Assemble! - Shooter Archetype Squad - The Armory

Welcome to Assemble!

Here, we'll look at several different characters across multiple series to see who would form a perfect team for a certain genre. From fighting game rosters to RPG adventuring parties, different types of characters tend to show up frequently. What we'll do here is look at those archetypes to see what character is the best fit for that slot, and in the end, we’ll have the best team for the job. These articles will also be shorter entries, compared to some of the more long-form articles here, focusing on one or two characters at a time.

Despite a perception of a lot of these titles as generic war games, some shooters allow players to dive into an engaging story in a captivating world, taking the role of interesting characters with varied weapons, abilities, personalities, and motivations, especially with the popularity of hero shooters like Team Fortress 2, Overwatch, and Paladins. In this series of Assemble articles, we will be assembling a hero shooter roster using characters from several different shooters, based on different character archetypes.

The picks will be based on the different themes and tones of the characters and the worlds they inhabit as well as the roles they fill on a team or the kinds of weapons they use. Only characters that originated from video games, shooters particularly, will be observed here. Both first and third-person shooters will count and so will first and third-person action games if their main method of combating enemies is gunplay. Finally, I’ll only be discussing games and characters that I am at least somewhat familiar with. While this means I won’t discuss every shooter in existence, there should still be a good amount of variety with the series explored.

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THE ARMORY

Practically the definition of a one-man army, the Armory is a shooter character that carries a large variety of weapons, can freely switch between them, and uses them to shoot through waves after waves of enemies. They are frequently the protagonists of single-player narrative shooters where all that power is needed for the player to feel like they’re in a powerful position with this character. They can also be found in multiplayer games where characters can pick up guns scattered around an arena rather than sticking with a specific loadout. They are practically absent in hero shooters as the inclusion of such a character can easily be overcomplicated at best or game-breaking at worst if not done properly.

Our pick for the Armory is…

The Doom Slayer from Doom.

Also frequently known as Doomguy, one could argue that the Doom Slayer being overpowered is the entire point of the character. He’s a lone space marine stuck on a space base in Mars after demons have torn apart everyone else there and has to fight his way out, eventually waging a one-man war against the infernal forces. He comes prepared with all the weapons he needs to tear through demonic hordes and it’s explained that, thanks to a backpack with experimental technology, he can hold all the weapons he picks up at once. (Not often you get an explanation for the huge arsenal these characters hold.) He has several available to him, but his most iconic weapons may be his shotgun, chainsaw, and the infamous BFG 9000, but his arsenal also includes pistols, chain guns, rocket launchers, and the Unmaker, a gun designed specifically to kill demons. He also uses several power-ups with different effects from healing damage to invulnerability to partial invisibility.

For carrying a massive collection of weapons into battle and effectively using it in battle, we now add the Doom Slayer to our roster.

ADDED!

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What did you think about this article? Want to see what other characters get picked for our roster? Do you think someone would fit this role better besides whoever got picked? Make your voice heard in the comments below. 

Thanks for coming!

Assemble! - Custom Shooter Squad - The Stealth Expert

Welcome to Assemble!

Here, we'll look at several different characters across multiple series to see who would form a perfect team for a certain genre. From fighting game rosters to RPG adventuring parties, different types of characters tend to show up frequently. What we'll do here is look at those archetypes to see what character is the best fit for that slot, and in the end, we’ll have the best team for the job. These articles will also be shorter entries, compared to some of the more long-form articles here, focusing on one or two characters at a time.

Despite a perception of a lot of these titles as generic war games, some shooters allow players to dive into an engaging story in a captivating world, taking the role of interesting characters with varied weapons, abilities, personalities, and motivations, especially with the popularity of hero shooters like Team Fortress 2, Overwatch, and Paladins. In this series of Assemble articles, we will be assembling a hero shooter roster using characters from several different shooters, based on different character archetypes.

The picks will be based on the different themes and tones of the characters and the worlds they inhabit as well as the roles they fill on a team or the kinds of weapons they use. Only characters that originated from video games, shooters particularly, will be observed here. Both first and third-person shooters will count and so will first and third-person action games if their main method of combating enemies is gunplay. Finally, I’ll only be discussing games and characters that I am at least somewhat familiar with. While this means I won’t discuss every shooter in existence, there should still be a good amount of variety with the series explored.

