Shooter video games or shooters are a subgenre of action video games where the focus is on the defeat of the character's enemies using ranged weapons given to the player. Usually these weapons are firearms or some other long-range weapons , and can be used in combination with other tools such as grenades for indirect offense, armor for additional defense, or accessories such as telescopic sights to modify the behavior of the weapons. A common resource found in many shooter games is ammunition , armor or health, or upgrades which augment the player character's weapons.
126-664: Soviet Strike is a helicopter-based shooter game developed and published by Electronic Arts for the PlayStation in 1996 and the Sega Saturn in 1997. The game is a sequel to the Strike games which began on the Sega Genesis with Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf . Soviet Strike is the series' first installment for a 32-bit console and was first conceived as 32-bit Strike . Early on, it
252-438: A golden age of arcade video games that lasted until around 1983. In contrast to earlier shooting games, Space Invaders has targets that fire back at the player, who in turn has multiple lives . Designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, who combined elements from his earlier Western Gun (such as destructible environmental objects) with elements of Atari 's Breakout (1976) and science fiction media, Space Invaders established
378-565: A legal resident gathered intelligence while based at the Soviet embassy or consulate, and, if caught, was protected from prosecution by diplomatic immunity . At worst, the compromised spy was either returned to the Soviet Union or was declared persona non grata and expelled by the government of the target country. The illegal resident spied, unprotected by diplomatic immunity, and worked independently of Soviet diplomatic and trade missions, ( cf.
504-576: A third-person camera view that fully displays the player character in their surroundings. Notable examples of the genre include Fortnite , the Tomb Raider series, several entries in the Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid franchises, Syphon Filter , Max Payne , SOCOM , Star Wars: Battlefront , Gears of War , and Splatoon . Third person shooter mechanics are often incorporated into open-world adventure and sandbox games, including
630-576: A 30-year contract with him soon after. The centre then realized that it was better for them to deal with a more competent agent, which at the time was Babrak Karmal , who later accused Taraki of taking bribes and even of having secretly contacted the United States embassy in Kabul. On that, the centre again refused to listen and instructed him to take a position in the Kabul residency by 1974. On 30 April 1978, Taraki, despite being cut off from any support, led
756-529: A USSR-born illegal spy was elaborate, using the life of either: The agent then substantiated his or her false-identity by living in a foreign country, before emigrating to the target country. For example, the KGB would send a US-bound illegal resident via the Soviet embassy in Ottawa , Canada . Tradecraft included stealing and photographing documents, code-names, contacts, targets, and dead letter boxes , and working as
882-472: A formula of "shoot or be shot" against numerous enemies. Space shooters subsequently became the dominant genre in arcades from the late 1970s up until the early 1980s. Most of these shooting games were presented from a 2D top-down-style perspective, with either a fixed or scrolling field. Games like Space Wars (1977) by Cinematronics and Tempest (1981) by Atari used vector graphics displays rather than raster graphics , while Sega's Zaxxon (1981)
1008-402: A game for the 3DO under the working title of 32-bit Strike . Strike series creator Mike Posehn assisted in early programming and the design but otherwise did not wish to work as part of a large team, necessitated by the move to a more advanced console. The development team, who had already spent several months working on the 3DO version, decided to rework it instead as a PlayStation game when it
1134-568: A gun-shaped controller, typically a light gun in arcade games ; similar control methods include a positional gun, motion controller , pointing device or analog stick . The first light guns appeared in the 1930s, following the development of light-sensing vacuum tubes . It was not long before the technology began appearing in mechanical shooting arcade games , dating back to the Seeburg Ray-O-Lite in 1936. These early mechanical gun games evolved into shooting electro-mechanical games around
1260-533: A letter accusing the Reagan administration of plotting to overthrow President Zia and his regime. The letter also mentioned that after Mujib was assassinated the United States contacted Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad to replace him as a short-term President. When the election happened in the end of 1979, the KGB made sure that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party would win. The party received 207 out of 300 seats, but
1386-471: A light gun for a shooting gallery game in 1972. In 1974, Tank by Kee Games adapted the concept of Computer Space into a more grounded tank combat game with simplified physics and maze game elements, becoming a hit in arcades. Spasim and Maze War (1974) were effectively first-person shooter (FPS) games, but had wireframe graphics and lacked the free-roaming character movement of later FPS titles. In 1975, Taito 's Tomohiro Nishikado adapted
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#17330862561731512-599: A modified overhead - as opposed to isometric - perspective. The game also features a more realistic enemy artificial intelligence and environment. Critics received the game positively, praising the graphics and full motion video , while commentary on the gameplay and difficulty was more mixed. It was released on the PlayStation Store in Japan on November 11, 2009 and in North America on September 14, 2010. Soviet Strike
1638-505: A new party called BAKSAL and created a one-party state. Three years later, the KGB in that region increased from 90 to 200, and by 1979 printed more than 100 newspaper articles. In these articles, the KGB officials accused Ziaur Rahman , popularly known as "Zia", and his regime of having ties with the United States. In August 1979, the KGB accused some officers who were arrested in Dhaka in an overthrow attempt, and by October, Andropov approved
1764-483: A relatively realistic, fluid virtual battlefield and sophisticated artificial intelligence, which will put in motion set pieces even if the protagonist has not arrived to take part. The opposing intelligence can track the player using radar and reinforce positions accordingly. As such the player must sometimes pre-emptively destroy radars. Enemy troops may also flee once they have lost a battle. Some missions require set piece solutions, including starting an avalanche to crush
1890-413: A result of this, many tactical shooters are commonly played from the first person perspective. Tactical shooters may combine elements from other shooter genres, such as Rainbow Six Siege , Valorant , and Squad , which combine the traditional tactical shooter style with the class-based gameplay of hero shooters. A further variant of the tactical shooter is the extraction shooter, generally defined by
