What FPS?s have the best shooting mechanics, hit response/ragdolls, and weapon sounds?

[hanselthecaretaker]

Ideally the game design would be something along the lines of STALKER but that series is technically so rough around the edges, especially for hit response/ragdolls. It?s why I?m hoping Metro: Exodus improves on them because that would be damn near a perfect shooter.

Then there?s Escape From Tarkov which looks highly detailed technically, and Hunt from Crytek which is already in early access that I thought of trying. I much prefer to get lost in good SP content but maybe one of these would be a worthy exception.

I really haven?t played any recent shooters but have a bit of a craving for one since I have a PC that can handle anything out now. Although older games work too.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Bioshock or Bioshock Infinite in my opinion. Or the original Turok, because you can endlessly use the grenade launcher to launch dead enemies around, each with a scream and blood effect.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Half-Life 2

The guns are loud and sharp, and enemies get blasted back nicely when they die. Also, a well-designed death gurgle is always appreciated. The only downside is that the game lacks crosshair aiming, but feedback is generally more important to me than efficiency.

Halo is a good runner-up.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Bioshock or Bioshock Infinite in my opinion. Or the original Turok, because you can endlessly use the grenade launcher to launch dead enemies around, each with a scream and blood effect.

I?ve played Bioshock and Turok. Really liked Seeds of Evil but I would say even on console Goldeneye outdoes all of them. I remember being able to shoot a guy in the hand and he drops his gun and starts shaking his hand from the pain.

Half-Life 2

The guns are loud and sharp, and enemies get blasted back nicely when they die. Also, a well-designed death gurgle is always appreciated. The only downside is that the game lacks crosshair aiming, but feedback is generally more important to me than efficiency.

Halo is a good runner-up.

Also played both of these, but moreso HL2. It was probably the first game I played that used Havok and I loved it. Killzone 2 was also a good one that had very satisfying physics and weapon sounds.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

Amnesia: The Dark Descent. The best shooting mechanics are no shooting mechanics.

 

[Elijin]

I think Soldier of Fortune 2 has the 'best' hit response ragdolls. But in like a, best to see. Because they're terrible, but hilarious. Also super fucking dated, visually.

 

[Squilookle]

This is not going to be a popular opinion on gun mechanics in this day and age, but I still feel more like I'm holding and using a real gun in Goldeneye/Timesplitters than in any other shooter. The mechanics in those games has the gun aim dynamically in the direction you're turning, so you can snap off turning shots quite quickly. You also get to see your gun fire, slide back, eject the spent casing, and return to normal from all kinds of angles instead of the single diagonal/ironsight perspective you get in all the others. Their sounds (especially Goldeneye's) are perfect, from the tinny crack of a PP7 to the angry BARK of a Dostovei, and hit registration is pixel perfect. It had to be, being the pioneer of location based damage in shooters, leading to guards grabbing various parts of their bodies after getting shot. I will say though that Black also has top-tier gun sounds.


As for ragdolls though, I'd say it's a draw between the ones seen in Unreal Tournament 2004, and Mount and Blade Warband. Nowhere else have I seen bodies so fluidly flail around or crumple, without ever stretching limbs beyond what they can bend in real life.

 

[Marik2]

I keep hearing how FEAR is a great shooter. For the first 2 games.

 

[wings012]

I keep hearing how FEAR is a great shooter. For the first 2 games.

I actually enjoyed 3 more than 2.

Though it's hard to top 1. What really sets FEAR aside is the enemy AI. Though the shooting is satisfying and pretty visceral - enemies can get chunks blown off. You can shoot massive craters into walls and it throws out plenty of dust. But the AI is great, it actually uses grenades to flush you out, provides covering fire, attempts to retreat when in trouble and will hide, flank, ambush and such. Though it might be hard to appreciate when the game gives you super slomo powers and too many first aid kits.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Medal of Honor: Warfighter was definitely the best "feeling" MMS from last-gen. The guns felt meaty and all had unique recoil patterns. The mechanics were top-notch with both a lean and slide mechanics. Warfighter was far better than COD. Though the campaign sucked as much as one can suck, the controls were spot-on and thus made for the best multiplayer among last-gen's MMS buffet.

BulletStorm was a ton of fun as well. The stuff you could do with the enemies was pretty awesome along with the wacky gun selection. It was probably the best playing single player shooter of last-gen.

 

[Mcgeezaks]

I keep hearing how FEAR is a great shooter. For the first 2 games.

First one is timeless, I just finished it the other month and the shooting is great. The 2nd and 3rd one are pretty bad compared to it, it's obvious that they tried to appease the console crowd at the time.

 

[Bobular]

I keep hearing how FEAR is a great shooter. For the first 2 games.

I put another vote forward to the original FEAR and its expansion packs. One of my favourite games of all time and so sad how its sequels didn't live up (whilst 2 was OK, 3 was terrible).

 

[MrCalavera_v1legacy]

Half-Life 2

The guns are loud and sharp, and enemies get blasted back nicely when they die. Also, a well-designed death gurgle is always appreciated. The only downside is that the game lacks crosshair aiming, but feedback is generally more important to me than efficiency.

