Games that allow a focus on movement?

[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

Not fast enuff.


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

Haf 2 go faster!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsagjeVkoXk
(fastness starts at 1:30)

 

[Scootinfroodie]

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.

Interestingly enough, I've seen more than a few people in the UT community praise it for being an arena shooter where movement *isnt* a dominant skillset. I've definitely seen some neat things done in UT, but the stop-and-go movement makes me motion sick

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.

I actually have that one, but it's very floaty. I kinda wish there was more support for it, and that the devs could create maps more suited to the style of movement involved. Most speedruns I see seem to involve skipping half the map

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

I'm downloading those as I type this

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.

I'll keep on the lookout for these

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.

Honestly, the thing that gets me most about Titanfall is the fact that nobody I know can justify having a 40gb multiplayer shooter on their computer. If it was a nice compact little thing I'd have tons of people to play it with. Best part about getting into Quake is that you need less than 1gb of harddrive space and the power of a toaster.

Back on track with Titanfall though. The movement was interesting, and the stuff you could do with stim and a good wallrun/jumpjet chain was neat. Did they add in any new movement-boosting mechanics/devices? Also, I dunno that I'd call it an arena shooter

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

It's on my list. I just need to remember to actually play it

Try They Bleed Pixels. It is a lovecraft-themed platformer about a troubled young lady that dies over and over and over by your clumsy hands.

I hadn't actually paid too much attention to this game back when it came out. It actually seems pretty interesting

Also, I loved this old video, Quake Done Quick third person movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q24izUSj1xY

It's so weird seeing a Quake Speedrun where the player isn't flying through the air

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

I keep forgetting this game exists, but I get so hype every time I see it

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.

That is definitely an odd set of mechanics for a cover shooter. I'm pretty impressed that something like that didn't just get patched out

 

[Maximum Bert]

Vanquish?

Damn someone said it before me not sure what that question mark is there for its definitely a game focused on movement initially I didnt get the game and disliked it but went back to it recently and damn its good I think I was way to static before and thats why I found it hard I tried to play it like a cover shooter which will kinda get you killed.

Boosting throwing an EMP grenade into a group finishing the boost with a back kick and then taking out the entire group in slow motion before you suit drains just feels awesome. Wish they explained boost dodging though its kinda needed but easy enough to figure out I suppose even if its amzingness isnt immediately apparent.

Fighters also focus a lot on movement and platformers but im not sure thats the movement you are after.

 

[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.

Interestingly enough, I've seen more than a few people in the UT community praise it for being an arena shooter where movement *isnt* a dominant skillset. I've definitely seen some neat things done in UT, but the stop-and-go movement makes me motion sick

Stop-and-go? Coming from a Quake player?

And for your information good sir, it isn't "stop-and-go", although I will admit it might look that way - there is a slight interval where you can't dodge or dodge jump, but with this you have a directional key pressed all the time so you are still travelling.

If you dodge jump around all over the place you will get your ass handed to you because it's easy to predict and account for, with a lack of air control. You have to be thinking about when and where you do certain things, how say, a shield jump may allow you to reach a power-up ahead of an opponent or make a last second grab of a flag.

I don't think movement in UT99 has a heavy locus on movement since all you really do is dodge, walk, jump and piston.

But no worries, I won't try to sell it to you if you're not keen on it

 

[LostCrusader]

I'm kind of amazed no one has suggested Mirror's Edge. It focuses on movement much more heavily than combat.

 

[The White Hunter]

Titanfall, because why camp when you can wall run, run up buildings and smash people with giant mechs.

Seconded.

Titanfall is kind of like a really sturdy call of duty where you can run up buildings and summon your own personal gundam to wreck peoples shit with.

It is rather awesome, and a hell of a lot of fun. Nothing like drop kicking a guy in the back of the head after leaping between skyscrapers and through the window behind him.

 

[Scootinfroodie]

Stop-and-go? Coming from a Quake player?

