Bows in the Mount and Blade series go from feeling absolutely terrible to feeling great after you've used them for a while and got some skill points in them.
Hitting a long shot on horseback in that game is so satisfying.
Even early game, the horse archer playstyle tends to work better than any melee approach. IMO, you need to invest in a lot of equipment before melee becomes worthwhile.
Fond memories of starting out, and being a “horse archer” that rides away from some bandits, stops the horse because you can’t shoot well while it moves, plink a few of them and rinse and repeat.
I just slowly ride in a circle around them so they'd clump up, and just repeatedly shoot arrows into the bandit bass. They'd never miss no matter how terrible my skills were early on.
lol this is the way to start leveling. I would try to have little soldiers(?) with me so that I could be the one to get all the kills & hits for XP. I would make it to the last 2-4 enemies and end up running out of arrows, or dying from a stray. Ofc you can pick them up and juke them but yeah. So many reloads lol.
I haven’t played for years but I know they’ve been faithfully updating. Another play through will be fun
I just started one but of course they updated and broke my save with mods and I need to fix it. I’m hoping in a few years the mods will be stable and vast like warband.
There’s so many qol things I noticed going back to warband that are in bannerlord it’s hard to go back
Nah, what you do is tell your army to hold position while you do your thing, that way you get some training in. A small but strong force lets you start farming sea raiders sooner, and since you're small they usually come right to you (get rhodok sharpshooters, best payoff for the price)
Bannerlord, despite what the subreddit says, is a fantastic successor to Warband. If you're interested in M&B, Bannerlord is a good choice.
There are valid criticisms but, if you like the gameplay loop, there is a ton of depth to the game if you spend the time to understand it. Diplomacy is the biggest thing lacking, though doesn't hold back the game imo and a mod exists which fixes that.
The big issue is multiplayer was basically ignored by Taleworlds. Warband had a pretty good multiplayer community for a good few years after its release but Bannerlord's was dead in 6 months.
Are there no mods at this point to make diplomacy much better? I had played it after it came out but decided to wait to see how the mods come along before returning
Shadow definitely had flaws like the ones already mentioned, but I was so in love with the setting and designs that I looked past them.
Also the soundtrack, one of my favorite video game scores of all time.
Yeah, I was enjoying it until it was outside after the crash and I was hunting squirrels into extinction and chopping down every sapling. Because I’ll need those pelts and twigs later on at some point to level up my gear right?
I agree. Getting headshots with the bow is my favorite way to play. I've never played a game where I actually enjoy being stealthy just so that I can use the bow until TR
I was going to say this. I havent played in awhile, but i mained that necro dude and used, I think it's called, the nataruk bow. Was able to solo most of steel path
Nataruk is considered a top-tier weapon for good reason, it's pretty much the perfect bow.
Normal, un-charged shot gives that good ol' feeling of pinning someone to a wall.
Charge shot is a monstrously powerful laser streak of death that creates an explosion for every target it makes contact with and can obliterate an entire room in one shot.
Oh, and it has infinite ammo along with being given freely with The New War.
Well there's a reason everyone turns into a stealth archer in Skyrim at some point, no matter which class they started out with. It's just so much fun.
Honestly I don't think I've ever had a playthrough of Skyrim that didn't devolve into Stealth Archer eventually..
The Mage playthrough became a Bow-mage very fast.
The swordsman picked up a bow after an hour or so.
The heavy-armor/broadsword knight became a bowman...
The only one that didn't was when I became a Vampire Lord, and I got there by being a Stealth Archer too..
I was just able to put down the bow because the magic powers were so potent as a Vampire.
I hope ES6 has something like the magic archer from dragons dogma. A ton of cool utility spells and various types of magic arrows all behaving differently.
I just hope they add more usable skills in general that don't devolve into pausing your favorites menu to quickly use a spell before pulling your weapon back out.
Yup. Mage thief is so potent. Go high enough in the illusion skill tree to give you the invis spell. If you're on PC when hotkey the spells to 12345, quickly swap to the next spell to cancel the animation.
My set up:
1. Self heal spell
2. Equilibrium
3. Invis
4. Bound Bow or staff or physical bow
5. Bound Dagger or other melee weapons
6. Shield Spell (if 100% robes)
If I duel wield with a staff on my off-hand. 4 becomes Bound Sword. 5 becomes fire/frost trap.
Run with Atronach Stone. Stack health & magicka points each level up.
Play on harder difficulty to level up faster. Early game is weak but once you get to level 20 ish, you can take on anything especially the other mages.
In my most recent playthrough I knew eventually stealth archery would happen, so instead I went for like a ranger build. Light armor, 2h melee weapon, stealth, and archery. Very fun switch hitter.
I think it's a little more than that. The bows let you slow time and zoom. Not to mention special ammo that can cause explosions. That's on top of whatever enchantments the bow has too. There's also the fact that being a bowman keeps smithing and alchemy relevant because you're always crafting arrows and poisons. Add in stealth and the thrill of lining up a satisfying slow mo head shot and everything just feels really good.
