Modern Day Sci Fi RPG Class Equivalents

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

As of today, shooters with RPG elements have slowly-but-surely became the norm. However, shooters and other gun-games like them can be difficult to make into RPGs without magic, which is why there has to be a collection of equivalents to make-up for the lack of magic. Thankfully, there are two: Explosives such as grenades and rockets, and healing-items such as medkits and defibrillators. Therefore, when creating a shooter, developers have to take into account the following RPG-like shooter archetypes:

  • Soldiers, who possess high HP and defense like the warrior
  • Snipers, who are stealthy, agile, and precise like the rogue
  • Sappers, who use explosives for AoE damage like the mage
  • Medics, who heal and revive fallen teammates like the cleric

Sure, most games don't use medics, and instead have players resort to creating either Soldiers, Snipers, or Sappers. However, these four modern-day archetypes are strong bases for developers wishing to create an RPG in a modern-day or sci-fi setting.

Examples of Modern Day Sci Fi RPG Class Equivalents include:
  • The Assassin's Creed franchise (despite not taking place in modern-times except during the Desmond Miles segments)
    • Main Mechanics
      • Soldier: High-profile combat and evasion
      • Sniper: Low-profile stealth and free-running
      • Sapper: Items such as throwing-knives, poisons, and bombs
      • Medic: Medicines bought from street-doctors
    • Side Mechanics (Assassin's Creed II, Brotherhood, and Revelations only)
      • Soldier/Sniper: Assassin apprentices
      • Sapper/Medic: Renovatable shops
  • Borderlands
    • Soldier: Brick, with some Sapper-capabilities namely with explosives
    • Sniper: Mordecai, with some Medic-capabilities namely with his Bloodhawk bird
    • Sapper: Lilith, with some Sniper-capabilities namely with her phase-walk
    • Medic: Roland, with some Soldier-capabilities namely with his turrets
  • The Call of Duty Franchise's Weapons
    • Soldier: Assault-Rifle, LMG, SMG, and Shotgun
    • Sniper: Sniper-Rifle, Pistol, Machine-Pistol, and Melee-Knife
    • Sapper: Lethal Grenade and Rocket/Grenade-Launcher
    • Medic: Tactical Grenade and Riot Shield (Modern Warfare 2 and 3 only)
  • Contra
    • Soldier/Sniper: Bill (player 1)
    • Sapper/Medic: Lance (player 2)
  • D20 Modern Character Archetypes
    • Soldier: Strong Hero and Tough Hero
    • Sniper: Fast Hero
    • Sapper: Smart Hero
    • Medic: Dedicated Hero and Charismatic Hero
  • Donkey Kong Country
    • Soldier/Sapper: Donkey Kong (minus the explosives)
    • Sniper/Medic: Diddy Kong (minus the medkits)
  • Doom Pick-Up Items
    • Soldier: Armor
    • Sniper: Lightweight weapons, including fists, the handgun, the shotgun, and the chaingun
    • Sapper: Heavyweight weapons, including the chainsaw, the rocket-launcher, the plasma-gun, and the BFG9000
    • Medic: Medkits
  • The Fallout Franchise's SPECIAL stats
    • Soldier/Sapper: Strength and Endurance
    • Sniper: Perception and Agility
    • Medic: Intelligence and Charisma
    • Miscellaneous: Luck
  • The Left 4 Dead Franchise's Weapons and Items
    • Soldier: Submachine Guns, Assault-Rifles, Shotguns, and the M60
    • Sniper: Sniper-Rifles, Handguns, and Melee Weapons
    • Sapper: Pipe-Bombs, Molotov Cocktails, Boomer Bile, and the Grenade Launcher
    • Medic: Medkits, Pain Pills, Adrenaline Shots, and Defibrillators
  • Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Marvel vs. Capcom 3