2016-562: A single direction, such as Xevious and Darius ; top-down shooters (sometimes referred to as twin-stick shooters ) where the levels are controlled from an overhead viewpoint, such as Bosconian and Time Pilot ; rail shooters where player movement is automatically guided down a fixed forward-scrolling "rail", such as Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom and Space Harrier ; and isometric shooters which use an isometric perspective, such as Zaxxon and Viewpoint . Run and gun video games are 2D scrolling action games in which
2142-578: A tank battalion and sealing a nuclear reactor core in a salt mine. The game is very tightly structured, yet the player has the ability to roam the battlefield attacking enemies at will. The player is a helicopter pilot in STRIKE, a special covert operations force of the US military designed for preemptive action to prevent "wars that never happen." STRIKE's commander is General Earle. Major STRIKE personnel include electronics expert Hack and agent Andrea Grey, whose cover job
2268-600: A three-dimensional space, a defining feature of FPS games. The use of texture-mapped 3D polygon graphics in shooter games dates back to Sega AM2 's light gun rail shooter Virtua Cop (1994), followed by Sega's mech simulation shooter Metal Head (1995) and Parallax Software 's FPS game Descent (1995). GoldenEye 007 (1997) for the Nintendo 64 later combined the FPS sub-genre with light gun rail shooter elements from Virtua Cop , popularizing FPS games on consoles. In
2394-401: A type of strategy game . Battle royale games are a subgenre of action games that combine last-man-standing gameplay with survival game elements, and frequently includes shooter elements. It is almost exclusively multiplayer in nature, and eschews the complex crafting and resource gathering mechanics of survival games for a faster-paced confrontation game more typical of shooters. The genre
2520-438: A violent or non-violent game, determined that the students who played the violent game were more susceptible to primed aggressive thoughts. Further studies have shown that there are some limitations with the research. Many research studies have not taken into account that violent video games tend to be more competitive, have a higher playing difficulty, and are more fast paced than non-violent games. Past research also shows that
2646-418: A way to put Karmal back in. They brought him and three other ministers secretly to Moscow during which time they discussed how to put him back in power. The decision was to fly him back to Bagram by 13 December. Four days later, Amin's nephew, Asadullah, was taken to Moscow by the KGB for acute food poisoning treatment. On 19 November 1979, the KGB had a meeting on which they discussed Operation Cascade, which
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#17330862561732772-422: Is a helicopter-based shooter game . As in its predecessors, the player views the action from outside his craft, using one of two available viewpoints . These are similar to the isometric perspective of the previous games, but are improved "overhead" versions. This removes the predecessors' problem of buildings occasionally obstructing the player's view; and unlike the previous games, the player can no longer collide
2898-477: Is a news reporter. The other protagonists are STRIKE pilot Nick Arnold, guerrilla fighter Amad, and former Soviet Army pilot Ivan Uralia. The game's antagonists are former KGB Chairman Uri "Shadowman" Vatsiznov, Ireki dictator Sadissa Savak, and disgraced Soviet scientist Dr Grymyenko Ukrainian. A series of voiceovers called STRIKE Files outline the origins of STRIKE. One such file has the Security Czar detailing
3024-449: Is considered to be the codifier of the hero shooter genre. Popular hero shooters include Overwatch , Paladins , Apex Legends , and Valorant . Hero shooters have been considered to have strong potential as esports games as a large degree of skill and coordination arises from the importance of teamwork. Tactical shooters are shooters that generally simulate realistic squad -based or man-to-man skirmishes. Notable examples of
3150-632: Is named after the Japanese film Battle Royale (2000) which itself was based on the 1999 novel of the same name , and was popularized in video games with PUBG Battlegrounds and Fortnite Battle Royale . The concept of shooting games existed before video games , dating back to shooting gallery carnival games in the late 19th century, as well as target sports such as shooting sports , bowling , cue sports , archery and darts . Mechanical gun games first appeared in England 's amusement arcades around
3276-517: The Elder Scrolls series and the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Arena shooters are multiplayer games that feature fast paced gameplay that emphasize quick speed and agile movement, and played out on levels or maps of limited size (the "arena"). Many of these are presented as first-person shooters, and thus "arena FPS" may also be used to describe a subset of these games. Examples of these include
3402-632: The Marathon series. Looter shooters are shooter games where the player's overarching goal is the accumulation of loot : weapons, equipment, armor, accessories and resources. To achieve this players complete tasks framed as quests, missions or campaigns and are rewarded with better weapons, gear and accessories as a result, with the qualities, attributes and perks of such gear generated randomly following certain rarity scales (also known as loot tables). The better gear allows players to take on more difficult missions with potentially more powerful rewards, forming
3528-516: The Quake and Unreal series, more specifically Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament which first pioneered the genre. Arena shooters can also be played from other perspectives, such as via a top-down view in games like Robotron 2084 and Geometry Wars . Arena shooters frequently emphasize multiplayer modes with few or no single-player modes outside of practice matches with computer-controlled opponents. The genre hit its peak in popularity in
3654-1020: The Federal Security Agency of the RSFSR (AFB), the Inter-Republican Security Service (MSB), the Central Intelligence Service (TsSR), and the Committee for the Protection of the State Border (KOGG). In 1993, the KGB was succeeded overall by the Federal Counterintelligence Service (FSK) of Russia (itself a direct successor to the AFB), which in-turn was succeeded by the Federal Security Service of
3780-669: The Federal Security Service (FSB). Following the 1991–1992 South Ossetia War , the self-proclaimed Republic of South Ossetia established its own KGB, keeping the unreformed name. In addition, Belarus established its successor to the KGB of the Byelorussian SSR in 1991, the Belarusian KGB , keeping the unreformed name. Restructuring in the MVD following the fall of Beria in June 1953 resulted in
3906-667: The Moscow Narodny Bank Limited to finance the acquisition, and an intermediary, Singaporean businessman Amos Dawe, as the frontman. On 2 February 1973, the Politburo , which was led by Yuri Andropov at the time, demanded that KGB members influence Bangladesh (which was then newly formed) where Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was scheduled to win parliamentary elections. During that time, the Soviet secret service tried hard to ensure support for his party and his allies and even predicted an easy victory for him. In June 1975, Mujib formed