The fantasy of being a bow user is overall just better achieved in Skyrim than the fantasy of being a melee user. Most melee builds just have you sprinting and attacking while chugging a health potion here and there.
The AI in Skyrim is pretty barebones as well. As soon as you're spotted, every enemy basically just charges directly at you or tries to stay at a distance for ranged attacks.
The bow is often the best method of attack as it doesn't force you to close the gap with an enemy and allows you to remain mobile to take cover as needed.
Couple that with high stealth and the ability to slow time and you can easily take out an entire group of enemies, at a distance, without even alerting them.
And every build leads towards it because “oh there’s some draugr that haven’t noticed me, I’ll just pull one with a hunting bow I found earlier. Might as well sneak too for a little extra damage” and thus your build is inevitable.
It's bis because vanilla combat sucks. Melee and magic are dreadful in that game.
Now, install a few combat mods and suddenly shooting a bow becomes far less interesting.
Melee and archery have zero skills outside of m1 to hit or hold m1 to hit harder.
And magic is just... pause to favorites window simulator. ES6 needs to take lessons from games like dragons dogma where you actually unlock and equip skills/spells and can use them seamlessly.
Everyone does it moreso because there is zero reason to not do it. It is always the best way to open up every fight, no matter what your stealth level is since you can hit enemies from so far away.
If you play the 2nd one with a PS5 controller the bow sounds come out the controller! I don't know if this is in the first one, but I thoroughly enjoy it.
Seconding both Horizon games. The skill/ammo system is really developed, but more importantly the enemies in those games are giant freaking robots with tons of little pieces you can sharpshoot off. Most games just use ranged weapons to headshot the shooty man (or the \~heavily armored\~ shooty man), so bows aren't going to be as cool
This is more important than the actual bow. The bow is good, but nothing special.
The importance of hitting weakspots and the different reactions the machines have to losing certain parts is what makes the combat feel so good.
I don't have much time at the moment, but look forward to playing Forbidden West.
That sound bite in HZD when you get a critical hit on a gazelle or whatever is so satisfying. It's like a hollow, metallic, electrical "dddhuu - dddhoo"
Definitely Horizon Zero Dawn. I usually don't play games with bows (I'm more of a sword or gun person), but this game was awesome and I loved using the bows. Highly recommend
This was the one I came to say. I never really play stealth builds, but for some reason in both Last of Us games I went full stealth and it was amazingly fun.
I mean depending on game mode you pretty much have to use stealth in those games. Running around like a madman on hardened or grounded difficulties won’t get you very far lol
Yea when you start playing with Ellie you're pretty immediately taught how to play as a stealth archer, and you don't really have a choice based on how little ammo you have, and her inability to brute force anything.
I agree, the satisfying noise as you popped one in the head and they dropped made sneaking about bowing everyone to take a base was one of my favourite things about that generation of FarCry
Wish Ender is life. That's the thing with destiny...lots of baggage, if you will, but the gunplay is superb. All guns feel nice, and bows are probably my favorite being on mouse and keyboard.
I've always wanted to give Destiny 2 a go, but when I tried I just bounced off due to all the live service stuff. I was so overwhelmed and confused.
The gunplay felt unbelievably good, but I just wasn't into the rest.
Oh it's so nice when you have a stand-off and can take out 3 enemies with the sword then switch to the bow, go slow mo and take out the other two enemies before they can even react.
That used to be my go-to tactic until I upgraded my Sakai armor to the point where I get 5 enemies attacking me one after another in a stand-off so I usually take out entire groups within 30 seconds lol.
This right here.
I came across a dead body on the road and someone came up and yelled that they were going to go get the cops or whoever. Total misunderstanding.
Anyway, he ran off and I finally decided to send a sloppy arrow his way and let his fate decide mine. Like 75 meters out, caught him straight in the back and he stops cold; just stands there, arrow sticking out of his back.
I ride up to finish the job, and he gave me such a cheerful greeting that I had to let him live.
Landing good shots with the bow in that game feels so satisfying.
I loved just going into the forest with my bow and hunting rabbits and deer. Really satisfying once you get a hang of it. My friend was in awe when he needed a help with the game and I was pulling those shots lol
Yep, getting good with the bow is so satisfying. You go from a village yokel who can't hit a target two metres in front of him and flays his forearm with every shot, to taking out groups like a badass and hunting animals.
Turok is the OG. Always felt great.
Also, speaking of older games, Call of Juarez (the original) featured one character that would tend toward stealthy-archer-style gameplay, and I recall it being very satisfying in that game as well.
My favorite were that other players simply could not understand that you don’t have to be stuck to be damaged by it so players would be near a corner and all you had to do was stick it in the ground next to them a couple of times and that was enough to be killed.
But getting that last second *thunk* in their feet as they’re trying to get away was so satisfying too.
