Leaning keys in FPSes / immsersive sims

[Dwimepon]

Ever since I played Deathloop, I can't get enough of leaning keys (i.e hold Q to tilt your character to the left or E to tilt them to the right while being able to aim and shoot as normal). It makes cover in FPSes feel much more dynamic and way less awkward since you can pop in and out of cover with the press of a button, instead of walking out of what's currently protecting you and straight into the line of fire. I've always wondered why it never became a mainstay in shooters.

 

Thoughts on leaning keys and why they're not super popular in modern games? Are there shooters or imsims with especially good leaning mechanics? I just like my dinky Q and E keys

 

 

Edited December 7, 2022 by Dwimepon

[Dusty_Rhodes]

I know Rainbow Six Siege has leaning, my buddies and I used to love that game just a few years back. I want to say Fear has leaning as well but I could be wrong.

[7Mahonin]

I think leaning is great for FPS games, especially for aiming around cover and even for stealth. While the game itself wasn’t perfect, I really liked Medal of Honor Airborne’s way of doing this type of movement. You had a lot of control over it in that game. Rainbow Six Vegas 2 would put you in a third person view for this instead and you could lean against cover that way. 
 

I know it is far more common in third person shooters though compared to first person ones. The earlier Hitman games come to mind, where it is useful for peeking to see if a guard is coming near or not without being detected. Those earlier Hitman games didn’t have a 360 camera like Blood Money and the latest Hitman games had. 

Edited December 7, 2022 by 7Mahonin

[Captain red pants]

On a QWERTY, I tend to rebind them to Z and C for leaning Left and Right respectively. It's a hold over from the Thief/System Shock 2 days when the player could lean left, right *and forward*, where I bound forward to X.

E has to be 'use' see :P

Edited December 7, 2022 by Captain red pants

[MFG38]

19 hours ago, Dusty_Rhodes said:

I want to say Fear has leaning as well but I could be wrong.

 

I'm almost 100% sure it does.

[BGreener]

19 hours ago, Dusty_Rhodes said:

I know Rainbow Six Siege has leaning, my buddies and I used to love that game just a few years back. I want to say Fear has leaning as well but I could be wrong.

You’re on the money, FEAR 1 had leaning. So did Soldier of Fortune 1 and 2. FEAR 2 got rid of the leaning.

 

The Call of Duty’s prior to Modern Warfare 2 had it I think, CoD4 Modern Warfare certainly did which is what lead up to the “Not Balanced For Lean” meme with the sequel.

 

Leaning kind of dipped out for a few years as online console shooters started to get big, it’s hard to fit “leaning” on gamepads. It’s been peaking it’s head back with some AAA titles like the new Wolfenstein and - as you said - Siege. It’s also still been present in plenty of PC shooters, though not the ones from major publishers.

Edited December 7, 2022 by BGrieber

[Dusty_Rhodes]

40 minutes ago, MFG38 said:

 I'm almost 100% sure it does.

 

33 minutes ago, BGrieber said:

You’re on the money, FEAR 1 had leaning. So did Soldier of Fortune 1 and 2. FEAR 2 got rid of the leaning.

That's what I thought. Been a long time since I played. I always liked that feature in these games. 

[Mr. Freeze]

It's more of a thing in tactical shooters, where being able to peek a corner without exposing yourself is key. 

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

2 hours ago, BGrieber said:

It’s hard to fit “leaning” on gamepads.

This^^^

 

It works best when you can bind the "lean" key to a paddle on the back of the controller. Paddles are the future - two free extra buttons that are conveniently placed. Takes some time to get used to, but it should become a standard to make good use out of back paddles on controllers. IMO controllers could do with more buttons - for example, it wouldn't hurt to have two or three "select" buttons (for example: SELECT1 for map, SELECT2 for inventory, START for pause). The buttons wouldn't be in the way, so why not? Nintendo should hire me!

[LadyMistDragon]

I try to do Q and E if I play a game with leaning. It's a little awkward though, but it mostly works.

[magicsofa]

I used to play a lot of Ravenshield (Rainbow Six 3) where peeking was super important. But that game was very much about stealth and realistic gun combat. Movement was pretty slow, including switching equipment. If you wanted to put away your gun to throw a grenade, you risked other players hearing you shuffling your stuff around. It was fucking incredible - the best military stealth shooter I have ever played by leaps and bounds.

 

I never understood the whole periscope thing, switching to third person when you get behind cover. It just feels like I'm being spoon-fed my game experience. It would be a lot cooler to be able to fine-control your crouch height (another awesome part of Ravenshield) so that every feature doesn't have to be a pre-determined size.

[Asphalt]

Brink.

So sad it got completely overlooked, especially since it's a far better game than all of those Overwatch / Valorant hero-shooters crap that people play today...

Edited December 12, 2022 by Asphalt

[Dwimepon]

2 minutes ago, Asphalt said:

Brink.

So sad it got completely overlooked, especially since it's a far better game than all of those Overwatch / Valorant hero-shooters crap that people play today...

 

Oh, never heard of it! Looks like it has some mixed opinions on Steam, but if that's the price to pay for some sweet sweet leaning keys in a modern shooter I'm game.

[Asphalt]

11 minutes ago, Dwimepon said:

 

Oh, never heard of it! Looks like it has some mixed opinions on Steam, but if that's the price to pay for some sweet sweet leaning keys in a modern shooter I'm game.

 

I don't know if it really compares to Deathloop in that aspect (I've never played that). 

But I think Brink is free to play now, so you may give it a chance and it won't cost you anything. ;)

[Jello]

Return to Castle Wolfenstein had it as well. And Project IGI 2 had a 'peek' key, so you could hold it down and look out from cover, but you couldn't fire your weapon while using it.