10 Video Game Design Rules You Can Never Unsee

7. Enemy Bullets Purposefully Miss The Player (But Your Bullets Magnetise Towards Enemies)

Virtually all shooter devs want to give players the experience of shooting their way out of an incredibly chaotic, wildly outnumbered scenario, but you're actually in decidedly less danger than you might think.

In Bioshock, for instance, the first bullets fired at the player by enemies always miss, in an attempt to give players a slight head-start, in what we're dubbing "Stormtrooper aim."

Uncharted deploys a similar trick, having bullets miss the player in order to create a sense of tension consistent with the Hollywood movies the games are homaging.

In fact, the series' creative director Amy Hennig and animator Jonathan Cooper both confirmed that Drake doesn't have a traditional health meter, because none of the bullets fired are actually hitting him.

Drake's health is instead a "luck" meter, and the closer he comes to dying represents that luck running out, with Drake's death finally coming when an enemy eventually manages to lodge a bullet in his chest.

On the other hand, many games give players a leg-up when it comes to gunplay by lending bullets different penetrative properties depending on where they're fired. Serious Sam, for example, makes bullets thicker when near enemies to increase the likelihood of impact.

Collectively, these gunplay features ensure combat is more forgiving for the player and makes their hero fantasy that much more badass.