Soviet Strike - Misplaced Pages Continue
4032-554: The NES , Operation Wolf , Lethal Enforcers , the Virtua Cop series, Time Crisis series, The House of the Dead series, and Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles & Darkside Chronicles . First-person shooters are characterized by an on-screen representation of the player character 's perspective within a three-dimensional space , with the player having control and agency over
4158-787: The Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR). Despite its accurate forecast of crisis, the PZPR hindered the KGB's destroying the nascent Solidarity-backed political movement, fearing explosive civil violence if they imposed the KGB-recommended martial law. Aided by their Polish counterpart, the Security Service (Służba Bezpieczeństwa—SB), the KGB successfully infiltrated spies to Solidarity and the Catholic Church, and in Operation X co-ordinated
4284-552: The West German intelligence service . In the 1960s, acting upon the information of KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn , the CIA counter-intelligence chief James Jesus Angleton believed KGB had moles in two key places—the counter-intelligence section of CIA and the FBI's counter-intelligence department—through whom they would know of, and control, US counter-espionage to protect the moles and hamper
4410-581: The declaration of martial law with Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski and the Polish Communist Party; however, the vacillating, conciliatory Polish approach blunted KGB effectiveness—and Solidarity then fatally weakened the Communist Polish government in 1989. Nadezhin saw that China threatened the USSR by claiming a historic right to regions under the USSR's control. China also wanted to displace the USSR as
4536-415: The immersive sim genre. Boomer shooter is a term used to describe newer FPS games (2010s and later) that are purposely designed to emulate the style and design principles of 1990s FPS games like Doom and Quake . The name "boomer shooter" is derived from the baby boomer generation, where "boomer" has since become slang for anything old or antiquated. According to New Blood Interactive CEO Dave Oshry,
4662-613: The non-official cover CIA officer). In its early history, the KGB valued illegal spies more than legal spies, because illegal spies infiltrated their targets with greater ease. The KGB residency executed four types of espionage: (i) political, (ii) economic, (iii) military-strategic, and (iv) disinformation , effected with "active measures" (PR Line), counter-intelligence and security (KR Line), and scientific–technological intelligence (X Line); quotidian duties included SIGINT (RP Line) and illegal support (N Line). The KGB classified its spies as: The false-identity (or legend ) assumed by
4788-446: The player characters move and jump around shooting with various guns and other long-range weapons. These games emphasize greater maneuvering or even jumping , such as Green Beret , Thexder , Contra and Metal Slug . Shooting gallery games (also known as "target shooting" games) are a sub-genre of shooters where the player aims at moving targets on a stationary screen. They are distinguished from rail shooters, which move
4914-703: The republics of the Soviet Union aside from the Russian SFSR , where the KGB was headquartered, with many associated ministries, state committees and state commissions. The agency was a military service governed by army laws and regulations, in the same fashion as the Soviet Army or the MVD Internal Troops . While most of the KGB archives remain classified, two online documentary sources are available. Its main functions were foreign intelligence , counter-intelligence, operative-investigative activities, guarding
5040-507: The "Killerspiele" (killing games) in Germany and the European Union. Shooter games were further criticized when Anders Behring Breivik , perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks , claimed that he developed target acquisition skills by playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 . This has led to a plethora of experimental research to determine the true effects. Experimental Research, focusing on
5166-597: The 2000s. Due to its violent nature, some consider the shooter game genre to be a representation of real world violence. Debates regarding video games causing violence were exacerbated by the 1999 Columbine High School massacre , whose perpetrators, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold , were fans of the game Doom. Similarly, in Germany, school shootings such as those at Erfurt , Emsdetten and Winnenden , resulted in conservative politicians accusing violent shooter games, most notably Counter Strike , of inciting young gamers to run amok. Several attempts were made to ban
Soviet Strike - Misplaced Pages Continue
5292-646: The Afghan-controlled KGB intelligence service throughout the nation which were under the command of Ahmad Shah Paiya and had received all the training they need in the Soviet Union. By May 1982, the Ministry of Internal Affairs was set up in Afghanistan under the command of KHAD. In 1983, Boris Voskoboynikov became the next head of the KGB while Leonid Kostromin became his Deputy Minister. The KGB dissolved on December 3, 1991. Its immediate successor agencies were
5418-681: The August 1991 Soviet coup d'état in an attempt to depose President Mikhail Gorbachev . The failed coup d'état and the collapse of the USSR heralded the end of the KGB on 3 December 1991. The KGB's modern day successors are the FSB ( Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation ) and the SVR ( Foreign Intelligence Service ). The GRU (Foreign military intelligence service of the Soviet Union) recruited
5544-498: The FMV had "some of the best CD-ROM acting seen in a long time" and called it the game's "only real plus". Hyper favorably described the sequences as a mixture of "the dark bits of The X-Files and the explosiveness of any big budget action flick". Edge noted the new video but felt it was "over-the-top" and intrusive, while others disagreed. GamePro compared the FMV to Desert Storm if reported by MTV , saying its "hip new attitude"
5670-662: The Hungarian revolt, KGB chairman Ivan Serov personally supervised the post-invasion "normalization" of the country. Consequently, the KGB monitored the satellite state populations for occurrences of "harmful attitudes" and "hostile acts"; yet, stopping the Prague Spring, deposing a nationalist Communist government, was its greatest achievement. The KGB prepared the Red Army's route by infiltrating Czechoslovakia with many illegal residents disguised as Western tourists. They were to gain
5796-668: The KGB's structure, completely separate from the Soviet armed forces - the Border Troops , the Governmental Signals Troops (which in addition to providing communications between the central government and the lower administrative levels, also provided the communications between the General Staff and the military districts), the Special Service Troops (which provided EW , ELINT, SIGINT and cryptography) as well as
