I believe the term tactical shooter is as old or older than the original R6, certainly far older than COD2 or anything on the source engine.

I'd disagree. Counter Strike Source is far more tactical than CoD4 and MW2 by a long shot. No respawns and team work can effectively be used. Also harder to play... much harder. I don't agree with OFP DR being tactical. My 5 point system for shooters (not vehicle based):

1) Fast pace action shooters. Examples would be stuff like Halo and UT.

2) Action shooters based in the real world. Examples would be CoD.

3) Slower paced but unrealistic shooters that don't thrive for realism. Counter Strike.

4) Light tactical shooters. GRAW 1/2 PC, OFP DR.

5) Tactical shooters or realism based shooters. SWAT 4, Red Orchestra, ArmA 2, Raven Shield.

I think you could get away with condensing it down to just a 3 point scale.

1. Action shooters: Halo, UT, Quake, COD, Counter-Strike, basically anything run and gun with no focus on realism or simulation.

2. Tactical Action: GRAW, OFP DR and Red River, Bad Company 2 (could fit into Action Shooters too, but I included it here because every game mode is objective based.) , SWAT 4, Rainbow Six. These games go for a realistic feel but stop short of simulation.

3. Tactical Simulation: ARMA 2, VBS2. These games focus entirely on realism and simulation.



5 points is too many. There's no need to have 3 categories for what are essentially all action shooters.

I'd disagree with this. I don't agree that SWAT 4 should be in the same category as BFBC2. SWAT 4 is just as realistic as ArmA considering the scope of SWAT type missions.

kicking this back up because of a discussion were having about some upcoming games.

You forgot turn based aswell\plan and go. Some of the best tactical small scale games I've played. My favourite.

Swat4 should be put in the Battlefield (Military)(civil servant) Tactical Shooting#5 with Ghost Recon, Advanced Warfighter, The original Amercican Army, Rainbow Six (Seal Team Six)and Full Spectrum Warriors Ten Hammers.

Not knowing all of them such as "After Ambush", etc... I certainly forgot some.

Creating a classification by numbers to validate the degree of Tactics involved is a genuine and valuable idea.

I completly agree with Flogger23m. It's almost "offensive" putting SWAT4, Raven Shield and Ghost Recon 1 in the same category as OFP:DR!
IMO, Raven Shield and Ghost Recon 1 are in the same category as ArmA2 since both are extremelly realistic - for example all these games model "one-shot one kill" (a thing that OFP:DR does not).
The diference between Raven Shield and Ghost Recon 1 and ArmA2 is that the later models much bigger maps and vehicles but other than this all these games have a similar level of realism.

I agree or prefer the "3 point scale" regarding tactical/FPS games but IMO, they should be something like this:

1. Arcade: CoD, Bad Company 2, Counter-Strike, HALO, Quake, etc...

2. Semi-realistic: GRAW, OFP DR and Red River, Battlefield series(?), etc...

3. Realistic: ArmA series, SWAT4, Rainbow6: Raven Shield (and older R6 games), Ghost Recon 1, etc...(or maybe not, unfortunally)

Zombie thread! This thing's over a year old. LOL



Plenty of one shot kills in OFDR.


I'd put all Rainbow's, even the originals and GR's in semi, or whatever is one step down from sim. Highly tactical, but more in strategy than execution like Arma and SWAT IMO. Maybe SWAT, mainly since you never know what to expect in SWAT.

I might not put OFDR/RR in with Arma, but I would before GR and Rainbow. And I love some GR and Rainbow. It's a cut above the last gen of GR and Rainbow as well.