What happened to the Power Weapon?

[@LeonMassey]

Just in case anyone is wondering, my Twitter got banned recently. Not planning on trying to get it back, so if it seems like I've disappeared from the internet I haven't, I just can't tweet 😅

[@Ω3103ζ]

Fair enough that site is brainrot

[@_dFour_]

since there is no feedback on closer social media, the thumbnail is very missable while scrolling, video is fantastic so its sad I almost looked past it.

[@peanutinc.7670]

Did you accidentally say a gamer word? Happens to the best of us.

[@justyoshis]

with all the misinformation posted on that site, i wouldn't blame you for not rushing to return

[@notimportant768]

Whats that jazzy tune you have in the background at 3 mins in, sounds sam and maxish but I cant place a finger

[@FUNKe]

Hard agree. I think a lot of power weapon's core design ended up becoming the modern ultimate ability. Power weapons have been kind of commodified so that every player has access to some kind of WMD, but that also means it's no longer a controllable resource. You can't really stop a Soujourn from getting an Overclock, or a Genji from getting a Blade. Pretty similar to what you said about COD killstreaks I think we mostly just landed on a system where players of all skill levels have access to a spike in power, making power a map asset pretty much alienates every player on the bottom half of the bellcurve from accessing it Slamming vid btw

[@DJInsaneNinja]

funke the power weapon of youtube

[@oscarflores7823]

Hey Funke, loved your movement shooter bucket list video!

[@ParkerTotten30]

both of you uploading in one day is so devious

[@idavid8391]

Agreed! I was also hyped to see this video and yours both in my feed today.

[@FairweatherBaah]

Apex still has power weapons, as does Fortnite to a lesser extent.

[@Thaumium]

Truly, the worst consequence of 9/11 has been the resulting lack of lightning guns in first-person shooters of the 2010s.

[@a_nice_hat6850]

Ikr 🤯

[@LeetTrance]

It’s too bad They had to take down the twin towers with a ritual and satellite weaponry 😢

[@grantsummers4164]

I'd say that's a real tragedy

[@leviathan-supersystem]

My hottest take is that arena shooters died because of 9/11. Gun culture means kids want to reload mags. Apex has guns that are like our own. Same in Fortnite. At least overwatch has symmetra but it isn't a pick up... Edit. Just watched video, and am impressed. (:

[@happyclairofan]

The awp in counter strike may not be a power weapon in that you have to fight over its spawn, but if you watch high level play, the game absolutely revolves around being able to completely lock down angles with the awp. If you’re walking towards one of the sites and you hear that noise, youre turning around and going somewhere else as fast as you can.

[@HS_Gomikubi]

I'm not about to claim the awp wasn't a monster to be feared as much as respected in it's time, but as mentioned above the average Time to Kill ratio is a primary factor in preventing any of CounterStrike's guns from identifying as traditional Power Weapons. Yes, having one provides a meaningful advantage but that advantage doesn't change the fact that technically you can still die instantly if a fight goes sour, and a big chunk of CS's identity as a game was this facet being true regardless of the weapons involved.

[@TourFaint]

"unbalanced" weapons also gave you a room to surprise the players with skill expression. You could get really good with one of the 'mid' weapons and stake your strategy around them. Learning to lead your shots with a slow projectile weapon, or learning some obscure trick, and then you didn't have to secure a powerful weapon everyone was aiming for to be strong.

[@TheGawd100]

This is why Halo 2 was such a good esport. The bxb/bxr and other button combos made it so that a pro's Battle Rifle was much more deadly than a sniper in my hands lol

[@ckorp666]

love taking ppl off guard w/my plasma leadtracking on the rare occasion where i get to play an arena fps with other humans

[@yikes6758]

being particularly good with the plasma/nail gun & shotgun in quake can really shake an opponent

[@DomhnallOfZena]

your animation and editing has gotten so good, man

[@higoodnews]

Really going hard on the 3D work - love to see it! LA Noir OST also an excellent touch

[@Tr0lliPop]

I love the crime investigation type vibe in this video!