And for your information good sir, it isn't "stop-and-go", although I will admit it might look that way - there is a slight interval where you can't dodge or dodge jump, but with this you have a directional key pressed all the time so you are still travelling.

If you dodge jump around all over the place you will get your ass handed to you because it's easy to predict and account for, with a lack of air control. You have to be thinking about when and where you do certain things, how say, a shield jump may allow you to reach a power-up ahead of an opponent or make a last second grab of a flag.

I don't think movement in UT99 has a heavy locus on movement since all you really do is dodge, walk, jump and piston.

But no worries, I won't try to sell it to you if you're not keen on it

I might give it another shot with a concentrated burst of specific movement tricks to pull off, but basically the stop-and-go comment is based on exactly what you described. In Quake (and Tribes/Legions/Warsow/Xonotic/Reborn/etc.), increases in speed stick around or result in gradual deceleration. In UT, one double taps (I hotkey to get around this because double tap is annoying) and gets a speed boost for a set amount of time, and then lurches back to normal runspeed. This has become a rather heated topic in a number of discussions, but there have been a few suggestions as to how to change this without turning the dodge system into bhop. Additionally, the dodge function's efficacy depends on the time when one jumps. This is a thing in Quake as well. If you strafejump in combat in VQ3, the lack of air control makes you easy to predict. In CPMA, your method of prediction involves noticing airstrafe and compensating for that. However, if one dodges at about the point of firing, you then have a situation where a UT player has to take a guess as to where their target is jumping. Through extended play, predictions can be made based on past scenarios, but I feel as though this is also something that could be fixed overall as well.

This isn't a "pub problem" either. I've watched these scenarios play out in comp matches quite a lot

I'm kind of amazed no one has suggested Mirror's Edge. It focuses on movement much more heavily than combat.

It was mentioned in the OP, but if you want to discuss it that's fine with me. I'm actually kinda waiting on the sequel

 

[Raggedstar]

Rayman Origins and Legends are both platformers that demand precision and good movement from players. Very simple by design, but these games can be pretty hard by late-game. Origins had a notable series of levels where you chase a treasure chest and need to quickly platform to chase it (it's not very forgiving on mistakes). Legends also had levels where you platform to the music, and while they aren't hard, all of them are really fun and creative.

Super Meat Boy I guess would be something similar, but more punishing.

 

[Vigormortis]

Honestly, the thing that gets me most about Titanfall is the fact that nobody I know can justify having a 40gb multiplayer shooter on their computer. If it was a nice compact little thing I'd have tons of people to play it with. Best part about getting into Quake is that you need less than 1gb of harddrive space and the power of a toaster.

Yes, the game takes up a lot of disc space, admittedly. This is mostly to do with Respawn using uncompressed audio files. (and there is a hell of a lot of audio)

Now I know that sounds incredibly stupid, and not knowing the reasoning behind that decision makes it doubly so, but there is a good reason for it.

In an attempt to bring the minimum system requirements as low as possible, they used a few system resource saving techniques, including (but not limited to) using uncompressed audio. This way the game can still look amazing on high-end systems, yet it can still be stably run on very, very low-tier rigs.

Back on track with Titanfall though. The movement was interesting, and the stuff you could do with stim and a good wallrun/jumpjet chain was neat. Did they add in any new movement-boosting mechanics/devices?

They didn't add any specific abilities or "devices", per se, but when you see what veteran players can do with the movement system as opposed to inexperienced players the game becomes very reminiscent of Quake 3. The sheer difference in movement speed and finesse of map traversal is staggering.

Honestly, I feel this makes the game more inline with the old-school shooters than it does the newer. There is a wealth of impressive movements and feats that can be pulled off, but they are entirely reliant on the players skill and not their "perk" loadout.

