A Love Letter to the Third-Person Cover Shooter

Let me set the stage for you. It's the late 2000s, and the gaming world is shrouded in a muddy grayish-brown hue for some reason. Games of all genres are coming out, embracing the impressive power of the first next-gen consoles to the fullest, and too many games are featuring the music of Godsmack.

One game genre, though, seems to reign supreme. Whether it was in Ghost Recon games, Gears of War, or anything in between, the third-person cover shooter was absolutely the genre of the decade. After Gears of War changed the game, everyone wanted in on the fun and for damn good reason. It just made sense. Why were we shooting and running around without any cover for so long?

This tweak changed that to make games feel way more realistic and way more fun to engage with, making even the most mediocre titles that used the mechanic feel at least playable. But then, all of a sudden, it just stopped. The third-person cover shooter is a relic of the past, and I want to figure out why.

4 The Disappearance of the Get Down

Where's My Cover, Man?

In terms of third-person cover shooters to come out in the 2020s, I can think of a small handful. Hitman has it, though it's not really the point of the game. You also have Mind's Eye, Mafia Remake, and, while not a single-player experience, Helldivers 2. That's it. We used to be fed at least 5 of these games per year, and now, you really need to think about the games like this that have even come out in the past decade.

It was a genre that you could say was over-saturated to the point that it started to feel stale, but damn, does absence ever make the heart grow fonder in this case? It's gone and seemingly gone for a good while. I can't lie, I actually enjoyed a bit of Mind's Eye gameplay solely because it felt like that era of gaming I referenced. I love cover-based shooters, and yet, to get my fix, I'm forced to replay old Gears of War games or play Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, which is 7 years old at this point.

The biggest shame about this is that so many games would benefit from bringing this style of combat back to the forefront, and yet we've somehow devolved in this regard. Shooters absolutely suck from a gameplay perspective now, and the lack of being able to use cover is a big reason why.

3 Games That Thrived Behind Cover

Only Made Things Better

If you think I'm being outlandish with this take, let's check out some games that greatly benefited from its implementation. There are the obvious ones like Gears of War, of course, but then there are games like the Mass Effect series, which used it to give a sort of realistic feel to the otherwise far-future combat, and really getting the cover mechanic down is what made the series gameplay evolve with Mass Effect 2.

Another great game to use it was Spec Ops: The Line, which was a gritty, pulls-no-punches military shooter with an incredibly gripping story. The cover mechanic was needed here, or the game would've just felt pretty stupid without it. It even made copycat games feel like they were relatively decent. For example, ever played The Bureau? It's a Mass Effect-like (we need more of these) with some great cover mechanics and a fun story. The gameplay made that game a decent time.

It's also been a boon to some mid 2000s classics like Army of Two and one of my favorites, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. Cover was everywhere, but it was used in games that made sense. In games that wanted you to feel like your life was literally on the line, this was required. Max Payne 3 is another one, despite the first 2 games being freestyle run and gun, the third game was far more realistic and therefore, required the cover mechanic to actually make sense.

2 The Games That Missed the Boat

Why Have We Gone Backwards?

The most baffling thing about all of this is that games with guns still exist in excess. While some may think we've gotten a bit more PC in the gaming space and that guns are featured less and less, it's not really the case. Maybe that's true in regard to modern feeling games, that in fact is true, but we still have tons of sci-fi shooters and fantasy games with guns.

The problem is that the shooting in these games feels like garbage. For example, I liked The Outer Worlds 2 a good bit, but the combat was just horrendous. There are levels set up with tons of cover, but why can't I put my back against any of it? I can duck my head behind cover, only to have my head exposed and hit by snipers because Obsidian chose to go without a competent cover system. It's the kind of flaw that completely takes you out of the experience.

Another good example is Starfield, which I again enjoyed a solid amount. But the combat, of which there is a metric ton, feels terrible. It's almost insulting to play through because you know what? The enemies take cover! They have a cover system, yet you, the main character of the game, are limited to crouching behind cover. I pray every day for a mod to release me from how weak the third-person shooting feels in this game because of the lack of a good cover mechanic.

It shouldn't be something that you have to think about adding or not. It should be the norm. Have gun, will cover. If you're in a firefight in real life, are you taking cover? I feel like you are, so why are games like Starfield, which go for a mostly grounded approach to sci-fi, having such terrible shooting mechanics? It's an answer I'll never get to a question I've been asking for a long time. But reinforcements are on the way.

1 We're Bringing Cover Back

In 2026, Look to the East

I've been begging to any deity that would listen for this awesome mechanic to make a comeback in modern games, and thankfully, in 2026, we have some games that might be able to alert other studios that this shouldn't be an option. This should be the norm. First up on the docket is coming in just a few weeks with 007: First Light. Leave it to IO Interactive of Hitman fame to give me exactly what I'm looking for. Sure enough, this fantastic-looking game features the third-person cover shooting of yore.

It's got plenty of other mechanics at play too, but that's kind of my point. We don't need games to be just cover-shooting galleries. That's what caused the genre to get oversaturated in the first place. But if you're going to have a game with guns that features the third-person view, it's a requirement, and luckily, 007: First Light is one of the more important titles to understand the assignment in quite some time. If that game is a hit, as it usually tends to do, other studios, big and small, will notice and then, of course, copy elements of what made it successful.

Other games are using the mechanic coming this year, with the pretty intriguing Blackwood coming out in a few months, but there is one game that will undoubtedly be featuring third-person cover shooting in a big way, and one that should be the push to start featuring it again in a big way: Grand Theft Auto 6. While we haven't really seen any gameplay, third-person cover shooting has been a staple of the franchise since Grand Theft Auto 4 and is certain to be featured once again.

If Red Dead Redemption 2 is of any indication, Grand Theft Auto 6 is going to follow suit with some great cover mechanics. While the previous games mentioned could nail that aspect of the game, let's be honest, they don't have the pedigree that Grand Theft Auto 6 brings. When GTA comes out, it reteaches the gaming world how to walk, how to talk, and how a game should play. I expect nothing less this time around.