I'm after your thoughts of games with the best first-person melee combat systems... using swords, knives, shields, fists, boots, spears, axes, bits of pipe, chunks of wood, etc. It always makes for a good time.
A couple that come to mind for me:
1. Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. Just finished this for the first time and I really, really liked the combat system.
You can block whilst holding melee weapons two-handed, or you can hold a shield in one hand. There are no explicit counters but if you do a decent block the enemy gets knocked back momentarily.
As for attacking you've got your fast attacks and strong attacks (if you hold down the mouse button) and if you wind up striking at the same time as the enemy you get into a battle of strength as you both try to overpower each other (and the loser can end up dropping his sword). And if all else fails, you've got the trusty boot.
On top of that there are a lot of traps and elements in environment you can use to your advantage, e.g. kicking your enemy into some spikes on the wall.
It also has an adrenaline system that allows you to perform insta-kill "fatalities" when you've done enough damage to charge up your adrenaline meter.
It's always tense and it's brutal at times as you thrust your sword right through an enemy's heart or take off a limb or their head.
2. The Condemned games.
All about using anything you can find around you as a weapon... pipes, 2x4s, mannequin legs, etc.
If I remember correctly, you have to try to time you blocks just right to get counters. If you were good you could get through almost any encounter without taking damage, but it kept you on your toes and the weapons sounded great.
Which games have your favourite first-person melee combat systems? What made them great?
A couple that come to mind for me:
1. Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. Just finished this for the first time and I really, really liked the combat system.
You can block whilst holding melee weapons two-handed, or you can hold a shield in one hand. There are no explicit counters but if you do a decent block the enemy gets knocked back momentarily.
As for attacking you've got your fast attacks and strong attacks (if you hold down the mouse button) and if you wind up striking at the same time as the enemy you get into a battle of strength as you both try to overpower each other (and the loser can end up dropping his sword). And if all else fails, you've got the trusty boot.
On top of that there are a lot of traps and elements in environment you can use to your advantage, e.g. kicking your enemy into some spikes on the wall.
It also has an adrenaline system that allows you to perform insta-kill "fatalities" when you've done enough damage to charge up your adrenaline meter.
It's always tense and it's brutal at times as you thrust your sword right through an enemy's heart or take off a limb or their head.
2. The Condemned games.
All about using anything you can find around you as a weapon... pipes, 2x4s, mannequin legs, etc.
If I remember correctly, you have to try to time you blocks just right to get counters. If you were good you could get through almost any encounter without taking damage, but it kept you on your toes and the weapons sounded great.
Which games have your favourite first-person melee combat systems? What made them great?
