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Tank controls - good or bad?

TheRedSnifit

TheRedSnifit

Member
We've had a few Resident Evil-related threads these last few weeks, and the pros/cons of the various control schemes presented throughout the franchise seems to be a recurring topic throughout them. So, my question to you is:

Do tank controls/fixed cameras help or harm a game?

EDIT: Tank controls are defined as a control scheme that doesn't allow you to turn and move at the same time. Metroid Prime and all of the Resident Evil games up to Revelations (with the Circle Pad Pro) have tank controls. Dead Space does not. It's been a mild source of confusion in this thread, so I figure'd that I'd clear it up.
 
A game? As in any game?

As with everything... It depends.

For instance, what if I'm controlling a tank? Should the controls not feel tankish? For reference, the latest Steel Diver has very limited, slow controls. But it works perfectly for that game.

No one thing applies to every video game. There are always exceptions.
 
They don't belong in action games.

They're a product of a time before developers figured out how to make proper third person shooter controls (for which Resident Evil 4 and Gears wrote the book).
 
Absolutely horrible. I can't replay any of the classic RE because of that.

djkeem said:
What are tank controls?
Does it have anything to do with the camera?
Click to expand...

I think the problem was it didn't have anything to do with the camera. Once the right thumbstick got control of that, it was a wrap for tank controls.
 
They serve a purpose in games that don't have a fixed perspective. In those situations it's necessary.
 
Necessary. Instead of being able to use one or two zombies to represent challenge, developers now just dump a swarm on you and it's still to easy. REmake is still the king.
 
I love them and I never had a problem. It was one of the reasons I loved the early RE games so much. They made perfect sense for the game.
 
Tank controls were a sacrifice that allowed Capcom to better realize a stronger art direction and atmosphere in older Resident Evil games.
 
As always, it depends on the game built around them. I'd say that, in general, less limiting control schemes have more potential but are harder to design situations for.
 
Fine in some cases.

There've been a lot of RE related (indirectly or directly) threads lately.
 
Tank controls allow for camera angles that otherwise wouldn't work. Nobody has ever found a way to make camera angles as good as those in Silent Hill without Tank Controls. Devil May Cry tried and that was by far the worst part of those games.
 
Tank controls are fucking sublime with a locked camera. See god hand, shooters.

Tank controls are awkward in a fixed camera like resident evil 1-3

Locked POV Tank > instant turn n run with distant camera > resident evil 1 tank
 
Tain said:
As always, it depends on the game built around them. I'd say that, in general, less limiting control schemes have more potential but are harder to design situations for.
Click to expand...

I don't think a game should be challenging because the controls are fighting you every step of the way though.

That said however, I would play a game based around a person with a physical handicap, but it would have to make sense.
 
They once served a purpose, but that time has come and gone.

If your game still uses them you're doing something very wrong. If you need to arbitrarily restrict the players movement in a 2014 game in order to make it tense or scary, it's time to rethink how you're going about things.
 
In fixed-camera games, it's understandable due to the awkward camera angle changes, but they're not exactly necessary. I mean, RE2 on the N64 is perfectly playable without tank controls.

But I guess it depends on the type of game you want to make. Do you want to make the character agile and able to easily maneuver around and avoid attacks? Tank controls don't work for that. If you want a slower paced game, tank controls can help slow the player down and maybe be a bit more methodical with their movement.

Either way, tank controls are a lot easier to swallow when the camera is fixed behind your back, like in RE4.
 
The word 'unplayable' comes to mind...the fact that tank controls are still a thing after like 1997 is beyond me.
 
They are not inherently good or bad, it depends. For example, games that use fixed camera angles are perfect with tank controls. Third person shooters, on the other hand, usually don't work so well with them. RE4 is one of the few exceptions, and it works so well mostly because everything in that game was designed with that limitation in mind (not to mention the excellent level design, perfect pacing, variety, etc)

Personally, I'd love to see a REmake 2 with fixed camera angles and tank controls, but I know the chance of that happening is pretty low, unfortunately... :( That being said, I want RE7 to be a direct sequel to RE6, taking even further that sweet gameplay, and coupling it with some great level design this time (basically RE6 gameplay + RE4 level design)
 
REmake has tank controls and fixed camera, didn't stop it from being the best game in the series.

If I had my way every game in the series would have tank controls and fixed cameras. I really don't understand how people struggle with tank controls anyways, maybe try playing for more than 2 minutes or something and learn.
 
I remember being obsessed with speed runs in Resident Evil 1 and 2.
I would gracefully whiz by every zombie in 2 that I did not have to kill. I never had a problem with tank controls.
 
While not tank controls persay, the controls in Metroid Prime actually work pretty well considering it's a shooter where you can't move and aim at the same time. The lock-on removes most of the stress of aiming so battles focus on other aspects, and the levels are designed so that you don't need to aim too much except when you're stationary. The fixed first-person even adds a minor benefit by making the platforming better since the camera moves slightly when you make a jump.
 
The best controls. BEST.

Absolute must on any survival horror game.

RedSwirl said:
They don't belong in action games.

They're a product of a time before developers figured out how to make proper third person shooter controls (for which Resident Evil 4 wrote the book).
Click to expand...

You don't consider Resident Evil 4 an action game?
 
I can see why they are dead in modern games.

I think there'd be room for them in an indie game though. It is an interesting control style and something is lost without it. It really added tension to maneuvering between enemies in a third person game.

If you think about it, so-called tank controls are really just first person controls with a third person camera. Place the camera behind the character's shoulder, and they cease to be tank controls.
 
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