This is one of the biggest things that bugs the shit out of me in games: Shotguns that are barely a step better than a melee weapon in the range department. I get it, shotguns' depictions in games are based in older medias' depictions of them that had them only effective at less than ten feet(3 meters). But that's just utter crap and makes them useless.
Look, real shotguns don't act like that. Unsolved History debunked the behavior of shotguns pretty nicely in their episode on the infamous OK Corral Shootout, showing that Doc Holiday's coach gun had to have been fired from close to twenty feet(6 meters) to cause the four inch wound that killed Tom McLaury. A spread cone of just one inch per five feet seems ridiculous, though, because of what we're shown in movies, TV and games.
In all truth, shotguns are generally effective to around 50 yards if they're using buckshot, with the ability to reach out even further using slugs. Granted, slug shotgun sniping akin to Battlefield 3 and 4 is still fantasy; but it's not like they should just cease being effective at any range greater than arms' length. That's why I'm asking if there are any games out there that actually treat shotguns with some respect. In fact, I think I might have a few myself:
Transformers: War for Cybertron: EMP Shotgun and Scatter Blaster: I'm listing these both because they're both good in this game. Unfortunately, some idiots must have complained about their performance in the time between WfC and Fall of Cybertron's releases, because the EMP Shotgun just doesn't appear in FoC and the Scatter Blaster had its spread nerfed to shit. But in War for Cybertron, these two were actually good. The Scatter Blaster had a slightly tighter spread and more ammo, but the EMP Shotgun hit like a freight train. You could reliably one-shot basic enemies in the campaign from across decent sized rooms with the EMP Shotgun. But again, both were highly effective and had the ability to reach out to medium range.
Borderlands: Most Shotguns in the game that had the Type 5 Barrel: Weapon drops in Borderlands were always hit-or-miss. Sometimes, you got a slow-firing pistol that had neither accuracy nor damage to make up for its crappy fire rate, and other times you got amazing shotguns that could actually reach out and touch your enemies. If you ever got an assault shotgun called a "Death" or a pump shotgun called a "Hunter's Shotgun", you know what I mean. These things were awesome, with the ability to stand back a bit while still putting buckshot all over your enemies. Even better is getting ones with really big mags on them, like the 12-shot cylinders some pump shotguns could come with. Never stop shooting!
Mass Effect 1: Pretty much every shotgun in that game: The shotguns in Mass Effect 2, with the exception of the Geth Plasma Shotgun, were all crap. The shotguns in Mass Effect 3 either imposed too much of a weight penalty to be useful with anything else or were only marginally better than ME2's shotguns. But back in ME1, shotguns were actually useful. They didn't have stupidly large spread cones like ME2's offerings, and there wasn't the weight concern that ME3 brought in, so go wild. Shotguns in ME1 could be used at fairly decent ranges, instead of needing you to be practically touching your enemies. Only issue was their heat generation, though there were ways to reduce that. They could put a lot of damage on single targets out to medium range.
GoldenEye 007 Reloaded: Practically every shotgun in it: So it's basically Call of Duty: Modern Warfare except based on the story of the old GoldenEye movie and starring Daniel Craig instead of Pierce Brosnan. Shut up, I like it. Anyway, this game actually gives shotguns reasonably tight spreads, unlike the games it shares an engine with. In fact, I feel shotguns in GoldenEye Reloaded are actually better than the ones in the Quantum of Solace game(yes, I played it, I like it, shut up; I have the Daniel Craig badge featured on my profile for a reason, I like a no nonsense Bond that doesn't need fancy gadgets to get shit done). I'm honestly surprised at the amount of reach shotguns are given in both of these Bond games, though, especially considering they're run on the same engine as the Modern Warfare games that are some of the worst offenders with regards to shotguns having no range.
The Original DooM and DooM 2: The Pump Shotgun: Okay, so I haven't actually played the id Software .WADs for these, just FreeDooM. But the Pump Shotgun in these games was probably the first video game shotgun that was treated with any respect. The Super Shotgun must have had barrels shorter than the shells it fired with how much spread it had, but the regular shotgun was able to punch through columns of weak enemies quickly and efficiently. It's the classic standard for a video game shotgun being worth a shit.