5922-653: The KGB). Brezhnev sacked Shelepin's successor and protégé, Vladimir Semichastny (in office: 1961–1967) as KGB Chairman and reassigned him to a sinecure in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic . Shelepin found himself demoted from the chairman of the Committee of Party and State Control in 1965 to Trade Union Council chairman (in office 1967–1975). In the 1980s, the Soviet Union glasnost provoked KGB Chairman Vladimir Kryuchkov (in office: 1988–1991) to lead
6048-449: The PDPA received a fake request from Taraki concerning health issues among the party members. On that, the centre accused him of "terrorist" activities and expelled him from the party. The following day General Boris Ivanov, who was behind the mission in Kabul along with General Lev Gorelov and Deputy Defense Minister Ivan Pavlovsky, visited Amin to congratulate him on his election to power. On
6174-463: The PlayStation release, based on five reviews. Reviewers praised the realism of the terrain graphics. Next Generation said that "the game makes a giant leap forward in terms of the environment" but called the explosions "average", while other reviewers found them impressive. Jeff Gerstmann said the vehicles "look good", while IGN called the structures "highly realistic". Next Generation felt
6300-469: The PlayStation version; extra sound effects added to helicopters; improvements to the graphics of control and menu screens and compass; and more improvised fuel added to level 4. It was also compatible with the Saturn's then-recent analogue controllers . The game was followed by a further sequel, Nuclear Strike , released in late 1997. Soviet Strike has an aggregate review score of 76.30% on Gamerankings for
6426-471: The Red Army's invasion. The KGB's Czech success in the 1960s was matched with the failed suppression of the Solidarity labour movement in 1980s Poland. The KGB had forecast political instability consequent to the election of Archbishop of Kraków Karol Wojtyla as the first Polish Pope, John Paul II, whom they had categorised as "subversive" because of his anti-Communist sermons against the one-party régime of
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#17330862561736552-738: The Roosevelt Government—to identify the Soviet spies Duggan, White, and others—he was ignored. Hence, during the Second World War (1939–45)—at the Tehran (1943), Yalta (1945), and Potsdam (1945) conferences—Big Three Ally Joseph Stalin of the USSR, was better informed about the war affairs of his US and UK allies than they were about his. Soviet espionage was at its most successful in collecting scientific and technological intelligence about advances in jet propulsion , radar and encryption , which impressed Moscow, but stealing atomic secrets
6678-583: The Russian Federation (FSB). The Committee for State Security was a militarized organization adhering to military discipline and regulations. Its operational personnel held army style ranks, except for the maritime branch of the Border troops, which held navy style ranks. The KGB consisted of two main components - organs and troops. The organs included the services directly involved in the committee's main roles - intelligence, counter-intelligence, military counter-intelligence etc. The troops included military units within
6804-535: The Second Red Scare (1947–57) and the crisis in the CPUSA hampered recruitment. The last major illegal resident, Rudolf Abel (Vilyam Genrikhovich Fisher/"Willie" Vilyam Fishers), was betrayed by his assistant, Reino Häyhänen , in 1957. Recruitment then emphasised mercenary agents, an approach especially successful in scientific and technical espionage, since private industry practised lax internal security, unlike
6930-581: The Shadowman unleashing his minions in the KGB, the military and the Russian mafia in attempting a coup against President Boris Yeltsin 's government. The player must prevent a bombing on the Kremlin before seeking out and killing the Shadowman. The game's end sequence depicts Andrea delivering a televised news report blaming the destruction on an earthquake and consequent gas fires. Soviet Strike began development as
7056-414: The Spetsnaz of the KGB (the Kremlin Regiment , Alpha Group , Vympel , etc.). At the time of the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991 the KGB had the following structure: The Soviet Union was a federal state, consisting of 15 constituent Soviet Socialist Republics, each with its own government closely resembling the central government of the USSR. The republican affiliation offices almost completely duplicated
7182-506: The US Government. One notable KGB success occurred in 1967, with the walk-in recruitment of US Navy Chief Warrant Officer John Anthony Walker . Over eighteen years, Walker enabled Soviet Intelligence to decipher some one million US Navy messages, and track the US Navy. In the late Cold War, the KGB was successful with intelligence coups in the cases of the mercenary walk-in recruits FBI counterspy Robert Hanssen (1979–2001) and CIA Soviet Division officer Aldrich Ames (1985–1994). It
7308-529: The Zia regime did not last long, falling on 29 May 1981 when after numerous escapes, Zia was assassinated in Chittagong . The KGB started infiltrating Afghanistan as early as 27 April 1978. During that time, the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) was planning the overthrow of President Mohammed Daoud Khan . Under the leadership of Major General Sayed Mohammad Gulabzoy and Muhammad Rafi – code named Mammad and Niruz respectively – the Soviet secret service learned of
7434-450: The attention to detail and the reviewer found the story convincing. IGN said: "Everything about this game is great. Excuse me for gushing, but when you come across a game that's as fun to play as Soviet Strike, and great looking, you really sit up and take notice." Gerstmann called the quality FMV "a small victory in a larger conflict", saying the game had "too many little problems to recommend it" and that it "simply doesn't play as well as
7560-590: The background or from the sides. One of the earliest examples is the 1985 arcade game Shootout produced by Data East. As light gun games and rail shooters became more prevalent and started to make use of scrolling backgrounds, such as Operation Wolf , or fully 3D backgrounds, such as the Time Crisis or House of the Dead series, these sorts of games fell out of popular production, but many like Blood Bros. still have their fanbase today. Other notable games of this category include Cabal and Wild Guns . Light gun shooters are shooters designed for use with
7686-678: The character's movement and action within that space. While many rail shooters and light-gun shooters also use a first-person perspective , they are generally not included in this category, as the player generally lacks agency to move their character within the game world. Notable examples of the genre include Doom , Quake , Counter-Strike , GoldenEye 007 , Battlefield , Medal of Honor , Unreal , Call of Duty , Killzone , TimeSplitters , Team Fortress 2 and Halo , while games such as Half-Life and System Shock would combine shooter gameplay with narrative-focused or role-playing game elements to instead branch off into
