Never Pick Up a Sniper Again
Practice snipers ruin multiplayer shooters?
The conversation started with Tyler getting mad well-nigh Chivalry 2'due south archers, who stand up on the outskirts of sword fights shooting arrows into heads. Not long after, we got to talking nigh sniping in general, and and so the sides formed. Information technology turns out PC Gamer is a securely divided team.
Some of united states think that sniping in multiplayer shooters is skillful. Some of us want all snipers banished to hell. We decided to talk it out publicly, and although nosotros didn't resolve our differences, we at least established where nosotros all stand. (Or lie, on a hill, clipping through a bush a fiddling chip, staring downwardly a scope.)
Does sniping ruin multiplayer shooters?
Tim Clark, brand director: No, don't exist ridiculous. The sniper burglarize is a gentleperson'southward weapon. It is the velvet glove to the shotgun'south mailed fist. Clicking on heads from the other end of the map is core to the rock-paper-scissors of any meta. The problem comes when it's the only or best available option, which is more a failure of map design and how stuff like flinch is balanced than anything.
Tyler Wilde, executive editor: I don't know Tim, snipers can exist pretty annoying.
Emma Matthews, guides writer: I do have a stiff dislike for snipers in Warzone and Call of Duty'due south multiplayer modes, mainly because there's no gamble in picking them in coincidental modes. They can suck the fun out of matches.
Tyler: Before we go farther, I have to confess that I am a reformed sniper. I used to exist the guy lying on a hill at the edge of every Battlefield map, trying to score highlight reel headshots while ignoring the objectives. It's all I did. I'thousand sorry.
Morgan Park, staff writer: Tyler… wow. You call back you know a guy, so you lot find out he played Recon.
Tyler: My glowing bullets fabricated such pretty arcs as they missed enemies running between Bravo and Charlie, helping no i.
James Davenport, editor: You have absolutely nothing to be aback of, Tyler. I empathise that people generally practice not similar dying from a well-aimed shot across the map, but it'south madness to suggest that snipers at big ruin multiplayer shooters.
Tyler: It does experience pretty bad to get sniped, though. What can y'all do? You accept to stand up up sometimes. Information technology tin feel similar snipers are playing a different game, one that's only about frustrating you. I become why people hate snipers.
James: A designer can't write drama into the dynamics of a multiplayer game, so something's gotta stand in to create the peaks and valleys that let for miraculous high-skill plays and for the very same playmakers to eat shit. If you feel bad, this is intentional. Use that anger to fuel your revenge. Snipe back, or, fifty-fifty better, knife the sniper. Consummate the circle.
Above: A gif from Tyler's shameful Battleground sniping days.
Fraser Dark-brown, online editor: At that place are plenty of means to generate drama that don't involve me being taken out past an asshole hiding a mile away. All snipers are bad. I tried to snipe one time, and it made me a worse person. I experience awful but admitting it.
Jorge Jimenez, hardware author: I like how James is painting snipers equally masterful agents of chaos when really they're merely selfish players who would rather inflate their stats than coordinate with teammates.
Jody Macgregor, weekend/AU editor: Which ways snipers suck even when they're on your side. I don't desire to be one of 2 people playing the objective in Team Fortress ii because the rest of my team watched Enemy at the Gates and are now broken inside.
Tyler: Damn, you got me. That picture is probably why I thought information technology was cool to snipe in games.
Emma: Information technology is actually irritating when you're trying to consummate an objective and an marry sniper is only interested in popping skulls from a distance. Dainty work, only that doesn't assistance me collect tags in Impale Confirmed, does it?
John Strike, art editor: Snipers are the adoptive course of lone wolves. I've put a lot of hours into Battlefield games, and I don't think Dice has e'er quite integrated the class into team play properly.
Morgan: John's right near that. At that place are patently many varieties of FPS snipers, but Battleground's make of loma-camping feels particularly anti-fun for everybody that isn't also sniping. Yous can phone call information technology realistic, I estimate, but a competitive FPS should be more than balanced than the real world.
Above: Some other shame gif from Tyler's collection.
James: Balance, schmalance. I long for the early days of Battlefield, when it felt similar a malformed, living organism. When the field of boxing became besides lopsided with snipers, you'd just get in a vehicle and root 'em out. Battlefield constantly cocky-corrected similar that. Yeah, matches weren't these action-efficiency machines that always felt fair or heady, but I miss those long stretches of nothing, of finding where the action is. The early days of foyer shooters, only hanging out, barely eyeballing the score in matches you lot tin log in and out of over the course of a day. Lone wolf sniping was a perfect fit.
Morgan: Schmalance, James? Schmalance? I honey a lowkey "chill in a server" shooter likewise, but they're a rarity nowadays. Sweaty is the proper noun of the game in 2021.
Tyler: You can still go kill the snipers in modern Battleground games. It's just that I don't actually desire to do that anymore.
Jorge: Dealing with snipers always felt like pest control in society to properly savour your lucifer.
Jody: And they create secondary problems. Considering of Battlefield snipers, vehicles are grabbed as soon as they spawn by players who just want to go to a point without beingness shot. Someone impatient will grab the helicopter because they're sick of Recon players making them do the Battlefield Jog, and so crash directly away because they never learned to fly it. That makes me hate snipers even more. And like Tyler, I used to be one.