[@qc3182]

Destiny 1 (and to an extent, 2) actually kept the power weapon going even with it's loadout system. It just had power weapons tied to the loadouts that could only be used if you got the power ammo that appeared on a timer on the map

[@DJInsaneNinja]

I will always hold out hope for their return. As extraction shooters become more mainstream, I feel like power weapons could find their footing again. The nature of their limited resources and select spawns would feel right at home. Imagine when Marathon releases, you have a squad taking down an NPC camp for a homing rocket launcher, only to have two other squads notice the action and jump in last minute for the steal. The tension building as the enemies thin out and PvP firefights begin, and the sudden shift in power when one player finally gets the weapon. Or maybe a lone solo player is hiding in that camp for the exact moment to steal it, turning a disadvantage into a fair fight. The possibilities for emergent gameplay are everywhere.

[@checker297]

IMO the real problem is the lack of single player campaigns which deliver their fun via cathartic violence. Now you rarely get campaigns and if they do exist they are either something similar to dark souls where there is a high skill check or something like a ghost train which is just spewing exposition. Naturally those power spike weapons designed for god mode in the campaign arent integrated into the multiplayer experience. Its just easier to not design them for multiplayer experiences as they are naturally hard to balance for.

[@G_O584]

You missed a very, very important aspect: Power weapons require the player to know the maps. A game is easier to pick up and play casually, if you don't have to remember where power weapons spawn. Great video though, thought provoking and well edited!!

[@denkifriedkalamari1730]

YES NEW LEON MASSEY VIDEO

[@cianhuelle]

THATS EXACTLY WHAT I SAID

[@DAWGIESZ64]

Pog pog pog pog pog pog pog

[@Connor_Kirkpatrick]

If somebody told me 9/11 was partially responsible for the disappearance of power weapons before I watched this video, I would’ve laughed at them

[@sirreginaldfishingtonxvii6149]

I've thought about this quite a bit recently. As the game industry morphed into the biggest entertainment industry of them all, and as game design became formalized and, in a way, standardized, I think some became overcome with this obsession for balance. And this balance became easier to implement. To the extent that even in single-player games, all options should be about equally as strong as each other. And if they are not that is considered a game design flaw. (See example: Skyrim, where several aspects of magic were nerfed for being "too powerful.") Along with the great analysis and reasons detailed in the video, I wonder if this balance-centric mindset could be a cause for the modern lack of Power Weapons? Like, that "gap" power weapons created in earlier titles was seen as unbalanced, and a flaw in game design. Anyways, excellent video!

[@TourFaint]

Yeah, this obsession about balance is weird, especially in single player or PVE games. There are other ways to balance things than just power levels.

[@aidam6152]

I wonder if the obsession with balance has roots in the shift from custom server based multiplayer to ranked queue multiplayer and competitive approach to online games becoming the default.

[@thosebloodybadgers8499]

@@TourFaint At the same time, I can't say it's not unwarranted. Frequently, said "imbalances" make an experience lesser since one tool or playstyle may prove all other redundant. Why the hell would I play a mage in Skyrim if magic doesn't scale effectively and I will be left dealing with bullet sponge leveled enemies when I have the ability to one-shot most of everyone as a stealth archer? It's something that I feel a lot of older games suffer from in general, where the whole experience can be brutal on those who do not choose meta strategies. Like, try playing through Akalabeth without a build guide, it's not a fun time!

[@TourFaint]

@@thosebloodybadgers8499 that's why there are other ways of balancing than just power level. The plasma and bfg are obviously the strongest, but they don't make other weapons obsolete. I understand the "stealth archer" problem in Skyrim but it's not a result of making archery intentionally stronger, it's just a result of bad design.

[@cheesypoohalo]

I think something everyone is overlooking is how players play games today. Everyone can use the internet to find out the meta and turn an unbalanced game into easy mode. The first time I noticed this was in CoD Modern Warfare 2 back in 2009, when the models had to be nerfed because word had spread that they were crazy strong. There's also an issue of bad balance in singleplayer games that sometimes happens where, if the first weapon the player gets is good, they won't bother using anything else. Finally I'd like to point out that I feel power weapons do still exist to a degree, they're just very different. The AWP in Counter Strike is arguably a power weapon, and Fortnite often has stupid weapons like that Dragon Ball Z shoop da whoop lazer that are incredibly strong if you land the hit.

[@TehNoobiness]

"The ability to aim was just the _pin_ that held together ideas of map understanding, player tendencies, and resource control." Something that I've started toying with in my head again recently is an arena FPS where everyone has autoaim. Different weapons might autoaim within wider or smaller cones, to make them better at different ranges, but if you can keep a target near the center of the screen, you'll shoot toward it. In other words: an AFPS that focuses entirely on movement and territory control by making aim skill _obsolete._ This is, of course, a deeply fucking weird idea. But I love deeply weird ideas.

