Been on an "Arrow" TV Series binge... and after playing The Last of Us and Far Cry 4 with the bow... I damn well have a new favorite video game weapon lol

Anyway, any suggestions for video games that have the player take on the role of an archer, and portray it well? Whether it be action, stealth, no matter, start busting out suggestions.. I'll try and keep a list updated in the OP

So far the one I love the best is "The Last of Us," I loved using that thing.. felt so good!

• Tomb Raider
• Skyrim
• Dragon's Dogma
• Trine
• Dark Souls II
• Dragon Age: Inquisition
• Mount & Blade (: Warband)
• Shadow of Mordor
• The Last of Us (Played)
• Chivalry: Medieval Warfare
• Thief
• Tactics: Ogre
• Warframe
• Betrayer

The latest Tomb Raider game and Skyrim are the first games to pop into my mind for some reason. The most "realistic" portrayal of archers in a combat setting might be found in the Total War games.

Using a bow in Dragon's Dogma is the best. I think the game as a whole is deeply flawed, but the combat is positively fantastic.

The archer is Trine is OP and hella fun since it's also a grapple to swing around on. It's significantly nerfed in Trine 2.

The bow in Tomb Raider was pretty good. I always forget that you can shoot guys on ledges and pull them down with the grapple shot. I don't think I ever did it because I was busy headshoting dudes in silence.

Edit: Oh, and one of the best weapons in Dark Souls II PvP is the Lightning Bow of Want. It has lightning properties to begin with, so making it a lightning bow makes that even better and then shooting lightning arrows on top of that just makes even more lighting damage. Since most shields don't have good lightning block and most players don't have good lightning resistance I was hitting guys in the shield for around 400 damage a shot. It forced them to stay out of the short and mid range game and move into range of my halberd. Most of the time they have their shield up and it's an easy bash to crit combo.

LANAAAA!!

I actually really like how archer feels in Dragon Age Inquisition. There's good foley work done on the 'pfyew' and the 'ffnk' of shooting and hitting a target.

(full version of the video at http://www.gamespot.com/videos/probably-archery-random-encounter/2300-6417667/)

Archery is a blast in Mount and Blade; mounted archery specifically. Especially Mount and Blade: Warband with the added ragdoll. Really satisfying when you nail a mounted enemy while riding at full gallop and his body just ragdolls off his horse.

The bow in the new Tomb Raider is great.

I dunno if you wanna include MMOs or other games with "non-direct" control or whatever, but rangers with bows in Guild Wars 2 is alright.

Dragon's Dogma archery is also lots of fun.

And yeah, Skyrim. Stealth archery is the best thing about that game.

Shadows of Mordor has some bad ass archery

If you want realism, probably Total War...

If not, there is this:

How has nobody mentioned TowerFall yet?

true, but one of the things i didn't like about the game was that you couldn't use the bow without entering your wraith-vision state, meaning the graphics of the world give way to pure black, with colored silhouettes that are easy to target and differentiate etc.

Even though wraith-vision is very helpful, it's not much to look at it, and I found myself avoiding the bow because of it.

I'm going to say Dragon's Dogma because you can use magic arrows that lock onto their targets like in Panzer Dragoon.

I loved the bow in The Last of Us, especially how it factored in the arc and tension.

The bow in Tomb Raider isn't particularly realistic, but it's satisfying and fun as all hell. Skyrim is pretty cool, but since that's largely numbers based, it can feel pretty shitty when you line up a 200 meter headshot and it doesn't kill somebody.

Nothing beats Mount&Blade: Warband when it comes to being an archer. You can even do it from horseback!

I'll third the Mount and Blade: Warband recommendations. At times it basically feels like playing a first person or third person Total War with the amount of arrows each side can lob at each other and its super satisfying making a bow kill, especially the head shots.

Archers are freaking overpowered in Final Fantasy Tactics. You need archers in your group or else.

I also really liked the archery in Tomb Raider.

Mount & Blade has great archery!

Warframe, I haven't played much of it, but right at the start you choose between a Machine gun and a Bow, get the bow its fun to pin guys to the wall.

Archers are absurdly powerful in the Tactics Ogre remake.

