10 game skills in video games

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– [Falcon] Some games are
about hardship and adversity.

They want you to be so weak
there’s a real satisfaction

to overcoming some
difficult obstacle or foe.

Some games, though,

they just want you to feel
like an unstoppable badass.

Hi folks, it’s Falcon,
and today on Gameranx,

10 of the Most Badass
Video Game Abilities.

Starting off at number 10,

Blackout from the “Watch Dogs” series.

This is probably the most
instantly recognizable ability

in the entire “Watch Dogs” series,

because there is no other hack or ability

that you get in the games

that manage to totally
encapsulate the feeling

of being a badass hacker than Blackout,

which pretty much does
exactly what it sounds like.

It shuts down everything electronic

in a huge radius around you.

It was mainly useful for
escaping pursuit by police

or dealing with armed
guards if you’re surrounded,

but the effect of a rolling
blackout around you is so cool

that sometimes it’s just
kind of fun to use it

to see what happens.

I mean, it’s it’s pretty
much an instant chaos button.

The power has been in this
franchise since the beginning,

and it was even featured
in the very first trailer

of the original game.

The developers clearly knew

that this was a cool-as-hell power.

Actually using it in the
first game was kind of a pain

because you actually had
to craft it using parts.

It wasn’t just something you could use.

The sequel did make it easier, though,

even if it was kind of a high-level power

that you had to actually unlock.

In “Watch Dogs: Legion,”
you actually don’t get it,

and it’s sorely missed because
evading pursuers in this game

can be a huge pain.

They did bring it back
with the “Bloodlines” DLC,

where you can play as
Aiden from the first game,

but it’s not as useful
here as it used to be.

Blackout is kind of the signature ability

for “Watch Dogs,” though,

and regardless about how you
feel about the actual games,

it is a pretty damn cool power.

At number nine is Time Stop and Time Blast

from “Quantum Break.”

Remedy are kind of the masters
of cool powers in games.

I mean, they basically invented
bullet time in video games

with “Max Payne.”

Remember the cool slowed-down-time reload

from “Max Payne 2?”

That was pretty badass

and maybe even should
have been on the list.

But probably the game
with the coolest powers,

in our opinion, at least, is
the underrated “Quantum Break,”

you know, the one with time powers?

They came out with this game back in 2016,

and the time powers were
kind of old hat by then,

but they really took it to the next level.

Probably the coolest
abilities are the Time Stop

and the Time Blast.

With Time Stop, you can create a bubble

where time is completely stopped.

It’s great for stopping
enemies completely,

but even cooler is the
ability to stack the bullets.

When you fire at enemies
trapped in the time stop,

the bullets freeze in place

and are immediately released all at once

when the power wears off,

blasting the enemy with all
the bullets you fired at them

all at once.

It is a cool as hell effect

that can absolutely destroy
enemies that are hit by it,

and it’s just really
satisfying every time.

The Time Blast, on the other hand,

is about as straightforward as it gets.

You just charge up a huge explosion

and take out every enemy
caught in the blast.

What makes it so badass
is the effects, though.

Instead of just a regular old explosion,

you get this crazy effect

where it looks like reality is shattered,

followed by this shockwave effect

that warps everything around it.

In a game with cool effects everywhere,

it’s one of the absolute
coolest, and it’s, again,

just incredibly satisfying
to use every single time.

At number eight

is “Metal Gear Solid Rising:
Revengeance’s” Blade Mode.

It’s sort of Platinum’s specialty,

making games that are as
over-the-top badass as possible,

and this game might be
their crowning achievement

in that category.

The combat is intense, but
once you get the hang of it,

you basically feel invincible,

and a big part of that
involves the signature feature

for the game, Blade Mode.

The funny thing is that
Platinum didn’t actually come up

with Blade Mode.

It’s a holdover from the original version

of “Metal Gear Rising” that got canned,

but clearly they knew that
there was a good thing there

because they made full use of it.

You know exactly what
we’re talking about here.

With the press of a button,

you get direct control over the sword,

and you can use it to slash enemies

into as many pieces as
you can possibly want.

It only works when they’re vulnerable,

so it’s kind of an
elaborate finishing move,

but it is so satisfying to get
to the end of a tough fight

and just slash away at an enemy
that was giving you trouble.

Mechanically, the main reason to use it

is to steal enemy electrolytes,

which give you a health and energy boost,

but it’s almost its own reward,

just because of how
satisfying it is to use.

