Where did all the 'tacticool' games go?

[dope_danny]

Lately i've been going back over my ps2/xbox heug games to revisit games i loved to see if they hold up. Something i've noticed is genres that died out either partially or totally between then and now. One in particular was the 'operator' or 'tacticool' genre. Small 3 or 4 man crack squads in games where they are inserted into hostile environments to use stealth, tactics and strategy to take on superior numbers to do tasks that should be very hard to complete.

You had games like Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, Rainbow Six, Star Wars Republic Commando and so on that offered something different to the lone one man army killing machine power fantasy games of the time and while there have been a few attempts to revive the genre with games like Doorkickers and R6 Seige for the most part it remains a product of the mid 90's to mid 2000's thats largely gone with the modern versions leaning more to multiplayer esports or tablet gameplay instead of a traditional shooter with a tactical focus.

Did you ever get into these games? why do you think they dont have much of an appeal nowadays?

To save time i mean this kind of gameplay ethos:

[Kaleredar]

Isn't that kind of what x-com is about? And other turn-based tactic games?

[dope_danny]

Isn't that kind of what x-com is about? And other turn-based tactic games?

No these were first or third person real time games. Rather than arranging units and hoping rng responds they were real time situations. Like using commands to tell teammates to cover a door and a third to throw a flashbang through a window. That goes off, the others breach the door and you run in. You mess up or get noticed and it becomes a regular firefight strongly balanced against your favour. You are aiming in real time, the enemies are doing stuff in real time and there is no time to stop and think like a turn based game.

[Poppincaps]

Star Wars Republic Commando was my shit

[Zogarth]

Not sure if this is exactly what you are talking about, but I remember having a blast playing Swat 4 at lans.

[Deleted]

Desert Storm on the PS2 was my jam.

[dope_danny]

Not sure if this is exactly what you are talking about, but I remember having a blast playing Swat 4 at lans.

yep, swat 4, socom. small real time squad based shooters where tactics are king instead of mindless shooting.

[Schattenlied]

yep, swat 4, socom. small real time squad based shooters where tactics are king instead of mindless shooting.

instant gratification, gamification, micro-transactions, and marketing games towards the non-gamer crowd for $$$ happened.

What's gonna make more money, another CoD clone for the masses or a brutal tactics game that will punish the hell out of you for even the slightest mistake? The CoD clone, so that's what everyone and their mother makes now because all they give a shit about is money... Even Battlefield was butchered to make it compete with CoD when it was not even supposed to be in the same realm.

[Joathen]

Conflict: Desert Storm, Socom, Rainbow Six, MGO (Twin Snake & MGS4 versions,) Repub Commando, etc..

The genre had a ton of great works in the 90's and early 2000's, the only thing I can recall in recent memory is Siege. :/

[dope_danny]

Conflict: Desert Storm, Socom, Rainbow Six, MGO (Twin Snake & MGS4 versions,) Repub Commando, etc..

The genre had a ton of great works in the 90's and early 2000's, the only thing I can recall in recent memory is Siege. :/

I think for me seige feels almost like a party game or team deathmatch instead. A good one of these games should have like a dozen gunshots tops and you get out like a goddamn ghost. Breaking down walls and going spray and pray like its the division is not very cash money.

[I Push Buttons]

Socom was my childhood.

Too bad Socom 4 was awful and killed the franchise. I thought the Socom made by Slant Six was alright after a couple patches, was pretty faithful to the originals, but it wasn't very popular.

RIP in pieces Socom.

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On topic though, I think the same thing happened to these games that is happening to Call of Duty right now. The genre just became super saturated and the sales suffered (and the sales were probably never that great to begin with relative to Call of Duty), so they killed themselves with constant new release spam.

[Bronan]

These games need good AI for your AI team mates, and most companies suck donkey balls at making non-retarded AI that doesn't get in your way or doesn't do stupid shit. When it's enemy AI, it's fun, doesn't matter, but when it's allied AI, it matters A LOT. Look at Alien: Colonial Marines, that's some stupid ass allied AI.