[TF2]'s Great Reload Mechanics 

As Someone Who Reloads The Entire Clip After Every Kill I Say That This Video Is About Reloading

I think TF2's automatic reload and cancelable reloads were overlooked in this video, they are a big part of what makes reloading in TF2 feel a lot better than other games. They turn reloading from an active chore that leaves you vulnerable to something that limits your burst damage output, while not completely removing your ability to attack unless you are fully out of ammo. It makes shooting and reloading feel more like a natural flow rather than taking you out of the fight.

I’d argue spaltoon has the best shooter reload mechanics, as instead of just being vulnerable you go into swim form and you’re allowed to move much faster

do not ever call a gas tank a "brap tank" ever again.

Reloading: 😐 Reloading, tf2: 😲

Counterpoint to the intro, reloading is not used just because it is prevalent, but because of its balancing capabilities. Most games without reloading provide rather unsatisfying feeling because they have to be balanced around being able to constantly deal damage (laser weapons are a great example - they are rarely fun if they do not deal horrendous amounts of damage due to their poor feedback). I know it was stated later in the video, but it renders the opening statements misleading. Lots of games do a poor/uninspired job at implementing the mechanic, though, I agree on that.

One of my favorite implementations of reloading (in a single player game) has got to be in Cry of Fear. If you reload a magazine that still has bullets in it you lose those bullets forever, but the reload will be faster than with an empty mag. Being a survival horror game this method of reloading really adds to the tension and decision-making that genre thrives off of.

0:20 i am one of the goblins inside the gun

Thank you for making incredible videos that I cannot share with any of my friends.

Reloading is fairly interesting when taken into account as more than a press of a button, some games force you to manually reload the thing with a mini game and VR games usually give you the real deal, it's interesting how tf2 lets you stop the reload mid way through and shoot at the same time, always wondered why that was the case, speeds up the gameplay !

Always seen TF2’s reload mechanic more akin to an overheat meter, like how some games treat miniguns. It still emphasizes not wasting shots while not having you needlessly pressing ‘r’ every couple seconds. Wish more casual shooters used it.

I get your "It's dumb that CoD/BF/whatever has reloading because it's realistic when the games themselves are unrealistic" point, but I honestly think it's a weak one for multiple reasons. 1. The guns in these games usually aren't sci-fi laser pistols, and are instead based on real guns. It'd be weird and immersion breaking if you could fire 300 bullets from a normal-ass MP5 without reloading, just like how an arena shooter giving you a sci-fi rocket launcher with a magazine that requires reloading would feel off. 2. The games aren't 100% realistic by design. They're supposed to feel realistic enough to give off a light power fantasy element, but arcade enough to not be frustrating to most consumers. There's a very good reason why you don't need to periodically stop to piss or shit in Fallout. 3. Reloading mechanics can help guns feel more distinct. In a game like TF2 where you have magical stats like "Gain 3 health on hit", that's not a huge concern, but if you're a game based around SMGs/assault rifles, you can really only tweak damage, accuracy, and recoil to distinguish automatic guns unless you want to add potentially unfitting mechanics (classes, CS buy menu, etc) to your game just because "reloading bad."

Came for the TF2 tag, stayed for the alright-hold-up references in the script that would have me googling questionable topics for hours were I a more foolish man. Except the werewolf knot thing, I obviously understood that one immediately

Counterpoint to the Halo downtime thing: Downtime can be important in games, even fast paced shooters. If the game is a constant barrage of dopamine, then players can get burnt out easily or have their judgement clouded. I enjoy walking from Blu’s first spawn in Badwater Basin all the way to the cart at the third point because I have time to assess what the fuck my team has been doing this whole game, and weapons like the disciplinary action add strategy and fun to the downtime.

Reloading is really important for balancing clip/mag size AND giving openings against high power weapons for people to react to. Destiny 2 uses the mechanic very well I'd say, as reloading in fights is a death sentence and if you run out of ammo in close quarters its always better to melee or swap to secondary

I feel that VR really has it best when it comes to reloading, since you have to manually interact with the weapon and understand how the mechanics of it works to reload it effectively under pressure, and that makes it a fun skill to master.

