Sniper rifles are notoriously broken and overpowered in video games like Call of Duty, Battlefield, and other multiplayer shooters. From long-range shots to 360 no scopes, it’s time to take a look at why sniper rifles often struggle to translate to video games.
Sniper rifles have a rocky history in video games like Call Of Duty, Battlefield, and other multiplayer shooters. The complex physics of real-world long-range shooting is fundamentally too difficult to translate to video games, leading developers to both simplify sniper rifles and also exaggerate their drawbacks to keep them balanced.
In this video, we’re going to look at what sniper rifles are, how they are used in games, the extreme compromises used to balance them, some things developers aren’t trying to make easier, and what happens when they are forced onto small maps. We’re also just going to marvel at the skill of some players who can quickscope and even do 360 no scopes.
If you love multiplayer shooters, make sure to head over to GameSpot’s YouTube page to watch our Firearms Expert Reacts series, our coverage of Call Of Duty: Cold War’s mid-season 3 update that includes Rambo, and ongoing coverage up to the release of Battlefield 6.
totally not cia operator
10.04.2022you forgot to mention how hard it is to look through the scope, and how disorienting it can be
Kevin Clapson
10.04.2022Hard to harp on snipers in general when games like COD have ridiculous weapon balance across the board. In Warzone you have rifles throwing laser-accurate automatic fire past 50 yards. Outside of a mounted weapon that's not a "thing". You've also got machine pistols and pistol caliber carbines effectively doing the same, and at ranges up to 100-150 yards. Would love to see a gun-tuber bring out a Vector or even an M4 that can run full auto and display how nonsensical that is.
Damp
10.04.2022i call BS on the pips of the scope not working on BF. I have played BF since BFBC2 and never zero my gun, I just use the pips. they might seem inconsistent from rifle to rifle but once you learn a rifle you can use them reliably.
DigitalBerserk
10.04.2022Artillery strike was the best counter to snipers, making them kill one and move to another place.
Mystninja
10.04.2022Thank you. It's about time somebody understands.
Suzume s
09.04.2022"this is probably more accurate than soldiers never ever getting tired from running continuously" no, my unit got very good at running in the army. Even our bigger guys could run marathons, and I wasn't in a super-high-speed-special-ranger-delta-seals-infantry unit, we were just a standard artillery battery with over a third of our unit failing height and weight.
RavenKStudios
09.04.2022Snipers are in RL quite OP, the problem is that they have barely any drawbacks in Games and that they are to many, especially in Teambased games.
I can't recall how many times I've lost in Battlefield etc. because half of my team is sniping and since we as a community aren't allowed to host our own servers anymore with our own rules, we are screwed.
Also a big problem is, that Support-Roles are (Sometimes) harder to play and are less rewarding than just killing people.
Will H
09.04.2022Isn’t everything broken in these games?!?
Drunk Husband
09.04.2022People who main snipers in video games are a day away from becoming child molestors
SamWentDigital
09.04.2022seeing some Bad Company 2 gameplay made me smile (,:
Nye
09.04.2022The scope you mention is fine, but mil dots work just as good tbh, if people know how to understand them. Also, the shots in video games are almost always crazy. With anything above a 4 power optic (let alone a 12 power) shots from standing are really hard because the movement looks really crazy even though its the same as if you had a low power. Regardless, you can't see what you are shooting at. Sniping is typically done from prone or worst case kneeling/ sitting. Standing is just crazy
Natedoc808
08.04.2022In real life optics, there can be MOA (minute of angle= 1inch at 100yards) system of adjusting your optic or the optic can have the horizontal hash marks at each MOA known as bullet drop reticle. There are some optics that have these markings calibrated for the application such as an AR firing a 62gr 5.56 nato round so you know if you zero with that optic you hold dead center at 100, 2nd hash at 200, 3rd hash at 300 etc. combine this with first focal plane optics where if you zoom in the scale zooms also therefore your holdovers never change despite having zoomed in. Other optics use the Mil-dot system which has more complex math than MOA but most military guys I know prefer it and much like your comment about the dragunov, you can use this system in a first focal plane optic to closely estimate range based on the size of the person in the sight picture. Scope glint is a real thing but can be mitigated pretty easily with sheer fabrics. Having breath control is also critical in real life distance shooting. You can very easily have a very effective long range accurized rifle that isn’t terribly heavy with a very effective distance optic chambered in rounds accurate to 1500 yards, it can be semi-auto or bolt action with back up or canted iron sights and still be an effective firearm in closer combat. I definitely wouldn’t want someone who can run a bolt shooting .308s at me in shopping center or urban environment, let alone an M14 DMR!!!