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#17330862561737812-565: The commonality of focusing on the actions of the avatar engaging in combat with a weapon against both code-driven NPC enemies or other avatars controlled by other players. Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups) are a subgenre of shooters wherein the player may move, up, down, left or right around the screen, typically firing straight forward. Shoot 'em ups share common gameplay, but are often categorized by viewpoint. This includes fixed shooters on fixed screens, such as Space Invaders and Galaxian ; scrolling shooters that mainly scroll in
7938-488: The concept of Sega's EM game Gun Fight into a video game, Western Gun (1975), with the cowboys represented as character sprites and both players able to maneuver across a landscape while shooting each other, making it a milestone for depicting human shooting targets. Western Gun became an arcade hit, which, along with Tank , popularized a subgenre of one-on-one dueling video games. Midway's North American localization of Western Gun , called Gun Fight , also introduced
8064-440: The controls, while GameFan noted they had improved in the Saturn version. The reviewer also enjoyed this version's new weaponry. Next Generation pointed to some "minor flaws", saying the HUD "smacks of 16-bit era graphics"; GamePro said the game's one flaw was the lack of an HUD map to save the player the trouble of hitting pause whenever they need to check their position. The game impressed Great Drakon' s reviewer, who praised
8190-444: The coup which later became known as Saur Revolution , and became the country's leader, with Hafizullah Amin as vice-chairman of the Council of Ministers and vice-chairman of the Revolutionary Council . On 5 December 1978, Taraki compared the Saur Revolution to the Russian Revolution , which struck Vladimir Kryuchkov , the FCD chief of that time. On 27 March 1979, after losing the city of Herat in an uprising , Amin became
8316-437: The detection and capture of other Communist spies. Moreover, KGB counter-intelligence vetted foreign intelligence sources, so that the moles might "officially" approve an anti-CIA double agent as trustworthy. In retrospect, the captures of the moles Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen proved that Angleton, though ignored as over-aggressive, was correct, despite the fact that it cost him his job at CIA, which he left in 1975. In
8442-430: The diplomats Laurence Duggan and Michael Whitney Straight in the State Department, the statistician Harry Dexter White in the Treasury Department , the economist Lauchlin Currie (an FDR advisor), and the "Silvermaster Group", headed by statistician Greg Silvermaster , in the Farm Security Administration and the Board of Economic Warfare. Moreover, when Whittaker Chambers , formerly Alger Hiss's courier, approached
8568-609: The early 1980s, such as Sega's isometric shooter Zaxxon and pseudo-3D rail shooter Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom (1982) demonstrating the potential of 3D shoot 'em up gameplay. Shooter games diversified by the mid-1980s, with first-person light gun shooting gallery games such as Nintendo 's Duck Hunt (1984), pseudo-3D third-person rail shooters such as Sega's Space Harrier (1985) and After Burner (1987), and military-themed scrolling run and gun video games such as Capcom 's Commando (1985), Konami 's Green Beret (1985) and SNK 's Ikari Warriors (1986). In
8694-427: The fabrication of a letter in which he stated that Muhammad Ghulam Tawab , an Air Vice-Marshal at the time, was the main plotter, which led the Bangladesh, Indian and Sri Lankan press to believe that he was an American spy. Under Andropov's command, Service A, a KGB division, falsified the information in a letter to Moudud Ahmed in which it said that he was supported by the American government and by 1981 even sent
8820-407: The fictional state of Irek, begins aggressive overtures against local fighters. In the mission (which is supposedly north of the main battle area where Desert Strike took place), the player and Amad join forces with a militia run by Amad's relatives in stopping Ireki troops from capturing an abandoned Soviet chemical weapons plant. With STRIKE killing Savak (and passed off as the victim of a car crash),
8946-416: The first mission, which takes place in Crimea , the player must rescue a captured STRIKE pilot named Nick Arnold. The second level is set in the Sea of Azov: the player must battle the elements of the Black Sea Fleet which is preparing to invade Europe. The mission also involves the rescue of guerrilla fighter Amad. STRIKE's victory in the Black Sea leads them to the Caucasus, where Sadissa Savak, leader of
9072-467: The first video games, was also the first shooter video game; it featured two players controlling spacecraft trying to fire onto the other player. Spacewar! was the basis for the first arcade video games , Computer Space and Galaxy Game , in 1971. In the 1970s, EM gun games evolved into light gun shooter video games. The first home video game console , the Magnavox Odyssey , shipped with
9198-507: The formation of the KGB under Ivan Serov in March 1954. Secretary Leonid Brezhnev overthrew Premier Nikita Khrushchev in 1964. Brezhnev (in power: 1964–1982) was concerned about ambitious spy-chiefs – the communist party had managed Serov's successor, the ambitious KGB Chairman, Aleksandr Shelepin (in office: 1958–1961), but Shelepin carried out Brezhnev's palace coup d'état against Khrushchev in 1964 (despite Shelepin not then being in
9324-544: The game might be too slow for fans of faster paced action games, but recommended it for players of previous instalments in the series. Air Hendrix of the same magazine called it "An outstanding mix of white-knuckle combat and challenging strategy". Allgame later felt: "The series peaked with the release of Soviet Strike." Shooter game Shooter games test the player's spatial awareness, reflexes, and speed in both isolated single player or networked multiplayer environments. Shooter games encompass many subgenres that have
9450-454: The game's compulsion loop . Loot shooters are inspired by similar loot-based action role-playing games like Diablo . Examples of loot shooters include the Borderlands franchise, Warframe , Destiny and its sequel , and Tom Clancy's The Division and its sequel . Artillery games have been described as a type of "shooting game", though they are more frequently classified as
9576-400: The game's "inventiveness" - saying it "makes Soviet Strike" - as well as the variety added by the games artificial intelligence. The magazine also felt that while the collecting of supplies added strategy to the action, the limited amount restricted the paths the player might take through the level. Next Generation said the "real-time, living battlefield enhances the urgency of the missions and
9702-426: The gameplay style of Escape from Tarkov . These games are often "player versus player versus environment" (PvPvE), where players are grouped into teams and placed on a map with the goal to reach an extraction point elsewhere on the map while avoiding the opposing team and non-player character enemies. During their attempt to reach the extraction point, the players may try to loot the opposing team or other features on