I liked the archery in Wii Sports Resort. It made you go through the motions of actual archery and felt pretty cool. Skyward Sword does the same thing.

No One Lives Forever.

Skyrim is one of the very few games where I've actually liked being an archer all the way through. In FC4, the bow becomes much less tenable as a main weapon when you start going up against dudes with armor, and most other games seem to take the notion of gravity drop a bit too seriously. I just want to headcap some fools!

Shadow of Mordor was far from an accurate archery sim, but it definitely was satisfying to take down bunches of dudes in short order.

@bisonhero: That's a crossbow if I'm not mistaken... hardly the same thing.

You can become a pretty badass archer in the Elder Scrolls games... so there's Skyrim and Oblivion. Besides those, Thief seems to be the definitive answer to me.

The Total War franchise does a good job at.

@clush: I thought Cate was portrayed rather well.

@bisonhero: damnit. hook, line and sinker. well played sir.

I really liked the bow in the first two Thief games, which has already been mentioned.

That indie first person black and white and red Souls-like Betrayer also has archery, especially early on before you find any guns (and the ammo is generally quite sparse for those)

Especially once you mod it up - Skyrim.

I like using the bow in Warframe.

I've never felt as much of a badass in a game as using a bow during the stealth of that game... It was practically the only weapon I used, unless it was completely necessary to use guns.

Yeah, that's the thing about most games when it comes to bows: enemies become armored and the bow stops working. I mean, at least let me upgrade my bow to work again after some time once they upgrade their armor.. I want to hear the *fffnk* headcaps all game long lol

The Flash is my favorite superhero bar none, but "Arrow" blows it out of the water as a show in my opinion.. they just kind of have their own personalities, which is actually good. I just prefer the Arrow show. So so so damn good. I'm almost done with season 2.

Love the response guys! Will take a look at all these. So keep them coming if you've got more.

Total War does it well. Groups of dudes, firing storms of arrows into groups of other dudes.

I used a bow constantly in Skyrim, probably one of my favorite bow usages in games.

Crysis 3 has a bow. Even though I played it I can't remember how good the bow was.

I thought the archery in Dragon's Dogma and Dark Souls is horse shit. I think Skyrim, Far Cry 3/4 and Tomb Raider probably have the best archery mechanics in gaming.

I thought it was pretty good in Dragon's Dogma. Didn't enjoy it much in the Souls games though, mostly went with crossbows there.

the magic archer is kinda fun to play for a while but i never thought the archery in that game was satisfying.

I've actually been rewatching season 1 of Arrow for the third time. I love the show so much and can't wait for the continuation of Season 3!

On the topic of videogames, the bow in Team Fortress 2 is amazing. It makes the Sniper one of my favorite classes in the game.

I also loved Bastion's bow. Every weapon in the game felt unique and distinct, but the bow was one of my favorites. It felt so powerful.

Great, now I want to replay Bastion.

Skyrim. Stealthed bow play is fun, and this mod has been tons of fun.

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/60219/?

I would say both Far Cry 3 and 4. I pretty much played those games as a stealthy archer/stabbing guy.

@arbitrarywater said:

Yeah and it's the best.

Having a ton of fun playing as a Ranger in Divinity: Original Sin. The regular shooting and positioning feels great, but there's also a great deal of variety in terms of special arrows e.g. explosive, poison, static cloud, knockdown etc. Oddly enough, I was also thinking back to Arrow today while I was playing.

There is a character in Dynasty Warriors who has a bow. He never runs out of arrows and shoots multiple arrows at a time. Very realistic.

Ocarina of Time ... I loved shooting bird around Lake Hylia from stupid distances!

Literally had the same urge as the OP, actually googled "games to play as a badass archer" and this thread popped up... silly me, the answer was on giantbomb all along!

also, Diablo III ?

How the hell has no one mentioned the one TRUE archery game, TUROK 1! You shoot dinasours with exploding arrows and the explosions glow blue. God that game was a mess, but it was still so fucking cool.

Otherwise I agree 100 percent with everyone else that Skyrim is a great example of how to make achery a fun main weapon/class in modern games.

No One Lives Forever ;).

I wish more video game archers and arbalists kept their quivers on their thighs. Pulling anything from the back is impractical.