Games with satisfying gunplay, but no ADS?

[Kopikatsu]

I was playing Bioshock recently and realized that the gunplay felt very...unfulfilling. I ended up just using the wrench 90% of the time because using the guns (sans the Shotgun) just felt terrible. Half-Life was better about it, but I didn't really like it there, either. What I mean is, the guns don't really feel powerful. I can't explain that much better despite how vague it is. Like, in Bioshock, there are huge sprays of blood when you shoot something, but...that's not what I mean. I specify no ADS because I'm not particularly a fan of ADS, since I feel it both makes it more difficult to aim and also more difficult to see what I'm shooting at because of the muzzle flash. But games with ADS do seem to have more satisfying gunplay overall for whatever reason.

The only series I can think of off the top of my head that serves as a decent example of what I'm talking about is Serious Sam. Serious Sam is one of my favorite FPSes because all of the guns feel great, it's crazy fun, and what have you. (Seriously, load up a game with 3 friends and give yourself infinite ammo, infinite lives, and then give everyone a rocket launcher and/or cannon).


But I don't mention Serious Sam because of the weaponry in particular (My favorite guns are Shotguns, so I can do without flaming lightning, shuriken, and flaming tit launchers just fine).

Since I brought up the Shotgun thing; another question. Are there any reasonably active games that have decent shotguns, especially pump action? They're usually either terrible or ridiculously overpowered. But mostly terrible. Hawken's Flak Cannon is cool, but all of the primary weapons kind of...suck, I guess.

Edit: Should mention; I'm a PC gamer. No 360 or anything here.

 

[ShinyCharizard]

If you want shotguns then gears of war is the game for you. The multiplayer of that game is essentially an elaborate shotgun dance.

 

[Professor Lupin Madblood]

You saw that thread about ADS not being necessary for realism too, eh?

Most Valve games have really good, percussive guns. Left 4 Dead 2 is what I'm most familiar with, but, as you mentioned, Half-Life does it well too. From what I've seen, CS: GO does guns well.

Natural Selection 2, a multiplayer RTS/FPS hybrid has no ADS, instead replacing the right mouse button with a melee attack, but I can't speak to its gameplay.

 

[Kopikatsu]

If you want shotguns then gears of war is the game for you. The multiplayer of that game is essentially an elaborate shotgun dance.

Sadly it's not for PC.

You saw that thread about ADS not being necessary for realism too, eh?

Most Valve games have really good, percussive guns. Left 4 Dead 2 is what I'm most familiar with, but, as you mentioned, Half-Life does it well too. From what I've seen, CS: GO does guns well.

Natural Selection 2, a multiplayer RTS/FPS hybrid has no ADS, instead replacing the right mouse button with a melee attack, but I can't speak to its gameplay.

I really, really hate Source games. All of them. So much. I don't really like the guns in L4D 1/2, either.

As for NS2...eh. I've played it since the beta, but it's kind of a broken mess. In addition to the fact that your guns shoot extra-fluffy marshmallows.

It's not really about the 'ADS isn't needed for realism' thread. Like I said, it's just something I noticed while playing Bioshock. In Bioshock's defense, I do really like the reloading animations.

 

[skywolfblue]

Shotguns eh?

The Unreal Tournament Series has the Flack Cannon, that's pretty much a wide-spread shotgun, you could think of the Rocket Launcher as a pseudo lang-range shotgun. I'd highly recommend it.

As mentioned, Gears of War is very shotgun based. Yes the game has ADS but typically you don't even use the ADS and just hipfire when it comes to shotguns.

Mass Effect 3 + Vanguard class. Again there is ADS, but vanguards rarely use it, just teleport into enemies personal space and shoot away without looking through the sites. Krogan Vanguard + a Katana or Reegar is basically designed for that whole style of play.

Halo has a shotgun. But personally I find halo's gunplay to be a bit dull.

 

[sageoftruth]

This one is fairly old, but when I last read a review of the game "Black", there was lots of praise for the guns sounding and feeling just right.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_(video_game)

 

[ohnoitsabear]

The guns in Painkiller all feel really good. Which is a good thing, because shooting things is just about all you do in the game.

 

[NeutralDrow]

What's ADS?

 

[Skin]

^Aim down sights

Halo:CE

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well if you look for equally fast paced shooters then:
- Painkiller Hell and Damnation (it's a prettier remake of Painkiller)
- Hard Reset (essentially Painkiller in cyberpunk style)
- Unreal Tournament 99/2004 (only really multiplayer games, also UT3 is anus)
- Serious Sam 3 in a pinch

- Gears is ok but you need to know that game plays at about 20% the speed others do
- and Halo at about 50%
- then there is Bulletstorm equally slow and horribly limited, can't even jump unless you rubb your face against walls that the game sometimes decides are jumpable

 

[Xdeser2]

Halo CE does it really well and is on PC to boot

 

[Nouw]

The Max Payne games had very satisfying gunplay thanks to bullet-time. The sound was a bit off at times in the first 2 games, probably bugs, but it felt good to my ears.

 

[CyberAkuma]

I honestly don't understand your problem. Just because the game *HAS* ADS doesn't mean your *HAVE* to use it. Just use hip fire instead?

There's a million of good shooters out there that have good gunplay where you don't need to use ADS.
Far Cry 3 is what I am playing right now and you can put enough skill-points to the tree that gives you increased hip-fire accuracy so you don't even have to use ADS at all.

