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Do Not Run with a Gun: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{Video Game Examples Need Sorting}}
{{quote|
In most [[First
One specific variant rarely found in newer games also prevents enemies from performing any actions at all while being attacked (because their "flinch" animations interfered with their "firing" animations) or knocked off ledges, which allowed one to run up and wail on them using a melee weapon with impunity.
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Also applies to several 2D games, stopping the player in their tracks when they take a shot (or swing a sword, whatever). The most common way around this is to attack while jumping.
''Partly'' [[Truth in Television]], as in real life, firing while on the move does limit the accuracy with which one can fire, particularly if that motion is faster than a slow walk. And it's indeed quite difficult to attack when you're being hit in the face. However, in reality a well-trained troop or law enforcement professional can maintain reasonable accuracy while moving at a brisk shuffle. And oftentimes; most people aren't trained like that.
Many newer games will simulate this with accuracy factors for weapons, where the shots travel somewhere within a cone that gets wider as the player moves faster (first popularized in Tom Clancy licenses, but now common). This has created a minor genre split between "tactical" shooters where players will slow down, [[Crouch and Prone|crouch, or even go prone]] to increase accuracy, and "classic" shooters that concentrate on high mobility and fast aiming. Not really the same as [[I Just Shot Marvin in
{{examples
* Due to engine limitations, [[Halo Zero]] features this.
* Most (older) FPS games, such as ''[[Doom (
** ''Doom'' also featured the part about flinching interrupting firing. This specifically combined with the Arachnotron's high flinch rate (near 50% of bullets fired at it make it stop shooting) to make that enemy almost harmless when on its own if the player attacked it with the chaingun or plasma gun.
** Similarly, the low firing rates of ''[[Marathon
*** Actually, this was still possible for a lot of the weaker enemies even on Total Carnage. Try it with Enforcers or Troopers though and you're bound to get a nasty surprise.
** ''[[Time Splitters]]'' is a pretty notable case because enemies could and would slide, strafe and roll... but could not shoot while doing so.
*** Averted in its spiritual successor, ''[[Perfect Dark]]'': The enemies actually seem to be ''more'' accurate when they're walking towards you and spraying bullets.
** For ''[[
*** Mind you, said running is done in a quick "trotting" manner.
** Notably, the original ''[[Half-Life (
** Averted in ''[[
* Taken to an extreme in ''[[
* [[The Elder Scrolls Four|TESIV Oblivion]] averts this quite nicely by allowing both player character and NPCs to fire arrows or spells while moving in pretty much any direction. All shots go in the exact direction the crosshair was pointing when fired (effects of gravity on arrows aside), but shots are not instantaneous. As such the accuracy problem is that it is not a matter of shooting at where your target is so much as where they will be when the projectile closes the distance... [[Artificial Stupidity|which is less of a problem than it sounds]] [[Fake Difficulty|IF you can compensate for gravity]].
* The original ''[[Tomb Raider]]''. This was fixed by Tomb Raider 2, though.
** Though somewhat inverted in TRs 2 and 3 with Lara's M16 and MP5 weapons, with which Lara had to stand still while shooting.
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** It's really rather weird that Harry, James, Heather, Henry...the entire Silent Hill protagonist group, basically, are able to walk and shoot; while the lead characters of the Resident Evil series - virtually all of whom are highly trained law enforcement officers - cannot. When you're being chased down a hallway by a pack of angry zombies, backpedaling three steps, then shooting, then backpedaling three more, then shooting again, becomes '''very''' aggravating, especially against the "molasses in January" zombies of the first three games.
*** Considering that "Highly Trained" in this case is [[Idiot Plot|by Raccoon City standards]], it makes more sense.
* For the same reason, ''[[
** Many more recent FPS games do this, especially with semi- or full auto weapons. Generally the higher the firerate, the more this effect happens and the longer it takes to "brace".
** In ''[[Operation Flashpoint]]'', it is possible to fire while running, but it's so terribly inaccurate that hitting anything is akin to winning a lottery. Nevertheless, AI soldiers can sometimes be seen doing it. Firing while walking is somewhat more practical, but only at the closest of ranges.
* ''[[
** ''[[Splinter Cell]]'' uses this as well, with the added stipulation that sustained fire becomes gradually less accurate. This encouraged players to maintain the 'stealth' aspect of the game by firing in short, controlled bursts.
** Similar in ''[[Mass Effect]]''. There is an armor upgrade that improves accuracy while moving.
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* ''[[Devil May Cry]]'' has weapons that can only be fired while walking(At best) and stopped(At worst). Not that it stops the [[Mook Chivalry]]-lacking enemies from running and gunning. The pistols, however, can be fired in midair and used to hover. This makes them probably your best weapons.
