almost any game during a speedrun.
CS or rather Halflife had these weird maps which were all about bunny hoping, grenade jumping and stuff like that. I forgot what they are called though.

 

[Scootinfroodie]

Almost any game during a speedrun.
CS or rather Halflife had these weird maps which were all about bunny hoping, grenade jumping and stuff like that. I forgot what they are called though.

The source games tend to consolidate their movement in dedicated bhop, jump and surf maps. There could be some other movement centric mod or server set, but I'm not aware of it. There's definitely some really neat stuff you can do with two players, a couple nades, and practice in CS

Actually what's interesting about Valve's games (and I'll cut this short so as to avoid turning this into an essay on one family tree of physics bugs) is that not only are they derived from id's early tech, but they seem to have carried over a lot of the physics quirks, and as a result bhop in CS and bhop in Quake aren't too far apart in general terms. Similarly, Titanfall (based on Source) and Call of Duty (based on idtech 3 iirc) still to this day allow some variant of bhop and strafe/circle jumping respectively (unless something has changed *very* recently)

The first bit is slightly contentious, if only for the fact that many speedruns are more dependent on skipping content than moving through it. Even the Halflife 20 min speedrun involves skipping whole sections of the game by launching the player over walls. I would absolutely love to see more games where speedrunning is officially supported in some way though

not sure it's the same as what you're describing but the game i instantly think of with "movement" is Hohokum.

It's not really the sort of thing that I specifically meant no, but it does seem interesting. I watched a few videos and I'm not really sure what the purpose of the players actions are, but the ability to zip around at high speed in strange environments seems pretty entertaining

 

[Danny Dowling]

not sure it's the same as what you're describing but the game i instantly think of with "movement" is Hohokum.

It's not really the sort of thing that I specifically meant no, but it does seem interesting. I watched a few videos and I'm not really sure what the purpose of the players actions are, but the ability to zip around at high speed in strange environments seems pretty entertaining

From what I can gather from Hohokum, the aim is to venture the world/level and put things where they should be. you pick things up by flying to them and put them down by flying where they need to go. At least I think.

It's one of those games I want to try but I also don't want to spend money on.

 

[Gray-Philosophy]

Perhaps Warframe might be to your liking. You're able to run and jump on walls and do mid-air slides and so on. If done right you can reach some pretty impressive speeds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86DFeTqLp3s

 

[visiblenoise]

Tribes, anybody? Even Tribes Ascend wasn't bad, but Tribes 2 was super.

 

[Flammablezeus]

Just Cause 2. The grapple/parachute mechanics alone could carry that game (and honestly, they probably do.)

Spider-Man 2: If you can get a hold of the console version that is. To a lesser extent, Web of Shadows and Amazing Spider-Man 2 also have good web-swinging mechanics (but not as good as Spider-Man 2.) Out of those two, I'd recommend Web of Shadows since it has deeper combat which makes it a lot more fun.

Energy Hook: As far as I know, the game is still in alpha or beta, but it's also made by the guy who did the web-swinging mechanics for Spider-Man 2. The game looks like a lot of fun so far. As far as fun movement in video games goes, this one looks like it's doing better than any other game I can think of.

Landmark. Once you get the best grapple-hook, you can time it just right to keep up momentum as you run, but it's not easy to get used to.

Tribes: Ascend has been mentioned but I wanted to second it. Very enjoyable, and I'm not even into competitive shooters.

Infamous: This can be very fun when you upgrade your movement powers to grind along rails and to hover. Jumping between things to travel long distances can be quite satisfying.

Prototype: I'm talking about the first one specifically, since it allows more nuances in movement (such as wall jumping and flipping) and the controls seem better designed for it.

 

[gigastar]

Perhaps Warframe might be to your liking. You're able to run and jump on walls and do mid-air slides and so on. If done right you can reach some pretty impressive speeds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86DFeTqLp3s

Not fast enuff.


Also actual airdash melee attacks are to be added. Allowing things like that to be aimed upwards.

 

[default]

Dustforce for one. It's a very fast moving, precise and fluid platformer, and one of my favourite games of all time.



Those same guys are working on a new game that seems like it will be just up your alley, called Spire. They're drawing heavily from that Quake era of precision and speed in movement and transferring it to a rogue-like shooter game structure, with the maps being generated around the movement mechanics.

Here's some early footage:



Apart from that, in terms of FPS you're pretty shit out of luck. Every shooter these days seems to wants to keep movement slow, stodgy and undynamic.

 

[Scootinfroodie]

From what I can gather from Hohokum, the aim is to venture the world/level and put things where they should be. you pick things up by flying to them and put them down by flying where they need to go. At least I think.

It's one of those games I want to try but I also don't want to spend money on.

It looks to be a PS exclusive, which means I'll probably never play it. It's hard enough getting around to playing on the consoles I actually have

Perhaps Warframe might be to your liking. You're able to run and jump on walls and do mid-air slides and so on. If done right you can reach some pretty impressive speeds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86DFeTqLp3s

I've actually played it, but didn't consider it for whatever reason. Currently working on getting Ember and Rhino Prime and ranking up so I can craft a Synapse. I'll have to try to do more wallrunning next time I play (which will probably be without the newbie friends who complain that I go 'too fast')

Tribes, anybody? Even Tribes Ascend wasn't bad, but Tribes 2 was super.