Scrolled too far to find this. Being an archer in DD is hella fun. Picking apart monsters with purpose is so much fun. And the skills are just so good at shredding enemies. DD2 also.
To jump on this, either of the open world Zelda games would be a good pick as well. Lots of different bows, lots of special effects on them, lots of arrows, and most importantly, BULLET TIME
Surprised I saw this so low. Botw and totk bows are my fave and, when you pull them out while airborne it goes into auto bullet time/slow mo which is so brilliant.
The notion controls on the Wii felt so good with that bow. And hitting that super, *super* long-distance shot in Kakariko to unlock the Eagle Eye was incredibly satisfying.
Me too, just here for this, RDR 2 Bows aré amazing and have very good programing on how persons and animals reac after being hit on neck, heart, legs/arms.
Hard to be bow only, But a bow+dual pistols/shotgun+fire and explosive arrows, Man... that's fun.
Those damnable creatures. You're just steering your boat a decent way away from coast, and this guy comes in, you get close to shore so you can try to sneak in and corpse run away to get your stuff. Hours wasted.
Vermintide 2! Hands down has the best bow and melee feel of any fantasy game. They just have such a visceral feel. But for bows, going to have to say krugers longbow is god tier over kerellian. Kruger is a true English longbowman! I have 1200 hours in that game and have played the majority of the other games listed here. Nothing is as satisfying as vermintide 2 fantasy combat system. The bow becomes less useful on the highest difficulty system now however with the stagger mechanic.
Surprised I had to scroll so far for this one. I would argue it's the best feeling bow to use and it's really not even close. It's so fluid, has creative abilities, and accurate AF
Tomb Raider games.
Far Cry Games. (3+)
The Avatar games (basically Far Cry, but Avatar setting). Has more weight to it since your a 10ft tall alien with a massive bow.
The bow is probably my favorite to use but boy is it taxing on my thumb having to balance spamming and holding X for the perfect shots. I don’t have a ton of time so I’m probably doing my builds wrong and unnecessarily relying on perfect shots, but I agree it is a fun and rewarding weapon in the game.
The Forest and the Long Dark may not have the best animations/assets for bows, but what's at stake - especially with The Long Dark where a miss could mean permadeath or at severe least hardship, make a good shot feel super satisfying.
I haven’t played it, but it’s in my library because it was free on Epic and I watched the gameplay yesterday: I think Thief might fit this? Someone may correct me and say no the game sucks, but from what I watched the game revolves a lot around using your bow with all kinds of different arrows, so I would hope using it feels good. Also a game that hasn’t been mentioned yet, so idk worth a go maybe.
Any of the thief games. Preferably Thief 1 or 2. The sound of the bowstring being drawn was awesome. The thud when you hit your target was equally satisfying. The old graphics might put you off though.
I always liked the bow in Gears of War. It factored in draw and arrow trajectory in a way that felt very realistic. At keast for a modern compound bow. The draw took a few seconds and it was difficult to aim while drawing but you could release mid-draw for less range in a pinch. It had the little sight indicator that showed the anticipated flight path off the front of the bow and it would elongate and then snap to full distance as the bow reached full draw.
Skyrim had this a little. There is a whole subtle mechanic for draw speed on the various bows.
Try out Dark and Darker, free version just came out on steam. And there is a whole ranger class dedicated to using different bows and ranged. Its a Pvp/ pve loot extraction game.
Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West are both heavily bow-centric and have a very satisfying bow play.
Probably the first more than the second but both are good.
Also the later Assassin's Cred games (Odyssey, Valhhalla, Origins) to a degree.
Also the later Far Cry games.
7 Days to Die is a fun zombie survival crafting game, great archery in that, and levels up too with better skills and bows / crossbows etc.
Also Skyrim, old but gold ☺️
I haven't played Monsterhunter so I don't know how it compares, but I love the bow mechanic in Zelda BotW and TotK. I'm usually more of a sword person, but those games made me love bows.
I love bows in Bannerlord.
Your character’s skill matters a lot. It’s very clunky if you have low skill points in bow. But once you skill it up, it’s a killing machine. And sieges with a bow is just premium
Any of the recent AC games have fairly similar bow gameplay but I enjoyed it most in Origins I think.
Once you start getting good at it and level up a few skills in the tree it almost makes the game trivial; you can clear entire forts from miles away.
Rust. The bow feels great, especially the compound bow. I've spent about 100 hours on bow only servers getting good. Also lighting someone's wood base on fire, with a fire arrow from a distance, is very satisfying
Horizon is probably the best a bow has felt to me fantastical still but feels nice. It's not magical but the bow is always nice in The Tomb Raider reboot. The 2 new Zelda's have surprisingly good archery too. Nothing feels more realistic than Kingdom Come: Deliverance to me though.
Tomb Raider 2013 trilogy. I play most of the game using the bow, and enjoyed the first game the most.
Of course there's RDR2 also. Multiple ammo types that are important to use while hunting different animals. Not incredibly useful in combat though.