See, i like Half-life 2, but one of the frequent criticisms brought against it, was that weapons don't "feel" or sound good enough. And it's also one i find hard to disagree with. Were there any weapons besides Magnum and a shotty, that had this "oomph" factor to them?
So, seeing HL2(and Bioshock, which has similar problems) being brought so fast here, surprised me.

OT: Not too up to date with FPS, but: Duke Nukem 3D, Painkiller, Shadow Warrior(the reboot)

 

[Bad Jim]

See, i like Half-life 2, but one of the frequent criticisms brought against it, was that weapons don't "feel" or sound good enough. And it's also one i find hard to disagree with. Were there any weapons besides Magnum and a shotty, that had this "oomph" factor to them?

I think some people just prefer assault rifles/SMGs and want to kill 90% of what they face with that sort of weapon. These people will be disappointed because the SMG is rather weak and the Pulse Rifle alone does not have enough ammo.

There are four decent weapons you can switch between - Shotgun, Magnum, pulse rifle and crossbow. No single weapon has enough ammo but if you use all four you do have enough. Explosives are also good, the SMG grenade is great and throwing barrels, hopper mines etc with the gravity gun is also effective.

That said, before you have those four weapons, you have to spend a long time using the 9mm pistol and SMG, both of those feel weak.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

I'd have to say that Killing Floor 2 is pretty amazeballs when it comes to weapons and what they do. The enemies can end up splattered across the floor from a sufficiently-powerful shot (and the gore sticks around), and the weapons sound powerful and are well-animated (in fact, animated at 300 frames per second so that they look good even when in slow-motion).

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

More recently, I thoroughly enjoyed Titanfall 2's SP campaign. I was really shocked by how good it was and finished it feeling "WTF just happened?" The mobility, shooting mechanics, mix of on-foot and battlemech gameplay, cool, satisfying weapons and brilliant maps and arenas make it a superlative experience. I cannot believe this game came out of EA since I still think they've time and again proven their incompetence at producing anything worthwhile due to EAing them all. I don't know about ragdolls specifically, don't have an opinion there.

 

[Worgen]

The CoD series in general is pretty good with satisfying feeling weapons, with the standout being MW2. Thought the whole series does suffer from popgun sounds.

Bad Company 2 has decently good feeling gunplay with fantastic sounds.

The gunplay in shadow warrior 2 is a bit... floaty since so many of the enemies are kinda bullet spongy, but the gore and feeling of shooting the enemies themselves is really satisfying.

If you want some really meaty gunplay and don't mind going back aways then you should also check out Brutal Doom.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

The CoD series in general is pretty good with satisfying feeling weapons, with the standout being MW2. Thought the whole series does suffer from popgun sounds.

I only played CoD4: MW and thought it was really good. By all accounts it was the one the propelled the series into its mainstream success. Back then it had private servers, mods and all sorts. I never played the others since they epitomised the worst of modern gaming to me. I resented map pack DLCs, the multiplayer "progression" and the emphasis on MP over SP.

The gunplay in shadow warrior 2 is a bit... floaty since so many of the enemies are kinda bullet spongy, but the gore and feeling of shooting the enemies themselves is really satisfying.

I did enjoy my time with SW2 and actually went back to it fairly recently. I never actually finished the story campaign in my own save, though I did every mission multiple times online with other players. I had all the weapons and farmed for skill points. But then they nerfed half the skills, which REALLY wound me up since I never agreed to them changing the balance/values but had no choice in the update (at least back in the day we could choose whether to patch a game or not). Then they made it so you only got skill points from a mission once so I lost tons of those and they nerfed most of the cool weapons too.

The other issue with that sort of game (including Borderlands) is that because of the bullet sponge enemies, weapons like shotguns and snipers (traditionally one-shot kill weapons) need many shots to kill enemies, at which point they cease to be what we associate those weapons as. In a shooter, I expect what I headshot with a double-barrel shotty to be dead in oneshot, if it takes more than that I may as well be using any other rifle.

I don't think the skinner box gameplay suited it well or did it any favours. Maybe it wrung a few more hours out of us but it isn't like D3 or BL2 where you can farm specific enemies for specific items f.ex.Those gems were such a pain to trawl thru and putting "a build" together was very loose. Like you couldn't decide to specialise in a given damage type, weapon type or ability, just add like 10% here and 15% there.

Good game, but not as satisfying as a shooter. The melee was pretty good tho

 

[Casual Shinji]

Half-Life 2

The guns are loud and sharp, and enemies get blasted back nicely when they die. Also, a well-designed death gurgle is always appreciated. The only downside is that the game lacks crosshair aiming, but feedback is generally more important to me than efficiency.

See, i like Half-life 2, but one of the frequent criticisms brought against it, was that weapons don't "feel" or sound good enough. And it's also one i find hard to disagree with. Were there any weapons besides Magnum and a shotty, that had this "oomph" factor to them?

I'd say all of them. Even the pistol has a nice sharp 'thwack' to its shots. Pretty much every traditional gun sounds like I want to close my ears when they fire (should I be standing next to them). There's games with guns that have greater sound design to them, but few have guns that sound this raw and rusty, which I find fits the setting very well.