So the game giving you a big incentive

to use it all the time is kind
of only icing on the cake.

Some of the best moments
of the entire game

incorporate Blade Mode, and
it’s never not fun to use.

Sometimes, when the game
requires more precise cutting,

it’s a little bothersome, but in general,

it’s just all-around fun as hell to use,

and incredibly badass as well.

At number seven is
shapeshifting from “Prototype.”

Most of the games listed so far

want you to really feel like a hero,

but this game is all about
making you the ultimate monster.

There’s a lot of badass
powers in “Prototype,”

a game where you can
basically play as the Thing

if you combine it with
Dante from “Devil May Cry.”

But probably the overall,
at least in our opinion,

badass ability is the shapeshifting.

Yeah, it’s fun as hell
to elbow-drop a tank

from a thousand feet, I’m not gonna lie,

but the parts of the game

where you really feel like a monster

are the sections that require
you to be a little stealthy.

The ability to absorb
enemies and take their form

is cool enough, but the
fact that you can do stuff

like accuse other
soldiers of being infected

or even call in air strikes
is just badass in an evil way.

For a game that manages to
make you feel unstoppable

in both stealth and
combat, the game manages

to make it so you can
actually die really quickly

if you’re not careful, and
that is fairly impressive.

At number six is Domino
from “Dishonored 2.”

The “Dishonored” series is all about

being a badass supernatural assassin,

and there are some pretty
awesome powers you can use

in these games.

Most of Corvo’s abilities
from the first game,

while awesome, don’t completely break out

of the “Bioshock” model of abilities.

They’re really good,

and they can be badass as
hell when use properly,

but for us,

the most badass ability in the
series is in “Dishonored 2.”

it’s called Domino.

It’s about as simple as it gets

compared to some of the
more outrageous stuff

we’ve highlighted so far,

but it’s really fun and it’s
really satisfying to use.

How it works is you can connect
up to four enemies together,

and whatever you do to one of
them, it does to all of them.

So knock one out, they’ll all
collapse at the same time.

Pulling off a really
good Domino isn’t easy.

The enemies have to be
close enough to one another

for the effect to work,

so you have to be relatively
close to tag them,

but once you set everything up,

you really feel like a true badass

if you manage to take down
every guard in a room.

It even gets better when you
combine it with other powers

like Shadow Kill that makes
enemies disappear instantly

when killed.

Honestly, all of Emily’s
abilities in “Dishonored 2”

to our cool as hell.

They’re a little weirder

than Corvo’s more traditional arsenal,

but if you use her abilities correctly,

they are bad as hell.

At number five is the Orbital Drop

from “Infamous: Second Son,”

another game with some
pretty weird powers.

Where the older “Infamous” games

had more standard elemental
powers like electricity and ice,

“Second Son” gets a little stranger,

introducing stuff like smoke,
neon, video, and concrete.

And while all that’s
really cool and interesting

in its own right, we’re gonna
stick with the basics here

and say the Orbital Drop
power is pretty cool.

In “Second Son,”

you get these abilities
called Karma Bombs,

which you have to have charged up,

filling your karma meter with
either good or evil karma.

You get good karma by helping civilians

and subduing rather than killing enemies,

and you get bad karma for
going on killing sprees.

Either way, Orbital Drop
is basically the Karma Bomb

for the Smoke ability, and
even though it’s the first,

it’s probably the most badass.

I mean, look at it.

You transform into smoke,
fly up into the air

while Delsin gives you
a little more space,

before crashing down on the ground below.

It was really one of the first
next-gen moments for the PS4

when they debuted this
power in the trailer,

and it’s still pretty
impressive even today.

It even looks like something
that would be in a cutscene

or something in earlier generations,

but it’s all in real time in this game.

You even control Delsin as he
torpedoes towards the ground,

just to make it extra clear
that, yes, this is in-game.

The “Infamous” series has
a bunch of awesome powers

that are fun to play
with, but for abilities

that really make you
feel like a superhero,

it’s hard to beat Orbital Drop.

At number four is smoking from “Vanquish”

and “The Saboteur.”

There’s nothing cooler than smoking,

at least in video games.

All the cool dudes in gaming smoke:

Solid Snake, Kazuma Kiryu,
Duke Nukem, Arthur Morgan.

The list goes on.

I am not saying that smoking
in real life is cool.

You would not catch me dead
with a cigarette in my mouth.

Just doesn’t happen.

But some games take
things to the next level.

