The Fall of the Shotgun

Written by Scott Tuesday, 04 November 2008 22:22

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In the days of Doom and Duke Nukem 3D, the Shotgun was the weapon to search a level for. In Resident Evil, it would decimate zombies faster than you can say cheap Hollywood knockoffs. How far it has fallen...

I must make this clear from the outset, I am a Shotgun “fanboy”, in so much that I love the simplicity of its operation and how brutally efficient it is at close-quarters. The Shotgun’s design hasn’t really changed in the past 100 years, and there’s been no reason for any evolution. It works; why fix it? Without going to extremes, a Shotgun is a smooth-bored gun that fires cartridges (known as Shotgun shells in the US) of various types. You can fire just about anything you want from the Shotgun; from Buckshot (multiple smaller metal balls) up to a single slug for increased penetrative power. They are useful for fast-moving targets because they create a spread of fire instead of the single path that a bullet from a rifle creates. This however limits range and penetrative power.

It is the limit of range that I have most issue with. A properly designed  shotgun can have an effective range of up to 37m (122ft) which is far beyond what today’s games allow. It means that the shotgun we’re using in our beloved first and third person shooters are in-fact a shadow of what they are actually capable of. Sure, games are never intended for realism but if your rifle can fire the entire length of a map (i.e. even if it’s real range is greater than the size of the map, it is irrelevant), why is the shotgun limited to what appears to be 2m (7ft)? Balance?

Bullshit! If a rifle (such as the Barrett .50 Cal M82 on Call of Duty 4) can kill in a single shot over the entire size of the map, how is that more balanced than a shotgun that can kill at 35m? Sure, say that if the shotgun was made powerful, it would be used by “campers” and the like and would promote their tactics of lying in wait of easy pray. Well…why should we stop this? It’s a valid tactic – if you can’t beat them or get frustrated, just don’t go to the area of the map that they are currently squatting in!

Just this evening I was playing the Call of Duty: World at War beta and was just messing around with the classes (as I’ve reached level 34, I’ve got quite a few weapons to choose from) and thought it was time to try the Shotguns out. I loaded myself up with the Double-barrelled Shotgun, Sleight of Hand (faster reloading) and Steady Aim (better shoot-from-the-hip accuracy) perks and went about my jaunt through the Xbox Live world. I was pretty frustrated with what I found out; the shotgun is useless. I shot at an foe (on Hardcore Team Deathmatch, I should add) who was maybe 6 metres in front of me and it didn’t even register a hit on either shot! Treyarch, are you telling me the Shotgun, to be balanced, has to have a range less than 6 metres? C’mon! You’ve made a frickin’ MG42 heavy machine gun available to walk around with (then you really are Duke Nukem) so why is the Shotgun relegated to the 3^rd division?

This isn’t a new trend either; most modern FPS games have suffered from the castrated shotgun syndrome with the exception of a couple of gems – Halo: Combat Evolved and Rainbow Six: Vegas. The M90 Shotgun in Halo: Combat Evolved was ruthless. It would shred Grunts into powder before they could do that Wookie dance they just so love to do. The Shotguns on offer in Vegas were equally brutal, offering a realistic alternative to that bloody FAMAS. Still, that’s not enough. I want a real shotgun that can tear off limbs at 20yards (Treyarch is half way there). Gears of War had a very solid Shotgun too but it was seriously limited in terms of range to the point where the Longshot (the sniper rifle) was more useful at short to medium range.

This has been both a rant and a design tip to any games developers that may stumble across it. Everyone calls the Shotgun the “n00b” weapon because it requires less skill…but if it works, why avoid it? I’d rather see a rocket launcher be removed from an arsenal than have this gimped, limp boom-stick.