[@vj7248]

That's what Armored Core is. And it's hella fun.

[@TehNoobiness]

@@vj7248 I need to play more AC, to be honest. I picked up For Answer and never spent enough time with it.

[@maikol4128]

You can't hide that Poker Night at the Inventory OST from me, Leon. Lovely choice

[@joltstorm64]

This makes me immediately think of Splatoon, in which, by painting, you can get a special. Some of these are utilities, like big bubbler, but many are powerful weapons such as crab tank or kraken. These are kind of power weapons, in a way. Not to mention the rainmaker gamemode, where you essentially take a kind-of-power weapon to a pedestal, like payload but you’re carrying it and the payload can shoot large bombs.

[@ilikevideogames4331]

3:28 Really enjoying the Bungler cameos. The editing in your videos is always a treat to watch.

[@Aeletaz]

Honestly, I don't think the AWP is too far from a power weapon. High risk, high reward. It just doesn't spawn into a map, but both teams will certainly fight over control of it once somebody's got it. It changes the entire dynamic of how the game is played.

[@koirone]

"Missing: Power" woah is that a reference to "Touhou 7.5 Immaterial and Missing Power" the hit fighting game spin-off Touhou game from 2004?

[@AtJoee230]

It ain't called a bullet hell for no reason

[@Weebfox]

Your production quality just keeps on going up and the narration is always on point Every Leon Massey video is a banger

[@idavid8391]

12:00 is such a clean transition. The quality of your videos across the board is not just visible but tangible within the experience of watching them. Fantastic stuff, good sir.

[@BlahNetworkBro]

Loving the evolution of how you build and light scenes, it’s seriously inspiring

[@4thQueen]

I know the game is a bit of a meme nowadays, but back in the day, Turok: Rage Wars had both. You could pick a loadout AND had power weapons on the field. Truly innovative gameplay back in '99

[@Soma10R]

I wanted to add that the recently released Valorant Team Death Match has a similar concept to map specific power weapons. They have a phased economic system that contain spawn location for weapons at a higher economic tier, think getting an smg during pistol round. This is counter-balanced with the abilities and ultimate of agents bringing the old and modern together.

[@pokeshark]

rocket to rail in Quake or shock rifle combos in UT are such a dopamine rush.. most FPS players don't even know what they're missing. great editing btw!

[@The_K1tten_Earter]

I agree with the last point, It seems power weapons were replaced by the tier system in games like Fortnite and such

[@jetostream]

The production quality of this video is off the charts! I wouldnt even mind a behind the scenes kind of deal how you managed to pull all of this off Looking forward to what you're going to come up next.

[@lunderdeamon]

I'd personally argue that the AWP in counter strike has more bones of a power weapon that it would seem. It's not the just the change the "heatshot zone" but the fact that its increased range makes the map and match warp to its influence with plenty of strategies around dealing with a team that has one or more awps. Additionally with the economy sure a team could always just save up to get an awp, theyre giving up precious rounds in a best of 30 game meaning if youre keeping track of, and impacting the opposing teams economy enough you can still influence their access to that weapon.

[@vj7248]

Yeah I agree. CS essentially is 'road to AWP'. Who ever gets it first, and whoever can actually not die using basically dictates who wins the game. (Tho tbf, i havent played in years so idk if they nerfed the AWP)

[@lunderdeamon]

@@vj7248 they have nerfed the awps magazine capacity from 10 to 5 to make it harder for them to hold back pushes solo

[@cheebins]

NEW LEON MASSEY VIDEO WOOOOOO

[@dinoboye]

it's crazy seeing how good your editing (and animations now!!) are compared to your older fighting game videos i still love those videos and literally was binging them when you uploaded this but GOD the improvement is insane

[@PsychadelicoDuck]

I was laughing throughout the whole video, just at how classy the editing was. Always appreciate your insights as well.

[@testhekid]

i think that power weapons still exist, albeit in other forms depending on the game and the character (golden weapons in fortnite and apex/ ultimates in overwatch and paladins, killstreaks in cod) however its not like they are very different from how they started, but theyre alot less scarce than it used to roaming in the map waiting for that one guy who remembers all the spots it spawns in, its a trade for more accessibility in exchange for a part of its identity, which sounds sad but also reassuring that they didnt leave i hope. awesome video as always i love ur perspective on this kind of topics in games

[@NeatOz]

It is incredible to see how much you've grown in your content since I found your channel, great work dude!