They don’t just have the character smoke

as part of the story.

They actually have a smoking button.

In “The Saboteur,” one can
light up whenever you want

by pressing L3 while standing still.

It’s not exactly the most
badass thing in the world,

but it’s always cool

when games include a
little extra bit of detail.

What we did want to talk
about really is “Vanquish,”

PlatinumGames’ stab at a
Gear-style third-person shooter,

and it’s a pretty damn good one at that.

The whole game is over-the-top ridiculous,

but as a way to make the main
hero look even more badass,

you can light a cigarette
while taking cover.

This isn’t a game like “Saboteur,”

where there’s a lot of downtime.

It’s pretty much combat all the time,

so the only time this guy
gets the chance to light up

is when bullets are
whizzing over his head.

It actually does have a
mechanical purpose, too.

You can distract enemy robots
with a discarded cigarette.

Honestly, it’s not that useful
as a distraction, though,

but it’s fun as a little ability,

and it’s neat that it’s even possible.

And even Sam smokes in moderation.

You can actually use the smoking ability

three times per stage,

so after that, you have to stop smoking.

Not good for you.

In games where it has
no consequence at all,

where you can do things that
you would never do in real life

with no consequence at all,

yeah, it can be pretty badass looking.

At number three is the
Bloodletter from “Bloodborne.”

Most games from FromSoftware
aren’t exactly badass.

Sure, you can feel truly powerful

when you manage to take down
a seemingly impossible boss,

but most of your abilities
aren’t particularly flashy,

outside some notable
exceptions, like “Bloodborne,”

definitely a game where you
play more of a bonafide badass.

Yeah, you still get your ass kicked,

but you’re doing it
wearing tailored threads

and some gnarly-looking weapons.

In our opinion, at least,

this thing’s probably the
most badass, the Bloodletter.

It doesn’t look that bad
when you first look at it,

kind of an ugly-looking mace.

When you transform the weapon,

that’s when you see how
badass this thing is.

Just look at this.

Your dude stabs himself
through the chest with a mace,

and pulling it out transforms the weapon

into a two-handed blood weapon.

That’s just metal as hell.

There’s no other word to describe it.

Even if it does a good chunk
of damage with your health

when you transform it,

any weapon where the player
sacrifices health for power

is gonna be at least a little badass,

but when you combine the
crazy transformation animation

with how beastly the weapon
looks in its second form,

you’ve got one of the most
badass weapons out there.

And at number two is weaponization

from “The Incredible Hulk:
Ultimate Destruction.”

Yeah, Radical Entertainment’s
on this list again

with their game that basically
inspired “Prototype.”

While this game is
incredibly cool on its own,

I think the whole weaponization
ability from this game

is just a little bit more badass.

This game takes the ethos of
Hulk Smash to the next level.

The amount of destruction you can unleash

on this world is amazing,

and there are so many fun abilities

that you can use to do it.

When you grab certain vehicles,

you get the option to weaponize them.

Depending on what they are,
Hulk will rip them apart

and turn them into brass
knuckles to increase his damage,

flatten them, turn them into a shield,

a boomerang, rip off
rocket pods on a tank,

throw them at your enemies.

It’s just incredibly fun to take an enemy

and transform them into something useful,

as well as add a layer of
strategy to all your actions.

This is an ability we
would love to see return

in some future game.

The powers have a lot of variety

and they’re a ton of fun to use,

and it’s just really badass to pull off.

And finally, the Devil Trigger

from the “Devil May Cry”
series, especially in “5.”

When it comes to games about badasses

who do badass things, the
“Devil May Cry” series is king.

These games are all
about making the main guy

look like an unstoppable badass,

even if a lot of that
basically only happens

in the cutscenes,

rather than the game itself.

But when it comes to
badass powers in the game,

there is not much that is
iconic as the Devil Trigger is.

When the meter is filled,

Dante, or whoever you’re playing as,

will transform into their demon form.

How this works depends on the game,

but in general, it’ll
make you a lot stronger

and usually unlock some
new and powerful ability.

It’s especially badass,
though, in the newest game,

“Devil May Cry 5,” where
the effects and animations

just really sell how
powerful this form is.

It’s so badass that
when the enemy does it,

like during the final boss in “DMC 5,”

you have a good reason to be afraid.

There are a ton of
badass moves and moments

from the “Devil May Cry”
series, but for number one,

you gotta go with the Devil Trigger.

It is iconic.

That’s all for today.

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