You hear it all the time. “ANOTHER SHOOTER?! God, developers are running out of ideas.” Complain, complain, but the main reason big named devs still make shooters is because you lousy consumers keep buying them. That and the game is cool, but save that for later. Right now we are in a crisis. A creative crisis. Shooters, whether they be first-person or third-person, all look the same. Sure each game has their own story and characters and whatnot, but they all have one thing in common: KILL, KILL, KILL! That’s not to say violence in your games is wrong, but all shooters have the same gameplay premise of kill enemy to reach goal. So boring. How about we change it up and liven the popular genre up a bit? The following are minor suggestions, though please add your own if you have an interesting take you want to add.
1) Shoot something other than bullets
Killing the enemy with sprays of lead is always the go-to mechanic in shooters. How about something different? Follow Portal‘s example, though the transporting through space ability is already taken. How about a gun with the Wabbajack effect, or gun that shoots only bad lyrics from a terrible song? A gun that is powered through sadness and converts negative emotion into nice ones. A gun that causes spontaneous combustion to anything that starts with the letter “R” (not with bullets). I don’t know just make it something different.
Why do I get the feeling Ratchet and Clank have already done this?
2) Setting takes place somewhere non-apocalyptic/wastelandic
Nothing says “Yeah, we ran out of ideas” like setting your shooter in an apocalyptic/trashy wasteland setting. Also don’t name the place Wasteland. Two games already have that name and they both share the same characteristics as the other: a basic wasteland. Set the game somewhere unconventional. Urban neighborhood? Out of the question. The sea and the sky are interesting locations, but taken. How about in a movie? No, really. I mean literally in a movie. The locations of movies vary from film to film and there will always be something different to accomplish as a game. May as well go meta since that is in nowadays.
3) Don’t make me the savior
Why is it always my job to save the world when shit hits the fan? Why can’t someone else do the dirty work for a change? How about I stand behind the main badass and follow his suicidal commands for once? I’m even content with being the lame escort getting the main into trouble in the most inconvenient way possible. Come on, let me be a lame escort just once.
4) Have the enemies be something other than people/monsters/aliens/evil creatures/robots/zombies
Oh, no. What’s left if the player can’t shoot what they’ve always shot in other shooters? Time to be creative and start brainstorming.
How about videogame’s ultimate real rival star in a game as the villain?
Optional: Make the game a text adventure
Nothing is more scary than shooting something you can’t see, but to have a game be completely text based is even more stressful. The game doesn’t have to use the “Take/Use/Inventory” commands, even a simple multiple choice would suffice. This won’t appeal to everyone, but hey it’s different.
Well it looks like I run out of ideas. Form your own in the comments section while I collect my thoughts.
2 comments
elsakelly
July 9, 2012 at 4:39 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
These are interesting ideas for single player shooter games, but most of the big hit shooter games are generally successful because of their online gameplay (COD, Battlefield, etc). The big draw of online shooter games is essentially that it’s a grown up version of Cowboys and Indians. It’s our team vs. your team. The team mechanics may be shooting, but there is a lot more going on in an online game which often includes choices in terms of your loadout, your rank/progression and even who you are playing with.
Team based gameplay is becoming more and more popular and I think this is where the next big leap in terms of “reinventing” the shooter. Games like Battlefield and Left 4 Dead started it all with the squad mechanics, but then we had MAG on the PS3. MAG allows for 256 players in a single game and there is a leadership structure. There are squad leaders, platoon leaders and an Officer in charge. People are randomly assigned to this position (based on pre-qualified rank) and they are given some actual powers in the game that strongly encourage the group to play as a team. They have different factions and you can only choose to play for one, so faction loyalty is also a factor. Dust 514 is currently in beta and looks to expand on this team based concept significantly. Additionally, Insomniac has Overstrike (a 4 person co-op shooter) coming out.
I think that we’re on the cusp (especially with games like Dust) of seeing shooters become long term games like World of Warcraft that people will play for many years, rather than just play until the next year’s hot shooter comes along. To fully level up in Dust 514 it will apparently take about 7 years. There are corporations and politics along with just the basic gameplay. I personally think that this is a strong potential (and successful) direction for shooter games to go.
Drew A.
July 13, 2012 at 12:45 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I have to agree with you, Elsa. I love the direction many shooting games have taken over the past couple of years. One of which I’m recently very impressed by. Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is all about intelligence and counter intelligence, so it adds an incredible spin on how the game is played. Erik and I consistently are able to pool our resources and impli,ent different strategies to achieve our goals, often being valuable assets to our team members.
Another shooting game I was impressed with (but not anyone else, apparently) was MAG, with the huge multiplayer battles and command structure, I genuinely felt like a cog in the function of a greater machine. But with the direction Battlefield has been headed since 2142, it’s easily becoming a multi-divisional team based shooter, where not only do individuals have a particular function to play in the entire machine, but are individual enough to change their part and perform admirably in multiple roles without breaking the entire machine, land, air, or vehicular combat.