Firearms in RPGs. The best and worst depictions.

[MpuMngwana]

Resonance of Fate:

Not sure if best or worst though. Probably both.

 

[Thac0]

I like how Pillars of Eternity's guns sounded like. Nothing beats the feeling of selecting your ranged units. Positioning them into a line. Then have them all shoot in cohesion. Shit is like music. *BOOM* *BOOM*

The sound is indeed superb, but the gameplay undercuts it.
*BOOM*
Grazed Hit
5 damage
A tenth of the hp bar disappears

 

[Desiderius]

I like how Pillars of Eternity's guns sounded like. Nothing beats the feeling of selecting your ranged units. Positioning them into a line. Then have them all shoot in cohesion. Shit is like music. *BOOM* *BOOM*

The sound is indeed superb, but the gameplay undercuts it.
*BOOM*
Grazed Hit
5 damage
A tenth of the hp bar disappears

Graze?

Git gud.

 

[Fowyr]

And you have the option of taking used casings/shells and reloading them, with minor penalties to match.

I especially liked how accurate it is in the game. For example, at least version or two back, when you reloaded in batches, you needed copper tube or shot .22LR to reload FMJ .223 Rem. Why? Because it's a real method of making .223 bullets by swagging lead core into the previously annealead and swagged .22LR case.

 

[Justicar]

Silent Storm has the best firearms for the simple fact that they can penetrate walls, trees, cars basically all the shit that is on the map depending on the calibre. New vegas anti material rifle cant even pen sheet metal. Nothing beats a feeling of blasting a hole in the wall with mg-42 long burst then moving through it, faggot new vegas cant compare

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

Since JA2 and Silent Storm have already been mentioned, I'l just add :

 

[Atchodas]

If you can one hit headshot with a gun then its just a shooter game with rpg elements.

If you cant and enemies are bullet sponges and can tank headshot then its dumb design.

Guns in RPG’s can work in sci fi setting where you have all the plasma shields and similar crap to defend from bullets other than that... no thanks.

 

[Cryomancer]

If you can one hit headshot with a gun then its just a shooter game with rpg elements.

Disagreed. It is a matter of lethality, not if guns can work or not.

 

[Atchodas]

Retards disagreeing is always good sign.

 

[Desiderius]

Omnigun mk endgame

 

[DeepOcean]

I hate PoE arquebuses with a passion, especially because you have two options, playing on hard where they can still be useful but the game is easy as fuck or play on PoTD where xaurips use kevlar armor with ceramic plates probabliy made of soul magic. Shooting 6 fucking magic arquebuses into a xaurip and having troubles to kill one was really deflating. So, a note to anyone who wishes to make RPGs, sure, you love your Excel spreadsheets and all that jazz but please, before "balancing" stuff actually bother into play testing your weapons to see if they are fun to use.

 

[Gregz]

Overall best - JA2 and Silent Storm

Satisfying "blow them away" gunplay + excellent itemization - Borderlands 1

Best balance of realistic lethality, feel, and fun - Counter-Strike 1.5

 

[Fowyr]

By the way, Twilight 2000 was pretty good in its armory department.

 

[ThewDev]

While I prefer my RPGs to be filled with swords and skeletons, I'll admit that I do enjoy games that depict firearms in a realistic way. I'd love to see the mechanics of Escape from Tarkov done in a game that I can actually play, instead of getting gunned down by "professional" gamers immediately after the map loads.

 

[Cryomancer]

swords

I prefer every other weapon over swords. Hammers, spears, halberds, maces, axes(...) swords are a bit overrated IMO.

 

[Desiderius]

Sword is probably the one that takes the most training and careful forging to realize the full potential of the weapon.

Wonder how game design could better reflect that.

 

[Lutte]

Properly representing what actual armored sword combat is in a game is most likely impossible.