Tribes is... interesting, to say the least. I really like the concept, but the map dependence hurts (which is something that became more apparent with Tribes Ascend, where map boundaries were hardcapped). There's a few really great ideas in that series though, and I'd love to see more exploration of the concept. Did you check out Legions? I looked at it a few years back but it had already started doing what Warsow and Xonotic do (relegate all matches to irc organized affairs). I have no idea what's going on with it at this point

Those same guys are working on a new game that seems like it will be just up your alley, called Spire. They're drawing heavily from that Quake era of precision and speed in movement and transferring it to a rogue-like shooter game structure, with the maps being generated around the movement mechanics.

That looks really neat. I'll have to keep an eye on it

As for a focus on FPS games, I'm really not particularly attached to that genre when it comes to this sort of thing, it's just that it has allowed me to appreciate that style of play. I've been looking through games that are more flight-focused, but once I filter out the simulators and WoT-style stuff there's really not much I can find outside of large scale battlefield games. Currently wondering if I should bother with Planetside 2 after bouncing off of it back in Beta (because of infantry combat, to be fair) or even ARMA (which is a game I've found interesting conceptually but never in a "I want to play it" sense)

Also thanks for reminding me that Dustforce exists. I'll have to go and dig that out of my backlog

 

[Glongpre]

Vanquish?
Here is a speedrun.

Spoiler

 

[Scootinfroodie]

Vanquish?
Here is a speedrun.

Spoiler

Does Platinum ever stop being awesome?

Perhaps Warframe might be to your liking. You're able to run and jump on walls and do mid-air slides and so on. If done right you can reach some pretty impressive speeds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86DFeTqLp3s

Not fast enuff.


Also actual airdash melee attacks are to be added. Allowing things like that to be aimed upwards.

I had heard about the Archwing, but not about airdash. Now DE just needs to create more fun secret areas

Just Cause 2. The grapple/parachute mechanics alone could carry that game (and honestly, they probably do.)

I'll have to look into that again. I didn't run into anything particularly insane last time (outside of the obvious) but maybe I missed something

J
Spider-Man 2: If you can get a hold of the console version that is. To a lesser extent, Web of Shadows and Amazing Spider-Man 2 also have good web-swinging mechanics (but not as good as Spider-Man 2.) Out of those two, I'd recommend Web of Shadows since it has deeper combat which makes it a lot more fun.

I really need to hunt that game down someday. Heard nothing but good things

J
Energy Hook: As far as I know, the game is still in alpha or beta, but it's also made by the guy who did the web-swinging mechanics for Spider-Man 2. The game looks like a lot of fun so far. As far as fun movement in video games goes, this one looks like it's doing better than any other game I can think of.

I'll definitely keep an eye out

J
Landmark. Once you get the best grapple-hook, you can time it just right to keep up momentum as you run, but it's not easy to get used to.

I wasn't even aware Landmark had anything like that. I'll have to see if my 7 day code still works

 

[DSK-]

UT2004. Double jump, dodge, dodge jump, wall dodge, wall dodge jump, piston dodge/+jump, shock core dodge/+jump, goo dodge +/jump, grenade dodge+/jump, slope dodging, lift jumping. CTF you have the translocator. See last video in spoilers to see it in action.

Lots of stuff.

Spoiler

 

[Vigormortis]

If you're looking for something contemporary, you might want to give Titanfall a shot.

I know large swaths of this forum like to turn their noses up at the game in as smug a fashion as possible, but it's a damn good, modern-day arena shooter. It's old-school meets new with a strong emphasis on individual skill (especially in movement and map awareness) as well as teamwork and planning.

 

[AnthrSolidSnake]

I'll second Titanfall. A great online shooter with levels crafted specifically to suit the free form wall running and jumping movement. It also has quite a few perks that increase your ability to move even faster.

 

[Ronald Nand]

You could try InMomentum, its kind of like an arcade version of Mirrors Edge, you can jump of walls allowing you to get a lot of momentum and height, the maps are quite open and there are often many viable routes you take to get height in each map.

There are some free indie games that do this, like Tag: The Power of Paint and Nitronic Rush.

There are some games like this being developed too, stuff like Lemma and there's some other ones but I can't name them on the top of my head, I think two of them are Purge and Revolt or something like that.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Ghost Recon Future Soldier lets you do a bunch of nifty things with it's cover swap system. If I'm in a room with someone, they getting knifed. I'll be really disappointed if you can't cover swap in The Division.

Spoiler: GRFS Cover Swap Montage

 

[Samsont]

Hotline Miami relies heavily on fast movement and reflexes, you move quick, you kill quick, you die quick, and you restart quick.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

I backed this on kickstarter a while ago and it looks like it's going to be tits awesome just based on the pre alpha footage even

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/midgarstudio/hover-revolt-of-gamers