9828-539: The genre in a different direction from the "more deterministic, scripted, pattern-type" gameplay of Japanese games, towards a more "programmer-centric design culture, emphasizing algorithmic generation of backgrounds and enemy dispatch" and "an emphasis on random-event generation, particle-effect explosions and physics" as seen in arcade games such as his own Defender (1981) and Robotron: 2084 (1982) as well as Atari 's Asteroids (1979). Nevertheless, Japanese developers occasionally released defining space shooters in
9954-550: The genre include Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon series and Bohemia Software's Operation Flashpoint . A common feature of tactical shooters that is not present in many other shooters is the ability for the player character to lean out of cover, increasing the granularity of a player's movement and stance options to enhance the realism of the game. Tactical shooters also commonly feature more extensive equipment management, more complex healing systems, and greater depth of simulation compared to other shooters. As
10080-471: The group goes to a heavily irradiated Transylvania to rescue Nick once more, this time from Dr Grymyenko Ukrainian, who wields an arsenal of ballistic missiles. The player is also tasked to kill the Shadowman's lead armor commander, Vila, who operates a special red-turreted T-80, and aid in the destruction of an abandoned nuclear reactor the Shadowman is planning to use. The final mission takes place in Moscow, with
10206-522: The helicopter into structures, instead always flying over them. The first camera system fixates on the Apache, while the second allows the player to rotate the screen around the helicopter. The Apache is armed with a machine gun, Hydra rockets and Hellfire missiles , which vary in power and payload . The Sega Saturn version includes two hidden power-up weapons: doubled machine guns and Maverick missiles . The craft has finite ammunition, fuel, and armour, and
10332-530: The ideological agent Julian Wadleigh , who became a State Department diplomat in 1936. The NKVD 's first US operation was establishing the legal residency of Boris Bazarov and the illegal residency of Iskhak Akhmerov in 1934. Throughout, the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and its General Secretary Earl Browder , helped NKVD recruit Americans, working in government, business, and industry. Other important, low-level and high-level ideological agents were
10458-402: The imminent uprising. Two days after the uprising, Nur Muhammad Taraki , leader of the PDPA, issued a notice of concern to the Soviet ambassador Alexander Puzanov and the resident of Kabul -based KGB embassy Viliov Osadchy that they could have staged a coup three days earlier hence the warning. On that, both Puzanov and Osadchy dismissed Taraki's complaint and reported it to Moscow, which broke
10584-475: The late 1980s, Taito's Operation Wolf (1987) popularized military-themed first-person light gun rail shooters. Doom (1993) by id Software is considered the first major popular first-person shooter (FPS), and it was a major leap forward for three-dimensional environments in shooter games as well as action games in general. While first-person perspectives had been used by rail shooter and shooting gallery games, they lacked player-guided navigation through
10710-445: The late 1990s, FPS games became increasingly popular while rail shooters declined in popularity, as FPS games were generally able to offer more variety, depth and sophistication than rail shooters. One of the last mainstream light gun rail shooter franchises was The House of the Dead horror game series in the late 1990s, which along with Resident Evil had a significant cultural impact on zombie media including zombie films by
10836-436: The late 90s and early 2000s. Hero shooters are a variation of multiplayer first- or third-person shooters, where players form into two or more teams and select from pre-designed "hero" characters, with each possessing distinctive abilities and/or weapons that are specific to them. Hero shooters strongly encourage teamwork between players on a team, guiding players to select effective combinations of hero characters and coordinate
10962-485: The leader of the international socialist movement. The KGB wanted to infiltrate the Chinese security services with "a sufficient number of agents". Top agents also believed that the KGB needed to do more to ensure the protection of the USSR from Chinese spies. According to declassified documents, the KGB aggressively recruited former German (mostly Abwehr ) intelligence officers after the war. The KGB used them to penetrate
11088-457: The life of Gulabzoy and Watanjar and send them to Tashkent from Bagram Airfield by giving them fake passports. With that and a sealed container in which an almost breathless Sarwari was laying, they came to Tashkent on 19 September. During the continued investigation in Tashkent, the three were put under surveillance in one of the rooms for as long as four weeks where they were investigated for
11214-414: The map for gear, which if they successfully reach the extraction point, they can keep and use to improve their character. Alternatively, they may have other assigned objectives to complete before extraction for better rewards. Gameplay is more slow and tactical for survival rather than straightforward run-and-gun. Other examples of extraction shooters include The Cycle: Frontier and the upcoming revival of
11340-675: The mid-1970s, the KGB tried to secretly buy three banks in northern California to gain access to high-technology secrets. Their efforts were thwarted by the CIA. The banks were Peninsula National Bank in Burlingame, the First National Bank of Fresno, and the Tahoe National Bank in South Lake Tahoe. These banks had made numerous loans to advanced technology companies and had many of their officers and directors as clients. The KGB used
11466-405: The mid-20th century, and in turn evolved into light gun shooter video games in the 1970s. Early mechanical light gun games used small targets (usually moving) onto which a light-sensing tube was mounted; the player used a gun (usually a rifle) that emitted a beam of light when the trigger was pulled. If the beam struck the target, a "hit" was scored. Modern screen-based video game light guns work on
11592-552: The next Prime Minister , and by 27 July became Minister of Defense as well. The centre though was concerned of his powers since the same month he issued them a complaint about lack of funds and demanded US$ 400,000,000. Furthermore, it was discovered that Amin had a master's degree from Columbia University , and that he preferred to communicate in English instead of Russian. Unfortunately for Moscow's intelligence services, Amin succeeded Taraki and by 16 September Radio Kabul announced that
11718-459: The old 16-bit Strike games." Sega Saturn Magazine called it a "worthy addition" to the series and also noted improvements to the Saturn version. They named it their "Game of the Month". GameFan said the game "is everything you could wish for from a 32bit Strike " and that "it plays brilliantly, and exercises both your trigger finger and grey matter." The magazine later reflected that the Saturn version
11844-602: The operation, including the Interior Ministry building, the Internal Security ( KHAD ) building, and the General Staff building ( Darul Aman Palace ). Out of the 54 KGB operators that assaulted the palace, 5 were killed in action, including Colonel Grigori Boyarinov, and 32 were wounded. Alpha Group veterans call this operation one of the most successful in the group's history. In June 1981, there were 370 members in