Also, I dunno that I'd call it an arena shooter

Weapon spawning aside, it has just about everything else in common with old-school arena shooters. Relatively confined maps built around corridors and 'death zones', movement, reflexes, and accuracy being entirely predicated on the players' abilities, map control playing a very important role in how a match plays out, map and mode balances designed to provide equal play for teams or 1 v 1s. Pretty much everything you'd expect to see in an old school arena shooter.

'Course, arena shooter is a vague enough definition that it fits a lot of games. Not that that's necessarily a problem. In fact, the more I think about it the more I'm realizing that Titanfall has as much in common with games like Dota as it does with old-school shooters. Limited team sizes. Minion spawning. Objective-based gameplay...

But anyway, yes. I think, weapon-spawning aside, Titanfall can be classified as an arena shooter.

 

[RA92]

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

I would tentatively like to suggest Intrusion 2. Not because it's got fast movements or anything, but because it's a game that doesn't have any canned animation - everything is physics-based.

Also, you can ride wolves.

<youtube=2hpfIEzTf3E>

 

[Scootinfroodie]

Now I know that sounds incredibly stupid, and not knowing the reasoning behind that decision makes it doubly so, but there is a good reason for it.

In an attempt to bring the minimum system requirements as low as possible, they used a few system resource saving techniques, including (but not limited to) using uncompressed audio. This way the game can still look amazing on high-end systems, yet it can still be stably run on very, very low-tier rigs.

I know why they did it, it just doesn't help overall when a few of my friends have to start wiping out large chunks of their steam library to make room for a game that gets sporadic playtime

They didn't add any specific abilities or "devices", per se, but when you see what veteran players can do with the movement system as opposed to inexperienced players the game becomes very reminiscent of Quake 3. The sheer difference in movement speed and finesse of map traversal is staggering.

Honestly, I feel this makes the game more inline with the old-school shooters than it does the newer. There is a wealth of impressive movements and feats that can be pulled off, but they are entirely reliant on the players skill and not their "perk" loadout.

While I'm glad they haven't added in any "item requirements" for movement, I will say that I have yet to see anything that I wasn't doing about a week in when I search for Titanfall videos. Are there any you would recommend checking out?

Weapon spawning aside, it has just about everything else in common with old-school arena shooters. Relatively confined maps built around corridors and 'death zones', movement, reflexes, and accuracy being entirely predicated on the players' abilities, map control playing a very important role in how a match plays out, map and mode balances designed to provide equal play for teams or 1 v 1s. Pretty much everything you'd expect to see in an old school arena shooter.

Weapon and powerup spawning are what make map control important outside of the usual reasons. Titanfall has a lot more in common with CoD than Quake, and that's perfectly fine.
Additionally, don't quite a lot of guns in Titanfall use randomized spread?

As far as Arena Shooter definitions go, the one I've seen most is as follows:
A game where
-both players are on even footing (IE gear is not level or unlock based)
-mechanics/maps are built for the sake of gameplay above all else
-there are no defined roles

Most people would include "has powerups/weapon drops that necessitate map control" as well

'Course, arena shooter is a vague enough definition that it fits a lot of games. Not that that's necessarily a problem. In fact, the more I think about it the more I'm realizing that Titanfall has as much in common with games like Dota as it does with old-school shooters. Limited team sizes. Minion spawning. Objective-based gameplay...

If you're going to look at surface level stuff, it has a lot in common with a number of well-respected/known titles. The thing is, it's not a matter of whether or not a game has superficial similarities, but whether or not its mechanics promote enough depth to support a competitive community over a larger span of time. We'll see if Titanfall has that, but honestly, as much as I like that it exists, I don't see that happening. I only really hope that it will get more people into mobile FPS gameplay

Again, I like the game, I bought it on launch, and I played it until there was no more interest on my mumble server. It's fine if you like it, but it feels like you're placing an awful lot on it by trying to compare it to games that have earned their place over the course of 10+ years

 

[2xDouble]

"Speedrunner" is a searchable genre on Steam now, I believe. I'd suggest looking into those. Similarly, there is a game actually called Speedrunners. It's an odd competitive racing/parkour game where the objective is to simply run better than your opponents. It's like Dustforce meets Mario Kart... mixed with Super Smash Bros. A lot of fun, and significantly better with human opponents.

