Being Successful in First-Person Shooter Video Games: Tips, Tricks & the Trigger-Finger

I love this short game. "Black" is a console-based first-person shooter for the PlayStation 2, created by Electronic Arts and Criterion Games. This is a game about a soldier named Seargeant Jack Kellar who is under investigation and in chains telling his story about what happened 4 days ago while battling a new terrorist organization called "Seventh Wave". Later he is scheduled to meet up with McCarver and Solomon in their fight against Lennox, a modern-day Benedict Arnold, and the leader of Seventh Wave.

This game has a crazy amount of firepower, and has been called "gun-porn" because of the number of firearms that you can blow away your enemies with. This is why I love playing this game.

"Black" is very simple, although tragically short with 8 levels and no boss battles, and the only thing close to a boss battle is wave after wave of terrorists charging and emptying their clips at you, trying to take you down with them. It's a shame that there's no blood or gore in this game as Quake 3 Arena or Unreal Tournament. It's also a shame that there isn't more levels and guns to play around with, and that it's TOO simple and easy. It provides a decent challenge, but it still leaves a lot to be desired.

Here's a compilation of 30 tips, tricks and techniques i've learned when playing first-person shooter games lke "Black", and although this might be a long list, this always comes in handy whenever I need an alternative to a real-world all-out killing spree against those who have messed around with me.

1. When facing stronger bad guys that can do more serious damage to you, toss a grenade as fast as you can, and continue firing at the enemy so that he won't get a chance to run from the grenade's explosion. The gunfire will keep him/her occupied and distracted so that he can't notice the grenade nearby. He/she won't know what hit 'em until the last second when it blows them to Kingdom Come!

2. When sniping, just like hunting, fire VERY early if the enemy's charging without firing and heading your direction very fast. Place your cross-hair (a sign, a dot, or anything small inside your scope in the middle) in your sniper's scope ahead of his position. Zoom in when you see him on your scope, and squeeze the trigger before he passes your line of fire. This will take some practice, but it can be done.

3. ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS aim for the head and attempt headshots. That kills your enemies quicker if they're wearing body armor, any bodily defenses or shields. One-bullet headshots kill faster than 99-bullet regular shots. Plus, use suppressors or silencers on your weapons. They look like black tubes as barrel extensions that can be twisted on. They might be less powerful, but they reduce the "BANG!" noise and dim the flashes from the barrel. They muzzle the sight and sound of the weapons applied, making your kills quiet and stealthy, preventing any enemy reinforcements from arriving.
However, don't use headshots if there is another enemy soldier nearby. Even with a silencer on your weapon, if you do a headshot too quickly, the nearby soldier will see or hear it, and the soldier will respond quickly as though you had NO silencer at all, and there goes your chance of a surprise attack.

4. Use what I call "The Waterboy Technique", based on the movie, "The Waterboy" starring Adam Sandler, seeing and/or visualizing your would-be killers as something you hate or seriously don't like. See your enemies as who or what makes you so furious, and who or what you want to make human swiss cheese out of. This could be your parents, your siblings, the bullies and those who harassed you at school, villains in movies that you hate, the terrorists, your boss, your co-workers, the government, things that bring down your good mood, bad times, faulty technology, anyone or anything that you can think of that makes you miserable. Bring back some buried, repressed or suppressed memories of people or things that made your life a miserable, living hell, and see them as those who are trying to kill you. This will give you extra motivation and incentive to fight harder, and let out a little bit of steam that's been inside you boiling like a pressure cooker. The more people who are against you or have done wrong to you in real life, the more you want to blow open their skulls, decorate their gray matter on the walls, feed their insides to the birds, make their blood rain down on the battlefield and use their skins as a rug on your floor in the FPS gaming world. It could be anything or anyone that raises your blood pressure, and it could be anything or anyone that you want to unleash your deep hatred and anger upon with a metal hailstorm of your bullets.