* There are several exceptions in ''[[First Encounter Assault Recon|F.E.A.R.]]''; the clone troops can fire while running if they're holding a light weapon such as the submachine gun, although this makes them very inaccurate - otherwise they tend to kneel and provide covering fire for their moving comrades. The flying robots can keep firing lasers as they move, and the big stompy robot can fire missiles while it clomps around. The other characters, however, must remain stationary to fire.
* The ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' games, from the third game on, have the convention of letting you run around while firing small or inaccurate weapons, while forcing you to stand still while firing more powerful guns. ''[[Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas]]'', however, ups the ante by letting you move slowly while firing the more powerful weapons, though that's once you reach a certain skill level (and even then, your movement speed when ''not'' firing them is still slower if you're holding them out).
** ''[[Grand Theft Auto Vice City]]'' decided what weapons you could and couldn't use while running based on whether they were one- or two-handed. Of course, there was a mod that made all the guns in the game single-handed. This removed the hassle of having to choose weapons based on the situation (a positive or negative feature depending on the point of view), but had the side effect of making the protagonist highly ridiculous as he ran around shooting a freaking ''[[Gatling Good|minigun]]'' single-handed.
*** Or better said, ''[[MANLINESS|over-the-top badass]].''
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* ''[[Alien Soldier]]'', another game created by [[Treasure]], has the player character able to swap from Free Shot to Fixed Shot at any time.
* Most [[Real Time Strategy]] games' ranged units can only move or fire, not both. If there's an Attack-Move order, expect them to move until a target is in range and then stop to fire.
** In general, units that have to stop to attack effectively give melee units a real chance of getting close to their targets before being shot. Most games that avert the trope don't have melee units. Also, even units capable of moving while firing will usually stop as soon as they enter firing range of the target; they're free to move closer but usually have no special inclination to do so.
** ''[[World in Conflict]]'' is another notable exception. Almost all units can fire on the move, but their accuracy suffers from it. Infantry can't fire weapons while sprinting, though.
*** ''[[
** Certain ''[[
*** Siege Tanks are deployable, which forces them to be immobile to use their powerful attack.
*** [[Star Craft 2]] keeps this for the most part, with the ability to "micro" unit that can't normally move and shoot being a very important part of high-level play. A special few units, such as the Protoss Phoenix, actually have to ability to move and shoot at once.
** ''[[Dawn of War]]'' averts this quite realistically, with some units able to be fired on the move and other, especially heavy weapons, require the units to be standing still and sometimes they even take time to set up their weapon to fire. Even weapons which could fire on the move suffered a penalty which originally reduced their maximum accuracy while firing on the move to 50%. Unfortunately, the ''Dark Crusade'' expansion ruined the mechanic by changing the default fire on the move accuracy to 15% for almost all units, making fire on the move almost completely ineffective for most units.
*** Needless to say, there is a strategy called "dancing/kiting" where the objective is to force your opponent to move while shooting, allowing you to gain the advantage.
*** ''[[Dawn of War]]'' 2, the sequel, utilizes the distinction even more aggressively, with most normal infantry and vehicles being able to move and shoot at the same time, while squads that use heavy weapons like Plasma Cannons or Shuriken Platforms, which can easily obliterate practically anything in their path in a matter of seconds, can't and require set-up before they can actually get down to business.
** [[Total Annihilation]] was subverts this. Units are divided into the mobile platform (legs, wheels, etc.), and a swivel, allowing units to shoot and move independently.
** In Supreme Commander the same is true, but the effectiveness of a walking unit depends much on the calculations used for their aiming. Cybran units, for instance, are generally more effective at attack-moving because they generally use fast and accurate ammo, like lasers and guided missiles, while the UEF is usually poor at it, because the units have trouble calculating the ballistics of their weapons when they're moving (and even less when the target is also moving). To compensate, both were balanced, so that the Cybran weapons generally cause less damage for their higher accuracy and mobility.
** [[Advance Wars]] played this trope straight for artillery units up until Days of Ruin/Dark Conflict, but only the battleship could move and fire on the same turn.
** ''[[Star Trek Armada]]'' gives a director's cut option, which causes ships to dogfight rather than stand-still and attack. In some cases, it deadlocks battles and causes you to turn it off.
** The original ''[[Command
*** Although the later games within the [[Command
** Units in ''[[Company of Heroes]]'' will shoot while moving, possibly in an attempt to lay down suppressing fire. It's also possible for tanks to shoot either it's main cannon or auxiliary guns while moving.