THE STEALTH EXPERT

While many shooter characters, protagonists especially, like to rush in guns blazing and mow down hordes of enemies, this character prefers a more subtle approach. Instead of being the big, bombastic action hero, the Stealth Expert prefers to sneak around, avoiding detection, to accomplish their mission with as little of the enemy as possible even knowing they were there. They take full advantage of their surroundings or the tech they’re equipped with to avoid detection and they tend to only fight when absolutely necessary, but when they have to fight, they are more than capable of handling themselves, whether with gadgets, gunplay, CQC (close-quarters combat, for those who don’t know), or a combination of the three.

While other characters work like a hammer, they prefer a scalpel.

Our pick for the Stealth Expert is…

The Spy from Team Fortress.

While his slick suit and gentlemanly demeanor give the outward appearance of a James Bond-type figure, what really gives him the edge for his slot as the Stealth Expert is his equipment. Apart from his standard weapon, a revolver, he is armed with several gadgets that aid in his job of sneaking around the enemy to accomplish his objective. They include a cloaking watch that can turn him invisible for a short time, a disguise kit that can make him appear as one of the enemy team, and Sapper devices that can disable and destroy equipment set up by an Engineer. Also, his other main weapon, a knife, when used effectively to sneak up on an opponent, can one-hit kill them with a backstab. His kit is geared toward penetrating enemy lines, disabling their defenses, and taking them out when they don’t expect it, making it easier for the rest of the team to come in and finish off whatever is left.

For serving as an effective silent assassin, we now add The Spy to our roster.

ADDED!

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What did you think about this article? Want to see what other characters get picked for our roster? Do you think someone would fit this role better besides whoever got picked? Make your voice heard in the comments below. 

Thanks for coming!

Assemble! - Shooter Archetype Squad - The Close Combatant

Welcome to Assemble!

Here, we'll look at several different characters across multiple series to see who would form a perfect team for a certain genre. From fighting game rosters to RPG adventuring parties, different types of characters tend to show up frequently. What we'll do here is look at those archetypes to see what character is the best fit for that slot, and in the end, we’ll have the best team for the job. These articles will also be shorter entries, compared to some of the more long-form articles here, focusing on one or two characters at a time.

Despite a perception of a lot of these titles as generic war games, some shooters allow players to dive into an engaging story in a captivating world, taking the role of interesting characters with varied weapons, abilities, personalities, and motivations, especially with the popularity of hero shooters like Team Fortress 2, Overwatch, and Paladins. In this series of Assemble articles, we will be assembling a hero shooter roster using characters from several different shooters, based on different character archetypes.

The picks will be based on the different themes and tones of the characters and the worlds they inhabit as well as the roles they fill on a team or the kinds of weapons they use. Only characters that originated from video games, shooters particularly, will be observed here. Both first and third-person shooters will count and so will first and third-person action games if their main method of combating enemies is gunplay. Finally, I’ll only be discussing games and characters that I am at least somewhat familiar with. While this means I won’t discuss every shooter in existence, there should still be a good amount of variety with the series explored.

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THE CLOSE COMBATANT

To loosely quote a page from TV Tropes, “a guy who doesn’t wield a weapon while everyone around him does is either cocky enough to think he doesn’t need one or skilled enough to know he doesn’t need one.” Another shorter quote warns, “Don’t bring a knife to a gun fight.” This character abides by the first while ignoring the second.

The Close Combatant is a character who stands out among a shooter roster as one who uses a melee weapon, usually a sword or a war hammer, or even just his fists, while everyone else has a gun. They may still have a gun as part of their arsenal, but most of their kit involves getting up-close to fight. This character can be difficult to use since they have to be played just right to avoid just jumping into the middle of a group to get blown to bits, but they are often very powerful when they can get their hits in. They are definitive risk-reward characters.

Our pick for the Close Combatant is…

Doomfist from Overwatch.