I think that the halo guy meant that when you get downtime where you can't shoot people you get filled with the anticipation of finishing a reload and being able to shoot again, which makes the brain release dopamine. So it's a psychological trick to make you feel better while playing a video game.

SCP: Secret Lab lets you quickly cancel a reload with one bullet still loaded, making you slightly less vulnerable.

Trying to watch this video and I am not used to the amazeballs humor of the writing of this video and I think I'm starting to cry

Milsim games have good reloadings, and I am not talking about the animations. It is the decision of "Hm, should I keep my gun topped off, only to use the half used magazine for later which can compromise my shooting, or do I use the entirety of that mag?"

id like to bring up hunt showdown the reloads are an intensley important part of a fight the FASTEST reload is around 1.5 to 2 seconds long with a level of high mag capacity = slow reload and vice versa the highest mag gun the chain pistol is at 15 round single action revolver with a 30 second reload from empty to full reloading almost becomes a win condition for can you attack while they have no ammo sometimes. but it isnt tedious or unfair you have nearly infinite ammo for 10 seconds at the cost of being completely useless if you dont finish the fight with your superior firepower. i think hunt is one of the best shooters with a good reload system

I dont agree that there should be a reloading mini game in every game (especially cs go). It kinda contradicts your point earlier about trimming fat or something

7:04 TRANSFEM SOLDIER ? ? good for her good for her

>mentions transfem soldier players and werewolf knot in the same video based. subbed.

Just because I'm transfem doesnt mean that I like Rocket Jumping okay I like rocket jumping because its fucking cool

Content drought be like:

Then DayZ and Arma force you to scavenge for ammo and load rounds one by one per mag, even pretend you actually have bullets in your weapon in a lot of situations

7:04 the rocket jumper does WHAT to the soldier?

Hunt showdown handles reloading pretty well. Combining the overall slower, heavier firing. With slow, usually one at a time reloads makes every single bullet feel super impactful.

werewolf knot shot 😭😭😭

My favourite element of ammo usage in TF2 is that it provides something other than health that you have to go find a pickup to replenish. It turns attrition into a genuine element of strategy and limits the effectiveness of certain holds over longer periods of time. Overwatch completely throws this out and gives you infinite ammo.

i genuinely love your sense of humor dude. havent laughed this much at a tf2 vid in a while

i remember when "The Original" sounded like the default rocket launcher; recently replayed to hear a different reload and was blown away by how cool it sounds.

DRG also has some great reload mechanics, as it entices use of both primary and secondary weapons, and the perk 'born ready' while extremely powerful, needs a fair amount of time to trigger the auto reload, so it isnt like you can just continue to clip dump into the bugs. ROCK AND STONE!

Tf2ber when they realise Theres nothing good and original left and do Videos about the Most random shit

2 aspects of TF2s reloading aspects i think more games should do, is auto reload, and reload cancel, two mechanics that together work amazingly. Auto reload is self explaniatory but reload cancel is when you are able to stop the reload animation mid way to do something else, like shoot or swich weapons, which is something that really speeds up combat when i dont have to watch every frame of the animation for the reload to actually happen. All of these aspects together end up making so you really never have to press R at all in TF2 with auto reload on.

Reloading is probably my favorite shooting mechanic but it needs to be exciting, not a chore. Enter the Gungeon for example (yes it's not a 3d multiplayer shooter but its the best "gun go boom" game I've ever played and it's mechanics are far better than most modern shooters) has reloading as a very nessecary mechanic. You essentially feel the health thresholds, and with enemy health thresholds you are required with most combinations of enemies and your guns to reload at least once to take down a stronger enemy, meaning in order to land all hits you need to get close which means you will have to dodge while reloading making it a very exciting endeavor, especially with the hit stun that means your enemies won't attack while you attack, making it an almost Undertale kinda turn based feeling (if you ignore all other enemies). When done well reloading is a quick paced exciting endeavor hence why I love it so much. Fin

I will wait patiently (and pretty of course) for the day of a video to be dropped on Halo specifically thnx

I'd like to bring up the game Severed Steel, which takes the stance "no" on reloading because your character only has one hand and also a uberduber samus hand laser, and instead makes you get a new gun when you run out of boolet

I don’t reload, I just throw the gun and it comes back fully loaded, it’s a neat system

