7th's Dementia: Something On Shotguns.

I like shotguns in videogames. Specifically, the ones that are long range, a la the original shotgun from Doom (NOT the Super Shotgun, although it IS stronger close up) and the shotgun from the Serious Sam series. I like those a bit more than the ones where you do the most damage up close, which while useful, can be quite deadly if you only have, say 20 hit points left. The shotgun's one of the most used weapons in video games today, but why?


Frankly, they're the most useful weapons in video games. Hell, even the Unreal series has a shotgun equivalent in the Flak Cannon—on a technicality, I suppose. It shoots a bunch of shards outwards similar to a shotgun. Anyway, shotguns have always been one of the more useful weapons in shooters like Doom and Quake.

When Doom 2 came out, they introduced the Super Shotgun, something that's been in most Id games since. You then had a shotgun that was effective at long range and one that was effective at short range, the latter being more powerful (and needed for bad guys like the Hell Knight, Archvile, and Arachnotron). Quake followed the pattern, and Quake II gave the Super Shotgun the range of two yards. Serious Sam follows suit as well, with one shotgun being excellent long range, and one excellent short range.
However, later on, they became a little less useful because more and more developers decided that shotguns should be short-range. You can see this in games like GTA III, Half-Life, and Call of Duty. It seemed that when everyone decided to follow the leader, they focused more on the “more power, less range” aspect. The shotty in Halo is probably worse than the Quake II Super Shotgun. Red and Blue totally ripped on it, making Sarge unable to shoot Grif even though they're about one warthog apart from each other.

Nowadays, though, you can find shotguns of any range, especially in games like Team Fortress 2 or Left 4 Dead 2. The shotty in TF2 has a decent enough range, but is still more effective up close, while the Chrome Shotgun in L4D2 is more of a long range one.

Granted, in real life, it all depends on the type of ammunition you're using. Buckshot gives the more short range feel, but slugs give the long range attack. It goes into video games as well. In SWAT 4, for example, you can choose whether to go with the standard buckshot or slugs. I tend to go with the beanbags. Less likely to get flagged for excessive force.

Anyway, it doesn't look like shotguns are going away anytime soon.