As for non-speedrunning games with interesting traversal mechanics, I'd suggest giving Terraria a go. It's not at all the main focus, and you have to find and/or craft the major traversal items (don't worry, the early ones are easy enough to obtain), but you can get some serious speed going in that game. Let's just say: the dungeon-crawling and platforming gets quite interesting when you start throwing triple grappling hooks into the mix.

For games specifically about movement and movement-based challenges (again, not technically speedrunners), there's a few I can personally recommend:

Crypt of the Necrodancer is a Zelda-like rhythm game. Less twitchy than a speedrunner or torture platformer (like VVVVVV or Super Meat Boy), but with fast-paced, deliberate movements and attacks. Your objective is to finish the level before the end of the song and keep moving with the beat for better attacks and bonuses. Fun fact: it was designed to be played on a dance pad. (It still plays perfectly well on keyboard, though.)

One Finger Death Punch is another rhythm game, sort-of. Halfway between rhythm dance and melee brawler, you have to expertly time your single-button moves and attacks into an epic battle that resembles classic martial arts movies and scenes... and feels positively awesome when you succeed at it. Oh, and do try and button-mash through it like one would in other brawler games.... go on, I dare you.

Super Time Force Ultra is a single player co-op "bullet hell" shooter/platformer strategy game... I'll explain. This game's main mechanic is time travel and manipulation. Similar to Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time (which you should also play, if you haven't yet), you can rewind time to try a different approach to platforming. The main draw of this game, however, is the ability to "record" a series of actions (which may or may not get that character killed), then rewind time and play through the same level as a different character with different abilities simultaneously with your other self, supporting and protecting yourself as you work together with you to complete the requisite challenges, i.e. murdering tons of dudes/bosses and generally blowing stuff up. ...on second thought, just play it (or watch someone else play it). Trust me, it'll make sense.

 

[Vigormortis]

I know why they did it, it just doesn't help overall when a few of my friends have to start wiping out large chunks of their steam library to make room for a game that gets sporadic playtime

With disc space today commonly measured in the terabytes I have trouble seeing "uses 50 gigs of space" as a negative mark against the game.

Quake 3 and it's ilk; the big, popular, and famous titles of their time; took up an equivalently large amount of disc space. They only seem small today because storage capacity has increased substantially.

While I'm glad they haven't added in any "item requirements" for movement, I will say that I have yet to see anything that I wasn't doing about a week in when I search for Titanfall videos. Are there any you would recommend checking out?

Not really. I don't actively look up videos on how others are playing the game. I'm going by my own experience with playing the game and my experience in tourney play.

Weapon and powerup spawning are what make map control important outside of the usual reasons. Titanfall has a lot more in common with CoD than Quake, and that's perfectly fine.
Additionally, don't quite a lot of guns in Titanfall use randomized spread?

Some do, but so did weapons in games like Quake. I'm not sure why that disqualifies Titanfall.

As far as Arena Shooter definitions go, the one I've seen most is as follows:
A game where
-both players are on even footing (IE gear is not level or unlock based)
-mechanics/maps are built for the sake of gameplay above all else
-there are no defined roles

Most people would include "has powerups/weapon drops that necessitate map control" as well

All of which technically apply to Titanfall.

The unlocks are only really incidental to the core of the gameplay. You can be just as, if more, effective with the starting items as anything else.

If you're going to look at surface level stuff, it has a lot in common with a number of well-respected/known titles. The thing is, it's not a matter of whether or not a game has superficial similarities, but whether or not its mechanics promote enough depth to support a competitive community over a larger span of time. We'll see if Titanfall has that, but honestly, as much as I like that it exists, I don't see that happening. I only really hope that it will get more people into mobile FPS gameplay

Surface level? I was talking the core mechanics. I wasn't speaking in tenuous terms.

