Over the last few days, I’ve been deadlocked in an attempt to clear out my gaming backlog before the big days of Fall land in our laps, and we’re once again swarmed with games to enjoy. Currently, I’m working on Alpha Protocol, 3D Dot Game Heroes and last but not least, Borderlands.
Borderlands is the really curious one, considering it’s a game I stopped playing months ago only to pick back up out of the blue. I forgot just how much fun it is, and the crazed shoot-outs with waves of enemies is satisfying and intense. I’m a level 27 soldier, and my favorite thing is deploying my turret, now sporting caustic damage and rockets that really mess everything up in their path.
While partaking in one of these shootouts, I started thinking about gaming classes. If I had to pick a particular style that suits me for most games, it would have to be some sort of tank or a hybrid of a tank and something a little more specialized, with a few support capabilities. I know that’s fairly vague, but I tend to go all out on offense, preferring chaos over actually racking up kills, and doing what I can to help my teammates in the process. I tend to pick one of the simpler classes in my first playthrough of a game, and then expand from there later.
So, now I’m wondering what your preferences are. What kind of classes do you normally pick in video games? What is your play style for shooters or RPGs? Go!
I typically pick classes that don’t get noticed much aka classes that have something like invisibility. This mainly shows in team fortress 2 where I my job as spy is to not get noticed and kill the enemy behind the front lines. And in Borderlands I chose the Siren because her phase ability is sort of like cloak, and if I played world of warcraft I would probably choose rougue because I hear being invisible is what they do.
I always enjoy trying to sneak around levels with a sniper and pick enemies off.
Closest thing to a sniper in shooters mainly, closest thing to a mage in RPG’s mainly. If I could have the perfect mix, it would be a mage/warrior/spellknight, but those classes always seem to get strange and sometimes weak skills. In CoD, I’ve stayed with assault/battle rifles mainly because CoD is much more balanced when it comes to snipers than other shooters, and players really do have to pick loadouts for specific situations in most cases.
Well, I quit MMOs, since with them, no matter what happens with classes, if someone’s slightly more overgeared than you, you’re toast.
For TF2 though, I prefer Heavy, Pyro (No, I’m not W + M1), Demo, and sometimes soldier or scout. Pretty much, all the loud offensive classes. Kablooie!
I guess I’m the oddball out here, since I like being the support charcters in games. In Alien Swarm and TF2, I play the Engineer. Most of the time though, I’m a spell caster/cleric.
I mean, someone’s gotta do it. 🙂
In games like Battlefield, I tend to play the Medic. The exception to this is Bad Company, where I feel the Medic class is a bit to unwieldy, what with being both the support gunner and the healer. In that case, I go with Assault.
Generally, I’m the medic type, unless there’s already enough of those, then I’ll go with the battering-ram class.
TF2 is a little different for me. If I’m playing with a friend, we’ll do the Heavy-Medic combo and switch every round. If I’m on my own, I do Pyro or Sniper. If I feel like messing around, I’ll do Spy. This is the only case where I’ll play that kind of class.
I like to be support classes, like the medic in BFBC2, although I don’t care for being medic in TF2 because you’re pretty much forced to only heal and your weapons are near useless. However I will be a medic if the team doesn’t even have one.
Typically I’m always a healing class. Healer Pally on WoW, Medic in TF2, & Medic in Battlefield series (Crazy Medic FTW). I think the reason being, is I don’t trust others with my life…It seems I always have to save Mitch’s ass in BC2…
In FPS games I play stealthy based classes and may throw in a C4 or 2 to create havoc behind enemy lines. In BFBC2 I would primarily play engineer as the silent SMGs and an anti-vehicle weapon suited me to the ground. Recently though I’ve been playing as an assault with a G3. This is the closest I can play as to the Specialist from BFBC1 as I get my trademark C4s (among my friends I’m notorious for my use of them). In MW2 all of my classes had Cold-Blooded Pro making me on helluva sneaky bastard.
In RPGs however I tend to favour an all-round class but primarily focusing on warrior based fighting styles. I don’t do stealth in RPGs as it never really works out for me (Oblivion, Fallout 3, etc = FAIL) but I play as Zevran quit a bit in Dragon Age: Origins so DA:O appears to be an exception.