In real life, decent armors don't get cut by swords. Targeting weak points, while possible, is rather difficult, the better made the armor is (ie leaving less non armored parts in front), meaning that one of the core of actual knight style combat is GRAPPLING, not the clashing of the sword, and it's properly depicted in many medieval graphics.

The whole clash of sword stuff is at its real life apex when we invented firearms, stopped wearing armor, and used our swords after launching volleys of bullets. Far away from most of the eras represented in RPGs.

As for the poorer segments of armies, in most eras they didn't use swords at all to begin with.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Guns in Fallout 2 are still satisfying as fuck; like, one aimed Gauss shot, powerful sound and the guy one screen away from you get his body torn open with a smacking sound. Pure joy

Aside from that factor no RPG satisfied my demands for a realistic but engaging weapon mechanics. The way in which "upgrades" are realized in most RPGs (even my beloved Underrail, for example) makes me very sad

 

[Murk]

I loved the guns in ATOM.

 

[Dodo1610]

Arcanum has fucking garbage guns, I only bought it because I wanted an RPG with guns but stopped playing after an hour because of that

 

[Cryomancer]

Arcanum has fucking garbage guns, I only bought it because I wanted an RPG with guns but stopped playing after an hour because of that

But great everything else. Amazing magery. Amazing setting. Amazing story. Amazing steampunk tech.

 

[laclongquan]

Silent Storm has the best firearms for the simple fact that they can penetrate walls, trees, cars basically all the shit that is on the map depending on the calibre. New vegas anti material rifle cant even pen sheet metal. Nothing beats a feeling of blasting a hole in the wall with mg-42 long burst then moving through it, faggot new vegas cant compare

That's because the feature is built into SS engine from start. FNV engine doesnt support terrain destruction because they have orbital laser strike, FATMAN and MININUKE. People would flatten hills just for giggles.

The modders try to fix it with physic mods to allow more interaction with bodies. Now if you smash a mininuke down, bodies and corpses start flying around~ Oh, and other world objects as well.

Fallout NV vanilla doesnt have many situation to warrant a mininuke, but FNV mod Tale of Two Wasteland rebuilding Fallout 3 in FNV engine show plenty and man, BOOMS are great~

 

[Justicar]

Silent Storm has the best firearms for the simple fact that they can penetrate walls, trees, cars basically all the shit that is on the map depending on the calibre. New vegas anti material rifle cant even pen sheet metal. Nothing beats a feeling of blasting a hole in the wall with mg-42 long burst then moving through it, faggot new vegas cant compare

That's because the feature is built into SS engine from start. FNV engine doesnt support terrain destruction because they have orbital laser strike, FATMAN and MININUKE. People would flatten hills just for giggles.

The modders try to fix it with physic mods to allow more interaction with bodies. Now if you smash a mininuke down, bodies and corpses start flying around~ Oh, and other world objects as well.

Fallout NV vanilla doesnt have many situation to warrant a mininuke, but FNV mod Tale of Two Wasteland rebuilding Fallout 3 in FNV engine show plenty and man, BOOMS are great~

What Fallout New Vegas is missing and what was somewhat present in Fallout tactics is some good old pre war tech where are the tanks and armoured vehicles? If they were present silly stuff like mini nukes would have a reason to exists as it is now in New vegas mini nukes are I WIN button nothing more as even dudes in power armour will survive only 1.

But yeah Silent Storm engine is great and I didnt see terrain destruction and balistic simulation done so good since it released and Im still waiting for a game to do this stuff better but alas it seems Il be waiting another 10 years when you look at the state of GAYMES industry.

 

[Funposter]

OP says that weapons overheating in the original Mass Effect was bad but fails to mention the satisfaction of upgrading/tuning the Assault Rifles to never overheat so that you could literally walk through combat arenas holding down left-click the entire time.

 

[laclongquan]

Fallout New Vegas theme is postapocalyptic cowboy western in retrofuturism, if you can understand that. So the lack of heavy armored troop concentration (that warrant a nuke) is thematic~