11970-463: The opposite principle—the sensor is built into the gun itself, and the on-screen target(s) emit light rather than the gun. The first light gun of this type was used on the MIT Whirlwind computer, which used a similar light pen . Like rail shooters, movement is typically limited in light-gun games. Notable games of this category include the 1974 and 1984 versions of Wild Gunman , Duck Hunt for
12096-596: The organization's mandate to US President Bill Clinton after his inauguration in January 1993. In the tape, Clinton is unaware that STRIKE prevented a civil war in Mexico in 1982 which could have turned the country into a secret Warsaw Pact member-state. The end of the Soviet Union leaves a power vacuum in Eastern Europe that former KGB Chairman Uri Vatsiznov, a.k.a. the Shadowman, is willing to exploit for his own ends. In
12222-481: The player must manage the payload by collecting limited supplies. The game has five large levels, each divided into several missions. Mission objectives include seeking and destroying enemy personnel and structures such as radars, training camps and ships; rescuing prisoners-of-war and other persons (including, in the last mission, Boris Yeltsin ), as well as recovering intercontinental ballistic missiles and capturing enemy commanders and agents. Soviet Strike employs
12348-463: The player through levels on a fixed path, and first-person shooters, which allow player-guided navigation through a three-dimensional space. Shooting gallery games can be light gun games and rail-shooters, although many can also be played using a regular joypad and an on-screen cursor to signify where the bullets are being aimed. When these debuted, they were typically played from a first-person perspective , with enemy fire that occurred anywhere on
12474-435: The player's involvement" and also noted "practically no load time". GameFan complained of a high difficulty and a steep curve, long levels which return the player to the beginning should he die, infrequent opportunities to repair armour and the enemies' tendency to attack the player from beyond his limited viewpoint, and was thankful for the Saturn version's optional easier difficulty setting. Next Generation also criticised
12600-454: The player's restricted view, calling it the game's "worst problem". One reviewer said revisiting levels to discover missed set pieces aided the game's longevity; Sega Saturn Magazine had "some reservations" about the game's replay-value, with only 5 missions, but said it was "very playable and enjoyable", while GamePro called it "a load of fun". Gerstmann criticised the poor scrolling, erratic motion and imprecise control, Great Drakon praised
12726-406: The player's view - to an overhead perspective with which the player could move and see over terrain and structures. In order to ensure proper spatial relations and unit placement, the team built three dimensional reliefs of each mission on sheets of plywood . Unlike some of its predecessors, Soviet Strike features only a helicopter - albeit with power-ups in some levels - and the team also abandoned
12852-545: The protagonists fight on foot, often with the ability to jump . Run and gun games may use side-scrolling , vertical scrolling or isometric viewpoints and may feature multidirectional movement. Top-down run and gun games use an overhead camera angle that shows players and the areas around them from above. Notable games in this category include Commando , Ikari Warriors , Shock Troopers and Shock Troopers: 2nd Squad . Side-scrolling run and gun games combine elements of both shoot 'em up and platform games , while
12978-473: The reliability of their claims by the KGB. Soon after, they were satisfied with the results and sent them to Bulgaria for a secret retreat. On 9 October, the Soviet secret service had a meeting in which Bogdanov, Gorelov, Pavlonsky and Puzanov were the main chiefs who were discussing what to do with Amin who was very harsh at the meeting. After the two-hour meeting they began to worry that Amin would establish an Islamic republic in Afghanistan and decided to seek
13104-411: The same day the KGB decided to imprison Sayed Gulabzoy as well as Mohammad Aslam Watanjar and Assadullah Sarwari but while in captivity and under an investigation all three denied the allegation that the current Minister of Defence was an American secret agent. The denial of claims was passed on to Yuri Andropov and Leonid Brezhnev , who as the main chiefs of the KGB proposed operation Raduga to save
13230-428: The screen damaging or killing the player. As they evolved away from the use of light guns, the player came to be represented by an on-screen avatar, usually someone on the bottom of the screen, who could move and avoid enemy attacks while returning fire. These sorts of shooters almost always utilize horizontal scrolling to the right to indicate level progression, with enemies appearing in waves from predestined locations in
13356-407: The short term effects, found that playing violent games can increase the player's aggression. In a 2011 Supreme Court case involving a California law, Justice Antonio Scalia stated that there was some correlation between violent video games and increased aggression, but very little real-world effects. An experiment by C.A. Anderson and K.E. Dill, in which they had undergraduates randomly play either
13482-727: The state border of the USSR, guarding the leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Soviet Government , organization and security of government communications as well as combating nationalist , dissident , religious and anti-Soviet activities. On 3 December 1991, the KGB was officially dissolved. It was succeeded in Russia by the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and what would later become
13608-445: The structural organization of the main KGB. The Chairman of the KGB , First Deputy Chairmen (1–2), Deputy Chairmen (4–6). Its policy Collegium comprised a chairman, deputy chairmen, directorate chiefs, and republican KGB chairmen. A Time magazine article in 1983, reported that the KGB was the world's most effective information-gathering organization. It operated legal and illegal espionage residencies in target countries where
13734-417: The structures and vehicles together with the terrain formed an "impressive" environment. The magazine felt the animation was "average", and several other reviewers said that it sometimes gets choppy. GameFan ' s Saturn review summarised the graphics as "first-rate", while Russian magazine Great Drakon also praised them. Critics called the full motion video stylish, and praised the acting. Gerstmann said
13860-428: The term originated following the release of Dusk (2018), with fans of that game quickly coining the term. Newer triple-A games like Wolfenstein: The New Order (2014) and Doom (2016) helped to repopularize these styles of shooters in the mid-2010s, and indie developers further contributed to the field with games like Amid Evil , Ion Fury , and Ultrakill . Third-person shooters are characterized by