In TF2, I’m usually a Pyro, Scout, or Medic. Sometimes I’ll play as a Demoman. As for other FPS’s, I’m always switching classes. ALWAYS. In CoD4, I’ll switch from a Stealth class to a Big Guns + Rockets class from one spawn to the next. I really don’t have one preferred style of gameplay, and maybe that’s why I “suck”, but for the most part I like being able to survive. There just aren’t many FPS’s that have really varied classes with noticeably different play-styles.
As for RPG’s, I’m usually a Warrior of some sort, but I like being able to heal or use some sort of magic or ability. I don’t play MMO’s or typical D&D-esque RPG’s, so I can’t say for sure what my play-style is, but if there’s a class with good endurance and the ability to learn spells, I’ll probably take that class. I like being strong and being able to support my teammates.
[quote comment=”12534″]Typically I’m always a healing class. Healer Pally on WoW, Medic in TF2, & Medic in Battlefield series (Crazy Medic FTW). I think the reason being, is I don’t trust others with my life…It seems I always have to save Mitch’s ass in BC2…[/quote]
That’s because I’m the front line guy drawing all the aggro! How many M-COM stations have I taken down with a well placed M203 round?
I kill stuff.
It really does depend on the game. I like classes with an invisibility skill so for borderlands I went with the siren, but back when I was playing TF2 I couldn’t use the spy to save myself. Nor did the infiltrator do much for me in Mass Effect 2. In TF2 I played a lot with most classes, but the soldier pyro and sniper are the classes I’ve logged the most hours on, medic wasn’t far behind. I like to mix things up, not get stuck in one style of play, but at the same time it also means I never excel at one particular role, but I’m cool with that.
As for RPG’s I haven’t played many, my computer couldn’t play Fallout 3 at anywhere near a decent framerate so that fell by the wayside fairly quickly cause I’m too cheap to upgrade. I did put a few dozen hours into Oblivion where I was using the Assassin build – sneak attacks ftw 🙂 But then I got to a point in the story where I had to infiltrate a cave filled with Mythic Dawn agents. When you enter you have to give all your items to one of them and in my rush to escape I didn’t get them back. Since I had already completed all of the Thieves guild and Dark Brotherhood quests as well I really didn’t want to restart with a new character so I gave up on that too.
My favorite class is usually a well-balanced one, but in many cases such as Borderlands or Oblivion, I go for the agile character. I love playing as the Siren in that game because I’m leveled up to where I can regenerate health while Phasewalking. The Siren’s ability opens up a whole new world of tactics, such as flanking and sapping, which have really saved my ass.
In Oblivion, I often found myself walking instead of fast-traveling, so I spent a lot of time working on Light Armor and Athletics just so I could run around blazingly fast.
In racing games, I always go for the balanced or standard class, given my complete indifference towards the gameplay. The same goes with fighting games, just a well-balanced character.
In a fast, pumping game like Team Fortress 2, it was too frantic with the Scout to make any real difference in combat, so I became comfortable with the support classes, such as Pyro and Medic.
In something like Oblivion, I’m always a stealthy thief, in Borderlands I was the sniper, but I HATE the sniper class in Battlefield. It really depends on the game.
In Deus Ex I was a Hacker/Lock-Pick expert and upgrade my pistol and pistol skill so it was the only gun I needed.
Again, really depends on the game, but I usually like to do things silently, professionally and efficiently, just like real life =D.
My favorite class is typically the one with the LMG.
I love being able to lean into the trigger and not have to worry about my accuracy because my squaddies are moving around while I draw the enemy off. BC2 makes me really happy cuz the Support class has the LMG AND the Defib. Nothing makes me quite as happy as having a big gun and healing capabilities.
In games like Far Cry 2 however, I prefer to take a stealthy approach to things.
And as far as RPGs go, I don’t play those alot.
Yeah the Medic is easily my fave class in Bad Company 2. Like you said, Sam, I love having the LMG and really just distracting everyone while also being able to rez my teammates. It gets a nice balance for me, because I just love causing chaos in the enemy ranks. I’m too impatient to be stealthy in most multiplayer games, and often just get myself killed.