[@wheet5782]

The quality of your videos are unmatched. Your such a big inspiration.

[@PauLtus_B]

This video is a nice companion to Innuendo Studios' "CO-VIDs: what makes an fps arsenal good?" Weapons in fps games have really taken on different roles.

[@dreamthief286]

so what you're saying is that COD4 truly was the 9/11 of gaming.

[@CuppaBro1]

I'd even argue that the AWP in Counter-Strike still carries some of the qualities of a power-weapon; the reward by which one can get easy one-shot kills combined with the commitment of spending money on it and the risk of letting it fall into enemy hands, lends it an element of control.

[@AlxFG_]

this past year I started playing quake 3 with some friends (mainly duel) and power weapons aren't really a huge problem or big focus in it as there's 3 and all of them have their different use cases. Most of the duel is just contending for red armour and mega health and avoiding engagements if you are lacking in armour as the one who is more stacked is most likely to win the engagement. it feels more like to me is that this style of game isn't that popular anymore because it's difficult to get into because it's not simple to wrap your head around doing things like timing power ups and only fighting when you know you can win the engagement and knowing where everything is on the map alongside constantly playing mindgames with the opponent.

[@mattsalt4189]

I know you said you weren't happy with how the parts came together but I think this is one of your more coheisive videos in terms of feel. No part feels under baked to me. Great as always!

[@reagansido5823]

All this editing is a work of art. (Wish i had a better comment then the 50th one about the edits tho)

[@Electric0eye]

Been watching your videos for a while now. They've always been good, but the level of quality and editing you've reached now is amazing.

[@1Henrink]

I watch a lot of KZbin, and I am certain you are one of the best - Scripting - Voice-over - Visuals - Editing I just don't know what you could do better, you are an amazing creator, and I applaud you!

[@godlyvex5543]

I think power weapons are a great concept, though it does create somewhat of a snowball effect, doesn't it? The better players who are already going to be winning, are going to have more opportunities to get the power weapon if it spawns in a consistent place that the good player can camp.

[@FloraOfTheCats]

honestly thought this would be just about how missing shots with big weapons like rocket launchers makes you feel stupid, but the detective story is way cooler than my idea lol

[@DekuTheLamp]

Leon has posted a new video today. Today, is a good day. Thank you again for such an incredible perspective into a particular niche of (probably many) childhoods. Each one of your videos is like a Five Star Meal at an overtly expensive restaurant and I relish in every savory bite. The magnificently crafted script is the silverware, and your lovely voice is the host. I could spend eternity here, but alas, the metaphor is getting weird. You make things good and I hope you can understand the appreciation I feel for all the hours of hard work you put into everything that you do. I can't afford to help out on the patreon atm, but just know I'm quietly rooting for you every step of the way.

[@StefanLopuszanski]

Bit long winded but still a good analysis. From my perspective as a game designer myself it has more to do with changing style of games where characters and guns became more like classes with specific roles, pros, cons, strengths, and weaknesses. It became less about adaptability and knowing lots of general weapons and more about specific mastery. In games like Quake you need to be good with many guns and play styles depending on the map. In modern games like VALORANT you can just be good at one character and one or two guns and do well. More about a shift into teamplay where each person specializes and supports others instead of being more solo and a master of all.

[@willrtubin]

I've really enjoyed watching your visual storytelling just blossom after implementing more 3D elements! always looking forward to your videos

[@CorentinDolivet]

Excellent, as always. it's a privilege to continue watching you grow.

[@Silverjag1997]

This was unreasonably good. I've always really enjoyed your videos, but even so this was a cut above. The presentation is perfect. Thank you!

[@THERATSANDTHERATS]

I feel that same missing feeling for modern FPS. While guns now just feel strong but not powerful, they're loud and sound amazing but they lack a certain punch, like they lack recoil. But power weapons? You could see, feel, hear that rumble, a enemy or you could INSTANTLY know what was on the feild and what that meant, the only modern example that isn't in a PvE game I can really say that feels powerful is the Kraber in Apex but it kinda falls in comparison to itself from Titanfall 2, in Apex, its slow, limited, rare, and you're rewarded with putting a guy half health maybe In titanfall? It was slow, clunky, the time between shots could be felt, but no matter what it killed INSTANTLY when its slower bullet landed, paired with that sound and a body just being stopped in its tracks in air or ground made it feel so scary, the entire lobby would know it was around and if the person who was using it was a monster? Someone who never missed? Could read a person so well you'd assume they must have opened their third eye, it made the lobby recognize that person as powerful almost, it was a very VERY clear sign of skill and a very blunt and loud "I am better than you." And it fucked. I want just powerful weapons back, I want guns that psych everyone else out, I wantvsome chaos in my games

[@Faulheit]

the progressions of ur videos' aethetics is amazing, keep it up

[@BigOlBoy]

With each video this new style gets even cooler

[@Kirex17]

I love the little 3d renders you make for your videos. they add so much to the vibes. great video as always king.

