Shooter game

This article is about the video game genre. For electro-mechanical shooting games, see Arcade game. For carnival shooting gallery games, see Carnival game.

Shooter video games or shooter games are a subgenre of action video games where the focus is almost entirely on the defeat of the character's enemies using the weapons given to the player. Usually these weapons are firearms or some other long-range weapons, and can be used in combination with other tools such as grenades for indirect offense, armor for additional defense, or accessories such as telescopic sights to modify the behavior of the weapons. A common resource found in many shooter games is ammunition, armor or health, or upgrades which augment the player character's weapons.

Shooter games test the player's spatial awareness, reflexes, and speed in both isolated single player or networked multiplayer environments. Shooter games encompass many subgenres that have the commonality of focusing on the actions of the avatar engaging in combat with a weapon against both code-driven NPC enemies or other avatars controlled by other players.

History

The concept of shooting games existed before video games, dating back to shooting gallery carnival games in the late 19th century which gradually evolved into more sophisticated light gun-based electro-mechanical games (EM games) such as Sega's Periscope (1965). Contemporary shooting video games have roots in older EM shooting games.

Spacewar!, recognized as one of the first video games in 1962, was also the first shooter video game; it featured two players controlling spacecraft trying to fire onto the other player. Spacewar! was the basis for the first arcade video games, Computer Space and Galaxy Game in 1971. In the 1970s, EM gun games evolved into light gun shooter video games. The first home video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey, shipped with a light gun for a shooting gallery game.

The genre gained major attraction in popular culture with the release of Taito's Space Invaders arcade video game in 1978. Besides establishing the basis of the shoot 'em up subgenre, Space Invaders became a cultural phenomenon that led into a golden age of arcade video games that lasted until around 1983.

Through the 1970s to early 1980s, most shooting games were presented from a 2D top-down-style perspective, with either a fixed or scrolling field. Games like Space Wars (1977) by Cinematronics and Tempest (1981) by Atari used vector graphics displays rather than raster graphics, while Sega's Zaxxon (1982) was the first video game to use an isometric playfield. Shooting games diversified in the mid-1980s, with first-person light gun shooting gallery games such as Nintendo's Duck Hunt (1984), pseudo-3D third-person rail shooters such as Sega's Space Harrier (1985) and After Burner (1987), and military-themed scrolling run and gun games such as Capcom's Commando (1985), Konami's Green Beret (1985) and SNK's Ikari Warriors (1986). In the late 1980s, Taito's Operation Wolf (1987) popularized military-themed first-person light gun rail shooters.

Doom (1993) by id Software is considered the first major popular first-person shooter (FPS), and it was a major leap forward for three-dimensional environments in shooter games as well as action games in general. While the earlier games Spasim (1974) and Maze War (1974) for PLATO computers were effectively first-person shooters, they featured wireframe graphics and lacked the fidelity of texture that Doom brought. And while first-person perspectives had been used by rail shooter and shooting gallery games, they lacked player-guided navigation through a three-dimensional space, a defining feature of FPS games.

The use of texture-mapped 3D polygon graphics in shooter games dates back to Sega AM2's light gun rail shooter Virtua Cop (1994), before appearing in FPS games starting with Parallax Software's Descent (1995). GoldenEye 007 (1997) for the Nintendo 64 later combined the FPS sub-genre with light gun rail shooter elements from Virtua Cop, popularizing FPS games on consoles. In the late 1990s, FPS games became increasingly popular while rail shooters declined in popularity, as FPS games were generally able to offer more variety, depth and sophistication than rail shooters. One of the last mainstream light gun rail shooter franchises was The House of the Dead horror game series in the late 1990s, which along with Resident Evil had a significant cultural impact on zombie media including zombie films by the 2000s.

Subgenres

Shoot 'em up

Main article: Shoot 'em up

Shoot 'em ups are a specific subgenre of shooters wherein the player may move up and down and left and right around the screen, typically firing straight forward.

