How do you think death should be handled in shooters?

[Professor James]

I noticed when I was playing call of duty, that when you shoot a couple of bullets into someone, they instantly fall to the ground. Now, I'm not saying that all shooters should be hyperrealistic, but I just find it a little odd when I shoot someone in the arm, they just fall down.

 

[deathbydeath]

well, if that arm goes limp, and the person dies, the weight would probably drag it down on that side, but what you're looking for is how they fall. in stalker, there is nothing more satisfying than blasting the guy who ambushed you in the chest, and watching him fall back screaming as his gun discharges with bullets meant for you.
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after reading what i just put down, i'm gonna call a psycharist (and a spelling tutor)

 

[TheLefty]

I always felt like certain games should have a realistic mode. As in, a shoot to the foot slows you down, a shot to the arm makes you use a pistol, and that kind of stuff. It would be really hard to work into and keep it fun though. I feel like a Fallout 3/NV limb system might work fairly well in multiplayer games.

 

[Jaxek13]

I always felt that the Fallout limb system was more of an annoyance than an immersion technique but I see what you're thinking. I agree that bullet wounds need to focus on where enemies get hit in order to make them more realistic. A cool AI feature would to have enemies who play dead and surprise you, I think Dead Space had something like that. I remember a part in Bioshock similar to that and it scared the crap out of me.

 

[Professor James]

I always felt like certain games should have a realistic mode. As in, a shoot to the foot slows you down, a shot to the arm makes you use a pistol, and that kind of stuff. It would be really hard to work into and keep it fun though. I feel like a Fallout 3/NV limb system might work fairly well in multiplayer games.

I agree but the thing is, you die so fast, the limb system would rarely be in use.

 

[KalosCast]

You kind of have to make the disconnect that you're not always killing the person, but simply taking them out of the fight, regardless of what the game calls it. Yes, taking a hit from a handgun in the shoulder is likely not going to kill me, but I'm likely not going to be standing very long, and certainly not going to be able to do anything with that arm. Taking a few shots to the torso likely isn't going to kill you instantly either, but for the sake of gampelay flow, there's no reason really not to score it as a kill and move along.

 

[tsb247]

I like the way ArmA 2 does it - Hit to the arm likely disables or at least messes up the arm. A hit to a vital area = instant death, or if the game mechanic is enabled, an injury that leaves you helpless and in need of a medic.

 

[Au Naturel.]

Timesplitters had it right for me.

 

[TheLefty]

I always felt like certain games should have a realistic mode. As in, a shoot to the foot slows you down, a shot to the arm makes you use a pistol, and that kind of stuff. It would be really hard to work into and keep it fun though. I feel like a Fallout 3/NV limb system might work fairly well in multiplayer games.

I agree but the thing is, you die so fast, the limb system would rarely be in use.

Yeah, I agree. That's what I was getting to in the "hard to work into." That or it could make you live longer, just with injuries? The shot to the foot doesn't kill you but it sure as hell messes you up until you respawn? That kind of thing.

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

There's plenty of games that have enemies react differently depended on where you shoot them. Singularity, for one. Besides, are you saying that if someone shot you in the arm, you'd just shrug it off?

 

[Brawndo]

Mainstream FPS games will always be arcade-like, and thus handle death in an arcade-like manner. It's already the norm to completely chuck the concept of medics and health packs out the window in favor of regenerating Wolverine health, and I don't predict this will change any time soon.

As the release of ArmA II and Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising showed, the market for hyper-realistic shooters is rather small, and will probably stay like that.

 

[theonlyblaze2]

Basically what everyone else said. Plus, the death notification system needs to change. I think if an enemy is in a building and you throw in a grenade, you should have to see the body to tell if he is dead.

 

[Sovereignty]

I want online modes in shooters to have a penalty system for dying.

I mean seriously re spawning kills the immersion.

 

[CTID]

Not necessarily a shooter, but iirc Fable had your character accumulate scars over the course of the game, and I thought it was a pretty cool detail to show him being hurt and the like over a period of time.

Pretty much the only good thing about that game...

 

[Worgen]

I think it would be hilarious if there was a shooter where you could pick either lethal or nonlethal and the reason to go nonlethal was that every time you killed someone you got their life story so you could murder as many as you wanted but you had to wait 5 min for the flash back to finish

 

[octafish]

I always wondered why no-one ever seems to run away when the killing machine that is the Single Player Campaign's protagonist has wiped out half their squad. At the very least a tactical retreat might be in order. I remember the AI limping away in Ghost Recon but that was pretty rare as most hits were centre of body mass kills.

 

[Canid117]

Well getting hit in the arm can hit an artery in which case you will bleed out and die in moments so... fix the ragdoll and it will look much more realistic I guess?

 

[CTID]

Also, as for death, I think Grand Theft Auto IV did an awesome job with body shots. Shooting somebody in the leg, for instance, would make them fall over but not kill them. They may be lying on the ground in agony, but they wouldn't be dead. You could shoot their limbs quite a few times and not kill them, the best bet for killing an enemy/pedestrian was a headshot (which was an instant kill no matter what gun you were using, which made it so you could play through the entire game using nothing but the Glock if you were a good shot) or a center mass shot.