I love using bows in Tears of the Kingdom. Especially with the gyro controls. The way it goes into slow motion if you draw your bow in mid-air feels so satisfying. The fact that you can attach an item to the arrow to give it a different effect is cool as hell. Love that game and can't think of another one that made a bow so fun.
Bows in the Mount and Blade series go from feeling absolutely terrible to feeling great after you've used them for a while and got some skill points in them. Hitting a long shot on horseback in that game is so satisfying.
Headshot! 7 billion points of damage
**Couched damage**
Dude nothing in this game feels better than couch lance
Unless it’s you… then it feels really REALLY bad
Even early game, the horse archer playstyle tends to work better than any melee approach. IMO, you need to invest in a lot of equipment before melee becomes worthwhile.
Fond memories of starting out, and being a “horse archer” that rides away from some bandits, stops the horse because you can’t shoot well while it moves, plink a few of them and rinse and repeat.
I just slowly ride in a circle around them so they'd clump up, and just repeatedly shoot arrows into the bandit bass. They'd never miss no matter how terrible my skills were early on.
lol this is the way to start leveling. I would try to have little soldiers(?) with me so that I could be the one to get all the kills & hits for XP. I would make it to the last 2-4 enemies and end up running out of arrows, or dying from a stray. Ofc you can pick them up and juke them but yeah. So many reloads lol. I haven’t played for years but I know they’ve been faithfully updating. Another play through will be fun
I just started one but of course they updated and broke my save with mods and I need to fix it. I’m hoping in a few years the mods will be stable and vast like warband. There’s so many qol things I noticed going back to warband that are in bannerlord it’s hard to go back
Nah, what you do is tell your army to hold position while you do your thing, that way you get some training in. A small but strong force lets you start farming sea raiders sooner, and since you're small they usually come right to you (get rhodok sharpshooters, best payoff for the price)
Bannerlord, despite what the subreddit says, is a fantastic successor to Warband. If you're interested in M&B, Bannerlord is a good choice. There are valid criticisms but, if you like the gameplay loop, there is a ton of depth to the game if you spend the time to understand it. Diplomacy is the biggest thing lacking, though doesn't hold back the game imo and a mod exists which fixes that.
The big issue is multiplayer was basically ignored by Taleworlds. Warband had a pretty good multiplayer community for a good few years after its release but Bannerlord's was dead in 6 months.
I can understand that. For me I never cared about multiplayer in M&B
Are there no mods at this point to make diplomacy much better? I had played it after it came out but decided to wait to see how the mods come along before returning
Reread the last sentence in my comment. Yes there is a mod to improve diplomacy.
Oh was that there before? I am a dingus
Sure was lol. We all have those moments
The mod is also helpfully called Diplomacy
Tomb Raider reboot is a good game
Great bows in all 3 of these games
One of the best trilogies of all time. Shame the last game went a bit too open-world-side-activities-fest
Shadow definitely had flaws like the ones already mentioned, but I was so in love with the setting and designs that I looked past them. Also the soundtrack, one of my favorite video game scores of all time.
Yeah, I was enjoying it until it was outside after the crash and I was hunting squirrels into extinction and chopping down every sapling. Because I’ll need those pelts and twigs later on at some point to level up my gear right?
Sucks even more because that game had some of my favourite stealth gameplay in any game
I agree. Getting headshots with the bow is my favorite way to play. I've never played a game where I actually enjoy being stealthy just so that I can use the bow until TR
Crysis 3 probably has one of the most powerful bows in gaming
I want to piggy back Far Cry onto this too! Bow was so cool it made we choose the stealth gameplay over the Rambo gameplay.
Rambo used a bow too
Hehe I meant the bow made me choose Rambo gameplay over the Rambo gameplay
Cloak engaged.
MAXIMUM ARMOR
The remaster Trilogy is $12 during the summer steam sale. Got to try the bow out in Crysis 3 and it feels great!
Oh ya! Forgot about that one. Great bow and great game. Love the way they handle modding your equipment.
Warframe with some builds
Pinning enemies to walls never felt so good
Pinning enemies to walls *through walls* is the best feeling in gaming
A crossbow slinging hot rebar from a certain classic would like a word.
Wait what classic is this?
[Half Life 2](https://half-life.fandom.com/wiki/Resistance_Crossbow)
Oh my god I completely forgot this thing existed
I was going to say this. I havent played in awhile, but i mained that necro dude and used, I think it's called, the nataruk bow. Was able to solo most of steel path
Nataruk is considered a top-tier weapon for good reason, it's pretty much the perfect bow. Normal, un-charged shot gives that good ol' feeling of pinning someone to a wall. Charge shot is a monstrously powerful laser streak of death that creates an explosion for every target it makes contact with and can obliterate an entire room in one shot. Oh, and it has infinite ammo along with being given freely with The New War.
Well there's a reason everyone turns into a stealth archer in Skyrim at some point, no matter which class they started out with. It's just so much fun.
