Are Cover Mechanics Pointless?

[SnakeTrousers]

I've been re-playing a couple games with cover mechanics recently - that is, you can press a button to glue yourself to walls and such - and found that they're perfectly playable without using said mechanics at all. The majority of third person shooters now feature some kind of OTS camera for aiming and there's usually a way switch shoulders, so my question is what advantage is there to sticking myself to a rock and popping out to take aim when I could just stand behind the rock, line up my shots without having to expose myself, and not be inorganically cemented in place?

This is particularly true in those cases where you're actually able to crouch, such as in Red Dead Redemption and Spec Ops: The Line. I get the impression that I actually enjoyed Spec Ops' gameplay more than most, and I wonder if that may be because I rarely used the cover system.

I also suspect that this may be why Gears of War, a game in which you can't crouch, is built mostly around chest high walls, because otherwise the main gameplay feature would be completely redundant.

 

[MysticSlayer]

For me, the cover system in games offers a sense of speed and fluidity that hasn't been offered in any other system, and I also tend to prefer the way it looks over seeing a guy pushing his face up against a wall all the time. I remember some pre-Gears of War games showing the friendly AI taking cover and just finding it weird that I couldn't do the same outside of pushing my face up against the wall. When games like Gears of War started showing the potential for what cover-based systems could offer, I was thrilled, and while it is hard to do in first-person games, I think third-person shooters have benefitted tremendously from it. While I can still enjoy older systems, I do prefer the cover-based systems.

 

[josemlopes]

To me Gears of War really is the best example of cover mechanics done right, the map design takes it a lot into consideration and the idea behind it is to flank the enemy instead of playing whack-a-mole (in the hardest difficulties flanking becomes very important).

Sadly most other games dont really use it well and end up implanting it because its popular.

There are some exclusive things with it like blind fire, you basicly avoid showing anything but a bit of your arms and your gun while having a lot less accuracy. Also what MysticSlayer said, the AI would always have these cool animations of them taking cover and also blindfiring, it always felt weird that we couldnt do that, with the cover mechanincs I guess it makes us interact with the level in a way, even if its just a wall.

In the end I think that its more for the visuals then for gameplay (with the big exception of Gears of War since its entire gameplay is around it), its cool to have your character standing behind a wall while the other side is going to shit.

 

[Pink Gregory]

thousand cuts

Be interested to know your opinion a la Metal Gear Solid, ie pressing up to walls, leaning, jumping out etc.

Would you call that a cover 'system'?[/quote]

 

[Prime_Hunter_H01]

Personally I never liked Gears of War so for me cover as used in Deus Ex HR is where I think its most useful, because its more of a stealth tool. Most stealth games give you many options that reduce your movement ability to add some concealment, so and active use of cover hides you behind a wall as you are forcing yourself to stick to it to reduce your profile. And like most games being in cover adds blind fire and other moves and the cover vault and corner turns are yet another stealth tool as they are fast and scripted which means that it is an ability to avoid detection just like how cover is.

Metal Gear is one of those weird technicalities, yes it is a use of sticking to walls and cover but the cover system is defined much differently than how it is executed in Metal Gear. Though the newer Metal Gears, 5 definitely, 4 if I remember correctly do implement what would be called a cover system

 

[PainInTheAssInternet]

You might like the cover system from Far Cry 3 (Christ I never just shut up about that game. I should contact Ubisoft and request payment). You don't connect with a wall, you just go up to it whereupon your character reacts to it by holding their gun close to their body. If you try to aim down sights near the edge of cover, your character will lean out from behind it to take aim.

In Socom Combined Assault, you actually have to hide in bushes to be in cover. If the enemy pays attention (which rarely happens but let's roll with it), they will see you and shoot you, so this is likely the most realistic iteration of cover-based shooting.

Splinter Cell Conviction is probably the best iteration I've seen of this cover system, though. Instead of pressing a button and just sticking there until you force yourself out of it, you only stick to the cover as long as you press the button. This makes it very fluid moving around and much less frustrating when trying to pull off stealth than Uncharted.

EDIT
I'd say that it isn't pointless, but rather overdone. Regenerating health and cover systems have taken over in the name of realism thanks to COD and Gears of War. That being said, it makes perfect sense in real life to take cover as it's often the only way you could live through a firefight barring realistic aim on part of your enemies (and lately, what AI hasn't had bullshit accurracy?). I would like a return of just run and gun gameplay with ridiculous weapons in combination with modern aesthetics and capabilities, though.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

I think Red Orchestra 2 multiplayer really make cover mechanics a necessity, because while you can just crouch behind an object you'll be a much larger, more conspicuous target if you don't use the cover mechanic. It also reduces the rate at which you get suppressed and is invaluable for automatically hiding you away while you are reloading (which happens often and takes a while) and finally, is necessary for large heavy weapons such as anti-tank rifles and heavy machine guns that require you to deploy the tripod on a hard surface to have any sort of accuracy and recoil management.