Even his name should clue you in to what he’s about. While Doomfist is able to shoot, with a shotgun built into one of his arms (he’s a cyborg for those who don’t know), the majority of his kit consists of attacks using his Doomfist Gauntlet. He has a ground-pounding Seismic Slam attack, a Rising Uppercut that knocks enemies skyward, and his devastating Rocket Punch attack, which can one-hit K.O. opponents if he knocks them into a wall. Finally, there’s his Ultimate, Meteor Strike, where he super-jumps into the air and comes down moments later, striking the ground for massive damage. He plays like someone wanted to put a fighting game character in a first-person shooter.

Street Fighter is just down the hall and to the ri... What? You’re NOT in the wrong game?

For effectively translating hand-to-hand combat into a shooter environment, we now add Doomfist to our roster.

ADDED!

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What did you think about this article? Want to see what other characters get picked for our roster? Do you think someone would fit this role better besides whoever got picked? Make your voice heard in the comments below. 

Thanks for coming!

Assemble! - Custom Shooter Squad - The Environmental User

Welcome to Assemble!

Here, we'll look at several different characters across multiple series to see who would form a perfect team for a certain genre. From fighting game rosters to RPG adventuring parties, different types of characters tend to show up frequently. What we'll do here is look at those archetypes to see what character is the best fit for that slot, and in the end, we’ll have the best team for the job. These articles will also be shorter entries, compared to some of the more long-form articles here, focusing on one or two characters at a time.

Despite a perception of a lot of these titles as generic war games, some shooters allow players to dive into an engaging story in a captivating world, taking the role of interesting characters with varied weapons, abilities, personalities, and motivations, especially with the popularity of hero shooters like Team Fortress 2, Overwatch, and Paladins. In this series of Assemble articles, we will be assembling a hero shooter roster using characters from several different shooters, based on different character archetypes.

The picks will be based on the different themes and tones of the characters and the worlds they inhabit as well as the roles they fill on a team or the kinds of weapons they use. Only characters that originated from video games, shooters particularly, will be observed here. Both first and third-person shooters will count and so will first and third-person action games if their main method of combating enemies is gunplay. Finally, I’ll only be discussing games and characters that I am at least somewhat familiar with. While this means I won’t discuss every shooter in existence, there should still be a good amount of variety with the series explored.

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THE ENVIRONMENTAL USER

A more unorthodox kind of shooter, the Environment User, as the title describes, uses the setting around them to their advantage in more way than simply as cover. These characters are more creative with their approach to offense and defense. They tend not to be the kind of protagonist you would normally see in a shooter and they tend not to use normal guns. Their equipment and abilities tend to either warp the laws of physics, take physics to the extreme, or otherwise enable the wielder to do things that might seem impossible to the normal person.

Our pick for the Environment User is…

Agent 3 from Splatoon.

As an Inkling, most of Agent 3’s abilities, while common for her species, are wildly strange for other shooter characters. Their weapons are designed around shooting globs of colored ink instead of bullets or lasers and they can turn into squids to swim through any ink placed on the ground, walls, or other surfaces (if it matches their color). The ink is strong enough to break apart wooden crates or constructs made of metal and the weapons come in different varieties including automatic weapons, the sniper rifle-like chargers, giant rollers and paintbrushes, and bazookas, just to name a few.

Moving on with Agent 3 herself, she has wielded several of these weapons to combat against hordes of the Octarian Army after stealing Inkopolis’s main source of power, the Great Zapfish. She fought against the army’s strongest super weapons, and eventually the leader of the army himself, and came out on top. She would also play a part in rescuing another hero of her world, the Octoling Agent 8, and allowing them to save Inkopolis from a newer threat.

For her use of her special abilities and weapons to achieve victory against a great threat, we now add Agent 3 to our roster.

ADDED!

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Honorable Mention: Chell (Portal)

Using her Aperture Science Portal Gun, Chell can create portals for herself, others, and inanimate objects to go through, from Point A to Point B and back. She was able to use those portals and other physics pushing elements to make it through the different tests that GLaDOS put her through. However, as versatile as she is, Agent 3 is more versatile with what she is able to do, which is how she got the spot.

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What did you think about this article? Want to see what other characters get picked for our roster? Do you think someone would fit this role better besides whoever got picked? Make your voice heard in the comments below. 

Thanks for coming!