Eusedrio SD
08.04.2022a smart way to dont broadcast your position in games because of sniper big scopes is having ironsight
TiberiuS
08.04.2022ArmA3 ACE3 Advanced ballistics sniper here. (waves)
It's actually fun to learn all this. If you know the physics and how ballistics work and you land the perfect shot after carefully calculating and dialing your mRad settings on your scope it's even more rewarding!
AbeMickey Gaming
08.04.2022Just make it more realistic…most people have to either mount or lay down with a tripod while sniping and snipers are heavy …so your speed should be decreased…instead of adding all the unnecessary bs …like the flash that you give off while hard scoping ..I'm not saying it's not possible to stand and snipe .. but come on..you should have to mount for support…thats all these games need to do is add realistic aspects to what weapons we are shooting…and stop over exaggerating what they feel the game needs
JG II
08.04.2022Aim Assist.
Digital_Nex
08.04.2022peaple might hate me for saying this but i hate snipers in cod specially warzone
Desert Duck
07.04.2022Honestly a way to balance the snipers close range vs far range would be to mess with the damage dropoff value.
In BF4, as example, the weapons all have a min/max damage value based on range to help balance them, but the snipers all have really insanely high damage values up close and drop down to almost half damage at long range. This means something that can one-shot body someone up close can't one-shot at range, unless it's a headshot, but it still means they can one-shot body someone at close range.
If they exaggerated the dropoff model they could drastically re-balance how snipers are used. SMGs and pistols already have really quick dropoffs to force them into CQB, assault rifles and carbines are in the middle, DMRs stretch out a little and retain a decent damage just beyond assault rifle range, and snipers lose their damage a little farther, but the sheer power they do makes them viable basically everywhere.
If the snipers did NOT have a damage curve, and shot a flat damage value regardless of range, you could make it a 2-shot body 1-shot head at all ranges, especially at ranges where other weapons could not. The advantage is the range and accuracy, but up close the speed of working the bolt is a disadvantage just how it would be in a literal sense. If the player can score headshots might as well reward them, but it will curb the potential to just go for easy center mass one shot kills.
theDemolisher13
07.04.2022Honestly the best answer I got for countering these types of players behaviors is just make half of the player classes on the map immune to 1 shot deaths from headshots. Look at Planetside 2. Heavy Assault has a activate-able energy over shield that makes them take 2 shots at minimum to kill with a sniper. Infiltrators run around with a cloak so they can't be spotted. And Max Suits take only 12% damage from a sniper headshotting them and 6% from the body. Finally when there is like 100+ players on the field running around in the front line with a bolt action rifle becomes a really bad idea due to you running into groups of 8+ hostiles.
Johan Ottosson
07.04.2022Yupp… Arma players are different.
R3mii
07.04.2022One game I can think off that has the most balanced snipers in a game with a long TTK is dirty bomb. It’s only one shot when you hit a head shot. Besides that it’s 2 shot.
TF2 snipers takes a lot of skill too.
mas nospmoht
07.04.2022snipers do b hitting thoes trick shots
CsquidyC
07.04.2022Because of the 1 hit kill potential, snipers don't have a skill ceiling.
ChickenTit
06.04.2022i still don’t understand why semi-automatic snipers are so shit in video games, but then bolt action rifles are 20x better.
im betting my right asscheek that a 9mm bolt action gun would outperform a SVD
OwlyChan
06.04.2022Love how how brings up hard core arma players and it's the dude sitting on his kestrel
Almond Bread
06.04.2022Yeah one shoting someone by hiting their toe with sniper rifle
And and leaving someone one shot away from death by shooting in torso pointblank with shotgun
Is stupid
PittenZak94
06.04.2022Completely agree with scope glare. It is the worst thing to come into sniper gameplay.