Shoot 'em ups share common gameplay, but are often categorized by viewpoint. This includes fixed shooters on fixed screens, such as Space Invaders and Galaxian; scrolling shooters that mainly scroll in a single direction, such as Xevious and Darius; top-down shooters (sometimes referred to as twin-stick shooters) where the levels are controlled from an overhead viewpoint, such as Bosconian and Time Pilot; rail shooters where player movement is automatically guided down a fixed forward-scrolling "rail", such as Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom and Space Harrier; and isometric shooters which use an isometric perspective, such as Zaxxon and Viewpoint. This genre also includes "run and gun" games which emphasize greater maneuvering or even jumping, such as Thexder, Contra and Metal Slug.

Shooting gallery

Shooting gallery games are a sub-genre of shooting games where the player aims at moving targets on a stationary screen. They are distinguished from rail shooters, which move the player through levels on a fixed path, and first-person shooters, which allow player-guided navigation through a three-dimensional space.

Shooting gallery games can be light gun games, although many can also be played using a regular joypad and an on-screen cursor to signify where the bullets are being aimed. When these debuted, they were typically played from a first-person perspective, with enemy fire that occurred anywhere on the screen damaging or killing the player. As they evolved away from the use of light guns, the player came to be represented by an on-screen avatar, usually someone on the bottom of the screen, who could move and avoid enemy attacks while returning fire. These sorts of shooters almost always utilize horizontal scrolling to the right to indicate level progression, with enemies appearing in waves from predestined locations in the background or from the sides. One of the earliest examples is the 1985 arcade game Shootout produced by Data East.

As light gun games became more prevalent and started to make use of scrolling backgrounds, such as Operation Wolf, or fully 3D backgrounds, such as the Time Crisis or House of the Dead series, these sorts of games fell out of popular production, but many like Blood Bros. still have their fanbase today. Other notable games of this category include Operation Wolf and Laser Invasion.

Light gun shooter

Main article: Light gun shooter

Light gun shooters are shooting games that use a pointing device for computers and a control device for arcade and video games. The first light guns appeared in the 1930s, following the development of light-sensing vacuum tubes. It was not long before the technology began appearing in arcade shooting games, beginning with the Seeburg Ray-O-Lite in 1936. These early light gun games used small targets (usually moving) onto which a light-sensing tube was mounted; the player used a gun (usually a rifle) that emitted a beam of light when the trigger was pulled. If the beam struck the target, a "hit" was scored. Modern screen-based light guns work on the opposite principle—the sensor is built into the gun itself, and the on-screen target(s) emit light rather than the gun. The first light gun of this type was used on the MIT Whirlwind computer, which used a similar light pen. Like rail shooters, movement is typically limited in light-gun games.

Notable games of this category include the 1974 and 1984 versions of Wild Gunman, Duck Hunt for the NES, the Virtua Cop series, Time Crisis series, House of the Dead series, and Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles & Darkside Chronicles.

First-person shooters

Main article: First-person shooter

Doom, one of the early games that defined the first-person shooter genre

First-person shooters are characterized by an on-screen view that simulates the in-game character's point of view. While many rail shooters and light-gun shooters also use a first-person perspective, they are generally not included in this category, as the player generally lacks agency to move their character within the game world.

Notable examples of the genre include Doom, Quake, Half-Life, Counter-Strike, GoldenEye 007, Battlefield, Medal of Honor, Unreal, Call of Duty, Killzone, TimeSplitters, Team Fortress 2 and Halo.

Third-person shooters

Main article: Third-person shooter

Third-person shooters are characterized by a third-person camera view that fully displays the player character in his/her surroundings. Notable examples of the genre include the Tomb Raider series, several entries in the Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid franchises, Syphon Filter, Max Payne, SOCOM, Star Wars: Battlefront, Gears of War, and Splatoon. Third person shooter mechanics are often incorporated into open-world adventure and sandbox games, including the Elder Scrolls series and the Grand Theft Auto franchise.

Arena shooters

Main article: Arena shooter

Arena shooters are multiplayer games that feature fast paced gameplay that emphasize quick speed and agile movement, and played out on levels or maps of limited size (the "arena"). Many of these are presented as first-person shooters, and thus Arena FPS may also be used to describe a subset of these games. Examples of these include the Quake and Unreal series, more specifically Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament which first pioneered the genre. Arena shooters can also be played from other perspectives, such as via a top-down view in games like Robotron 2084 and Geometry Wars. Arena shooters frequently emphasize multiplayer modes with few or no single-player modes outside of practice matches with computer-controlled opponents. The genre hit its peak in popularity in the late 90s and early 2000s.