I remember Splinter Cell also made it so you were a lot harder to detect when in cover against a wall, that was really useful.

 

[SnakeTrousers]

Be interested to know your opinion a la Metal Gear Solid, ie pressing up to walls, leaning, jumping out etc.

Would you call that a cover 'system'?

In the first game, no, since you couldn't really do much while pressed against a wall. In the other games, yes, but an incredibly awkward and finicky one that really doesn't have much purpose. After all, you can lean left and right (and up!) in first person mode so why bother?
MGS4 tried to make the mechanic a little more useable by switching to a simple button press instead of having to hold forward, yet only made it even more pointless. Snake takes so long to pop in and out of cover that if you actually try to use it in combat you can almost guarantee you'll get shot, and if you're hiding behind, say, a box then there's no way to aim over it. Combine that with the fact that you can actually move while aiming for a change and there's just no reason to use the cover system over the tried and true method of just standing behind shit.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

You're right that using cover in a TPS usually only hinders you. If you are in cover, you don't have your freedom of movement and it's easy for another player (in multiplayer) to rush/push your position and come out on top because of your limited mobility. However, with a proper cover system and using it when appropriate, you can totally demolish your opponent just with your movement alone. Ghost Recon Future Soldier really brought something completely new to TPSs with its cover system; 1) you can move faster when cover swapping, 2) you can freely move the camera while cover swapping (allowing you to melee & stop and shoot mid cover swap), and 3) you can combo moves together with the cover mechanic (you can animation cancel to "jump" to cover from prone, you can dive roll during a cover swap, etc.).

Here's the type of shit you can do with the cover mechanic in GRFS:

Spoiler: Cover Swap Montage

Here's one of the best GRFS players explaining how to do all the different moves. He made the video because he'd get called a hacker for all the moves he did.

Spoiler: Hek7iC's movement tuturial

 

[krazykidd]

Wolfenstein:TNO does it amazingly. You can use it to peek out, orr you can just free cover, or you can lie down and shiot under cover, or even peek up and shoot tall cover without having to crouch. Or you can stealth most of the missions because why the fuck not?

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well I'm not overly fond of the "sacrifice gameplay for pretty" design so I mostly hate it, in some games it's a severe hindrance while in others practically a cheat(characters snap to/from cover at light speed, become immune to damage, I Win buttons,...).

So for now my preferred cover system is jump/crouch/prone/lean, but even those basics are hard to find.

 

[Vicarious Reality]

You might like the cover system from Far Cry 3 (Christ I never just shut up about that game. I should contact Ubisoft and request payment). You don't connect with a wall, you just go up to it whereupon your character reacts to it by holding their gun close to their body. If you try to aim down sights near the edge of cover, your character will lean out from behind it to take aim.
.

I JUST noticed that and i have finished the game and am a couple of hours into my second, UI fixed mod playthrough. that is actually very good


The magic magnetic walls are the biggest problem i have with Spec Ops, it makes the game nearly impossible to play, i think you actually run and take cover with the same button, along with the weirdo use button, srsly wtf

GTA has pretty shit cover mechanics, the camera switches sides automatically and gets pushed around like a dog in a diving airplane indoors

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

I think with the case of MGS people are describing it wrong... the 'cover' here isn't from bullets, it's from sight!

When Snake presses up to the wall he makes himself a smaller target, visible from less angles to the cover, and reducing his Shadow so he is harder to see. MGS5 has the ability to shoot from here now (and possibly 4, but I haven't played that) so you could argue the traditional cover system is used too, but it's more for stealth.

I have been playing Watch Dogs recently, and I like the cover system there. The game's fight scenes are more about battlefield management, which I like. You need a good situational awareness, and as long as you stay safe you survive. If you are compromised you die quick. This results in a large use of cover whilst you assess the situation and figure out what traps and tactics you will deploy to reduce enemy numbers.
The cover system is also used extensively when sneaking around too. The system itself will control the character as he gets from one peice of cover to another with only one button press. (Which can be cancelled easily if things go wrong.) This means that sneaking tends to be a timing related exercise and making quick dashes as the enemy has a coughing fit, or turns to stare out the window for a few seconds. This works well!

On the other hand you can play a 3rd person action game like Just Cause 2 or GTA V and you don't need to use it at all... You get just as much benefit from just crouching behind without attaching the character to the scenery! I can't think of a game off the top of my head, but I remember one where I repeatedly died because I couldn't unstick from a wall in time to react to a situation! :S That's a bad mechanic if that happens!