5. It's not shameful, dishonorable or cowardly to hide in a room from enemy fire. As a matter of fact, YOU NEED A PLACE TO DEFEND YOURSELF!! Because you are a sitting duck completely exposed in their shooting gallery if you don't, especially when facing sniper fire. However, use this tactic sparingly in multiplayer fragfests, because this would be considered camping if done for very long time periods.

6. The time between reloading your weapon could mean the difference between life and death. After the end of each gun-battle, stop, and reload quickly afterwards. You don't want to be caught dead reloading in the middle of a firefight. It makes you a bigger sitting duck than being exposed in the open to the enemy itself!

7. Before you reload, make sure to find a place to defend yourself from heavy enemy fire, such as a nearby room just like rule no. 5, or objects of a shielding environment such as columns, ruined vehicles, metallic junk, graveyard tombstones, or anything as cover.

8. Conserve your ammo and think like a ninja. First-person shooters aren't just "KILL 'EM ALL! KILL 'EM ALL! DIE! DIE! DIE!" It's no fun when you're forced to rely on your short-range attacks when you run out of bullets to spray your anger with. So save some of your lead for later by switching to Burst Fire mode or Single Fire mode. When you're against very dangerous bad guys with more powerful firearm than your normal, regular killers, and they haven't noticed you yet, use the element of surprise to your advantage and add your suppressor to your weapon as stated earlier. You'll have much more accuracy in doing headshots, and you won't draw attention to yourself. As long as you're out of the enemy's sight and you drop him/her quick, you won't get caught.

9. Although in some games you can get trigger-happy as much as you want, remember that if you're REALLY low on health, release your itchy trigger from the trigger, and go to the nearest shelter away from enemy fire. At that time, use strategy to pick your enemies off.

10. If you find any explosive objects such as barrels, vehicles, etc. and your enemy is nearby one of them, don't hit the bad guy directly. It'll be hilarious when you blow the explosive object up and the bad guy's body is flying like a screaming raggedy ann ragdoll and left in an awkward spot when he lands!

11. Listen to see if any other bad guy is still alive. Whether it's shouting, stomping, footsteps, jingling, running, etc., you still have enemies to blow away. If it sounds like it's moving, it's alive, and it's got to be snuffed out fast.

12. If you're lost and you're walking in circles, find any indication of your recent trails, such as recently-killed enemies, bullet holes (although hard to find), signs of recent gunfights you were in, burn marks from explosives, anything to set you in the right direction.

13. If you have a weapon that makes you feel comfortable, use it, but only to a limit. You don't want or need to use up your favorite weapon's ammo, and run out of it in the middle of a shotgun fight.

14. Don't rely on explosive weaponry like RPGs, BFGs, or anything that is devastating too much, especially in small battles. It'll make the game so boring that it spoils the fun. You want to draw out the battle to make it satisfying, but you also want to take your enemies out as fast as possible. Use these weapons only to clear out hard-to-pass-through areas or when the situation gets too life-threatening. Plus, using explosive weaponry will make you look like a newbie in multiplayer fragfests, or if you use them a lot and post a video of it on Youtube.

15. Alternate between firearms for possible faster kills. If you're running low on handgun ammo, switch to the shotgun for more damage. If you have two machine-guns, when you run out of bullets in your Uzi, immediately switch to your MP5, although you might have to switch to Burst Fire, or Single Fire to conserve your ammo. When all your bad guys are dead, stop and reload both of them.

16. Your weapon have different reloading times, so use the weapon with the faster reloading times. The faster you reload your ammo, the quicker you have of not only your survival, but the lesser your chances of being a sitting duck.

17. Don't get too close to the enemy. When you aren't caught or seen, back off by a few inches. When you get a chance, kill him quicker so that he won't react. Even better is when you use a silencer to execute quick kills from behind. Get too close and you're caught.

18. If you find a rare firearm, SWITCH TO IT IMMEDIATELY AND KEEP IT!!! There is an abundance of common weapons that the enemy uses. Drop the common weapon and keep the rare weapon on you. You'll never know what you're missing when you pass a rare weapon by.