Are there any other shooters out there where the shotguns get more range than being basically melee weapons?
Look, real shotguns don't act like that. Unsolved History debunked the behavior of shotguns pretty nicely in their episode on the infamous OK Corral Shootout, showing that Doc Holiday's coach gun had to have been fired from close to twenty feet(6 meters) to cause the four inch wound that killed Tom McLaury. A spread cone of just one inch per five feet seems ridiculous, though, because of what we're shown in movies, TV and games.
In all truth, shotguns are generally effective to around 50 yards if they're using buckshot, with the ability to reach out even further using slugs. Granted, slug shotgun sniping akin to Battlefield 3 and 4 is still fantasy; but it's not like they should just cease being effective at any range greater than arms' length. That's why I'm asking if there are any games out there that actually treat shotguns with some respect. In fact, I think I might have a few myself:
Transformers: War for Cybertron: EMP Shotgun and Scatter Blaster: I'm listing these both because they're both good in this game. Unfortunately, some idiots must have complained about their performance in the time between WfC and Fall of Cybertron's releases, because the EMP Shotgun just doesn't appear in FoC and the Scatter Blaster had its spread nerfed to shit. But in War for Cybertron, these two were actually good. The Scatter Blaster had a slightly tighter spread and more ammo, but the EMP Shotgun hit like a freight train. You could reliably one-shot basic enemies in the campaign from across decent sized rooms with the EMP Shotgun. But again, both were highly effective and had the ability to reach out to medium range.
Borderlands: Most Shotguns in the game that had the Type 5 Barrel: Weapon drops in Borderlands were always hit-or-miss. Sometimes, you got a slow-firing pistol that had neither accuracy nor damage to make up for its crappy fire rate, and other times you got amazing shotguns that could actually reach out and touch your enemies. If you ever got an assault shotgun called a "Death" or a pump shotgun called a "Hunter's Shotgun", you know what I mean. These things were awesome, with the ability to stand back a bit while still putting buckshot all over your enemies. Even better is getting ones with really big mags on them, like the 12-shot cylinders some pump shotguns could come with. Never stop shooting!
Mass Effect 1: Pretty much every shotgun in that game: The shotguns in Mass Effect 2, with the exception of the Geth Plasma Shotgun, were all crap. The shotguns in Mass Effect 3 either imposed too much of a weight penalty to be useful with anything else or were only marginally better than ME2's shotguns. But back in ME1, shotguns were actually useful. They didn't have stupidly large spread cones like ME2's offerings, and there wasn't the weight concern that ME3 brought in, so go wild. Shotguns in ME1 could be used at fairly decent ranges, instead of needing you to be practically touching your enemies. Only issue was their heat generation, though there were ways to reduce that. They could put a lot of damage on single targets out to medium range.
GoldenEye 007 Reloaded: Practically every shotgun in it: So it's basically Call of Duty: Modern Warfare except based on the story of the old GoldenEye movie and starring Daniel Craig instead of Pierce Brosnan. Shut up, I like it. Anyway, this game actually gives shotguns reasonably tight spreads, unlike the games it shares an engine with. In fact, I feel shotguns in GoldenEye Reloaded are actually better than the ones in the Quantum of Solace game(yes, I played it, I like it, shut up; I have the Daniel Craig badge featured on my profile for a reason, I like a no nonsense Bond that doesn't need fancy gadgets to get shit done). I'm honestly surprised at the amount of reach shotguns are given in both of these Bond games, though, especially considering they're run on the same engine as the Modern Warfare games that are some of the worst offenders with regards to shotguns having no range.
The Original DooM and DooM 2: The Pump Shotgun: Okay, so I haven't actually played the id Software .WADs for these, just FreeDooM. But the Pump Shotgun in these games was probably the first video game shotgun that was treated with any respect. The Super Shotgun must have had barrels shorter than the shells it fired with how much spread it had, but the regular shotgun was able to punch through columns of weak enemies quickly and efficiently. It's the classic standard for a video game shotgun being worth a shit.
Are there any other shooters out there where the shotguns get more range than being basically melee weapons?