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

I guess I've never really played a game with a cover system, at least more extensive than having a crouch button and walls to stand behind.

I forget if RE5 had one, if it did it wasn't worth enough to make a memory much like the rest of the game. Maybe the original Deus Ex had one?

I know I've played at least one game where you could magically lean out from behind a wall at a 50 degree angle without falling over while carrying an assault rifle, and I found it EXTREMELY pointless.

It might have been F.E.A.R. with I played all of 30 minutes of before taking it back.

My preferred cover system is the one in the original Doom. Try not to get hit, and failing that save often. I guess "don't strafe across a doorway both ways while firing rockets" would also be part of my winning strategy.

To me, a cover system should do 2 things. It should actively improve your survival by using it, by lessening the rate of damage you take, and it should in no way interfere with your mobility and ability to aim and do damage in turn.

I've yet to see a system that can beat simply being a moving target and ducking behind a wall as needed. In my mind if I see someone duck behind one of those chest high walls I throw a grenade over the fucking thing and aim where I KNOW they will be popping their head up. If they were jumping around like a jackass and strafing randomly while still being able to hit me then I'm the one in need of a wall to hide behind. And not so I can poke my head out at the angle they will absolutely be expecting for an easy head shot.

 

[Angelowl]

Depends a lot on the game. I found it very helpful in Red Dead Redemption and Deus Ex:Human Revolution were you can die very very quickly when you stay out in the open. And both of those games let you alter your aim before you pop up so that you are not a sitting duck when poking your head out.

Then we have Killzone 2 that could really use a decent cover mechanic due to the lethality at higher difficulties. The developers tried and their idea was sound. But when my aim is thrown off and I have to manually and slowly aim with iron sights before firing I just get picked of by automatic fire from three helghasts at once. Not even staying in cover is viable due to stray bullets being able to hit your head, making it fairly pointless to utilize the cover mechanic. Old School side-strafing around corners is a lot more efficient for such cases as you are able to move quickly and can control your aim a lot better.

 

[Redingold]

I must say that I greatly prefer the cover system in games like Half-Life 2, that is to say, no cover system. You take cover by simply standing behind things you want to use as cover. There's no button to glue you to a wall.

That said, in stealth games like MGS, wall hugging mechanics are useful, they lower your visibility and allow you to peek out behind a corner without exposing yourself. That's something that you can't really achieve with normal movement controls. Maybe with leaning mechanics, like in Dishonoured, but they only really work in first person view, so for a third person stealth game, cover systems are preferable.

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

To me, a cover system should do 2 things. It should actively improve your survival by using it, by lessening the rate of damage you take, and it should in no way interfere with your mobility and ability to aim and do damage in turn./quote]

The issue is with the way modern games handle the enemy AI shooting at you. In Doom you could strafe out of the way because you were being shot by fireballs, and the enemies had a tell as they were about to shoot. Modern games with cover mechanics have this "hitscan" shit, to where if you are visible and not in cover you are going to get hit by bullets. You can't really tell when the enemy is about to fire, and you can't move out of the way of the bullets without running away full speed.

Despite not really loving the game, that's one thing I appreciated about Dishonored. When the enemies decided to shoot you, they would do that little windup telegraph to let you know that they were about to shoot you, and you could do something about it. I'm amazed that a game hasn't really tried to blend the best of both of these systems, because this hard-on for realism rarely means that we encounter hairy imps from Martian Hell who shoot fireballs at you.

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

I feel weird when I see people talking about Gers of War being one of the first games to do cover mechanics. Does anyone else remember Everything or Nothing?

Anyway, I do kind of like cover mechanics (in good games obviously), because I like systems that have a way to make your character do the thing they'd do in reality in a situation that's common in the game. As in, I like being able to say "hide behind that wall" and having the PC do that as someone would, rather than having to kind of wedge them up against the wall and hope nothing's sticking out. Especially in stealth games; having a button for "make sure no one on the other side of this thing can see you" is great, because in real life you could easily conceal yourself by lying flat or pressing up against the cover or whatever, and it sucks to have a video game character be worse at something than you are.

 

[sXeth]

I can see where they're needed in more gameplay diverse titles where you're whipping out tools/hacks/health packs/detective mode/whatever and control space is at a premium

For your shooting needs, I vastly prefer the more organic method of just having the leaning like Wolfenstein TNO, or to a lesser extent, Far Cry's contextual automatic thing.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I feel weird when I see people talking about Gers of War being one of the first games to do cover mechanics. Does anyone else remember Everything or Nothing?

The proper question is does anyone else remember Winback? It was the first shooter with a cover system.