19. When getting up to an enemy's face up close in a firefight, and if you're running out of ammo, use the short-range melee function called gun-whipping. This is using your firearm as a blunt weapon like a bat, especially using the butt of the gun. But don't use it unless it's a last desperation situation and your life's almost depleted. Whap the enemy as quickly and as fast as possible until he's knocked out.

20. Contrary to No. 9, when you earn or use a cheat code for infinite or unlimited ammo, GO BERSERK!!! When an enemy is in your sights, keep your trigger-finger glued to the trigger and don't let go of it until (s)he is dead! It's not enough to have an itchy trigger finger. You also need to have a finger that's GLUED to the trigger in even more dangerous situations.

21. If you can't see your enemy clearly, look for the flashpoint fire that comes from their barrels. When someone fires, you see a yellow-ish star-shaped light design. It's completely visible even if they have a silencer on. It stays visible through the dust, dirt and anything that can act as a smokescreen for the enemy. Look for the flashpoint fire in any shape. Then aim at the same spot. This can come in handy if you have a sniper rifle.

22. The closer you are to the one who is firing on you, the quicker you're likely to get killed from repeated, more stronger gunfire. So once again, don't get too close!

23. MOVE! MOVE! MOVE! KEEP MOVING!!!! Except when you're sniping, and even so if you can move and snipe at the same time, don't just stand there like a sitting duck, because that's what you are if you do! Dodge, zig-zag, run, sprint, jump, evade, even dance if you have to, but FOR GOD'S SAKE, MOVE FOR YOUR LIFE AND DON'T STOP!!!

24. Focus on one enemy at a time. You don't have time to fire rounds at one enemy, and then move to the other when he's firing at you from behind! The faster you kill him, the quicker you can move to the next.

25. Make sure that you save your best and strongest weapons, as well as ammo for the weapons, for last in the boss battle of the final level, because whether it's a severe wave of terrorists with high-damage gunfire, a gigantic armored tank, or the super-powerful monster of the boss battle, you want to keep your best and strongest firearms for this epic climax.

26. Use the environment to your advantage. When there's explosive objects, don't EVER blow it up unless you have many enemies nearby it. Don't fire on the object until you have a lot of enemy soldiers to blow up as well. This is killing multiple birds (of prey) with one boulder-sized stone. Also, set off traps to stun or kill them. Anything can be used as a trap, whether it's a church bell, falling columns, or gigantic steamroller-sized barrels, if it kills them, use it to your advantage. Just don't get caught in your own trap afterwards!

27. Don't ever do battle when you're near an explosive object, because if you accidentally shoot that object, or if, by fluke, an enemy's bullet hits it, BOOM!!! You lose a chunk of health as that explosive object's splash radius gets you. This also applies to explosive weapons like grenades.

28. Sometimes being shot can be good for you. Did you ever notice that when you get shot by an enemy a red arrow or curve shows up? That's where the enemy who is shooting at you is located. The enemy is giving away his location by shooting you. Use that to your advantage, but not too much. You still need your health, so learn to see where your enemy is with the red arrow or curve before he takes more of your life.

29. When it comes to land mines, throw a grenade at the battleground. The explosion of the grendade will cause a chain reaction that will detonate the land mines, and if you do it right, if the enemies are nearby, they will get caught in the explosion chaos. Use a shotgun to detonate the stray land mines that are left. But be careful. When you're in grassy places where land mines are hidden, chuck a grenade again to clear them out. Many a soldier was caught in the chaos. Don't step on one, nor do you run recklessly through the minefield.

30. Finally, don't fire any explosive weaponry in closed areas, or at areas with solid objects. Watch out for the splash radius of such weaponry. Launch an RPG onto a solid object such as a destructible box or support column, and if there are any enemies nearby, it will kill them, but thanks to the splash zone, your lifebar or life meter will be shortened a piece thanks to your weapon's explosion. So fire your explosive weapon at enemies in open spaces.

I've had a blast (pun intended) playing this game. As i've said before, it's a short game, it leave a lot to be desired, and it's a good thing this game's a cliffhanger series. We just hope that they create a sequel for the next-gen consoles to see what happens to Seargeant Jack Kellar in "Black 2".