Believe it or not the game does have a dedicated competitive scene. But even so, are we to judge a games quality and staying power solely on whether or not it has a popular competitive scene?

I don't hold to that. I go by the influences the game brings to the genre and what, if any, effects it has on other titles. Something that usually takes years to become apparent.

Again, I like the game, I bought it on launch, and I played it until there was no more interest on my mumble server. It's fine if you like it, but it feels like you're placing an awful lot on it by trying to compare it to games that have earned their place over the course of 10+ years

Earned their place? I think you've grossly misunderstood my intentions.

You asked for games that emphasize player skill and movement. You listed a few titles that you already own that fit into those stipulations. I simply offered a contemporary example of a game that had what you were looking for and offered an explanation as to why it was like some of the titles you listed.

I'm not trying to compare it to those titles in some veiled attempt to make it into the next "best thing ever" or whatever it is you think I'm attempting to do. I was simply explaining my choice of response.

If you've already bought and played the game, then why the debate? You could have simply said, "I've already tried that one. Thanks for the suggestion, anyway." Then I could have just gone on to listing other options. I had no intentions on getting into some esoteric debate on how much one game compares to another.



Anyway, I hope you find some games that suit your needs.

 

[Karen Parker]

even if you're not an anime fan, the attack on titan fan-game has one of the most fun movement systems i've ever used. they nailed the whole 3D maneuver gear thing, and flying around spiderman style through cities or forests or racetracks is really fun!
http://fenglee.com/game/aog/ free to play, in browser game

 

[WindKnight]

To Some extent, Warframe has a good variety of mobility (as well as a few frames designed with alternate forms of getting around, including teleportation, wormhole generation, grappling hook and limited flight). Wallruning, walljumps, sliding... theres even an ascended glitch in coptering where particularly fast melee weapons can launch you a distance.

 

[Scootinfroodie]

With disc space today commonly measured in the terabytes I have trouble seeing "uses 50 gigs of space" as a negative mark against the game.

Because space being a hassle is comparative, and the only comparatively large games are MMOs and TNO (a game I also dont have on my harddrive)
I don't blame my friends for not wanting to install a game that takes up the space of 4 titles they will likely spend more time in.

Quake 3 and it's ilk; the big, popular, and famous titles of their time; took up an equivalently large amount of disc space. They only seem small today because storage capacity has increased substantially.

We're not in the '90s though, and the issue is disk space this year. Even a game like Brink is only 8gb, and as a result I'd probably get more people playing that game, as flawed as it is.

Some do, but so did weapons in games like Quake. I'm not sure why that disqualifies Titanfall.

One (technically two, but the second wont matter on any duel map) weapon in Q3 is randomized. Far more than two weapons in Titanfall are.
It mostly pertains to the skill-based portion. Randomization within shots allows for a lot of "lucky" kills within a given match

All of which technically apply to Titanfall.

The unlocks are only really incidental to the core of the gameplay. You can be just as, if more, effective with the starting items as anything else.

If I pick a loadout that includes a shotgun, and I'm playing on a long range map, my loadout isn't incidental. In Quake/UT/etc, both players start with the same gun and have access to the same gear overall.
Also Stim is pretty non-incidental in terms of available routes

Surface level? I was talking the core mechanics. I wasn't speaking in tenuous terms.

My point is that the mechanics are only the same in the most general sense. A comparable example would be suggesting that hitting an enemy in Call of Duty is reminiscent of landing a blue plate on a flag carrier in Tribes. I'm not trying to downplay the movement skill in Titanfall, but Quake is very different in terms of how it approaches movement options (and by extension, map design)

Believe it or not the game does have a dedicated competitive scene. But even so, are we to judge a games quality and staying power solely on whether or not it has a popular competitive scene?