Most competent shooters out there allows you to skip ADS entirely and just use hip fire if you are willing to adjust your tactics to a more aggressive rushing style tactics. (All Call of Duty-games apply to this as well)

Besides, they are plenty of FPS games that do ADS right so that your view isn't obscured by muzzle flash. The S.t.a.l.k.e.r and F.E.A.R games come to mind, but like I said, those games allow you to do hip-fire as well as an option.

So yeah, it feels kind of dumb mentioning a list of games that have no ADS and satisfying gameplay when there's plenty of competent shooters with great gunplay feel that have ADS but you aren't forced to use it. That's the beauty of a good shooter.

So yeah, really don't see your problem.

 

[King of Asgaard]

Ever played Doom or Quake?
If not, play Doom and Quake.
The weapons there feel like they plaster enemy giblets on the walls, the shotguns in particular.
Hell, Doom 2 and Quake come with double-barrelled shotguns, if that's your thing.

Edit: Just noticed you said reasonably active, and what I mentioned are single-player only, oops.
I'm not much help here as I don't play shooters, online or otherwise.

 

[loa]

Why did you have to make up a pointless abbreviation for "iron sights"?
Why use abbreviations that add confusion for people who don't know what they stand for anyway?
This is NOT a chatroom.

 

[octafish]

Soldier of Fortune 1 and 2. Old. Horribly violent. Pretty much single player...and some of the most distubingly satisfying gunplay I have ever encountered.

 

[Magicman10893]

I know you said you don't like Source games, but Counter-Strike: Source and Global Offensive are really fun for me. Unreal Tournament 2004 is still one of my all-time favorites (the Flak Cannon is awesomely amazing). Halo CE and Halo are on PC and the only "ADS" is scoped weapons and the default binoculars (gives you a zoom, but no reticle and firing causes you to break out of it). I believe Painkiller has already been mentioned.

Call of Duty 4 with the Steady Aim perk can fulfill your needs pretty well. Most of the time I used the Mini-Uzi, MP5 or P90 with the Steady Aim perk and just hip-fired 90% of the time. I even got the Gold Skin for the MP5 (which requires 150 headshots with every SMG) with this method.

If you are into 3rd person shooters as well, I recommend Mass Effect 3. The gameplay feels fast and fluid, there is tight aim, but no iron-sight view like in most games with ADS. The shotguns are really close range most of the time, but with the "Shotgun Choke" upgrade at level 5 you will see a huge increase in accuracy. Paired with the Claymore Shotgun, you have a super powerful, one-shot shotgun that decimates enemies (*Get into the rhythm of reload-cancelling, which is a confirmed game feature, for optimal efficiency).

Mass Effect 1 doesn't have very good Third Person Shooter mechanics, but the shotguns in that game (on the Vanguard and Soldier class, anyway) are pretty damn accurate and by the end of the game will literally one-shot most enemies from medium and long ranges. Plus the Carnage skill gives it a fiery-rocket secondary attack.

Also, Gears of War 1 is on the PC, and I think Gears 2 is as well.

 

[Skade]

I found Rage very satisfying in that respect, Doom 3 is good as well (sadly, _except_ the shotgun).

Also, I love Borderlands gunplay, but that really depends on whether you find a cool weapon that fits your style.

 

[Vern]

I'm going to have to go with Soldier of Fortune 2. No down sight aiming, aside from the scoped rifle. It has two shotguns, one is a pump action Mossberg 590, the other is a USAS-12 semi-automatic shotgun. They have a nice sound to them, especially the Mossberg, and they react how they should react. At close range, you can blow someone's head in half, at medium range, you'll get a pepper spray of pellets, if they're concentrated in the chest you'll kill the person, if it's a leg shot they'll probably survive. It's an old game, 2002,but it still looks pretty decent. The GHOUL damage system helps quite a bit, it provides visible wound on the enemy and dissection of the body.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd7fsY33L6Y

There's a link that shows the way the models are set up. It did have a rather shitty stealth mission aspect to it, but it wasn't that big of an issue. I still think it's one of the funnest pseudo-realistic shooters that I've ever played. On default difficulty it is kind of easy, but it also has quite a few options for customization, I usually play on Soldier of Fortune (hardest), with weapon inaccuracy turned on (which means that if you fire on automatic, your accuracy will decrease), and maybe one save spot per level, it gets pretty tense. I also play with the SOF2 Weapons Mod.

http://soldieroffortune2.filefront.com/file/_Weapon_Mod;27295

It adds additional weapons, and mods of them. One of my favorite things about the mod is it alters the enemies, so enemies wearing body armor will take quite a few more hits from a submachine gun so you have to go for headshots. However if you have a high-powered rifle, it will go through their body armor. The other fun part is that the enemies weapons are just as lethal as yours. Whereas in the original game, you can take 10 shots from an M60, but enemies can only take 2 or 3, with the mod you're looking at the same 2 or 3 hits before you die, adds a decent amount of challenge.

Not sure if it's what you're looking for, but it sounds like it is. It's a really fun game, the firearms look and sound like they should, and with the weapons mod there's an abundance of choices. Plus the game has a random mission generator where you can choose from South American, Siberian, and desert settings, with different weapon loadouts and different goals. It's not fully fleshed out and it uses quite a few repeatable resources, but it's something I've never really seen in another first person shooter.