Reloading, and mag size as a whole, is already a major factor because it *is* downtime. That's the point, it is part of weapon balance. A lot of games do do it to the point where this doesnt matter (although that depends on TTK on the game itself) but reloading for the *sake* of reloading is what keeps weapons balanced. Reloading doesn't necessarily have to be unique, it doesn't have to have a gimmick tied to it, it just has to be a factor that affects the playstyle and positioning of the player using the weapon. You can see this with TF2 especially with demoman, over 8 seconds of reload time on both weapons is compensated by immense area damage. LMGs in most shooters follow a similar rule where you trade dozens or even hundreds of bullets for 5 or more seconds where you're forced to be helpless. Bolt-action snipers needing to chamber each shot, shotguns needing to put each shell in, the frequent reloads of bullet-vomiting SMGs, so on so forth. imo, i think you missed on the fact that reloading isnt just a formality in shooters, but an extremely important but simple mechanic that changes a LOT about how people play, not just for TF2.

That Nanking line was BRUTAL, jeeeeeesus lmao

Damn dude, your writing is excellent. You've a lovely sense of humour and every unexpected joke makes me grin.

Ngl I love seeing reloading animations

3:02 so real. this made me laugh so hard

i remember in enter the gungeon one of the random weapons you could find had a mechanic where if you timed it right you could reload instantly.

I personally think Fistful of Frags is an interesting example, where it takes the "Reloading as a moment of vulnerability" idea and cranks it up so damn far that the guns end up being realistically slow to reload for the wild west setting despite the game's generally campy atmosphere. Some guns could take up to half a minute to reload if I recall correctly, meaning that ammo management and timing your assaults/retreats based on the ammo of your and your opponent, all became incredibly important strategic elements, to the point where being good at skirmishing tactics was almost equally as important as aim

I like this man with funny words

I like the way Titanfall 1 did reloading, where you reloaded reserve magazines rather than reserve bullets. So if you were one of the cod style reload spamming junkies, you'd quickly run out of ammo because you were throwing the majority of your ammo away if you reloaded too early.

> it slows game down THAT was exactly the point, because people complained about Quake was too fast for them.

You should see Fisful of frags That cowboy game have super mega long reload animations, and almost all weapons have the same or less than 6 bullets, so you have to make your shots count. In that game all weapons kills in 2 shot or less (except the mini pistols but they are shit and a gimmik weapon) so if you didnt kill with your 6 shots or you are reloading when an enemy start attacking you you are pretty fuck.

Love the "werewolf knot shot"

The game with the best reloading mechanic is DOOM and it's contemporaries. nonexistant

Just this dude's off hand comments about his lore have me cackling

How haven't I seem this. Great vid

I would LOVE to see a developer team put melee weapons as the reload for the guns. Parries, blocks and dealing melee damage reload your guns. Bullets can be parried by melee weapons. INFINITE SKILL CEILING.

This was one of the most well put together videos I have seen this side of 2020. Keep doing what you are doing man

I could argue reloading in tf2 is less important as there is no reload cancel time and getting caught in the animation has no real penalty.

I love how Cruelty squad maneged the reloding mechanic. Instead of pressing one button the player must hold down LMB and scroll down with the cursor to the bottom line.The speed of action depends solely on the player and their reaction time, mechanic also creates the feeling of anxiety and urgency.

Nobody knows that they saw it but they did.

the widow maker in question:

Payday 2 has a certain thing called "Reload cancels" If you reload your gun, you can run to cancel the reload. Reload cancelling is really important, especially in the highest difficulty, death sentence, because the enemies can just suddenly rush you and kill you quickly. Reload cancelling is so important that people leave "Parkour aced" from their builds, as that prevents reload cancels.

"The [__] of Nan King aside" 5:52

Reloading usually changes potential or communicates how a gun is supposed to be used, even shitty implimentations are better then dakka endlessly.

Battlefront 2’s reloading does the Gears mini game but if you do it at a certain spot it not only rewards you with a faster reload but unlimited ammo for a short time

From the Depths, while being a FPS only by technicality, has a really cool reload mechanic for Advanced Cannons and Missiles, basically you design your missile/shells from a selection of parts and configure them, and with advanced cannons this is before you build the gun in the firstplace.