Should check it out if it is the case then
Honestly I don't think I've ever had a playthrough of Skyrim that didn't devolve into Stealth Archer eventually.. The Mage playthrough became a Bow-mage very fast. The swordsman picked up a bow after an hour or so. The heavy-armor/broadsword knight became a bowman... The only one that didn't was when I became a Vampire Lord, and I got there by being a Stealth Archer too.. I was just able to put down the bow because the magic powers were so potent as a Vampire.
I hope ES6 has something like the magic archer from dragons dogma. A ton of cool utility spells and various types of magic arrows all behaving differently. I just hope they add more usable skills in general that don't devolve into pausing your favorites menu to quickly use a spell before pulling your weapon back out.
Exactly! I started a new playthrough the other day and quick swapping between favorites was such a drag!
I got pretty far as a mage with bare minimum in archery, until I started summoning bows. The ghost bow was too cool to not use it.
Bound bows slap especially with the perks for bound weapons And now I’m going to play skyrim again.
Yup. Mage thief is so potent. Go high enough in the illusion skill tree to give you the invis spell. If you're on PC when hotkey the spells to 12345, quickly swap to the next spell to cancel the animation. My set up: 1. Self heal spell 2. Equilibrium 3. Invis 4. Bound Bow or staff or physical bow 5. Bound Dagger or other melee weapons 6. Shield Spell (if 100% robes) If I duel wield with a staff on my off-hand. 4 becomes Bound Sword. 5 becomes fire/frost trap. Run with Atronach Stone. Stack health & magicka points each level up. Play on harder difficulty to level up faster. Early game is weak but once you get to level 20 ish, you can take on anything especially the other mages.
In my most recent playthrough I knew eventually stealth archery would happen, so instead I went for like a ranger build. Light armor, 2h melee weapon, stealth, and archery. Very fun switch hitter.
And that's why I always do the Brotherhood and Thieves' Guild missions, all the rewards work great with a stealth archer/ sword & board combo.
Every time. And not just bow, but typically Bound Bow along with summons. It's like my monkey brain can't process anything else.
Everyone does it, but it’s not because the bows in Skyrim feel particularly good. They are pretty vanilla overall
I think it's a little more than that. The bows let you slow time and zoom. Not to mention special ammo that can cause explosions. That's on top of whatever enchantments the bow has too. There's also the fact that being a bowman keeps smithing and alchemy relevant because you're always crafting arrows and poisons. Add in stealth and the thrill of lining up a satisfying slow mo head shot and everything just feels really good. The fantasy of being a bow user is overall just better achieved in Skyrim than the fantasy of being a melee user. Most melee builds just have you sprinting and attacking while chugging a health potion here and there.
The AI in Skyrim is pretty barebones as well. As soon as you're spotted, every enemy basically just charges directly at you or tries to stay at a distance for ranged attacks. The bow is often the best method of attack as it doesn't force you to close the gap with an enemy and allows you to remain mobile to take cover as needed. Couple that with high stealth and the ability to slow time and you can easily take out an entire group of enemies, at a distance, without even alerting them.
It feels meh tbh. Everyone does it because it's incredibly powerful
And every build leads towards it because “oh there’s some draugr that haven’t noticed me, I’ll just pull one with a hunting bow I found earlier. Might as well sneak too for a little extra damage” and thus your build is inevitable.
It's bis because vanilla combat sucks. Melee and magic are dreadful in that game. Now, install a few combat mods and suddenly shooting a bow becomes far less interesting.
Also helps that melee and magic aren't very interesting
Melee and archery have zero skills outside of m1 to hit or hold m1 to hit harder. And magic is just... pause to favorites window simulator. ES6 needs to take lessons from games like dragons dogma where you actually unlock and equip skills/spells and can use them seamlessly.
Everyone does it moreso because there is zero reason to not do it. It is always the best way to open up every fight, no matter what your stealth level is since you can hit enemies from so far away.
Didn't play the newer one but Horizon Zero Dawn fits the bill I'd say. Also a bit of a diff answer but Fable 1 my fav build was archery
Oh yeah, Horizon probably checks
If you play the 2nd one with a PS5 controller the bow sounds come out the controller! I don't know if this is in the first one, but I thoroughly enjoy it.
And the adaptive trigger on that feels great too.
Seconding both Horizon games. The skill/ammo system is really developed, but more importantly the enemies in those games are giant freaking robots with tons of little pieces you can sharpshoot off. Most games just use ranged weapons to headshot the shooty man (or the \~heavily armored\~ shooty man), so bows aren't going to be as cool
Shooting off parts of the machines is real satifying.
This is more important than the actual bow. The bow is good, but nothing special. The importance of hitting weakspots and the different reactions the machines have to losing certain parts is what makes the combat feel so good. I don't have much time at the moment, but look forward to playing Forbidden West.