James: OK, but Battlefield isn't all games. I'g a big fan of Halo sniping. Gimme a iv-hour CTF match on Blood Gulch. Let those rivalries stew. Certain, it sucks to get sniped, only in a game with quick respawns it doesn't sting too much. I suppose that's why I avoid the more competitive games like CS:GO, Siege, and Valorant. Getting sniped out of a round sounds painful, but so does every other class of elimination. Getting shotgunned? Also sucks! Exercise you anti-snipers but want all shooters to melt into a grey, assault rifle slurry?
Morgan: My virtually controversial accept is that the one-shot-kill sniper rifles of Valorant and CS:Become (the Op and the AWP) really do make every circular a little less fun. The Op isn't totally overpowered or anything, but their i-shot potential has the side outcome of forcing the game to revolve around information technology. Either they hit you and you're dead, or they miss. The skewed power dynamic creates snowball scenarios where the rich can get richer and a squad on the backfoot can accept ages to recover.
Emma: The AWP is probably the only sniper rifle I can utilize without disappointing my team. It can feel broken in the hands of a competent sniper, only at that place are a few ways you can deal with it—smokes, flashbangs, and rushing with a P90 will do the flim-flam. Once you work that out information technology doesn't feel as scary anymore. And an AK-47 can get yous just equally well as an AWP.
Your shameful shirt is bringing me back around.
Tyler
Jody: After we get rid of snipers, assault rifles will exist next against the wall.
James: I feel similar map design can make sniping interesting for everyone. Snipers make traversal through some sightlines unsafe, and I like the tension the possible presence of a sniper adds when I'm moving through a infinite. I have to seriously consider my routes and positioning in relation to threats at all distances. Snipers force me to 'come across' and use the whole damn map.
Wes Fenlon, senior editor: In a moment of pure horror I just remembered that I bought, and wore, this shirt in high school. It may exist the nearly embarrassing thing I ever owned, and I owned an anime wall scroll. I will never bear upon a sniper rifle once more.
Tyler: Actually, your shameful shirt is bringing me back around, because at present I'm remembering all the times I got yelled at for camping ground in Quake 2 or Medal of Award: Allied Assault or any else I was playing a couple decades agone. It is a legit strategy. The server admins tin close up!
Fifty-fifty if people hate yous, is information technology fun to snipe?
Tyler: Yep.
Tim: Yeah, obviously, if yous can striking your shots. Which I cannot. Just be glad y'all don't take to deal with sniper rifles that can exercise this in your serious soldier games:
One round in the mag. One Cloudstrike in Coolguy'south easily. One round concluded! ggs tonight to @Mr_Ar3s and @A_dmg04 ! pic.twitter.com/TOb1DQw6HbJanuary xxx, 2021
Pretty sure that collateral too uninstalled all his opponents' games.
John: For me, games are near having fun and escapism, and playing every bit a sniper in games like Battleground is the most fun way to play by yourself if you lot're not great on vehicles.
Tyler: Sniper vs sniper battles are a lot of fun. You develop a rapport with the petty rival dancing around in your scope, whizzing bullets past your head. Honey it. The two of you get to have your ain little game within the game, which doesn't affair to anyone else.
Fraser: In that location'south undeniably something seductive nearly putting bullets in skulls while yous're safely tucked away in your hiding spot. When things are going well, you tin can feel similar a god of the battlefield. Only it'due south likewise kinda ho-hum, just sitting there, biding your time, waiting for some clueless soldier to wander into your crosshairs. Maybe I but tin't sit however. And I don't want anyone to think I'g a coward (which, to be off-white, I am).
Tyler: I like the waiting. Information technology'southward like line-fishing, which is also mainly waiting. Why is line-fishing enjoyable? I'm non actually sure, but it is. (I don't do it, though, because I don't want to injure whatever fish.)
Morgan: Also practiced is the 'David vs Goliath' scenario where I manage to counter-snipe a sniper by pecking away at them with long SMG or pistol shots. Imagining their reaction after being killed at range by a non-sniper is life-affirming.
To a higher place: Awkward singleplayer sniping in the John Wick VR game .
Tyler: In Action Quake two, you could headshot people from across the map with the handgun. That's basically all I tried to do. In regular Quake 2, I only wanted to employ the railgun. Putting the range part of sniping aside for a moment, one-hit-kills are simply fun, even when everyone's doing them, like in Unreal Tournament instagib matches, or in i of my favorite games, Ratz Instagib. In other words, I don't think instagib is what's on trial here. It's ever great.
Jody: It's fun to snipe in singleplayer games like Sniper Elite. Shooting Nazi brains out in boring-mo rules.
Tyler: Singleplayer sniping definitely isn't on trial, either. Sniper Elite 4 is great.
Do any multiplayer shooters do sniping well?
Fraser: No. It'south always bad.
Tyler: Tin can't it be adept sometimes?
Morgan: Sure, just not in Battleground.
Tyler: Fair. I wonder what the Recon class will be like in this year's new Battleground.
