Alternative to cover-based combat?

[JET1971]

cover based combat is fine as long as theres is 10 diffent spots you can get to to kill the person camping behind that wall. as in like real world move from cover to cover sometimes with concealment and other times a sprint across wide open spaces. knowing your cover is temporary and only protects you from 1 direction but your enemies may be coming from your flank makes cover based more exciting and you do not rely on short chest size walls.

 

[Cranyx]

cover based combat is fine as long as theres is 10 diffent spots you can get to to kill the person camping behind that wall. as in like real world move from cover to cover sometimes with concealment and other times a sprint across wide open spaces. knowing your cover is temporary and only protects you from 1 direction but your enemies may be coming from your flank makes cover based more exciting and you do not rely on short chest size walls.

Agreed completely, and I hate to bring up Mass Effect again, as this thread isn't about that, but if it does suffer from many of the problems with cover based shooters like many here say, is it truly bad gameplay? Is the sole reason for its popularity the choice driven story? Or is there another aspect that varies it up from shooting gallery monotony with things like biotic and tech abilities?