[@pedroinvestidor6566]

I was rushing your channel yesterday, now im a big fan, your videos are perfect! Thanks for helping me go trough my bad days man, continue doing this pls❤❤❤

[@pineconetv]

Fistful of frags is game I play that has loadouts and a short time to kill while still having power weapons. There are some interesting things that they've done to keep them relevant. For starters you get them from a chest and choose which one you get meaning that you can find one that goes well with your loadout. while the time to kill is already short the power weapons make it easy to kill people allowing you to consistently get higher kill streaks which is rewarded in fistful of frags.

[@quonoa]

I think one big note that didn't get touched on is the industry shifting towards consoles: Low TTK getting popular was also a byproduct of how poor controller aim was until autoaim got jacked up to 11 in every shooter game in the past few years (hence why halo, with absurd autoaim from the start, still felt good to play on controller even with larger health pools) A more casual audience (which console has always had compared to online PC gaming) probably prefers to not have to memorize all the item spawns on a map and time them, and they stand a significantly better chance at actually doing anything in the game when other players can't stack up better weapons and more health And the ever expanding market of video games in general, especially with the accessibility of consoles (which really only started to touch competitive online gaming in 2004), encourages companies and developers to make games simpler (as to increase the reach and audience, because that, of course, makes more money) and ideas like timing, map control, advanced movement, or building a stack are complexities that will drive off some people so it's better to not have them. This isn't to say "ree pc good consoles bad", or "ree casuals on my vidya games", I'm not mad about any of this, but I think there definitely is a factor there that the target audience of shooter games and online games in general shifted hard from 2001-2007.

[@Gwegory22]

Leon you do some of the absolutely most incredible videos. god speed and thank you for sharing your ideas with us all. people like you are exactly what youtube is all about.

[@TheRealOtatop]

I just gotta say. When i watched your video on Character Archetypes, however long ago, i did not expect your future videos to have the graphics, and cinematography, and animation quality that you've been putting out recently. That's not even to mention the writing. That video was great as well, it's the thing that made me Subscribe. But i feel like you deserve huge props for what feels like an insanely rapid improvement in quality 👌👌👌

[@thenerdlog1602]

I love how your videos have improved to the point where I prefer them over errant signal

[@NightGhost1400]

this is such a great vid. In my opinion your best edited video so far, defiantly worth the wait.

[@DragynFyre12]

Im just a video game boomer but I've learned to love these kinds of mechanics that add secondary objectives to the game because they really do force action in an interesting way that a timer or simply presenting the main objective can't. Roshan in DotA is so similar to Quad Dmg in Quake in my brain. They're important to winning and can't be ignored, but aren't the main objective. It makes games without any other objective just feel more stale when all there is is the main combat loop with very little decision to be made outside of that main objective. Even the replacement of a power spike all players get at some point in the form of an ult doesn't fill the void. OW is just two teams mashing their faces against each other and even when they get their "power weapon", it doesn't actually function as a secondary objective to force interesting decision making while playing the game.

[@purmello]

Great video, Leon! The issue is pretty nuanced, and I think it's really important to analyze not just the tastes of the audience, but the game designers as well. I think that around the time power weapons disappeared, video game studios wanted to create more balanced games which appealed to a broader market. Not only did the quickly aging playerbase of video games in general want more well-designed experiences, but it was much easier for studios to sell a game where matches aren't centralized around a resource only one player can have. Hence loadouts, low TTK, and no power weapons. I don't think it's any singular game or design decision, but moreso a broader desire for *balance*, from players and designers. That isn't to say power weapons are impossible to balance, but from a dev perspective, they're very difficult to balance, and it's so much easier to simply remove them than to try and design around them. They limit the design space of other mechanics when they act as a catch-all solution to every problem, and lose their appeal if they have an abundance of counter-play. I suspect we don't see power weapons anymore for the same reason modern fighting games lack secret/boss characters or insta-kill moves.