Apart from the realistic reasons of reloading, I think it's needed in games to keep the balance. Imagine you don't need to reaload in L4D2 and the standard zombies aren't obstacle anymore. In multiplayer games reload is needed so player cannot just rush around a corner and spray to get all the kills. If you really dislike reloading try playing Ultrakill maybe. Good player doesn't see any reload animation.

In Halo the relode is Intended to aid the 30 seconds of fun by encouraging weapon swapping and weapon pick ups

In Harshdoor Stop, you get punished by reloading btw. Because, when you reload in that game. It will not just magically stack bullets into the new mags. It will keep that mag and when the reload reaches the same mag that you reload earlier. That the rounds left in that mag. Basically a pure realistic how Magazine works. It rewards you if you use all the bullet in the mag. Even with WWII guns, it punishes you if you have to reload half of Your total rounds. You must reload the bullet individually and the animation will keep playing until you fully reloaded. You cannot cancel it. So basically know when to reload in Harshdoor Stop is a must.

11:47 Jumpscare warning

Sooo.. Cool ammo mechanic And genuine risk when swapping a mag. Also a actual incentive to reload.

I love hitting the griddy in Team Fortress 2 [TF2]

8:35 My favorite video title

Another game that does Active Reloading called Synthetik... But also with manual mag ejecting. Reload in that game feels so damn smooth, until you mess up or the gun jams.

I have to disagree somewhat about reloading not at all being thought out. Many shooters also have single loading guns, man even have options to replace those guns with ones that have an actual magazine to give you damage per second at the cost of damages per shot. There’s also the age old dynamic between LMG’s and Assault Rifles. A gun with 30 bullets that takes 2-4 seconds to reload vs. a gun with 100 bullets that can take up to 10 seconds to reload.

I definitely believe that another of valve’s multiplayer fps games (l4d2) do reloading amazingly. In L4D2 it’s you and 3 others against a zombie horde, and it’s fucking dark. You always want your flashlight on, but reloading points it away from the center of the screen, the main area you’re looking at. This also helps emphasize the want to stay together, as more people = more lights. Reloads are also proportional to the power of your weapon (except the AK lol it’s busted but has low accuracy.) Grenade launchers have a reload after every shot, making each one matter. M60s have no reserve, so after it runs out you throw it on the ground like the trash it now is. Snipers are fucking broken but when it runs out, it takes 3 and a half seconds to replace the mag, which is a long time in l4d2. Every weapon that isn’t a shotgun has a magazine, and when the mag comes out the clip is set to 0, so if you swap out to kill a threat, you have to reload again. Shotguns reload 1-by-1 so it’s not a problem but their mag sizes are high and it takes like half a second for a shell to go in that it takes like 4-5 seconds for all to go in.

Ok but source 9:03?

cruelty squad is one of the best reloading

Talking about Soldier I'm disappointed you didn't make a "switching to your secondary is faster than reloading" joke since TF2 is one of the few games where that actually feels true.

the assault canon has pretty cool reload mechanics. best gun in tf2

one of my favorite reload systems is the heat system in Battlefront 2 (2017) love that game sm

Best form of active reloading.... Vr, vr, vr, vr I feel like in a lot of ways fixes this by associating the "down time" or better put "panic time" in the hand of an actual skill. A skill that satisfys the game dev balance and the realism nerds to some extent. It sucks that VR won't really get as big as it can be unless the price comes down for good hardware and mechanics from games like HHVR come to multiplayer shooters.

Sythetik while being a twinstick and not fps has very fun reloading. First you must unload the magazine, this will waste any ammo you have left in the magazine and the game will let you know if you foolishly eject an entire magazine. While you magazine is ejected you have a chance to switch to different ammo types. When you reload you can perform an active reload to not only shorten reload, but also get a small stat boost and with a modifier enabled you can do a perfect which gives you an even better bonus.

EA Battlefront 2 has a heat system instead of reloading and cooling your gun down is a minigame. I'd love to see that in a game that's actually good.