Jody: For me, only in co-op games. When I hear a blightstormer chanting in Vermintide 2 and and then snap off a crossbow headshot the moment it teleports in, before it has a chance to summon a storm and whip up half my teammates: That's a proficient feeling.
Jorge: I like games that limit the number of classes yous tin can be on each side of the conflict.
Tyler: So do I ever have the games for you. The Ruby-red Orchestra and Rising Storm games limit course selections. You get 1-shotted a lot anyway, simply non just from snipers—unscoped rifles, automobile guns, arms shells, and lots of other things tin kill you instantly. Cartoon fire is part of the experience, and the assault-and-defend maps keep i role from dominating too much. Snipers never stopped a ten-player accuse. The cardinal, I think, is that the games are about team success more than individual success.
Morgan: In a sim-y FPS, imbalance is supposed to be part of the fun. Tanks in Red Orchestra are all-powerful gods and snipers are elusive assassins that you'll never meet coming. It is kinda interesting to confront the unfair reality of it all, but snipers are a big reason I ultimately put those games down.
Tyler: That surprises me! I never idea of snipers equally beingness particularly annoying in those games. Annoying is when yous get kicked for teamkilling because your team refused to get out of the way of the artillery you lot told them to get out of the fashion of.
John: I do recall sniping's at its most constructive if yous're defending an objective. It's at its worst when you're on rooftops pinning an enemy back in their respawn zone.
Tyler: Yep, Rainbow 6 Siege is a good example. The emphasis on objective control within buildings creates an interesting context for sniping. Information technology's only really abrasive when y'all're beingness spawn peeked, but that Siege-specific irritation is more most reading or misreading opponents than big guns and scopes. And counter-sniping a peeker as Glaz or Kali is satisfying.
Morgan: Couldn't agree more, Tyler. I'll just leave this here:
These are all excellent points that have failed to change my mind. Snipers suck.
Fraser
Tyler: Nice.
Morgan: I besides dearest the power weapon dynamic in Halo multiplayer. Getting the sniper rifle in Halo three wasn't most saving upward coin or choosing it in a loadout menu, you accept to know where information technology spawns and fight off everyone else who wants it just as desperately. Information technology'southward just every bit adept as the AWP once you have information technology, but it has and then footling ammo that you can't just dominate the unabridged match with it.
Jorge: I agree that Halo did it well past treating sniper rifles similar power weapons that needed to be fought over like a rocket launcher or plasma sword. No one spawned with one and the ammo was limited ammo. If yous were lucky enough to choice up a sniper rifle, y'all had a clear advantage and it forced your opponents to change their strategies once the ability weapons were in play.
James: Over in the battle royale genre, I love Fortnite'south sniper bouts. Even if you're pegged out in the open, you tin can make comprehend out of zip. Throw upwards a 1x1 and get your bearings. Information technology results in these tense peekaboo duels with a lot of opportunities for misdirection. I beloved building out my cover in odd configurations, moving around and popping out from random places.
Alan Dexter, senior hardware editor: I'm not commonly any apply behind a scope, but I love the experience of the sniper rifles in Apex Legends. Kraber aside, they don't feel too ridiculously overpowered, either—unless some helmetless poor sap manages to wander in front of my crosshairs and I've managed to pick up a skullpiercer for the Longbow DMR, I'm non going to one-shot them. Hurt them, certain, but it'southward rarely fatal. Practice non-lethal headshots even count as sniping though?
Tyler: We'll need a ruling on that from the Judge of Sniping, who is decorated today, I'chiliad afraid.
Fraser: These are all excellent points that have failed to change my mind. Snipers suck.
Can snipers and non-snipers ever resolve their differences?
John: Effort and encounter it from both points of view. Play by yourself and bask sniping, play with some buddies and bask killing the snipers. Either way information technology's upwardly to the games to make the sniper course into something useful for teams and fun for everyone—or banish information technology forever.
Fraser: No, there's no common ground to be establish with these villains.
James: I think nosotros're seeing stances slide to one side or the other based on why we play multiplayer games. I'm in it for the playfulness, the risk to occasionally pull something impressive off without much stress on team or individual performance. Snipers fit pretty well into games with fast respawn times and looser competitive formats. But for yous bloodthirsty competitive types, I suppose I can understand why snipers feel similar an odd, lopsided fit at times.
Tyler: I thought I was through with my sniping days, but talking about it has reminded me of how nice it is to prevarication downwards in some dirt, sip a cup of tea, and occasionally hit someone. Quickscoping is another thrill that we didn't get into hither—it might be more than reviled than regular sniping, but it sure is fun to run around with a weapon non meant for close-quarters and dominate anyway. (Nevertheless, my power to really do that comes and goes, and mostly goes.)
Jorge: Snipers are fiends and devils but sometimes you need a devil or 2 to win the game. Sniping is fun in moderation.
Morgan: If snipers went abroad, I'd have nobody to counter-snipe. Every Yin (me, a respectable rifleman) needs its Yang (a sniper who'due south merely in it for the headshots).
Jody: Nah, Fraser'southward right. Villains ane and all.
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Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/do-snipers-ruin-multiplayer-shooters/
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