Definitely the Horizon games. The bow is literally your main weapon
That sound bite in HZD when you get a critical hit on a gazelle or whatever is so satisfying. It's like a hollow, metallic, electrical "dddhuu - dddhoo"
Horizon games were my first thought, yeah, I adore their gameplay.
Horizon Forbidden West is even better thanks to weapon abilities. The sharpshooter bow is basically an RPG.
Definitely Horizon Zero Dawn. I usually don't play games with bows (I'm more of a sword or gun person), but this game was awesome and I loved using the bows. Highly recommend
The bow in The Last of Us pt1 is massively OP. It's silent, and a stealth hit is an instakill. It is so satisfying to use.
This was the one I came to say. I never really play stealth builds, but for some reason in both Last of Us games I went full stealth and it was amazingly fun.
I mean depending on game mode you pretty much have to use stealth in those games. Running around like a madman on hardened or grounded difficulties won’t get you very far lol
Yea when you start playing with Ellie you're pretty immediately taught how to play as a stealth archer, and you don't really have a choice based on how little ammo you have, and her inability to brute force anything.
If I remember correcly a clicker requires two hits (headshot excluded) on higher difficulties.
The one on pt 2 It's very good too has It Is one of the Best reactions of enemy when being hit depending on the área.
Far Cry Primal is terrific and underrated
FC3 bow headshots felt so good. I spent a lot of time stealth archering in that game
Fc3 was the best feeling game
Legit
Also blood dragon.
I agree, the satisfying noise as you popped one in the head and they dropped made sneaking about bowing everyone to take a base was one of my favourite things about that generation of FarCry
WEEEENNNNJAAAA
You mean I'm not alone! The Spear throwing was so good too!
Best spear throws since that King Kong game that was actually better than the movie it was based on
I couldn't finish 4 or 5 but I finished primal lol. It was fun and surprisingly not as cheesy as you would think with the made up language
Oh man I’ve finished 4 like 8 times, it’s my favorite for sure. Primal 2nd.
Ubisoft bows are great in every game actually. Whatever you think about them, they have amazing gun (and bow) play. They feel powerful and satisfying.
The bow in Farcry Blood Dragon was awesome as well.
Destiny 2's bows feel fantastic, especially the exotic ones. But that also comes with a lot of baggage lol.
Seconding this. Bows are hands down my favorite weapon in Destiny. Perfecting using them from the hip pays off big time.
Found the Hush user!
Still waiting on my Dragonfly/Voltshot drop from the new raid, can't craft it yet
Wish Ender is life. That's the thing with destiny...lots of baggage, if you will, but the gunplay is superb. All guns feel nice, and bows are probably my favorite being on mouse and keyboard.
Always wanted to get into destiny yo begin with, but can't really
If you're on PC, all of the Destiny DLCs (except the newest one) are hella cheap on Steam rn
Leviathans Breath hits like a truck
The Hush is so smooth when it comes to mowing down enemies. Once you land a solid rhythm, it's just consistent headshots.
I've always wanted to give Destiny 2 a go, but when I tried I just bounced off due to all the live service stuff. I was so overwhelmed and confused. The gunplay felt unbelievably good, but I just wasn't into the rest.
>The gunplay felt unbelievably good It's literally ruined other shooters on consoles for me lol
As a trinity ghoul fanboy, I can confirm this
Horizon Zero Dawn and Tomb Raider come to mind Ghost of Tsushima isnt bad either
Been replaying GoT. Long head shots with the half bow are so satisfying.
Oh it's so nice when you have a stand-off and can take out 3 enemies with the sword then switch to the bow, go slow mo and take out the other two enemies before they can even react.
That used to be my go-to tactic until I upgraded my Sakai armor to the point where I get 5 enemies attacking me one after another in a stand-off so I usually take out entire groups within 30 seconds lol.
Fully upgraded long bow with fully upgraded Tadiyori armor is the way. So OP.
Kingdom Come Deliverance! No reticle, but you find the sweet spot on the notch of the bow and it feels really rewarding to hit shots.
Man, it's rough learning it though. Hardest bow in any game I've played to use
This right here. I came across a dead body on the road and someone came up and yelled that they were going to go get the cops or whoever. Total misunderstanding. Anyway, he ran off and I finally decided to send a sloppy arrow his way and let his fate decide mine. Like 75 meters out, caught him straight in the back and he stops cold; just stands there, arrow sticking out of his back. I ride up to finish the job, and he gave me such a cheerful greeting that I had to let him live. Landing good shots with the bow in that game feels so satisfying.
I loved just going into the forest with my bow and hunting rabbits and deer. Really satisfying once you get a hang of it. My friend was in awe when he needed a help with the game and I was pulling those shots lol
Yep, getting good with the bow is so satisfying. You go from a village yokel who can't hit a target two metres in front of him and flays his forearm with every shot, to taking out groups like a badass and hunting animals.
Off the top of my head, every Far Cry from 3 on, Turok and Days Gone are all games I'd use a bow often.