Aiber
06.04.2022"What happens when snipers play their role?"
Well in Insurgency sandstorm everybody else in the lobby would lose the match because the last standing guy happens to be a sniper who's set up in a sniper nest way outside the objective point.
Enforcer1975
06.04.2022Gosh yeah snipers are totally shit….they should really just give them some of the real life disadvantages so not everyone uses them. Same with shotguns…..hosted a F.E.A.R. server back then when it came out and modified the hell out of the shotgun looking at amount of projectiles, spread and other things. The players liked it and didn't moan.
A Kam
04.04.2022The more I watch this, the more I wonder:
Is the game that has broken sniper rifles, or reality with weak ones?
Seriously, why do we care about realistic portrayal in so many games? It's a game. Embrace it before realistic set dressing, unless the point of the entire game is realism.
Devin Thebeau
04.04.2022not in black ops cold war
Ps1 Hagrid
04.04.2022“Some sort of optical range”
That one guy in BO3 running with a reflex on his locus: NO
Carl15
04.04.2022i see people not commenting about the mobile game "lonewolf" it is the best sniper game which will take range, wind, and bullet travel into the gameplay.
Roman
04.04.2022Why play CoD at all when you have Escape From Tarkov?
3ho Subnautious
04.04.2022Did he just complain about quickscopers, with having weapons with a slower ads time, very slow fire rate, so if you miss, you're done, and it's not always 100% consistent?
FoxYin_11
03.04.2022well, it's not broken in other games, such as TF2
GhostArmy1
03.04.2022I honestly have no clue how i landed a 493 meters headshot in bf5.
Kyle
03.04.2022Finally! I now know what the other markings in the scopes are for
Platius Cyndar
03.04.2022> talks about hitscan vs non-hitscan
> shows footage from a titanfall game
> picks the only titanfall game where all hitscan weapons are actually lasers
Oooh man…
Cjbrod
03.04.2022Americas army fixed this flaw
James
03.04.2022shotguns in bf4 is even more broken
Ericorg
31.03.2022If fps games tried to simulate body armor a little bit more accurately, this would vastly improve balance from sniper rifles, as a shot in the middle of the chest would not insta-kill anyone.
eclipsewrecker
31.03.2022Should need to lay down to steady the scope.
and there should be a randomness to the long range placement from middle of the screen to where the scopes crosshair is.
Scopes should be blurry when moving.
michael justice
31.03.2022Lol broken because you can't hit the shot.
ahoz28
31.03.2022MW Gameplay 🔥🔥🔥
Theodore Bear
31.03.2022It's stupid but I like useing the vlk on modern warfare because it's a 3.5 magnification and it has no glint.
Maxiephly
31.03.2022For the people who want to play a game that DOES handle sniper rifles realistically, come and play some SQUAD. yes it’s not as fast paced as a cod or battlefield but it has one thing. Realism. And it has a ton of it.
Matthijs de Ronde
28.03.2022Fun fact, weapons in Halo 2 are not hitscan but they have very very high bullet speed. Which does create the same effect as hitscan
andrewmaclean98
28.03.2022the thing about close range run and gun style sniping though is you still need to hit headshots, and doing that at close range is not easy without using the scope, but by the time you have to scope at your eye an assault or medic will have blow you away long ago. If you didn't need to hit headshots at close range it would def be broken but in its current state it seems alright to me personally. Anyone who can be running around in close quarters with a sniper and is dominating has my respect, their accuracy and reaction time has to be on point as if they miss their shot they are dead. Maybe Cod is different though, I haven't played any of them in the last decade.
Poopoowater 123
28.03.2022How about point of aim and Impact? For instance a bullet flys in a rainbow arc. When you “zero” what ever range you zero at. Your point of aim will be the same as where your round lands. Anything under aim high. In-between aim low and past the far zero aim high again.