Hero shooters

Main article: Hero shooter

Hero shooters are a variation of multiplayer first- or third-person arena-based shooters, where players, split among two or more teams, select from pre-designed "hero" characters that each possess unique attributes, skills, weapons, and other passive and active abilities; players may have the ability to customize the appearance of these characters, but these changes are usually cosmetic only and do not alter the game's balance or the behavior of the "hero". Hero shooters strongly encourage teamwork between players on a team, guiding players to select effective combinations of hero characters and coordinate the use of hero abilities during a match. Hero shooters take many of their design elements both from older class-based shooters and multiplayer online battle arena games. The class-based shooter Team Fortress 2 is considered to be the codifier of the hero shooter genre. Popular hero shooters include Overwatch, Apex Legends, and Paladins: Champions of the Realm. Hero shooters have been considered to have strong potential as esports games as a large degree of skill and coordination arises from the importance of teamwork.

Tactical shooters

Main article: Tactical shooter

Tactical shooters are shooters that generally simulate realistic squad-based or man-to-man skirmishes. Notable examples of the genre include Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon series and Bohemia Software's Operation Flashpoint. A common feature of tactical shooters that is not present in many other shooters is the ability for the player character to lean out of cover, increasing the granularity of a player's movement and stance options to enhance the realism of the game. Tactical shooters also commonly feature more extensive equipment management, more complex healing systems, and greater depth of simulation compared to other shooters. As a result of this, many tactical shooters are commonly played from the first person perspective. Tactical shooters may combine elements from other shooter genres, such as Rainbow Six Siege and Valorant, which combine the traditional tactical shooter style with the class-based gameplay of hero shooters.

Loot shooters

Loot shooters are shooter games where the player's overarching goal is the accumulation of loot; weapons, equipment, armor, accessories and resources. To achieve this players complete tasks framed as quests, missions or campaigns and are rewarded with better weapons, gear and accessories as a result, with the qualities, attributes and perks of such gear generated randomly following certain rarity scales (also known as loot tables). The better gear allows players to take on more difficult missions with potentially more powerful rewards, forming the game's compulsion loop. Loot shooters are inspired by similar loot-based action role-playing games like Diablo. Examples of loot shooters include the Borderlands franchise, Warframe, Destiny and its sequel, Tom Clancy's The Division and its sequel, and Anthem.

Other

Additionally, artillery games have been described as a type of "shooting game", though they are more frequently classified as a type of strategy game.

Controversy

Many consider the Shooter game genre to be a representation of real world violence. Whether its shooting at a human, alien, or spacecraft, the act of shooting at anything is deemed violent. For a long time, a big concern of violent video games like shooters is that they can cause the person playing the game to develop violent or aggressive tendencies. With all the mass shootings in the past years, from Columbine to Virginia Tech, and many more, the question about the effects that violent video games have on people has been at the forefront of the publics mind for quite sometime . Violent acts in other countries have also brought this concern to light. After school shootings in Erfurt, Emsdetten and Winnenden, German conservative politicians accused violent shooter games, most notably Counter Strike, to incite young gamers to run amok. Several attempts were made to banish the so-called "Killerspiele" (killing games) in Germany and the European Union. Shooter games were further criticized when Anders Behring Breivik, perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks, claimed that he developed target acquisition skills by playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. This has led to a plethora of experimental research to determine the true effects. Experimental Research focused on the short term affects has found that playing violent games can increase the players aggression. In a 2011 Supreme Court case involving a California law, Justice Antonio Scalia stated that there was some correlation between violent video games and increased aggression, but very little real-world effects . An experiment by C.A. Anderson and K.E. Dill, in which they had undergraduates randomly play either a violent or non-violent game determined that the students who played the violent game were more susceptible to primed aggressive thoughts. Further studies have show that there are some limitations with the research , mainly two big limitations . Many research studies have not taken into account that violent video games tend to be more competitive, have a higher playing difficulty, and are more fast paced than non-violent games . Past research also shows that the way aggression was measured in the studies could be compared to the way competitiveness is measured, leaving the question of whether or not the effects of violent video games are forms of aggression or competitiveness .