An important
gameplay mechanic that helped revolutionize third-person shooters in the past decade was the
cover system.
An early cover system was introduced to the 3D third-person shooter genre by Koei's WinBack(1999),[53] and was further developed in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001).[54] Namco's Kill Switch (2003) was later the earliest third-person shooter to feature the cover system as its core game mechanic,[55] along with a blind fire mechanic.[56] Gears of War (2006) employed tactical elements such as taking cover,[57] influenced by Kill Switch,[58] using off-center viewpoints inspired by Resident Evil 4. The game also employed grittier themes than other titles and used a unique feature which rewarded the player for correctly reloading weapons.
[59] Gears of War, as well as games such as
Army of Two (2008), place a greater emphasis on two player cooperative play,
[60] as does
Resident Evil 5 (2009).
[61][62] As of 2009, the third-person shooter genre has a large audience outside of Japan, particularly in North America.
[63]
Vanquish (2010) by
Platinum Games introduced to the genre a gameplay style reminiscent of
bullet hell shooters, with bullets and missiles coming from all directions.
[64] Its most important innovation, however, is the rocket-sliding mechanic that acts as both a defensive escape and an offensive setup, opening up new gameplay possibilities for shooter games.
[65] According to director Shinji Mikami, the sliding boost mechanic was influenced by the 1970s
anime series
Casshern.
[66] Vanquish has since set a new trend that can be seen in upcoming shooters which have incorporated similar sliding mechanics, including
Bulletstorm,
Crysis 2,
[67] and
Killzone 3.
[68]
A recent unique take on the genre is
Second Person Shooter Zato, an experimental 'second-person shooter' released by
Japanese indie developer Himo in 2011. It uses a '
second-person' perspective to display the game from the viewpoint of the enemies looking at the player, rather than the other way around, and makes use of a
split screen to show the perspectives of multiple enemies. The game's perspective was inspired by
surveillance cameras, while the title takes its name from
Zatoichi due to the player character's inability to see.
[69]
The
squad-based third-person shooter
Binary Domain features a Consequence System, where trust plays a part in how the squad views the player, shaping their opinion on their leader based on how the player performs and treats fellow team members. This affects both the storyline and the gameplay, where the characters behave differently depending on trust levels. The player can also talk to the characters using a headset, with the game's
AI being able to recognize six different languages, including
English and
Japanese.
[70]
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