[@DrLegitimate]

I think I was something like Subscriber 100 or so to your channel Leon, and it's been just a blast to watch your videos improve while you developed a pretty clear 'Leon Style'. Please keep making videos - I really enjoy them!

[@luisvalentintroncoso5134]

Damn boyyyy, thats quality video, animation and script *chef kiss*

[@ThatSkiFreak]

such a cool video visually I really like that you actually go for a specific visual style

[@lu6754]

I've never played an FPS game a day in my life, but I sat enthralled by this video

[@BreakingRaven]

2013 bf4 had classes and vehicles but some maps had rare weapons as pickups. 2016 bf1 had elite collectable class pickups.

[@Jarekthegamingdragon]

This was kind of touched on but I believe one of the biggest reasons for power weapons to disappear is that other systems are A LOT more new user friendly. Along with being more "bad user" friendly. Less is required to get good so to say. That's not a knock on new games but they definitely focus on accessibility in places that 90's MP did not.

[@godlyvex5543]

I feel like games have been getting easier in the wrong way. AIMING should be getting easier, not the gamesense/macro stuff. Getting better at aiming is so boring and tedious, while getting better at positioning is cool because you're always learning and thinking. If an enemy kills you because they outplayed you, you can appreciate that and learn from it. If an enemy kills you because they had good aim, all you can really think is "I guess I should have clicked on his head faster." That's why I like paladins more than overwatch. Overwatch's characters are all tiny and move fast, and hitting people feels impossible. The gameplay is more focused around aiming. In paladins, everyone has bulky hitboxes, so the gameplay is more focused on ability usage and gamesense.

[@JamesPBUK]

Just wanted to say this video is excellent and put together so well

[@HarmonicaPresents]

I know this definitely lands moreso in 'niche' category, but I particularly enjoyed how Fistful of Frags innovates on the power weapon structure, as well as the deathmatch structure as a whole. It has a loadout system as well, which isn't necessarily unique for deathmatch games, but scoring is based around its 'Notoriety' system, one that pays out heavier rewards for more challenging/niche kills and less for blatantly powerful guns, but it also rewards more for killstreaks, which is what the more powerful weapons were particularly effective at. Said weapons were obtainable in chests throughout the map (with there being only 1 top tier chest), and you would select one weapon of the list, making the player still choose specifically which weapon they would prefer-and encouraging everyone to try and control that one resource whenever it had respawned. And, of course, the whole cowboy aesthetic helps make the lower TTK more believable, since you are using earlier firearms, and it operates a lot on those western tropes. The way they handle very much resembles Counter Strike, but their low fire rates and difficult handling makes that TTK feel longer.

[@RNG-esus]

It's such a short part of the video, but that transition that you put in when switching to the shotgun was so cool

[@Cagurrrrrrrrrrrrr]

The presentation and little intermissions are amazing, keep doing that please

[@joeljs9778]

There are like half a dozen channels with the bell on whose videos are so well crafted that I immediately watch them. You're firmly in that category now.

[@TheOneChromzone1]

i think this is your best made video so far you all ways got good topics to talk about and your scripts/writing are great but now with this animation/art style i think that you are going to glow up and i miss power weapons man

[@charleskramer9958]

As someone who has been watching you for some time now, I believe the first release I watched when it was released was the first air dasher, I've loved seeing your content evolve. While I do still enjoy videos like Jump Arcs and old fighting game mechanics, I have enjoyed your past couple releases more than ever. Thank you for making this content, and I hope to see more of it.

[@broceedwin]

Few, and I must emphasize few things in an FPS felt as powerful as holding a Farsight in Perfect Dark. Things don't get more powerful that a one-shots killing, heat aiming, wall piercing gun. Oh, btw it had heat seeking tracking that pulled your aim in the direction of the closer target beyond all walls in the map, now that's power. Great video btw!

[@xionaxa]

You brought up battle royales as missing power weapons, when fortnite has power weapons built into the design. Overpowered weapons at specific spawns that require risk taking and tactics to get.

[@RexIsOnline]

Leon solving the problem of eyestrain from smash cuts and variable resolutions/camera speeds by introducing eyestrain from looking at several small monitors with light filters

[@AvivoDNA]

Holy shit Leon, this video is incredible. Your growth as a creator is staggering. This video is beautifully produced and researched very well. keep up the work dude

[@QuestionableObject]

Always a treat when one of your videos pops up

[@Roadkill_Dev]

This video was incredible, keep up the good work!

