10 Awesome Mechanics That Make ALL Video Games Better
4. Active Reload
The Gears of War franchise innovated the third-person shooter in many ways, one of the most satisfying of which was its popularisation of active reload.
Active reload is effectively a QTE mini-game, where if you press the reload button during a strict window of time, you'll reload your weapon faster and perhaps also receive a buff of some kind.
It's tremendously satisfying to nail a perfect active reload, though the trade-off is that if you screw a reload up, your gun will jam for a few seconds, leaving you helplessly vulnerable to enemy attacks.
Honestly it's a mechanic which still feels under-used in shooters as a whole, even with Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski encouraging other developers to freely use the mechanic years and years ago.
Returnal recently reminded everyone just how fun and tactile active reload is, adding a neat little layer of strategy to what's otherwise the most basic ingredient of any shooter.