Third person shooter

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Screenshot of the third-person shooter Dead Justice by Cat Mother

Third-person shooters (abbreviated TPS , from English third person , " third person " and shooter , "shooting game") are video games in which the player observes the world from a perspective that is normally positioned behind the main character ( third- Person perspective ) and in which ranged combat is an essential element of the game.

Development, definition and conventions

The name of the genre is considered to be its definition: Third-person shooters are all games in which the perspective is positioned behind the main character and in which the use of firearms is the focus. This means that especially Max Payne , Freedom Fighters and Mafia typical examples.

A problem with defining third-person shooters is that while many games can be defined as such, they still belong to other genres to some extent. It is usually assumed that a third-person shooter could also be a first-person shooter if the perspective were transferred into the eyes of the protagonist (and there are even many games in which the player freely between can switch between both views so that they can hardly be assigned to one of the two genres). The fact that this genre actually developed in parallel from various other genres over many years means that third-person shooters usually differ in many ways from the name-like first-person shooters .

Origins and Development

The origins of the genre can be traced back to action adventure games like Alone in the Dark . There an attempt was made to transfer the genre of graphic adventures to a 3D engine and to complete action elements. This was followed by games like Bioforge , Fade to Black and later the well-known Resident Evil series . Especially with Alone in the Dark and Resident Evil, however, you can see that the fight should mainly form a completion of the adventure-typical puzzles (although the Resident Evil series in particular now comes very close to a typical third-person shooter).

In 1996, the British development studio Core Design succeeded with Tomb Raider in revolutionizing action adventure games to such an extent that they come very close to today's idea of ​​a third-person shooter. In Tomb Raider it was possible for the first time to move the protagonist (in this case the protagonist Lara Croft ) with convincing freedom of movement through a real 3D environment. The Jump 'n' Run Prince of Persia was obviously used as a model for the presentation of freedom of movement, as Lara Croft's climbing and jumping style is very reminiscent of that of the Prince, so that it becomes clear that the Jump 'n' Runs are also third - Have shaped the person shooter genre. However, Tomb Raider is still more of an action-adventure than a third-person shooter, as the focus is on the puzzles and getting around the world, not the battle.

For many reasons, including technical ones, the third-person shooter genre did not develop into a solid position in the game market until around the year 2000, and it was during this period that the term was only used more frequently. It was games like FAKK² or Max Payne that ultimately really shaped the third-person shooter genre. It is precisely these titles that show the wide range of this genre.

Defining examples

FAKK² shows that the conventions are far more comprehensive than the definition of the third-person shooter. This game is recognized as a typical third-person shooter, but contains puzzles, bouncing, and close-range and long-range combat. The game thus contains action adventure , platforming and slasher elements. Only the fact that ranged combat is included causes the game to be perceived as a third-person shooter in the game scene. From a purely technical point of view, one can speculate about the classification of the game or it can be defined as a mixture of all these genres. Other examples of this problem are BloodRayne , Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell , Hitman and Grand Theft Auto , where several genres come together and the “shooter element” is overshadowed.

Ultimately, games like Max Payne and Freedom Fighters are ideal third-person shooters , where the game view is primarily a stylistic question, so that it could have been implemented as a first-person shooter and ranged combat is actually the only option of the player. The actions of the player are reduced here to exchanges of fire with enemies. Fight-free moments do not contain any challenges, but only serve to build up the atmosphere and to continue the plot .

Summarized conventions

Since the third-person shooters, as explained above, developed in parallel from several other genres, their usual characteristics can be summarized as follows:

  • Usually the narrative level is much more pronounced than with first-person shooters (since it would seem much more bizarre if a hero, viewed from the outside, is mute and works without objectives, than in a first-person shooter, where he is Representation often limited to his hands and weapons).
  • Puzzle levels are represented much more frequently and designed with greater effort than in first-person shooters (which is a logical consequence of the fact that third-person shooters have largely developed from action-adventure games).
  • The variety of movements and the scope of interaction possibilities of the main character is usually greater than in first- person shooters (since the external perspective means that a hero without exotic or natural options for action appears particularly static and it also allows extremely dynamic maneuvers such as roles and Somersaults can be displayed without the player losing orientation - in a first person shooter such actions would be very confusing).
  • Locomotion-related challenges such as jumping and climbing are more common than in first person shooters (which is due on the one hand to one of the origins in the jump-'n'-run genre and also to the favorable perspective and great variety of movements).

Sub-genres

  • Tactical shooter : Here strategic aspects are in the foreground of the fighting and the reaction time does not usually have to be as fast as with the other genres.
  • Stealth Shooter : In this genre, the player must be quiet and inconspicuous and should avoid fights if possible.
  • Arcade shooter: In this genre, the player fights alone or in a group against a horde of non-player characters .
  • Arena shooter: In this genre, the players play in a defined area, which is usually characterized by fast movements, long jumps, wall runs by the players and the use of explosive weapons (e.g. Quake )
  • Hero Shooter: They work similarly to MOBAs , where the players control a hero character who has special abilities and characteristics and fight against other hero characters, mostly in teams in which the heroes support each other through their mutual skills.
  • Survival Horror (e.g. The Last of Us )
  • Battle Royale (e.g. Realm Royale )
  • Role play
  • Action adventure and interactive film

Examples

literature

  • Matthias Bopp, Rolf F. Nohr, Serjoscha Wiemer (eds.): Shooter. A multidisciplinary introduction . Lit-Verlag, Münster 2009, ISBN 3-643-10189-9 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Return of the Arena Shooter - Why the good old gameplay is coming back in 2017. March 28, 2017. Retrieved June 7, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Lisa Fleischer: The best hero shooters that you absolutely have to play. In: GIGA . August 6, 2016, accessed June 7, 2019 .