13986-572: The trust of and spy upon the most outspoken proponents of Alexander Dubček 's new government. They were to plant subversive evidence, justifying the USSR's invasion, that right-wing groups—aided by Western intelligence agencies—were going to depose the Communist government of Czechoslovakia. Finally, the KGB prepared hardline , pro-USSR members of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ), such as Alois Indra and Vasiľ Škultéty, to assume power after
14112-772: The turn of the 20th century, before appearing in America by the 1920s. The British cinematic shooting gallery game Life Targets (1912) was a mechanical interactive film game where players shot at a cinema screen displaying film footage of targets. The first light guns appeared in the 1930s, with the Seeburg Ray-O-Lite. Games using this toy rifle were mechanical and the rifle fired beams of light at targets wired with sensors. Shooting gallery games eventually evolved into more sophisticated shooting electro-mechanical games (EM games) such as Sega 's influential Periscope (1965). Contemporary shooting video games have roots in older EM shooting games. Another influential Sega EM shooting game
14238-500: The unpopular on-foot levels found in Urban Strike . The developers aimed to include more humour in the game, with other additions being voice-overs and full motion video. The later Saturn version featured a number of changes: an optional easy difficulty setting (providing the player with twice the fire-power and slower fuel consumption), adjustable brightness on the heads-up display; two hidden powerful weapons; hundreds of bug fixes from
14364-399: The use of a microprocessor . In 1976, Midway had another hit shooting video game, Sea Wolf (1976), which was adapted from another Sega EM game, Periscope . The genre gained major attraction in popular culture with the release of Taito 's Space Invaders arcade video game in 1978. It established the basis of the shoot 'em up subgenre, and became a cultural phenomenon that led into
14490-425: The use of hero abilities during a match. Outside of a match, players have the ability to customize the appearance of these characters, but these changes are usually cosmetic only and do not alter the game's balance or the behavior of the "hero". Hero shooters take many of their design elements from older class-based shooter, multiplayer online battle arena and fighting games . The class-based shooter Team Fortress 2
14616-531: The way aggression was measured in the studies could be compared to the way competitiveness is measured, leaving open the question of whether or not the effects of violent video games are forms of aggression or competitiveness. KGB The Committee for State Security ( Russian : Комитет государственной безопасности , romanized : Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti , IPA: [kəmʲɪˈtʲed ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ] ), abbreviated as KGB (Russian: КГБ ; listen )
14742-410: Was Gun Fight (1969), where two players control cowboy figurines on opposing sides of a playfield full of obstacles, with each player attempting to shoot the opponent's cowboy. It had a Western theme and was one of the first games to feature competitive head-to-head shooting between two players, inspiring several early Western-themed shooter video games. Spacewar! (1962), recognized as one of
14868-503: Was "part of the charm", while Sega Saturn Magazine said the sequences "spice up the proceedings a fair bit". Reviewing the Saturn version, GameFan noted a poorer quality of FMV than in the PlayStation version. Gerstmann felt the sound to be "dull", while Next Generation called it "exemplary". Others praised the quality of the gunfire sound effects, and noted humour in the enemy troops' utterances. Gerstmann said it consisted of "a raw collection of messy operations", while Edge praised
14994-664: Was Cold War policy for the KGB of the Soviet Union and the secret services of the satellite states to extensively monitor public and private opinion, internal subversion and possible revolutionary plots in the Soviet Bloc . In supporting those Communist governments, the KGB was instrumental in crushing the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the Prague Spring of " Socialism with a Human Face " in Czechoslovakia, 1968. During
15120-483: Was clear that the 3DO's demise was inevitable; an additional two years' labor time was the result. The team re-evaluated the basics of the 16-bit games and aimed to create more lifelike environments and enemy behaviour. The 3D engine - created by the Road Rash 3DO team - used satellite images of real topography, imposed on polygonal maps. It also modified the preceding isometric viewpoint - which caused buildings to obstruct
15246-574: Was intended for the 3DO platform , before development changed to the PlayStation. Soviet Strike is set after the disintegration of the Soviet Union , and takes place in a fictionalised Russia, Eastern Europe and around the Caspian Sea . The player pilots an Apache helicopter and battles with the forces of Shadowman, a renegade ex-communist figure. Like its predecessors, the game features shooting action mixed with strategic management of fuel and ammunition, but has more authentic 3D graphics , as well as
15372-615: Was launched earlier that year. The operation carried out bombings with the help of GRU and FCD . On 27 December, the centre received news that KGB Special Forces Alpha and Zenith Group, supported by the 154th OSN GRU, also known as Muslim battalion and paratroopers from the 345th Independent Guards Airborne Regiment stormed the Tajbeg Palace and killed Amin and his 100–150 personal guards. His 11-year-old son died due to shrapnel wounds. The Soviets installed Karmal as Amin's successor. Several other government buildings were seized during
15498-423: Was somewhat better but nevertheless very similar to the PlayStation original. It recommended the game to Strike fans but felt it would be an "in at the deep end" introduction for newcomers to the series. Edge summarised: "this is a fairly well-engineered continuation of the four-year-old Strike series", which retains the gameplay of the original but updates the graphics to true 3D . Scary Larry of GamePro felt
15624-626: Was the capstone of NKVD espionage against Anglo–American science and technology. To wit, British Manhattan Project team physicist Klaus Fuchs (GRU 1941) was the main agent of the Rosenberg spy ring. In 1944, the New York City residency infiltrated top secret Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico by recruiting Theodore Hall , a 19-year-old Harvard physicist. The KGB failed to rebuild most of its US illegal resident networks. The aftermath of
15750-403: Was the first video game to use an isometric playfield . In the early 1980s, Japanese arcade developers began moving away from space shooters towards character action games . On the other hand, American arcade developers continued to focus on space shooters during the early 1980s. According to Eugene Jarvis , American arcade developers were greatly influenced by Japanese space shooters but took
15876-595: Was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka , OGPU , and NKVD . Attached to the Council of Ministers , it was the chief government agency of "union-republican jurisdiction", carrying out internal security, foreign intelligence , counter-intelligence and secret police functions. Similar agencies operated in each of
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