Way back in 2010, Valve gave Portal away for free and it became the first game I ever owned on Steam. Ever since then, mobility shooters have remained my favorite genre in gaming, from PvE/singleplayer games like Quake and Warframe to PvP games like Loadout, Apex Legends and Rocket Arena. (I even made my own in college!)
Also known as ‘arena shooters’ to differentiate them from ‘tactical shooters’ like CS:GO and Red Crucible Reloaded, I love their focus on parkour, explosive jumping, aerial control, and general physics abuse in every way the players can find. I’ve spent hours on empty servers practicing obscure mobility tricks like sharking or ladder boosting or helix jumping to give myself a positional advantage in my next match of whatever game has currently caught my fancy. Today I wanted to highlight some weapons/mechanics (in no particular order) that especially resonated with me, and rest assured they nudged out many, many honorable mentions to make this list.
5. The Conc Grenade in Team Fortress Classic
While Portal was my earliest singleplayer game, I first dipped my toe into multiplayer with Team Fortress Classic, and almost immediately fell in love with the Combat Medic class. Far removed from the German doktor that succeeded him, the TFC Medic was a flagrunning monster thanks to his regenerating health, medium armor, and (most importantly) his concussion grenades which let him sail blithely through the air, the skybox literally the limit.
This entry on the list has by far the largest barrier to entry, as the grenades will send your aim careening in a figure-8 pattern you’ll need to compensate for while traveling at Mach 9 and trying to dodge enemy players and sentries, but that just makes it all the more satisfying to pull it off and get away with the enemy flag. Then jump right back for more…
4. The Sticky Jumper in Team Fortress 2
This is not a particularly surprising entry in this list, but it would absolutely be incomplete without the one weapon I’ve spent the most time practicing of anything in any game ever. TF2’s Demoman is the master of the Teufort skies thanks to his explosive mines that let him sail through the air with far less fiddly jank than the poor TFC Medic has to deal with. The base stickybombs accomplish this alongside being the most deadly stock projectiles in the game (there’s a reason we chose one as our blog logo), but it’ll be no surprise to longtime readers that the Sticky Jumper will forever be my favorite weapon in any game ever. I’ve written countless articles on it, I own a Collector’s version, and I’ll forever defend it as a viable weapon despite many players classifying it as a joke-tier unlock like the Rocket Jumper. After all, if it was truly underpowered like people claim, then why does Valve keep nerfing it?
3. Lúcio in Overwatch
Based on these first two entries, you’d probably think I became a Junkrat main when I added Overwatch to my gaming repertoire. But I actually fell in love with an entirely different hero in Blizzard’s dearly departed shooter. Pretty much from the first moment I played him, I could not get enough of the absolutely incredible kit Lúcio brings to the battlefield. Not only does his Sonic Amplifier grant AoE speedboosts that can accelerate everyone around him, his skates let him ride across the walls in ways that unlock so many incredible options for repositioning and getting the drop on your opponents. To this day I’ve never clicked with a character class like I did Lúcio, and years after giving up the game he’s one of two things that I still occasionally miss and feel like getting back into. (The other being Moira, whose fade would probably be #6 if this list went that far)
4. The Galeclaw from Palworld
Let’s pivot to uncharted waters and cover a title I’ve never actually spoke about on this blog before. Palworld is an absolutely incredible game that’s honestly way more like ARK Survival Evolved than Pokémon, though it’s certainly not afraid to borrow great mechanics from other games and put them all together into a wonderful matrix of gameplay loops that are diverse and interconnected and very satisfying to master. And my favorite of those mechanics has got to be an early-game Pal who will remain useful for the rest of your time in the Palpagos Islands if you learn how to use him properly.
There are three main mount types in Palworld: Flying mounts, Ground mounts, and Glider mounts who replace buff your glider. (Not cool, Nintendo!) They’re unlocked very early and probably sound like strict downgrades to the Flying mounts, but actually you should keep one on your team at all times because your glider is a very powerful mobility tool in its own right. And the Galeclaw’s unique abilities turn it into the best form of attack-dodging in the game, by granting you a horizontal speedboost that activates anytime you pull it out. It’s immensely helpful in boss fights for escaping areas of effect, and during map traversal you can repeatedly toggle your glider to proc that boost and sail far further than normally possible. Even from a dead stop, jumping and pulling out the glider essentially makes Ground mounts obsolete thanks to its speed.
And it’s also the only glider in the game that lets you wield a gun simultaneously, adding a ton of combat versatility to those willing to master its quirks! But the real clincher for me was learning how to combo it with the Grappling Gun for a Rico Rodriguez-style speedboost that outspeeds most Flying mounts and quickly became my preferred form of travel for the rest of my playthrough. No other Pals you’re catching at level 23 are gonna provide that much everlasting value! But speaking of Rico Rodriguez…
5. The Grappling Hook in Just Cause 2
Could it have been anything else? To the surprise of nobody who’s played it, the Just Cause series’ iconic grappling hook is the touchstone of the entire franchise, and together with the parachute creates one of the most versatile and satisfying mobility systems in gaming. There are so many clever and unique ways for the player to manipulate their positioning (and anything else’s) with just these two items, especially once you start learning advanced strats like tethers and slingshotting. I’m still learning new things and I’ve 100%ed the game twice! I must also mention the unrivaled Air Propulsion Gun, another incredibly fun weapon at Rico’s disposal that gave me countless hours of fun abusing physics objects and vehicles with reckless abandon. I consider Just Cause 2 my favorite game of all time, and given the focus of this article I doubt it’s hard to see why.
This should be considered a sister article to my favorite healing weapons one, as together they encapsulate the two halves of my personal preferred playstyle that has endured from my first life on pl_upward to the modern day. Mobility is such a hard thing to get right in any game, so it’s really great whenever a title really nails it and gives me something that’s a joy to practice and eventually master (but never perfect). It’s the sort of thing that can completely change how I see a game, how I interact with its systems and how the tempo for my fights with other players will go. This synergy of play and playstyle doesn’t always happen: I recently tried Marvel Rivals and was rather disappointed to find that none of the healers clicked with me in their mobility kits. But that just makes it all the more special when something in a game does, and I’m sure I’ll look back on these five fondly even as I try new ones in countless games to come.
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