Getting Melee combat right

[Ralen-Sharr]

I thought the later Jedi Knight games did a decent job of melee combat

Hell yeah. I'm still deciding between Outcast and Academy though

seems to me Jedi Academy had everything Outcast had and more. I could be wrong though. I've always like the idea of dual weapons, so of course I'm going to go with Academy.
I used dual sabers in KOTOR as well, and my first playthrough of Dragon Age was a dual weapon warrior.

 

[Gabanuka]

God of war has good combat, its abit OTT but it works.

 

[Hurr Durr Derp]

Die by the Sword had the most awesome melee combat ever.

Bushido Blade deserves to be mentioned as well.

I love you and want to have your babies but you forgot Severance:Blades of Darkness.

I'm afraid I never played that one... Is it a PC game?

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

For strategy melee No More Heroes does it really well. Damn Wii controls need to be more responsive though.

 

[AVATAR_RAGE]

I got an idea, it may not work but its beeter than nothing.



What about a melee based game where the shoulder buttons control the combat. If you want to block an incoming attack you, you parry it with a simlar attack move. The effectiveness of the block depends on the weapon that your blocking.


I suppose it wouldn't work with current games now, but I if you based a games combat system around melee combat I think this would work.

 

[TheMadTypist]

I thought KotOR did reasonably well for a turn based, and I thought Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy did it very well for realtime. Haven't experienced the FF stuff, which is why I'm working from KotOR.

So, in my opinion, if you're going to be running around with a melee weapon, it should be third person with fluid animations, with opponents actually blocking(not like blocking-blocking, but like in KotOR when you're being attacked your character actually looks like he's parrying the attack, even though he's still taking damage from it) instead of just standing there and taking it.

First person is not the ideal melee position, although I enjoyed smashing people with the butt of the weapons/base of the drill in Bioshock 2.

 

[lacktheknack]

Oblivion was nice and frantic.

 

[Ben Legend]

I'm hoping that Natal with get sword fighting right... *crosses fingers*

 

[Crossborder]

The best way? Dark Messiah of Might and Magic.

The environment got me more kills than my sword.

*kicks dudes into fire*

And the Condemned 2 way.

I love Dark Messiah! Especially because it handled decapitations so casually.
Another game that did Melee combat right is Mount & Blade. And the sequel Warband makes it look like actual combat.

 

[Yokai]

Mount and Blade. Mount and Blade did it right. They had directional attacking and blocking, almost-excellent hit detection, and damage proportional to the speed and power of the swing. I have never encountered a game with more enjoyable melee combat. Sure, the graphics are decidedly last-gen and the quests get repetitive, but I love the game just because I can swing by someone on a horse and kill them with a glaive through the neck. And that's actually what it looks like I did.

Oblivion was nice and frantic.

The problem I had with Oblivion's combat was the animations. They just looked so wooden; when doing a regular swing you'd just wave your arm around while your body remained stock-still. The archery in that game worked better than the melee, I think.

 

[Prometheous]

Nobody's gonna say it? I would have thought someone would say it by now.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

indeed.

 

[Wolfram23]

Man I can't believe nobody thought of this sooner! (Myself included)

Demon's Souls

The combat is really good. Each weapon has pretty unique "weak" and "strong" attacks - whether it's a katana, longsword, polearm, large sword (claymore), pike, mace - they all have fairly different attacks and secondary attacks. Then you have shields - large shields have decent blocking abilites but are heavy, while smaller shields allow you to parry (as do some daggers and swords in your off-hand) and if you time your parry perfectly, it gives you a great stab opening for huge damage. Blocking, attacking, dodging, and running all drain you stamina so you need to gauge it just right. If you try blocking with low stamina it can open your guard similar to being parried and you can be murdered - although if it's PVP your opponent might be out of stamina from attacking and then neither of you can really do anything.

When your character is heavy from big armour and shields, you run slower and when you try a dodge roll you go "plunk" and get maybe half as far as a light charater. This creates an interesting dynamic.

I'm sure everyone's heard how hard Demon's Souls is, and a large part of it is figuring out how to fight properly. If anything it's almost too real in how it handles combat. But I really, really like it.

 

[lucky_sharm]

Hmm, has first person brawler combat ever been done before? That would be rather interesting to try out.

 

[Gammaj4]

Red.
Steel.
2.
Best combat ever.
And a lot of fun.

 

[ninjajoeman]

melee combat... oblivion?

 

[Plurralbles]

well, usually a dev team gets it right. Sure there's some haters, but usually combat is missing some things that make it not as great as it could be, but it definitely works.

Oblivion works very well but when someone plays mount and blade they cream their pants to the comparison.

Combat is rarely broken, just doesn't utilize everything that they COULD have put in. Such as how God of War is visceral and violent and awesome, but it seriously sucks when you break it down.

That the character doesn't look like a complete spaz when using it.
It must flow on, not look stale.

And you shouldn't have to go up against archers in an hallway with absolutely no hiding place, having melee as your only weapon.

It isn't fair.

Usually though the archer sucks balls. Sure it hits you, but it doesn't do almost any damage(even though arrows go through your entire midsection and your elbow and your head*Oblivion*)

 

[Zetsubou-Sama]

I don't know if i've been ninja'd but hand-to-hand fight in The Godfather is amazingly fluid and fun.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Condemned: Criminal Origins. There you go, melee done right.

 

[ArcWinter]

Oblivion, if you could just throw random stuff at people. Or throw people into random stuff.

That would be the only needed improvement, then it would be perfect.

 

[Johbinde]

Batman: Arkham Asylum, need I say more?