[@Slaking_]

What's funny about Battlefield is that eventually power weapons became part of the game again with the battle pickups in BF4 and Battlefield 1, only for them to die a second time woth 2042.

[@jblazerndrowzy]

They were also even present in BFV, with the flamethrowers and katanas. I’m stunned Leon didn’t talk about these three pretty much bringing the power weapons back in modern gaming.

[@Eksratu]

beautiful storytelling and editing for such a niche topic!

[@Kizuke21]

hearing you mention Brink at the end gave me whiplash

[@ViolentVista]

I think it's a combination of Time To Kill and Player Choice. Every gun kills everyone in 1-2 seconds, and there are a lot of them to choose from, so power weapons would be incredibly redundant since they basically would have the exact same time to kill as every other gun.

[@EuLucio]

The quality on this is bonkers. Great job

[@Jescribano1]

This quality is outstanding. What a video!

[@catachresis]

Power weapons and power ups are objectives just like a flag. PVP modes including them are pretty much objective modes. In particular weapon pickup style games place your forces in a repeated pattern every time. That's because you're fighting for things you want. Not only position, but firepower.

[@unconcernedsalad2]

no exaggeration, this is a perfect youtube video. interesting subject matter, great writing, insane visuals, great animations, immaculate editing; these last 2 videos should have all youtubers up their game (of course if they reasonably have the means to with the content cycle speeding up)

[@SinOnHumanity]

Some of the later Battlefield games like 4 did actually have what I would consider "power" weapons. Stuff that laid on the ground in set locations that THEORETICALLY were supposed to give major boosts in power. But I almost saw no one using them due to sheer redundancy. Many of them were things like explosive launchers or high powered sniper rifles, but given that every player had quick and easy access to equally powerful items via respawning as an Engineer or Sniper respectively, no one really bothered with them. The only power weapon in BF4 that I EVER remember being anything worthwhile was the railgun in one of the DLC packs, being the only (to my memory) hitscan anti-vehicle tool. It actually made controlling the areas where it spawned a real interest in objective planning. But it was nerfed because people kept complaining and now it's just another mostly forgotten ground weapon.

[@HD_HerpDerp]

I half-agree with the idea that the launchers were not much better than the engineer's vanilla options, but you are smoking crack if you think the anti-materiel rifles weren't a massive upgrade over a recon's regular bolt-action rifle-- especially the semi-automatic M82.

[@Kwiteee]

leon messy

[@dionepon]

40 seconds into this video and I have to tell you that I can't even start explaining how much I miss rocket launchers (like quake) in videogames

[@GolemAvalanche]

I think there's more to be said about the move away from abstraction in gaming and its effects on design in general.

[@OlNoName720]

This is probably the best video you've made. I can go on about how great your visual have gotten but it seems like the other comments have already covered that. I wanted to say I don't think I've seen somebody have this good of an insight on the evolution of FPS gameplay from its inception to today. As a hardcore arena shooter fan seeing this dissection of the weapons in the genre really puts together a possibility as to why games like Quake have completely fallen of the map. I'm a big fan of Titanfall as well and after always believing EA was the reason for it's lack of success I believe now it more has to do with how much the genre has changed and how the tastes of people who play games (or just games in general) has also changed with the times. Keep up the awesome work. If videos in the future are going to be more retrospectives on these niche topics I am very excited for what you have in store for us.

[@jettisonantics]

An early morning upload. Can't wait to crack open my vintage box of Hal-O's for this one

[@hungryhedgehog4201]

Payday 3 will have power weapons :D instead of trying to balance a minigun for stealth they just gave u a meter and a weapon drop you have to collect so you can pop off for a while. Battlefield 4 also had power weapons I think they were called battlepickups or something. They were basically op, unbalanced weapons you could find on the map. Like a semi auto, ohk sniper, ohk lockon launcher, full auto shotgun with frag rounds and flir etc. They even had some fun with it, the future weapons dlc had a rail gun and the shotgun was a nod to the same gun from Bf3 that was super broken for a while.

[@AlexBongo]

Great Videos dude! Love your channel, and the new editing style. Keep it up

[@ilavain]

I adore the thesis of this video. Another masterpiece from Leon Massey

[@smugs7921]

Another brilliant video excellent work. I love these I hope you continue to make more videos