That rush bit got a snort from me

A game I think fits your criteria for good reload mechanics really well is "Verdun". Ironically, by using actually, genuinely realistic reloads (90% of the time), it adds depth to the gameplay by creating large moments of vulnerability that require tactical decisions from the player on a regular basis. Some rifles can't reload on a non-empty clip, do you fire the last two shots in your rifle at an enemy to avoid waste, or do you fire at nothing, sacrificing the bullets for a full clip in case there's more enemies than 2 bullets can handle? For rifles that CAN reload on a non-empty clip, another problem arises on top of the previous; do you reload when empty for an overall faster reload of the entire clip, or do you slowly reload the individual bullets to avoid waste while also leaving yourself vulnerable for longer. Next up are the heavy machine guns, they usually can't be fired accurately unless you've planted the rifle down, basically becoming the TF2 sentry. These guns tend to have sizable magazines and to make full use of them you want to be in a spot where you can see a large number of enemies. The problem, big mags = long reloads = long vulnerability time on a stationary target that many enemies can see; so do you stay in place to maintain your position, or do you de-mount the gun, reload, then try to re-mount it, losing time and opening yourself up by trying to reposition. Finally, some rifles can ONLY be reloaded 1 bullet at a time, making reloading a huge sacrifice that you need to commit to. It's faster overall to reload several bullets so you don't have to rechamber each individual round as it goes in, but you'll be vulnerable for longer, etc. In conclusion, I believe the reloads in "Verdun" enhance the gameplay by giving the player additional tactical problems that they control the nature of and must solve during moment-to-moment gameplay, with slightly different solutions required for different scenarios. Plus, it helps to improve the games focus on TEAMS rather than INDIVIDUALS. While a skilled individual player can and will do well, there's only so many rounds in your gun and with those reload times you'd better have teammates covering your ass or a good hiding spot. Reloading isn't a .5 second chore, it's a lengthy commitment every time and having a thorough understanding of the battlefield and your gun is required if you don't want to get domed every other reload.

In enter the gungeon do reload well to like with the cool gun because if you hit the reload on the right time you shoots get stronger and stronger and other weapons reload is the main way for the gimmicks like the ant

Reloading guns is cool, and should be a mechanic for games set in a realistic theater. arcade shooters like doom and quake and these new fangled csgo clones and BRs should have something like it to put you at a disadvantage temporarily after expending x amount of rounds. You shouldnt typically be allowed to reload whenever. But to be fair we are all guilty of thinking animations can bw cool, unless you are this guy.

Reloading is an essential part of shooters that requires players to think more tactically and allows other players to get an advantage / edge over their enemies by peeking them while they're reloading, thus making sure that every player isn't just spamming shots all the time. For a 12 minute video you have wasted my time.

I like the reloading(and weapon management) in SCP:SL it makes you vulnerable for a correct amount of time, is noisy in a pretty quiet game when you’re alone (which happen often), is limited to how many ammo you have, the max you can carry is affected by what body armor you wears, you have to pick them up around the map in weapon lockers and all, unload weapons found on bodies, and can even change weapon, you find a cool one ? Then take it you’re not limited by a selected loadout ! It adds a lot more reflection on "should i use my ammos now on 173 or wait for the respawn so we can deal significant damage since he has regenerating sheild" and like "do i reload now and shoot 939 or should i wait until he goes away since he is attracted by sounds ?"

Dude, why do you have so few subscribers, your editing and jokes are god tier.

Cruelty Squad has the best reloading

Hey! Sot enthusiast here. Sea of Thieve's reloading is intresting and definetly paces the game as a pvpve game. however, like rocket jumping, there is a thing called quickswapping which enables you to kill a player almost instantly. it's created a difference in the sweaty part of the game (i.e competitive) and made a huge divide in the community.

I gotta say, you are very clever with how frequently you pop out really smart jokes and bits. But there’s just too much edgy stuff in here to be favorable to the RU-vid algorithm godking. Best of luck.

Idk, I find reloads really satisfying.

i want to say that in some games where reloading may not have a huge gameplay impact such as call of duty or battlefield etc, reloading still has value as more of a flavor mechanic as those games have a semi-realistic aesthetic and it would just feel off if you didn't need to reload your weapons.

One of the animators of MW19 said that he saw the reload animations as a 'taunt', especially for the flashy ones like the Desert Eagle. Cool way of looking at it

1:34 bro didn’t needed to say this😭😭

7:02 transfems the solder?

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. I rest my case at "Most fun reloads ever".