** All combat units in ''[[Outpost]] 2'' can fire and move at the same time. This actually is used in strategy when units of the same class (and hence, move at the same speed) can outrun the enemy's gun range while laying fire.
* ''[[
* Equipping a rocket launcher or sniper rifle in ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 2'' forces you into first-person view, which disables your movement controls. To adjust position or dodge, you have to un-equip them. Fortunately, you can tap R2 to quickly un-equip and re-equip weapons.
** In the first ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'', while Snake could move while equipping weapons, once he started aiming or firing he was locked in place unless the player pressed and held the crouch button. It was awkward to do this while trying to fire, which was apparently on purpose, to stress how difficult it really is to run and fire a gun at the same time. Later games made it progressively easier - ''2'' moved the "run and gun" button to the other side of the controller, and every game since didn't even need you to hold another button to move while aiming or firing.
*** MGS4 completely changed the combat mechanic, allowing Snake to run and gun. It was incredibly useless, as the fire was inaccurate. The only advantage to it was that it would ''generally'' (but not ''always'') make the enemy duck behind cover. Of course, since this is a ''stealth'' game, it was generally inadvisable to do this.
**** In 4's online component, while you can technically move while aiming, bringing your gun up will slow you down significantly, and if you fire while moving, it still reduces your accuracy. There are several equippable skills within the game that reduce this effect a little, however.
* Neither you nor your enemies can attack while moving in the ''[[Crusader:
* [[Inverted Trope|Inverted]] in the shmup ''Suguri'': for most weapons, the titular ''player character'' becomes immobile, except when using the relatively weak but high-fire-rate machine gun (or the beefy flamethrower.)
* In a way this trope shows up in most tabletop RPGs, since they are turn-based. For instance in 3rd Edition [[Dungeons
* A strange example of the variant in ''Rainbow Six''. Running into an enemy prevents him from shooting you because he is busy being pushed. So if you suddenly bump into a terrorist while reloading, don't run away from him, run into him.
* Some ''Mega Man'' examples:
** In ''[[
** ''[[
*** Zero is the one who really takes it on the chin here; in several of the ''X'' games, he puts away his Z-Saber after each attack or combo, and you can't move till he does this. (You also can't move till his ''ponytail finishes falling.'') However, in the [[PS 1]] ''X'' games, Zero can cancel his basic sword attacks at ANY moment by using a dash (default O button). This removes the recovery time allows you to keep moving or create a chain combo. The [[
** This is also done in the ''[[
*** The ''Battle Network'' series also makes it possible for attacks to be interrupted due to the flinching animation. However, from the third game onwards, the game rewards you for [[Counter Attack|doing this to your enemies]] in various ways.
* The villain of ''[[Metroid]] Fusion'' is the SA-X, an alien wearing a copy of Samus's Power Suit at its best. (Samus, of course, has picked up the [[Bag of Spilling]] in the intro.) Its overwhelming power makes you appreciate any little flaw you can
* Averted in ''[[Ratchet and Clank]]'', where you sometimes grind a rail and shoot simultaneously.
* ''[[Castlevania]]'' heroes can rarely move while attacking. In games with many weapons available, it depends on which one you're using; certain weapons (such as the Blue Knuckles in ''Symphony of the Night'') are more valuable than they seem because they can be used on the go. Also handy is the backdash move, which will sometimes cancel attack animations early, returning control to the player (and letting you strike again faster than you're "supposed" to). [[Speed Run
** One factor which makes the Crissaegrim a [[Game Breaker]] is the ability to attack without slowing down while using it. Later games in the series keep this ability (and its Japanese name: Valmanwe) but it's balanced by a much lower ATK stat.
** In ''Rondo of Blood'' Maria can throw her birds while walking. Most of her other moves focus on mobility as well.
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* One interesting aspect of the balance between ranged and melee classes in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' is that, generally, ranged classes ''must'' remain stationary to attack, while melee classes can strike while running. Instant cast spells and Hunter shots can be fired while on the move, but anything with a cast time (And a handful of Hunter shots, such as Multi Shot, have a hidden 0.5s cast time), as well as Shoot (For wands and non-hunter classes) and Auto Shots forces the player to stop still to shoot.
* Lampshaded in the ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'' intro cinematic. Upon seeing [[Elite Mook|a Tank]] bearing down on them:
{{quote|
Bill: "Both!" }}
** Also, subverted during gameplay, where moving will widen the 'target box' crosshairs: This increases the margin of error for the player's shots. Crouching improves your aim, though standing still is almost as good. This effect is negligible when zombies are immediately in front of you, but is much more obvious when attempting to shoot down far-off Infected with an M16, pistols or sniper rifle.
