Ever sit down and think what your ideal engagement range for first person/third person shooter games is? I was musing over this thought myself recently after playing several of these games with some friends and thinking about why I’m excited for Modern Warfare 2 tomorrow. I noticed that most of my friends play differently, and for a shooter, there seems to be an ideal range that people prefer to engage enemies at. This “epiphany” may actually lead me to understand the primary reason why I am not a huge fan of hugely popular online shooters like Halo and Gears of War – my ideal range doesn’t seem to be handled the way I like.
There seem to be four ranges in FPS games:
1. up close (usually shotgun or melee)
2. short-range (low accuracy/high output weapon like SMG)
3. middle-range (sight weapon such as an assault rifle)
4. long-range (scoped sniper rifle)
I tend to fall into the “middle-range” category. I don’t like being close to my enemies, so I prefer maps in Call of Duty 4 like Overgrown where I can actually use the red-dot sight on my assault rifle. I’m ok with the long-range sniper rifle also, but I’m not a huge fan since you need a lot of patience for that (and often times, many maps aren’t suited for it since camping and sniping is generally frowned upon). Then there’s the up-close and short range, which I basically lump together since it’s all about running and gunning with melee, a shotgun, or an SMG.
The short range game tends to depend more on your own movements to engage an enemy, while the further back you go relies more on your position for an advantage. Sniping requires you to find an ideal position where you wouldn’t have to move at all, while the medium range allows for a little flexibility. I guess that’s why I like the middle range, and why Call of Duty 4 works so well for me – it handles the medium range game just as effectively as the other ranges. The medium range weapons are just as powerful as the other weapons, and combined with a tactical advantage, I’m able to play in my element in Call of Duty 4.
In contrast to that, the middle range game in Gears of War and Halo don’t seem to be fairly balanced; they require many shots from the middle range game to do damage, while if you were up close or sniping, they’d basically be instant kills. Halo 3 is not as bad as Gears of War, where most of the time online is basically a shotgun/chainsaw fest (ever try killing someone with a Lancer from midrange?). Halo 3’s Battle Rifle does make the midrange game viable for people that are really good at it. I read strategies about it and pros are talking about mastery of the Battle Rifle – if you can score 3 headshots with it, then the opponent is dead. 3? To the head? Am I sniping or what? If I were to use the sniper rifle, just 1 headshot would be a kill. Who is going to let me get off with 3 head shots? I’m most likely never going to get that good so I’d probably resort to my only tactic in Halo 3 online that produced results: running at the opponent while emptying the assault rifle until I could get close enough melee kill. While it works, it’s just not a FPS gameplay style that I enjoy.
I had to suffer through Call of Duty: World at War as well. While Call of Duty: World at War maintained the same combat system that worked effectively in Call of Duty 4 (only a few shots to kill an opponent), its biggest drawback (besides the stupid vehicles), was that the technology for good medium range weapons in WW2 were just not invented in that time period. It would take me until Level 45 or so to unlock the Germans’ StG-44, the only automatic rifle in the game. Prior to that, I had to suffer online at a severe disadvantage through all sorts of silly semi-automatic rifles that had like 6 rounds. I ended up spending more time reloading than firing the rifles, compared with opponents packing SMGs and machine guns with triple or quadruple the clip sizes. I got demolished as a medium-range player in that game. It wasn’t until I was able to unlock the StG-44 that I finally got the ability to fight back.
I’m just thankful that Modern Warfare 2 releases tomorrow, and I’ll have a new game to play where I can enjoy my medium range preference to its fullest potential again. M16? Ak47? Carbine? G3? G36c? My gosh it feels good to be coming home. Am I overreacting? Or are there any other medium range shooter fans out there that also feel my annoyances?
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I think I’m more mid range too, though my aim isn’t as good so sometimes I just resort to SMGs. More importantly, some GameStops are breaking street date!
Huh. I never really though about it, but yeah, the fact that my ‘ideal range’ isn’t handled properly probably is the reason I prefer the Call of Duty games over Gears or Halo. Nice point!
And yeah, as fl3x said, I’m pretty sad some places broke street date. It’s just depressing me to know some people were already playing Modern Warfare 2 days ago, while I still have to wait until around 5PM tomorrow.
Still, that doesn’t make the game any less fun! Absolutely can’t wait to get my hands on MW2. I know I’ll be playing nonstop (quite literally) all day tomorrow. xD
I’m a middle range shooter as well (i guess that comes with middle age). I think WaW was pretty good, a few of the early rifles were good enough to carry me into the endgame without much trouble. I only play Hardcore, so there might be a big difference there. Until the M1A1 unlocked i used mostly the Gewehr 43 which was pretty good. In COD4 i still use the M16 w/red dot and so far the SCAR-H looks like my weapon in MW2.
Juste ya I relied on the Gewehr 43 for a while as well but I guess i’m not a fan of rifles that shoot only one round at a time. I’m having a bit of trouble now in MW2 with the FAL, and have decided not to level that one. the SCAR-H seems to be quite popular with the mid range players and i enjoy its power myself, but it gives a little too much kick for me. I still prefer the accuracy and the 3-round burst of the FAMAS, but i’ll probably switch to the M16 (like old times in cod4) when I unlock that. in any case, i’m just thankful that mw2 has finally arrived and us midrange players can start using automatic rifles again!
im a medium range range/ sniper player and i totally agree with this post. i find that medium and long ranges allow for more flexibility in terms of movement and how you can retaliate to being fired upon. but i must disagree about WaWs lack of assault rifles. i personally love semi auto rifles my spastic trigger finger makes up for the fire rate and the accuracy is unrivaled. but thats just me. but i still hate the FAL in mw2 though it doesnt seem to shoot straight