Summary
Cover shooters once dominated thethird-person shooter genre, especially on console. It’s no happenstance if one of the most famous examples of the genre,Gears Of War, was originally designed explicitly for Microsoft’s new console, the Xbox 360. The game was ported to PC about a year later, but its aim was clear. Just likeHalo: Combat Evolvedbefore it andGoldeneye 007earlier still, everything inGears Of Waris made with a console in mind.
This might be why, now that divisions between gaming platforms have all but disappeared, cover shooters have become less popular.Gears Of Waris still an important franchise, but it’s been years sinceGears 5came out. Meanwhile, most of thehottest modern shooters are battle royaleand hero shooters, neither of which really benefits cover mechanics.
Outridersmight only be a cover shooter on a technicality. Developed by People Can Fly, ofPainkillerandBulletstormfame,Outridersis a stylish,class-based co-op shooterabout a group of unique adventurers braving the dangers of a hostile planet.
Like all the best shooters of its kind,Outridersdoesn’t just use cover as a defense. Just like in theGears Of Warseries, players are meant to jump in and out of cover often, vaulting over walls and sprinting from place to place. Thanks to their character’s powers, players are free to playOutridersas a gun-blazing daring hero straight out ofBorderlandsor as the methodical soldier ofRainbow Six Siege.
9Kill Switch
Metacritic Score: 73
Kill Switchmight just be the original third-person cover shooter.That’s not a statement everyone will agree with, and for good reason.Light gun arcade gameshave had cover mechanics since 1995’sTime Crisis. ButKill Switchis the first popular game to bring that stop-and-pop action to player-driven settings.
Kill Switchwas never a particularly beloved game, with no modern ports or remasters. Trying to play it now might not be worth the hassle. Still, while the game’s cover mechanics are extremely clunky for modern standards, fans of cover shooters would probably find the game interesting, if nothing else, as a relic of its time.
8Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2
Metacritic Score: 82
Rainbow Sixis now synonymous with the multiplayer tactical shooterRainbow Six Siege, but the series has always been a beacon in the world of tactical shooters. Ever since the original 1998 game revolutionized the genre, the series has been changing and adapting its formula to fit with the broader shooter trends.
Rainbow Six Vegasand its sequel were an attempt to merge the fast-moving shooters of the day with the slow-paced roots of the series. The results are two of the most approachable tactical shooters ever made. And while they are certainly influenced by cover shooters of the day, they maintain a unique personality.
Vanquishmight not be what fans of cover shooters expect from the genre. Players rarely stick to cover for more than a few seconds; they don’t sprint towards those short walls but slide-boost into them.Vanquishis an incredible game and a unique take on cover shooters, but it’s also very different from just about anything else in the genre.
Vanquishis often bundled with other Platinum Games titles, like thespectacle fightersBayonettaandThe Wonderful 101. The reason is simple: Platinum’s shooter plays more like a hardcore action game of endless combos and perfect dodges than a GearsOf Warclone. Still, the game is forgiving enough to be played like a cover shooter, at least until players are confident enough to try its more unique aspects.
Spec Ops: The Lineis afamous and infamous gameabout the ludicrous and dangerous influence of military shooters on the video game market and gamers. ButSpec Ops: The Lineis also a very good cover shooter, to the point that its message becomes muddled. French New Wave director Truffaut thought there could never be a successful anti-war movie, but video games bring this conundrum to a new level.
The fictionalized near-post-apocalyptic Dubai the game is set in is supposed to bring to mind scenes of the Afghanistan war, but it’s also a really cool setting for a war game. The luscious skyscrapers fallen on their side carry the idea that war could come at any moment for those living in peace. It also creates a set piece where the player shoots the glass ceiling to submerge their enemies in the sand.
Deus Ex: Human Revolutionis many things. It’s an alright action RPG, a weird prequel to one of the most beloved games ever made,Deus Ex, and a pretty good stealth game. It’s also, surprisingly, an excellent cover shooter. This is a first-person shooter that switches to a third-person view whenever the protagonist is behind cover.
This excellent cover system powers both stealth and action. In both cases, entering and leaving cover is fluid and allows for tactical movement from wall to wall. Taking aim while behind cover exposes the player, and aiming is fairly inaccurate with most heavy weapons. This means that winning a fight is more about outmaneuvering enemies than having fast reflexes.
Tom Clancy’s The Division 2is an online multiplayer third-person shooter with some looter shooter influences and plenty of chest-high walls to take over behind. Not everyone will like the life-as-service nature of this game, even if the game makes it as seamless as possible to go between single-player and co-op mode.
Cover shooting inTom Clancy’s The Division 2is the name of the game, even if it’s often quite repetitive. Fans of the genre would have certainly played more inspired cover shooters before. That’s becauseThe Division 2is first and foremost a game for spending time with friends. It’s a social game or a podcast game for solo players. The combat is meant to blend into the background, something this cover shooter excels at.
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s Endisn’t a dedicated cover shooter. If it was, it would probably be one of the best. Third-person cover shooters have become rare in recent years. Taking cover in shooters is more common than ever, but there are few modern, earnest entries in the genre. That’s whereUncharted 4comes in.
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s Endis an incredibly polished game. Itlooks incredible even years after its release, while the pacing of each scene and of the whole game is unparalleled by action-adventure standards. And while protagonist Nathan Drake rarely gets in a firefight without a reason, when one does break out, the cover shooting is some of the best in recent memory.
Thefirst twoMax Paynegamesare pretty much as far as you can get from cover shooters. They are seminal third-person shooters where the best defense is activating bullet time and diving in front of enemy fire. Cover mechanics would seem to only get in the way, but that’s not the case withMax Payne 3.
Max Payne 3is a clear example of how you can make anything work with clever design and a bit of ingenuity. Covers inMax Payne 3are meant to help the protagonist recover his bullet time juice before diving across the room and falling back behind cover. Unlike the original game, they allow players to salvage unwise movements by simply hiding behind cover.
Binary Domainis one of those games that struggled to differentiate itself from the ocean of other third-person shooters of its time. Looking back to this 2012 cover shooter, it now appears as a classic example of the genre. Nothing else, with the exception ofGears Of Waritself, captures the spirit of cover-based shooters so well.
It certainly helps thatBinary Domainhas a lot more personality than your averageGears Of Warclone. Set during a robot uprising and featuring a cast of varied and fun characters,Binary Domainfeels distinctly like its own thing.
