Idlectic

I’ve been playing FPS games semi-professionally (yes I played for money) since the advent of the popular Half Life mod Counter-Strike. I’ve had my fair share of tournaments and won myself and my team some cash and/or trophies. The last tournament I played was back in 2008 with a little game called Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, with my current clan CEBU (Combat Elite Battle Unit) – considered to be the best CoD4 clan in the country, sponsored by Razer. Though the days of playing semi-professionally may be behind me, my competitive nature still pulls me back in to friendly competition and skirmishes with my friends and online strangers. This helps me brush up on skills that diminish with age; younger players have faster reaction times and better hand-eye coordination. Through the years of playing FPS games, I’ve picked-up quite a few pointers (from friends and opponents alike) that I always adhere to whenever playing semi-professionally or even casually, and I’d like to share them with whoever is interested by posting it on my blog right here.

Okay, you won’t exactly become an uber FPS player just by reading a guide, but at least it will push you in the right direction. Keep in mind that my preferences are those of team-based tactical FPS games so some of the pointers I’ll give might not apply to all.

Pick Your Target

Remember this well: pick one target only. If you happen to come across more than one enemy, pick one target only and focus all of your bullets into this one target. Picking which target to shoot depends on the situation. Situations may depend on the game’s rules or even the team’s objectives. Listed below are some of the options you might choose depending on the situation.

• Weakest Link – If the game you’re playing provides information about the enemy’s health and an enemy is near death, or if you think an enemy is near death, or if your team mates say that an enemy is near death, kill that enemy first before moving to another target. An enemy with 10% health can kill you as quickly as an enemy with 100% health. Eliminate the weakest link and that’s one less enemy to worry about.
• Highest Threat – Usually, the enemy that provides a greater threat to you or your team should have a sign on top of his head saying “Kill me first!”. If you come across a couple of enemies and one is wielding a submachine gun while the other a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, it should be instinctive or automatic that you point your cross hair at the one with the bigger gun or the one that can deal the most damage. However, this might not always be the case. In some FPS games, the enemy with the biggest gun may also be the enemy with the heaviest armor. If so, shift your aim to the weakest link.
• Support Character – This is the same with playing RPGs or MMORPGs, teams tend to kill the support characters of the opposing team first before killing other targets. In FPS, this support character is often a medic. You don’t want your efforts wasted when a medic revives an enemy you just killed. Try to pick them off first before shooting anyone else.
• Closest Target – If you happen to come across several enemies that are spread out, the simplest and perhaps the most obvious choice is the closest target you can shoot at. The closer the target, the higher the chances of you hitting that target. Most FPS games today also have a range modifier, where farther targets receive less damage from bullets, so it really doesn’t make sense pew pewing those that are far away from you.

Once you’ve picked your target, always kill that target first before aiming at someone else. It doesn’t really help to go trigger-happy, spraying bullets and praying some of them will hit someone. Do not stop shooting at your target until he’s down. One dead enemy is one less gun shooting at you and a full team of 5 wounded enemies is still a full team of 5 guns.

Know Your Weapons

Almost all FPS games offer different kinds of weapons, with different damages, damage types, and effective range. It helps to know what weapon is effective at what situation. Here’s a short list of common weapons you can find in an FPS game.

• Hand gun – Hand guns generally have short range, weak stopping power, and weak recoil. There are exceptions though, some hand guns are extremely powerful at close range, but with a low number of rounds and a strong recoil being the trade-offs. In any case, a hand gun is only used as a back-up weapon, specially when your primary runs out of bullets and the target is still standing.
• Shotgun – A shotty, as some pros like to call it, is probably the most overlooked weapon in the game. It’s effectiveness is limited to close quarters battle (CQB). It’s high damage output however is not a joke. A shotgun can put down an enemy at close range faster than any other weapon in an FPS game, well, most of the time.
• Submachine gun or SMG – SMGs have a medium to high rate of fire and are effective at close to medium range. They also tend to have a medium recoil so they’re really useful for spraying your enemy with bullets at close range. SMGs are good primary weapons specially when you like to run around bringing the fight to the enemy. They’re not much ideal for a long-range gun battle and are best for close encounters.
• Assault Rifle – Assault rifles are good medium to long range weapons when used correctly. They have a medium to high rate of fire and a good amount of damage with a relatively medium rate of recoil. They are best used to defend key positions or picking off enemies from afar. Assault rifles are most of the the time the bread and butter of a team and serves several purposes from attacking, to defending, to sometimes even sniping. Due to their higher recoil rate compared to the lighter SMGs, they’re not really suited for CQB. However, with an experienced user, it can still be turned into an efficient killing weapon no matter the distance of the target.
• Light Machine Gun or LMG – LMGs are most effective at medium range; with their larger capacity for ammunition, keeping the enemy at bay. They can deliver a large amount of pain in a short amount of time. But with their high recoil rate, they aren’t that effective at picking off enemies from afar compared to Assault Rifles, or spraying at close range hoping for a small grouping of bullets compared to SMGs. You can still kill at longer distances but you’ll end up shooting one to two bullets at a time with longer than usual re-aim times.
• Sniper Rifles – Sniper rifles are sometimes called a noob gun, because noobs tend to avoid firefights altogether and prefer hiding in the shadows waiting for unsuspecting prey. Of course, the sniper rifle is not in any way a noob gun for all intents and purposes, and is reserved only for the elite of the team. Sniper rifles pack a lot of firepower in usually just a single shot. An experienced sniper can even kill a moving target in just a fragment of a second. They are highly effective at medium to long range, and in the right hands can even be as lethal in close range; some pros use them as an improvised shotgun should an enemy get too close. Most sniper rifles are only single shot bolt-action but some may be semi-automatic with a lower damage as the trade-off.

