Best Melee Combat

[King of Asgaard]

I have three contenders for this thread.
First is Dark Souls. The combat is easily the best part of the game. Every swing has a certain wallop behind it. Case in point, the Zweihander is able to crush even the largest of enemies with a single swing, or send them flying. Combined with tight controls, and the requirement of genuine skill to succeed gives one of the best experiences I've had in a long while.

The next is Monster Hunter, as a series. With 11 different weapon types to choose from, each with their strengths and weaknesses, players are encouraged to experiment and diversify their play styles. That is a sign of great combat. Yes, I'm aware that 8 of the weapons are melee, but my point still stands.

Finally, Dragon's Dogma. It was a surprise to see Capcom release a game that, on the surface, looks like Monster Hunter and, while the influence is undeniable, it is its own beast. The melee combat is, unfortunately, not as varied as the previous two, yet what it does is polished to a near-mirror sheen.

These three are in the order of my preference.
That being said, all three could show series like The Elder Scrolls a thing or two.

 

[Jaeke]

Arkham games, Dark Messiah, Dead Island (which I loved the crap out of), the high-hope of mine called War of the Roses if it turns out to not be a buggy mess,
and I will get strung up for this but Skyrim, because nothing is ever wrong with Skyrim... ever!

 

[Gabanuka]

Have you checked out Mount&Blade and its expansion; Mount&Blade: Warband?

Better yet just go for Warband. Its a standalone and everything about it is better.

 

[PatrickXD]

Mount and Blade, Dark Souls and Dead Island all have pretty solid melee systems. The latter is hampered by a total lack of strike accuracy when using analog controls, and you really need to accurately hit targets in the game.

 

[-Drifter-]

Can't believe the ES games are being mentioned in a BEST melee combat thread. LOL. Sure you didn't mistake best for worst ?

To be fair, Skyrim's combat isn't that bad. Simple, sure, but competent. Can't say the same for the rest.

 

[mirasiel]

Oh, Oni springs to mind, nothing like snapping some poor fuckers spine to start the day and I'm playing Space Marine atm and it has a very...visceral feel to it and by visceral I mean I feel like a should have a sqeegy handy for my monitor.

 

[Smeggs]

Dead Island was okay. Best melee with blunt objects I've seen.

I think my favorite is either Condemned 2 with its great brutality in fighting or Arkham City, as being able to take out fifty dudes without them touching you with your bare hands is just boss.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

Manditory Dark Souls post.
Very good, realistic melee combat.

I had to raise a quizzical eyebrow at this statement. Dark Souls is definitely not realistic.

Excuse me as I lower my eyebrow to compensate. What exactly prevented it from being realistic? I think it's a fair bit more than other games that have been mentioned, like Batman where you constantly vault over enemies and AC where... actually AC is fairly realistic aside from the jumping off buildings and cushioning your fall on enemies.

I think what I liked most about Dark Soul's combat is how much control you had over it, especially spatially. In Assassins Creed and Batman I constantly felt like I was on a rail, only you could choose which rail you wanted to go on, and what combos you want to do on it.

 

[Luap26]

Vindictus, all I am saying.

 

[faspxina]

First person... none. It just doesn't work from a first person perspective.

3rd person... AC 2-Rev. It works as well and as smoothly as the Arkham games, and flows even more naturally with freerunning and even stealth.

AC2 still had most of the problems as AC as far as combat only being so much standing around and countering. They didn't speed things up until Brotherhood added that combo kill system that made even the biggest enemy clusterfucks trivial.

I found it this recently but there is a way in AC2, and apparently AC1, to do those finishing moves without having to counter, by pressing the attack button only after you land a successful hit, instead of mashing it repeatedly. If you do this by third or fourth hit you'll execute the finisher.

When I found out about this, combat did get a lot faster and I still got to do the cool executions.

And yes, Arkham Batman games have the best combat system of all time! ... of all time!

 

[Eddie the head]

Arkham City it hits that point of being fun yet being challenging at some points. A lot of other game tend to just focus on one or the other. Or just being there although it's not offensive in Skyrim.(IE not good not bad)

 

[gigastar]

God Hand. You could customise your combos however you wanted, and the game would break you over its knee and give you the great grandmother of all spankings if it thought you were being anything less than stellar at playing the game.

At least, its how it felt to me.

Manditory Dark Souls post.
Very good, realistic melee combat.

I had to raise a quizzical eyebrow at this statement. Dark Souls is definitely not realistic.

The combat is close enough.

Whiff a strike? Wave goodbye to your pecs.
Decide not to guard, evade or parry or enemy attacks? Its going to be an awfully short game.
Fail to recognise when certain enemies are prepared to parry and riposte you? Back to the bonfire. Again.

And the reverse also applies to your opponents, as you seek to exploit the same flaws that usually get the players killed.

 

[snagli]

Overgrowth or as i like to call it Watership beatdown.
There is not even a health system it´s based on skeletal structure, hit the back hard enough and you break the spine,Same for the neck And any other body part.

That little video actually made me pre-order the game instantly, it looks way way way too awesome not to buy it. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

 

[Mordekaien]

First person... none. It just doesn't work from a first person perspective.

Well Chronicles of Riddick begs to differ....

My favourite? I like, M&B clunky combat, however the undefeated champion for close combat still is Batman: Arkham Asylum.

EDIT: Honorable mention goes to PoP: Warrior Within- that was beast too

 

[FalloutJack]

Barring actual fighting games where melee combat is sort of the point...

I'm caught somewhere between Devil May Cry games and Prototype with a God of War cherry on top.

 

[pspman45]

InFamous 2 (yea I know it was just mashing Square, but it looked so awesome!)
Monster Hunter - a lot of different fighting styles to choose from, all are smooth and intuitive
Mortal Kombat - punches feel like there is weight behind them, weapons make cartoony but still accurate sounds