    • Soldier/Sniper: Active character, who does the majority of the fighting
    • Sapper/Medic: Reserve characters, for assists and tag-switches
  • Mass Effect
    • Player (Shepard) classes:
      • Soldier: Soldier
      • Sniper: Infiltrator
      • Sapper: Adept and Engineer
      • Medic: Sentinel
      • Other: Vanguard
    • Mass Effect 1 Squad
      • Soldier: Ashley Williams and Urdnot Wrex
      • Sniper: Garrus Vakarian
      • Sapper: Kaiden Alenko and Liara T'Soni
      • Medic: Tali'Zorah nar Rayya
    • Mass Effect 2 Squad
      • Soldier: Jacob Taylor, Grunt, and Zaeed Massani
      • Sniper: Garrus Vakarian, Thane Krios, and Legion
      • Sapper: Miranda Lawson, Jack, and Samara/Morinth
      • Medic: Mordin Solus, Tali'Zorah vas Neema/Normandy, and Kasumi Goto
  • Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker's Mother Base
    • Soldier/Sniper: Soldiers sent to Outer-Ops missions
    • Sapper/Medic: R&D, Intel, Mess Hall, and Med-Bay
  • Portal 2, despite it being a first-person puzzle game
    • Soldier/Sniper: The single-player campaign mode
    • Sapper/Medic: The two-player co-op mode
  • The Resident Evil Franchise
    • Resident Evil 1
      • Soldier: Chris Redfield
      • Sniper: Barry Burton (minus the sniper-rifle)
      • Sapper: Jill Valentine
      • Medic: Rebecca Chambers
    • Resident Evil 2
      • Soldier: Leon Scott Kennedy
      • Sniper: Ada Wong (again, minus the sniper-rifle)
      • Sapper: Claire Redfield
      • Medic: Sherry Birkin
  • The StarCraft franchise
    • Sniper/Medic: The Zerg; cheaper to produce (Medic), and can move much faster (Sniper)
    • Balance: The Terran; neither as fast as the Zerg nor as strong as the Protoss
    • Soldier/Sapper: The Protoss; possesses stronger technology (Soldier), and can use psionic spells (Sapper)
  • Star Wars D20:
    • Soldier: Soldier
    • Sniper: Scoundrel and Scout
    • Sapper: Force Adept and Jedi Guardian
    • Medic: Jedi Consular
      • Averted by successor Saga Edition. There is no healing class. Any class can become a potent force power user for two feats (Jedi merely starts slightly quicker, getting one of the needed feats for free and the other as a bonus feat), area of effect attacks are omnipresent thanks to how automatic weapons are handled,
  • Star Wars: The Old Republic:
    • Soldier: Trooper (Republic) and Bounty Hunter (Sith)
    • Sniper: Smuggler (Republic) and Imperial Agent (Sith)
    • Sapper: Jedi Knight and Sith Inquisitor
    • Medic: Jedi Consular
  • The Super Smash Brothers Franchise
    • Soldier/Sniper: Free-for-all games, where players can attack whomever they want
    • Sapper/Medic: Team-games, where members of each team have to work together to win
  • Team Fortress 2
    • Soldier: Soldier, Heavy, melee-loadout Demomen
    • Sniper: Scout, Sniper, and Spy
    • Sapper: Pyro and Demo
    • Medic: Engineer and Medic
  • Too Human
    • Soldier: Berserker, Defender
    • Sniper: Commando
    • Sapper: Champion
    • Medic: Bio Engineer
  • Mongoose edition of Traveller: Doesn't use "classes" per say but has "careers" that determine starting skills
    • Soldier: Army and Marines
    • Sniper: Scouts
    • Sapper: Navy
    • Medic: Scholar (Physician specialty)
  • Valkyria Chronicles series (as of Valkyria Chronicles III):
    • Soldier: Shocktrooper, Armored Tech, and actual Swordsmen.[1]
    • Sniper: Scout, Sniper.
    • Sapper: Lancer (bazookamen/mortarmen).
    • Medic: Engineer.
  1. The game is basically a fantasy Europe at modern war