*** And becomes painfully obvious when you have a sniper rifle and are entangled by a smoker. You have a second or so to shoot him before becoming helpless, but he's already dragging you, which counts as moving, which greatly reduces your accuracy. An M16 or shotgun still has a chance of hitting the smoker despite this, the sniper rifle really doesn't.
* Non-shooter example: In ''[[
* Averted in [[GURPS]], using a ranged weapon while running is possible but penalizes skill quite a bit without the Gunslinger advantage.
* Even though you can fire while running in [[
* Notable aversion in flight simulator games as stopping to fire generally means you're gonna stall out and crash into the ground. In fact, being planes, it's impossible to truly stay in one place (unless the plane has landed, in which case shooting people probably isn't the pilot's first priority); the player is expected to fire both guns and other ordnance accurately while moving and turning at fast speeds.
* The popular [http://www.runestorm.com/page.php?2 Ballistic Weapons]{{Dead link}} mod for ''[[
* Most games in the ''[[Battlefield (
* In [[
* In [[Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines]], other characters will usually stand still and shoot. Some can try to run away if you come close, but practically everyone just pulls out a melee weapon. It's not very easy for you either though, unless you have a high Ranged and a stable hand.(Not very easy to run sideways. Backing up and shooting is extremely easy, and is a very good way to kill most stuff if you have the room.)
* In ''[[Mount
** It's worth noting that the player can fire pretty much every ranged weapon, moving or not (there is a major accuracy penalty for trying though) but they cannot reload a crossbow unless they are standing still or on horseback.
* The ability to walk while aiming (and shooting) in ''[[Dead Space (
* In [[Mass Effect]], your accuracy goes down when you're on the move. That said, enemies usually either charge or shoot, not both.
* In ''[[Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45]]'' your avatar will actually uncock the hammer on the Tokarev when they sprint. The same goes for other weapons which can be similarly disengaged, otherwise, they'll be put down and be unusable.
** Also, you can run and gun, but it's not advisable because you do not have crosshairs and the only gun that has any indication of where the bullets are going are the light machine guns because of their tracers.
* Tripwire's other FPS, ''[[
* In ''[[The Godfather (
* In ''[[Dark Forces Saga|Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast]]'', you can't move while using the sniper rifle, [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|even though the AI can]]. There actually is a way to do so, namely, crouching while aiming, but this ability is gone by ''Jedi Academy''.
* No matter how much you want to, you cannot move while priming a [[Boktai
* Halo is likely one of the most popular subversions of this trope. The player is free to move, aim, and shoot to their heart's content. Halo3 added heavy weapons, and while movement speed is reduced, jump height and aiming speed are maintained, and [[Halo: Reach]] took a leaf out of the more realistic first-person shooters' book and included a sprint function that lowers your weapon.
* In [[Cosmic Break]], your mech cannot move while [[More Dakka|alpha-striking]] (attacking with all your mech's primary weapons simultaneously), unless it has the "Moving Burst" upgrade, which allows some mobility. Also, running or flying reduces weapon accuracy.
* A rare RPG case. In [[Might and Magic]] VI-IX, while your party can run around while attacking, casting spells, or firing arrows. All enemies have to pause, go through their attack animations, and then continue moving.
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* Subverted in ''[[Medal of Honor]]'' series, while some enemies stop to shoot, others will run-n-gun with [[Improbable Aiming Skills|no decrease in accuracy]]. Also, they continue firing at you while flinching/knocked back. Precision aiming (ie iron sights) in ''Frontline'' originally prevented you from moving, but the HD remake allows you to move while using the iron sights.
* Averted in [[World of Warcraft]], while this used to be true for hunters, recent patches and the addition of aspect of the fox allows them to stay entirely mobile while attacking, Shaman also have spirit walk, a fifteen second buff which allows them to cast any spell on the run.
* Played straight in [[
* Partly played straight in ''[[Resonance of Fate]]'', as normally you have to stand still to shoot, but averted with Hero Actions, which allow you to both run and jump through the air, all the while firing away.
* Tabletop ''[[
** Vehicles similarly have firepower restrictions based on their speed. A stationary vehicle can fire all of its weapons, a vehicle that moves at "combat speed" can fire only a single weapon (plus anti-personnel "defensive weapons"), while a vehicle moving at "cruising speed" cannot fire any weapons at all. As with other units, certain types of vehicles have fewer restrictions.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Guns and Gunplay Tropes]]
[[Category:Video Game Tropes]]
[[Category:Sublime Rhyme]]
▲[[Category:Trope]]
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