Sprint

I can't tell you how many times I've heard people tell me "the game needs sprint."

...Why?

Why of all the mechanics we've had in video-games over four decades is this the thing that people get so hung up on? Why are there millions of people who will consider not touching a game, not because it doesn't have skill-trees, vehicles, wall running, co-op, large-scale multiplayer or story, but because it doesn't have sprint?

Growing up, sprinting wasn't a mainstream mechanic likely because it didn't look very convincing. Animations were rather limited back then, and as a result, most games just had you tuck your weapon off-screen while watching a meter deplete with use. Often, these were in large-scale military games like Battlefield 2 where the duration was rather limited in the name of realism. They were more used to get the drop on somebody or push together with teammates into a control point, rather than as a faster method of moving around the map, to do that you needed vehicles.

That's often what's emphasized as a need for sprint. Large levels, how are you supposed to travel quickly over large distances efficiently?

But sprint is entirely irrelevant to that conversation. Squad has sprint, it doesn't make travelling large distances quick, same deal in Hell Let Loose. To my mind, sprinting exists in those games because you can die in one shot, so when somebody's got a machine gun pointed you, your first instinct is to run out of desperation for survival.

But in all the other games where only specific power weapons kill you in one-hit, I don't get it. I don't understand that need for running when you should be engaging instead. Maybe it's just familiarity, but I think it might also just have to do with accessibility.

Mobility mechanics like bunnyhopping, rocket jumping, wall bouncing, grappling hooks, jet-packs, dashes, etc, are more difficult to grasp than clicking one button that moves you to a new static speed that's faster.

In fact, one of the most fascinating things to witness in the last few years, were companies unintentionally pushing old-school arena shooter mechanics through advanced mobilities as a way to make their games new and more accessible, when they actually did the opposite.

So sprinting is accessible but then the question becomes, why not just make your default speed the same as sprint? The original DOOM had "running" but people selected the option to "always run" and that became the default speed. Not only did the game still succeed, but essentially laid the groundwork for the recent Boomer Shooter craze.

Games don't need sprint. Games don't need 150mph movement speeds. Games don't need wall running. Games don't need grapple hooks... though they make every game better.

Sprinting works in Call of Duty, because it's an extension of the franchises' core gameplay. In Call of Duty's 1&2 when sprinting didn't exist, multiplayer's still based on sightlines. Being one step ahead of your opponents by setting up a firing position before or getting the drop on them. Sprinting allows you to get to those positions faster, more frequently, and lets you change it up.

Sprinting makes Call of Duty a better game, I loved the tactical sprint added to Modern Warfare (2019) and I do kind of miss it when I play other modern military shooters with similar gameplay, but at the end of the day, Call of Duty is just one video-game.

Sprinting is a tool, and very few tools should be used in all situations...

Except grappling hooks.

P.S. Sparky says Hi