The existence of a competitive scene and/or the popularity of a title aren't really what I'm talking about. The same group of players are still improving and learning in games like Quake, Starcraft etc. due to the wealth of options available and the skill required to execute them effectively. I'm not going to make the "no skill" claim, but I don't see Titanfall filling out 10 years of skill-growth as it stands currently. It's a good stepping stone towards something that *can* though

I don't hold to that. I go by the influences the game brings to the genre and what, if any, effects it has on other titles. Something that usually takes years to become apparent.

The most obvious effects on other titles are often based around the monetary draw of a particular title. DotA has been around for ages, but has only "caught on" in a design sense because of the popularity/success of recent titles. I do, however, hope that a greater focus on movement has an effect within the FPS genre

Earned their place? I think you've grossly misunderstood my intentions.

You asked for games that emphasize player skill and movement. You listed a few titles that you already own that fit into those stipulations. I simply offered a contemporary example of a game that had what you were looking for and offered an explanation as to why it was like some of the titles you listed.

I never took issue with the game as an example, I merely questioned the comparisons drawn between it and other titles, both out of curiosity and because I often see these parallels drawn elsewhere.

I had no intentions on getting into some esoteric debate on how much one game compares to another.

Well that's no fun at all

Thanks for the suggestion and for the chat, in any case

"Speedrunner" is a searchable genre on Steam now, I believe. I'd suggest looking into those. Similarly, there is a game actually called Speedrunners. It's an odd competitive racing/parkour game where the objective is to simply run better than your opponents. It's like Dustforce meets Mario Kart... mixed with Super Smash Bros. A lot of fun, and significantly better with human opponents.

I can find parkour, racing etc. but not speedrun or speedrunner strangely. I wish tags were easier to navigate
As for speedrunners, I'll have to give that another look. It's largely flown under my radar outside of a few mentions

As for non-speedrunning games with interesting traversal mechanics, I'd suggest giving Terraria a go. It's not at all the main focus, and you have to find and/or craft the major traversal items (don't worry, the early ones are easy enough to obtain), but you can get some serious speed going in that game. Let's just say: the dungeon-crawling and platforming gets quite interesting when you start throwing triple grappling hooks into the mix.

Is it bad that I forgot this game existed after Starbound became playable?

Crypt of the Necrodancer is a Zelda-like rhythm game. Less twitchy than a speedrunner or torture platformer (like VVVVVV or Super Meat Boy), but with fast-paced, deliberate movements and attacks. Your objective is to finish the level before the end of the song and keep moving with the beat for better attacks and bonuses. Fun fact: it was designed to be played on a dance pad. (It still plays perfectly well on keyboard, though.)

Like speedrunners, this is a game that I didn't really hear much about. I'll give it a look-over

One Finger Death Punch is another rhythm game, sort-of. Halfway between rhythm dance and melee brawler, you have to expertly time your single-button moves and attacks into an epic battle that resembles classic martial arts movies and scenes... and feels positively awesome when you succeed at it. Oh, and do try and button-mash through it like one would in other brawler games.... go on, I dare you.

Added to the list

Super Time Force Ultra is a single player co-op "bullet hell" shooter/platformer strategy game... I'll explain. This game's main mechanic is time travel and manipulation. Similar to Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time (which you should also play, if you haven't yet), you can rewind time to try a different approach to platforming. The main draw of this game, however, is the ability to "record" a series of actions (which may or may not get that character killed), then rewind time and play through the same level as a different character with different abilities simultaneously with your other self, supporting and protecting yourself as you work together with you to complete the requisite challenges, i.e. murdering tons of dudes/bosses and generally blowing stuff up. ...on second thought, just play it (or watch someone else play it). Trust me, it'll make sense.

I think I saw gameplay of this a while back actually. Seemed pretty neat

 

[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.

That is definitely an odd set of mechanics for a cover shooter. I'm pretty impressed that something like that didn't just get patched out

You can do the same kind of stuff in Watch Dogs as well, gunfights can end up being really badass doing cover swap takedowns and such. And, you have bullet time in Watch Dogs as well so the stop and shoot move is a lot easier.