#random crits

To start off, I want to emphasize that critical hits go back to the earliest tabletop RPGs, especially Empire of the Petal Throne. Muhammad Abd-al-Rahman Barker (also known as “the forgotten Tolkien” for his extensive worldbuilding and academic credentials) incorporated critical hits as a way to “simulate the ‘lucky hit’ on a vital organ.” In short, it’s a realism thing. 

Mechanics that originated in tabletop games often, as computers became more advanced, spread to the digital world. Critical hits came with them. (Unfortunately, although my training is in history, I’m not an expert on the evolution of video games. I can’t confidently locate the first digital game to have critical hits, but I know it was present as far back as the early ‘90s.)

Are they good? The purest form of crit is simply random. In TF2, most weapons have a chance to crit. The chance increases with damage dealt - up to 12% for ranged weapons, provided you’ve dealt 800+ damage in the last 20 seconds.

This is discussed in the in-game developer commentary, specifically Kelly Thornton’s node on Gravel Pit:

“Critical hits are one of the features that resulted from our focus on pacing. The critical hits system attempts to slightly influence the highs and lows of the game by increasing the chance of a critical hit based upon the player's recent performance. In summary, the better you're doing the more likely you'll continue to do well. This helps create those rare high moments where a single player goes on a rampage and gets three or four kills in rapid succession.”

Here we can see that critical hits are one of the ways that gameplay can temporarily get more exciting, creating what Thornton calls a “high moment.” Let’s break that down in emotional terms.

When a player gets a random critical hit, they experience an unexpected surge in power. For most people, this is quite a rush, almost like adrenaline. Since crits can often turn the tide of a difficult engagement, they may go on to have other successful battles rather than dying in the previous one, creating a series of good feelings for the player. Crits aren’t reliable enough to keep you alive forever, especially against skilled enemies, but they can help.

(Admittedly, I always feel a little guilty when I get a random crit. But only a little.)

On the flip side, when a player gets hit by a random critical, they usually experience a negative feeling. A lot of people have a need for stability and at least a degree of control - although this is mostly important for our physical lives, it also comes into virtual environments. Crits disrupt that sense of (relative) predictability that comes from having stable, roughly-universal game mechanics. Oftentimes, there’s nothing you can do to defend against a random crit, which gives a feeling of helplessness. Because of this, they can cause dismay, fear, and anger to the players on the receiving end. This negative feeling is often proportional to the experience you missed out on by dying - if it interrupted a massive killstreak, for example, it tends to hurt more.

It’s these dueling feelings that come into play when randomness is factored in. Is it better to give one player a powerful high at the cost of another’s low, or is it better to give everyone an experience with no randomness?

That is a very broad philosophical question that I have no idea how to properly evaluate. But I can say what I think about TF2′s unique system.

Weighting crits by previous damage dealt tends to reward certain classes over others. More importantly than that, it tends to reward players who are better at dealing damage. This means it tends to favor those who can aim better, giving them an edge over newbies. I can’t say I like this; it’s better to give less-skilled players a chance to upset the game, since being on the receiving end of a curb-stomp is even less fun than dying to a random crit. The good news is that anyone can crit, providing that opportunity for an upset, but it’s more common for higher-damage (ergo, usually more skilled) players.

But remember that this is based on damage dealt (or healing, in the case of the Medic). This means that players are rewarded for playing aggressively rather than hanging back. It’s small motivation compared to, say, a ticking map timer, but it’s a factor that helps make gameplay much faster and more interesting. So there’s facets to random crits that prevent me from immediately saying yes/no.

Crits done right I can say when critical hits (as a whole, not just random ones) are done well. TF2 actually provides a great illustration of this even while having more debatable random crits.

Critical hits are a great design choice when they’re predictable (on both sides) and in response to a specific condition. This gives that “high” of massively boosted damage, but puts you in control of it. Similarly, the opponents have more control over their experience - they and their team have ways to stop or avoid critical hits. As an example, when you see an Engineer brandishing a glowing red shotgun, you can run. Or you could have worked to destroy that sentry before it got kills. Dying to it hurts, but it doesn’t feel particularly unfair; this means that the “low” is much higher less low.

Similarly, I can also compliment how crits work on melee weapons. The chance is much higher - starting at 15% and scaling up to 60% with damage dealt - which makes melee crits something you can almost plan for. A 12% chance of a crit rocket is hard to properly gamble on; you can’t exactly avoid every Soldier for fear of being splattered. But a 60% chance of an uppercut punch to your face? That you can predict and more easily avoid.

Melee weapons are also a lot easier for the opponent to control. Most classes have good ranged options, meaning that those who choose to walk in with a melee weapon are quite literally bringing a knife (or bat, fist, bonesaw, whatever) to a gunfight. This means you can usually see the attacker coming before they wallop you; it’s never “out of nowhere” unless you made a mistake.

Melee random crits aren’t perfectly done - they’re still an element of randomness in an otherwise pretty uniform-rules game - but they’re much better than ranged random crits. They, alongside guaranteed crits on certain weapons, are a great way to give players powerful positive feedback while not hurting the opponents’ feelings (at least too much).

In short: are random crits good? I can’t say, but I can present my analysis of what they do. Are melee crits good? I’d cautiously say yes, but draw your own conclusions. Are guaranteed crits good? I’d say yes, but you know... draw your own conclusions. Maybe there’s something I didn’t consider!