Are melee weapons in shooters overpowered?

[KaiRai]

In Modern Warfare or Killzone 2? Surely. Knife should only be one-hit kill from behind.

In Team Fortress 2, though, they are not too powerful, and thus highly situational. But it makes a successful melee kill all the sweeter.

But what if you was to juck someone in the neck, or face? Or that little bit of skin underneath the jaw along the neck where my beard grows?

I think commando was an unfair perk to add to MW2, making your character effectively slide along the ground on rocket powered Heeleys and land it in their body armour for a smooth kill.

 

[Captain Schpack]

I'm not worried about them being overpowered but them being inaccurate. I cannot tell you many times an obvious knife to the chest in MW2, didn't kill my opponent.

 

[Kollega]

In Modern Warfare or Killzone 2? Surely. Knife should only be one-hit kill from behind.

In Team Fortress 2, though, they are not too powerful, and thus highly situational. But it makes a successful melee kill all the sweeter.

But what if you was to juck someone in the neck, or face? Or that little bit of skin underneath the jaw along the neck where my beard grows?

My bad. In the back or in the neck/face, but NOT anywhere else.

 

[The DSM]

It depends, in some games they are and in some you are hitting the enemies with a rolled-up news paper.

 

[A.A.K]

If they weren't overpowered, they would be pretty worthless.

Plus it's fun to stab someone to death.

Add "always" to that last sentence

"Plus it's fun to stab always someone to death"?

That doesn't make any sense!

Yes it does. And you know what he's trying to say anyway.

And its true, id rather stab you to death 5 times then shoot you down 20 times.

 

[Cherry Cola]

If they weren't overpowered, they would be pretty worthless.

Plus it's fun to stab someone to death.

Add "always" to that last sentence

"Plus it's fun to stab always someone to death"?

That doesn't make any sense!

Yes it does. And you know what he's trying to say anyway.

And its true, id rather stab you to death 5 times then shoot you down 20 times.

It doesn't make any sense, and of course I know what he's trying to say. That's why I'm joking.

 

[A.A.K]

Are they overpowered? yes. but in comparison to the other weapons of the game...
think about it- the knife is a timed weapon, where even if your a degree off your attack will miss, AND you have to be at point blank if you ever want to be successful---geez...the knife better be a one hit kill.

In any case...i like being Rambo-firing off some rounds to get them to duck...chuck a grenade to make em flush outta the sides, getta big knife and SHANK!

 

[Zweiblumen]

I really never experienced the trouble other people seem to have with the knife in MW2 and COD4. Seriously, you have guns, he has a knife. Unless he's camping somewhere (and if he is than the knife doesn't really matter) he's a pretty easy target.

That said, many of the people I play against have trouble killing me if I use a knife, but that's not my fault, nor is it the knife's fault, nor is it because of lightweight or marathon. As it is I think it's easy enough to get killed, you don't need to add a second chance to anyone who let's a person with a knife run up to him anyway.

 

[L3m0n_L1m3]

plus MW2's riot sheild cant be penetrated by the knife

No it can't, if that happened to you it was just lag.

Read that again carefully. I think you may have made a mistake.

Oh damn, my bad. That's what I get for reading too fast.

Thanks for noticing that.

 

[MattRooney06]

plus MW2's riot sheild cant be penetrated by the knife

No it can't, if that happened to you it was just lag.

OT: If they weren't insanely powerful, why would anyone use them?

calm down

i said that the sheil CANT be penetrated although when you chuck a throwing knife at one it sticks through and stops about an inch from there nose....that makes me laugh

 

[L3m0n_L1m3]

plus MW2's riot sheild cant be penetrated by the knife

No it can't, if that happened to you it was just lag.

OT: If they weren't insanely powerful, why would anyone use them?

calm down

i said that the sheil CANT be penetrated although when you chuck a throwing knife at one it sticks through and stops about an inch from there nose....that makes me laugh

Oh, I'm not mad or anything. I just misread that.

/ignore my idiocy.

 

[Optimus Hagrid]

It depends on the game. I mean, compare the Quake axe to the MW2 knife.

You know I'm pretty sure that's all the dicussion there can be to this thread.

half life made a reasonably powerd melee weapon but fcked it up by giving you a gun that regenerates ammo so you never have to use it

Which gun do you mean? The gravity gun? It's more fun than the crowbar but I still use the crowbar to quickly dispatch headcrabs.

He's talking about the Bee Gun in the original. It shot bees.

 

[irishdelinquent]

I don't think that melee weapons in FPS games are terribly overpowered, because of the old "knife to a gunfight" adage. Melee attacks are deadlier in games these days to make them actually worthwhile. If you had a melee weapon or attack, that had the same strength or a lower strength than a ranged attack, why would you ever bother with it? Melee attacks in games require a proper use of strategy, stealth, and timing to pull off well (obvious exception for me is Halo, where you basically just go in swinging). If a player gets sloppy trying to beat everyone to death, he'll quickly find out why FPS stands for first person shooter.

Also, some one of the more recent games I've played had a great balancing factor for melee combat. In Left 4 Dead 2, melee weapons were added in to the game, allowing you to unleash the pain up close. All of the weapons do basically the same amount of damage and are all basically the same weapon (I think the frying pan has better hit detection, and the Kitana can decapitate multiple enemies at once, but those are small things). Also, the Chainsaw is a nasty piece of work, shredding any enemy in a few hits maximum. However, now players have a fatigue system in place when using melee combat, to ensure that they can't just keep swinging away without being impeded. After you swing about 5 times consecutively, you can't swing until the fatigue recharges. This can leave you in trouble in the middle of a horde, or while trying to fend off a tank. Also while the chainsaw is incredibly powerful, it has a long rev-up time, meaning that you have to anticipate a horde. However, it's all worth it to use the ultimate zombie-killing chainsaw technique, THE SPINNING DEATH BLOSSOM...OF DEATH!!!

 

[maddawg IAJI]

Well most game, they are balanced.

In order for a melee weapon to be useful you would need to get close and in most cases that is never possible unless you snuck up on them. Plus in Gears of War they give you the option use the Hammerburst, which is the much more powerful gun or the Lancer which has it's uses on certain maps as a one shot kill if you can get in close range.

 

[run_forrest_run]

They are realistically powered but FUCKING ANNOYING ONLINE. There are people in Modern Warfare 2 who will totally neglect the enormous Schlong gun they're holding to kniFe someone and it really pisses me off. If your going to kill me, do it gracefully. Put a bullet through my unobservant skull, don't put a FRIGGIN KNIFE THROUGH MY GODDAMN ARSE YOU PATHETIC LITTLE ****. It's alright when playing a campaign when the enemies can be killed by farting at them but against real people it's really fuckin stupid.......either that or i'm shit but I really shouldn't say that cause you'll tear me apart..........WITH A FUCKING KNIFE!!!

 

[Ruagh]

I'll admit melee generally is a bit overpowered in games. Not that I'm complaining though, when I'm staring down the throat of a demonic abomination and I hear the desperate sound of an empty clip, I want to be damn sure my melee weapon can save my ass.

 

[Iron Mal]

You expect to be able to fight back after having a dagger lodged in your spine?

I could probably try (although it wouldn't be easy).

It is realistic to have someone able to shrug off close range machine gun fire and still lunge at someone with the strength and fortitude to stab someone to death? (this is something that happens all too often in MW2, last time I checked we were playing as modern infantry rather than Khorne berserkers).