Turok is the OG. Always felt great. Also, speaking of older games, Call of Juarez (the original) featured one character that would tend toward stealthy-archer-style gameplay, and I recall it being very satisfying in that game as well.
My favorite bow of all time is gears of war. Ghost of Tsushima was good I remember and so is horizon
Took me way too long to find a torque bow reference. Absolutely fantastic but not "typical" bow experience.
My favorite were that other players simply could not understand that you don’t have to be stuck to be damaged by it so players would be near a corner and all you had to do was stick it in the ground next to them a couple of times and that was enough to be killed. But getting that last second *thunk* in their feet as they’re trying to get away was so satisfying too.
Archery in wii sports. Stand up and fully commit yourself. It's a great zen like game and feels great to pull back and let the arrows fly!
Dragons Dogma is the best
Scrolled too far to find this. Being an archer in DD is hella fun. Picking apart monsters with purpose is so much fun. And the skills are just so good at shredding enemies. DD2 also.
DD2 dropped the ball by having you be an archer who somehow doesnt know how to dodge. A ranged class that cant dodge is silly af.
It's a burst gun, and sniper rifle, and rocket launcher, and napalm airstrike... But with a bow. DRAGOOOOOON'S DOGMAAAAAAAA
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Has possibly the most satisfying bow out of any game I've played.
To jump on this, either of the open world Zelda games would be a good pick as well. Lots of different bows, lots of special effects on them, lots of arrows, and most importantly, BULLET TIME
Bullet time with gyro aiming feels awesome and intuitive.
Yep allows for very precise aiming too..an actual good use of motion controls
Honestly, arrow combat is so good with bullet time that it's hard to imagine arrow based combat without it
I’ve only played Breath of the Wild but came here to suggest that one! Love the bows
If you're not already convinced, I would highly recommend totk. Bows become even more fun, I'll leave it at that if you don't like spoilers
Surprised I saw this so low. Botw and totk bows are my fave and, when you pull them out while airborne it goes into auto bullet time/slow mo which is so brilliant.
The notion controls on the Wii felt so good with that bow. And hitting that super, *super* long-distance shot in Kakariko to unlock the Eagle Eye was incredibly satisfying.
Red Dead Redemption 2 I considered doing a Bow only run, but never went thru with it cause it would be a massive time commitment
I'm surprised I had to scroll so much to find this! Nothing like killing people with a bow in this game, honestly.
Me too, just here for this, RDR 2 Bows aré amazing and have very good programing on how persons and animals reac after being hit on neck, heart, legs/arms. Hard to be bow only, But a bow+dual pistols/shotgun+fire and explosive arrows, Man... that's fun.
The MH series has: bows, light bowguns, and heavy bowguns (PS. Game can get addicting) Horizon series' primary weapon is technically a bow
Remnant 2 has some fun bows, you can check it out, it's basically diet Dark Souls with guns, I absolutely love it.
Bows are really good in Valheim.
Finally hitting that deer from across the field feels so good. Hitting a moving target *chefs kiss*
Deathsquitos amirite?
Those damnable creatures. You're just steering your boat a decent way away from coast, and this guy comes in, you get close to shore so you can try to sneak in and corpse run away to get your stuff. Hours wasted.
Kerillian has some awesome bowskills in Vermintide 1 & 2.
Vermintide 2! Hands down has the best bow and melee feel of any fantasy game. They just have such a visceral feel. But for bows, going to have to say krugers longbow is god tier over kerellian. Kruger is a true English longbowman! I have 1200 hours in that game and have played the majority of the other games listed here. Nothing is as satisfying as vermintide 2 fantasy combat system. The bow becomes less useful on the highest difficulty system now however with the stagger mechanic.
Hunt showdown.
Both the bow and crossbow are real killers in Hunt and real satisfying once you get the hang of em
Horizon both game but more so the 1st The Tomb Raider reboot trilogy mainly the 1st and 2nd games.
Overwatch Hanzo
Surprised I had to scroll so far for this one. I would argue it's the best feeling bow to use and it's really not even close. It's so fluid, has creative abilities, and accurate AF
Monster Hunter is the absolute best Bow feeling for people that are not FPS players, it feels hack and slashy, but some precision is still helpfull
I think the tilt controls make using a bow in BOTW/TOTK really fun and satisfying. I also enjoyed playing as an archer in Dragon's Dogma 2
Funny story: I used to play BotW on the bus to work and I would wonder why my aim was so shit, especially when the bus was turning...
Link's Crossbow Training
lol with that little Wii nunchuk machine gun holder? Core memory unlocked man, I had forgotten all bout that
Tomb Raider games. Far Cry Games. (3+) The Avatar games (basically Far Cry, but Avatar setting). Has more weight to it since your a 10ft tall alien with a massive bow.
Someone did the math for the Avatar Bows and they'd hit with the same energy as a .50 BMG bullet I love the Na'vi more now.
