A headshot is the act of shooting an opponent in the head in-game, usually resulting in increased damage or an instant kill.
The ability to do a "headshot" was developed in 3D shooters, including light gun shooters, survival horror games, and first-person shooters, when it became possible to aim at specific body parts. It exists in most modern FPS games.
History
The first game with a head shot mechanic was Sega's 1968 electro-mechanical arcade shooter Duck Hunt. Body shots awarded 10 points and headshots awarded 15 points.[1]
Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode (1988) allowed true aim, including head shots and body shots. However, all parts of the body directly hit by the projectiles received the same amount of damage.
The first video game to feature a true headshot mechanic was Sega's arcade light gun shooter Virtua Cop (1994). Position-dependent hits caused different reactions, with a headshot sending enemies flying head over heels before they flop to the ground.
Virtua Cop inspired similar headshot mechanics in rival arcade light-gun shooters like Time Crisis and The House of the Dead. Headshots were then introduced to third-person survival horror games by Resident Evil, and soon became more prominent with its introduction to first-person shooters, on PC by the Team Fortress mod for QuakeWorld and on consoles by GoldenEye 007, which was inspired by Virtua Cop and in turn inspired most later first-person shooters. In these games, players could instantly kill any enemy by targeting their head with any gun, unless they were wearing a metal helmet. This was new at the time and introduced some strategy in the shooting because hitting the head allowed theoretical conservation of ammo and a faster, classier way to eliminate enemies.