Learn about how the hero shooter genre is different from anything else you've ever played!
Hero shooters are subclass of the wider shooter genre. Like the name implies, shooters rely on gun-play where player interactions boil down to how skilled they are, the environment they are fighting in, and what weapon(s) they're using. Hero shooters however, add another dimension by adding characters with specific abilities tied only to them and grouping similiar character together to fill certain roles on the team.
The names of these roles may change from game to game, but they genarally go by "Tank", "DPS", and "Support" by the Hero Shooter community as a whole. The Tank typically has lots of health or ways to keep themselves from getting damaged and their job is to protect their team and act as the frontline to push into areas their team is trying to either take control of or keep control of. The DPS role, DPS standing for damage per second, is designed to take out the enemy players and keep the numbers advantage on their team's side. Supports are the team's backbone and provide help through healing, buffing the team, debuffing the enemy team, and providing tools to keep the team in the fight for longer. Each role has characters that fulfill these jobs differently, but these are the main ideas behind the three.
Some common playstyles and strategies you'll find in these games are "dive", "poke", and "sustain", which again may be referred to differently depending on the community. Dive characters excel at jumping in and out of combat and are typically looking to K.O one or two enemies before the enemy team realizes what's happening before escaping. Sustain characters like long drawn out fights that force the enemies to waste time and resources trying to capture their objective, usually a location or payload that needs to be delivered elsewhere. Poke characters rely on long-range attacks that either deal considerable damage or have a large radius of damage and want to snipe off enemies at low health or behind their team. These styles counter eachother with divers being too fast for pokers, sustainers being able to withstand divers burst damage, and pokers being able to outrange sustainers.
Test your knowledge by answering the questions below:
1. What is a Hero Shooter?
a) A subgenre of Shooters focused on interactions with the environment2. What are the three roles in a Hero Shooter?
a) Tank, DPS, Support3. Which role protects the team and acts as the frontline?
a) Tank4. A character that excels in quickly engaging and taking out an enemy while still being able escape would be which role?
a) Sustainer