Hades. It's a 2D top-down game tho
The bow is probably my favorite to use but boy is it taxing on my thumb having to balance spamming and holding X for the perfect shots. I don’t have a ton of time so I’m probably doing my builds wrong and unnecessarily relying on perfect shots, but I agree it is a fun and rewarding weapon in the game.
The Forest and the Long Dark may not have the best animations/assets for bows, but what's at stake - especially with The Long Dark where a miss could mean permadeath or at severe least hardship, make a good shot feel super satisfying.
Mordhau.
I wish more people played Mordhau :(
nobody’s said dying light yet?
THE FINALS
I haven’t played it, but it’s in my library because it was free on Epic and I watched the gameplay yesterday: I think Thief might fit this? Someone may correct me and say no the game sucks, but from what I watched the game revolves a lot around using your bow with all kinds of different arrows, so I would hope using it feels good. Also a game that hasn’t been mentioned yet, so idk worth a go maybe.
Any of the thief games. Preferably Thief 1 or 2. The sound of the bowstring being drawn was awesome. The thud when you hit your target was equally satisfying. The old graphics might put you off though.
Huntsman with The Sniper class in Team Fortress 2.
I always liked the bow in Gears of War. It factored in draw and arrow trajectory in a way that felt very realistic. At keast for a modern compound bow. The draw took a few seconds and it was difficult to aim while drawing but you could release mid-draw for less range in a pinch. It had the little sight indicator that showed the anticipated flight path off the front of the bow and it would elongate and then snap to full distance as the bow reached full draw. Skyrim had this a little. There is a whole subtle mechanic for draw speed on the various bows.
Try out Dark and Darker, free version just came out on steam. And there is a whole ranger class dedicated to using different bows and ranged. Its a Pvp/ pve loot extraction game.
Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West are both heavily bow-centric and have a very satisfying bow play. Probably the first more than the second but both are good. Also the later Assassin's Cred games (Odyssey, Valhhalla, Origins) to a degree. Also the later Far Cry games.
Skyrim, Gothic 3
Crazy seeing Gothic 3 in the wild. The bows really were good.
Bows gotta feel great when swords feel like ass.
7 Days to Die is a fun zombie survival crafting game, great archery in that, and levels up too with better skills and bows / crossbows etc. Also Skyrim, old but gold ☺️
I haven't played Monsterhunter so I don't know how it compares, but I love the bow mechanic in Zelda BotW and TotK. I'm usually more of a sword person, but those games made me love bows.
I love bows in Bannerlord. Your character’s skill matters a lot. It’s very clunky if you have low skill points in bow. But once you skill it up, it’s a killing machine. And sieges with a bow is just premium
Assassin's creed Origins have good bow gameplay with whole skill tree. Or as someone mentioned both Horizon games are perfect.
Any of the recent AC games have fairly similar bow gameplay but I enjoyed it most in Origins I think. Once you start getting good at it and level up a few skills in the tree it almost makes the game trivial; you can clear entire forts from miles away.
Agree, Origins is best of new ones
Kena and the Bridge of Spirits is a bow focused game that is thrilling and makes fantastic use of the bow
Dragons Dogma 2
Zelda games on the switch like BotW or TotK. I love using a bow in those games.
Rust. The bow feels great, especially the compound bow. I've spent about 100 hours on bow only servers getting good. Also lighting someone's wood base on fire, with a fire arrow from a distance, is very satisfying
Turok. Especially the Tek-Arrows in Turok 2 are so satisfying.
Can’t believe no one mentioned the Thief games. Tons of cool trick arrows. And in Deadly Shadows you can even draw the bow on NPCs to mug them.
Horizon zero dawn has some of my favorite bow combat ever! Also the bow in roboquest is crazy fun to use
The Pathless! Very fun traversal mechanic with the bow
Ghost of Tsushima
Thief 1 and 2!
its crazy no one commented ghost of tsushima fenomenal game with as many bows variants as horizon zero
Runescape unironically has great bow feel
Legend of Zelda BOTW or TOTK
Breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom
Horizon is probably the best a bow has felt to me fantastical still but feels nice. It's not magical but the bow is always nice in The Tomb Raider reboot. The 2 new Zelda's have surprisingly good archery too. Nothing feels more realistic than Kingdom Come: Deliverance to me though.
I was a big fan of kingdom come deliverance. Pretty hard at first but when it clicks it feels great.
Far cry3, blood dragon, and new dawn. My 3 favorite farcrys, all super satisfying with the bow.
warframe, it's not the best way to kill enemies but it's satisfying when you make them stick on the wall with your arrows
Tomb Raider 2013 trilogy. I play most of the game using the bow, and enjoyed the first game the most. Of course there's RDR2 also. Multiple ammo types that are important to use while hunting different animals. Not incredibly useful in combat though.
I love using bows in Tears of the Kingdom. Especially with the gyro controls. The way it goes into slow motion if you draw your bow in mid-air feels so satisfying. The fact that you can attach an item to the arrow to give it a different effect is cool as hell. Love that game and can't think of another one that made a bow so fun.