Know When to:

Hip Fire or Aim Down the Sights

FPS games nowadays sport an additional aiming mode aside from the traditional hip fire mode – aim-down sight. Aim-down sight lets the player aim down the sight of a weapon to get more accuracy with the trade-off of movement speed and aiming speed. Hip firing lets you move around faster but sacrifices your accuracy greatly. In any case, if the FPS game you’re playing features aiming down the sight, you should only hip fire on two, AND ONLY two conditions: (1) when you are using a weapon that makes aiming down the sight irrelevant, such as a shotty, or (2) when the enemy is really close. Otherwise, if you have an enemy in your line of fire, aim down the sights. It will help you deal a concentrated amount of damage in a small area thus increasing your chances of hitting a target.

Fight or Flee

Thinking whether to fight or to flee is a calculated decision based on several factors. You might think this is just a simple case of a “Do or Die!” decision but when tactics are involved, being alive is always a benefit to your team – unless you’re the village idiot.

If you find yourself under fire unsuspectingly, from a hidden enemy, quick thinking may mean the difference between life and waiting for the next round or re-spawn time. FPS games feature a hit indicator telling you the general direction where a bullet came from. If you know that the enemy is far away from you (by gunshot sound volume), it’s better to run and find the nearest cover and reorient yourself to face the enemy. If the enemy is close, quickly face the enemy and shoot back, and pray you kill him first.

If you find yourself alone facing several enemies, think twice about engaging them. If they aren’t aware of your presence, then the element of surprise is definitely on your side. You can give them the jump and take down as many targets as you can before dying, or you can pick off one enemy at a time alternating between taking cover and shooting back. But if they know all too well where your current position is, it’s better to remain in cover, or fall back and call for back-up. If you think you’re a better player than any or all of them combined, and have the balls to go n against 1, then by all means be the hero, just make sure you get out alive.

Burst or Full-Auto

Burst firing is pulling the trigger (or holding down the mouse button) in intervals to fire a few bullets at a time. Deciding whether to burst or full-auto depends on 2 things: (1) the weapon you’re using, (2) the distance of the target. Just like hip firing, going full-auto should only be done when an enemy is really close, but that also depends on the weapon you’re using. A simple practical test of the weapon you’re using should determine the distance from where you should burst or full-auto.

Stand far in front of a wall and imagine a target painted onto that wall, or find a wall with some sort of decal that’s roughly the size of a human target. Now using your weapon, shoot at the target with 5 bullets continuously, holding down the trigger. Examine the grouping of the bullet holes. If all of the bullet holes are within the target, then it’s safe to say that from the distance you’re standing, you could fire in bursts of 5 bullets knowing that you’re still accurate enough to hit your target. Getting nearer to the target means you can shoot more while getting farther means you should shoot less bullets. Also take note that the more bullets you fire, the longer it will take for you to re-aim at a target between burst shots.

Dodge the Bullets

This fully applies when you find yourself out in the open. Side-stepping can be a real life-saver in these situations. When you are in a firefight with a well positioned enemy, it doesn’t help you at all if you just stay put in your current position. It’s better to keep moving and shooting than be a sitting duck. This also applies when you’re in close proximity with another shooter. Keep moving, remember that a moving target is a harder target to shoot at. Unless you’re playing a western shooter and in a duel, don’t just stand there, move!

An added pointer: when moving, don’t be too predictable. If you have quite a distance to travel before getting to cover, sidestep a bit or jump a little to confuse the enemy. If you just run in one direction at full speed, it’s easy to for any shooter to adjust his aim so that he’s one step ahead of you; You’ll be running into bullets every step you make. So add a little unpredictability to your movements, it may sound silly but it may save your life.

Use Cover

This is very simple and a universal rule in any gun battle, use cover. When you have a target in your sights, it’s better to shoot around a corner of a wall than going out in the middle of a street or out in the open. Also, if half of your body is effectively in cover, whether vertically or horizontally, you are a smaller target for your opponent. This lessens the chances of you getting hit.

Choosing where to take cover is another matter. Different materials in an FPS game have varying thickness, or at the very least, modifiers, to stop a bullet from penetrating them. For example, thin materials like plywood walls are not strong enough to stop a bullet, and bullets will freely penetrate the material and hit whatever is behind it, but with less damage depending on the game. A thicker material like a cinder block wall might completely stop smaller bullets used in hand guns and SMGs, but again may not be enough to stop machine gun bullets from passing through it. In any case, you should be completely aware of the opponent’s weapon and the available cover around you before making any decisions.

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There you go, my first article about some tips and tricks of the trade. Feel free to try out these pointers and observe if they make any difference for you or your play style. You might not get it the first few times but let yourself get used to it, in time you’ll warm up and all of these will become instinctive when playing.

8/24/10 – Corrected a lot of typos.