Too Much Death

Here’s one thing I don’t like about Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. You die a lot. Walk around a corner into a rocket and bam, you’re dead. Walk around a corner into a railgun head shot and bam, you’re dead. Walk into a grenade or a mine and bam, you’re dead. And each time you die, you have to lie there on the ground waiting for a medic or for the next spawn. (It was like that in RtCW, too.)

In the good old days (ie. Quake), even if someone fired a rocket right at your feet, you usually didn’t die. You had a chance to at least shoot back or retreat to find some health and fight another day. There was dueling and stalking and strategy involved in fragging people. Half the fun of playing online was learning from and adapting to the fighting style of other players.

Not so in shooters anymore. Now it’s all about the insta-kill head shot. Half the time you don’t even get to see what kills you. It could be a lucky pistol shot from a mile away. It just feels random. I guess it’s more realistic, but I’m not sure I’d call it an improvement in the gameplay and overall fun of the shooter genre.