Poll: Why is melee over powered?

[Torrasque]

Game Balance.

If somebody can get up close to you and not get shot to death, he needs to be able to kill you quickly to make the move worth doing. Game Balance, it rules all.

This.
Its when the person melee-ing has some kind of advantage that lets them get up to you really really fast (evade/sprint in Reach, commando in MW2) that bends the balance a bit.
A calm couple shots can kill any commando/lightweight/marathon guy in MW2.
If your timing is right, you can either parry the sword swing, or go into armor lock for a split second, deplete their shields, and melee them down (personal favorite of mine ^_^)

You can also just avoid tight quarters.
Melee is not overpowered, it is balanced just fine when compared to ranged.

 

[Jailbird408]

I thought that this would be about Super Smash Bros Melee. Does that make me an idiot?

I can't really contribute to the discussion otherwise. I used the Gauntlet in Quake III and it wasn't really much better than a gun, but considering how that's a 10-year-old game it can't be relevant enough for this discussion.

 

[MAUSZX]

Cod has the knife which can apparently kill you as you are unloading a machine gun into the target that is meleeing. Halo has this exact problem. (Ive just rented halo reach for the first time) Im unloading a gun into somebody and get insta killed with a pummel.

These games melee just make no sense especially the ballistic knife.

Yeah, everything in gaming makes sense, but this Doesn´t.... Come on you are a Space Marine, killing a lot of aliens, because of some kind of religion thing.... Really do you want things to make sense?

 

[Singularly Datarific]

I don't really care if it's overpowered or not, I just want it to be rewarding. Knifing 3 people in COD isn't nearly as fun as bashing a Heavy to death with a bust of Hippocrates.

 

[szakalt]

It should be like in Bad Company 1/2 and BF3, balanced, no I-cut-your-pinky-so-you-will-have-cardical-arrest like in CoD.

 

[skywolfblue]

This is one of the things that annoys me about Halo/CoD and every game that follows.

Stabbing people with a combat knife shouldn't be more deadly then a machine gun. Ever. Completely stupid.

If you want to have melee combat, do something like Gears of War and stick gigantic chainsaws or something equally threatening on it, not a pathetic combat knife. As absurd as it may be, sawing someone in half with a chainsaw = more believable then punching them to death (*cough*halo*cough*).

 

[skywolfblue]

-- double post --

 

[Firetaffer]

Unreal Tournament had the right idea. First off it's hard to get in for the kill, secondly you had to charge up your shot. Quake also had the right idea. For those who are saying 'realistically if you are skilled enough you can kill someone with a knife' need to understand that realistically even if you aren't skilled you can kill someone with a gun to the face. Or even to the body if it delays the opponent.

 

[Soxafloppin]

I remember a PS2 James bond game where just punching someone was as effective as the Golden Gun.

 

[Bad Jim]

It's really just COD with ovepowered melee.

-Long range for a short range weapon.
-Can't miss
-One hit kill
-Don't need to switch weapons.
-Not much open space in the maps. If someone can get close enough that they can kill you with the knife, well you were probably within stab range the moment you saw each other.

But most fps games are not as bad as COD.

 

[mb16]

oh the joys to be had when someone lunges through your shotgun shot and stabs you.

 

[^=ash=^]

If they let you come so close you can slice their throats and cut their hearts out, they deserve it.

This.

Nice avatar by the way.

 

[Smooth Operator]

So everyone can play obviously, casual games are the real money makers, and you can't call it casual unless there is an "I win" button.

 

[Jaffinnegan]

Game Balance.

If somebody can get up close to you and not get shot to death, he needs to be able to kill you quickly to make the move worth doing. Game Balance, it rules all.

I can't speek for Halo (Having Never Played It), but the Melee is CoD is NOT to Balance the game, being that you can be something like 10 meters away from someone, and they FLY at you super fast and Insta-Kill you, and CoD is mostly CQB anyhow, so the Knife is ALWAYS used. Tell you what IS balanced though, Battlefield 3's Knife; you hardly ever get close to someone in BF games (Because the Maps are So HUGE), so it is amazing when you get close, and IF they are shooting you you cannot stab at them, because that would be silly to do, so you actually have to think about how you are going to do it.

In CoD, Knifing is the "Fuck You" Button, where as in BF3, its a Last Resort, which is what it should be.

 

[Zing]

Honestly I prefer it in cod after playing CSS for a while. The CSS knife is completely pointless. And besides, if you stab someone with a knife they are going to die.

That said, the COD knife is a little overpowered, it should depend on where you stab them. Stabbing someone in the foot and one shotting them is retarded. Same with perks that give your knife a 10 yard range.

 

[CarbonEagle]

I havent played halo since number 2 and the melee in that was fine. But in cod the lunge is ridiculous. One shot is fine from behind, questionable from the front unless its a melee only weapon, and silly if you can jump further than an Olympic athlete while carrying guns ammo body armor and whatever else soldiers need to carry into battle which normally weighs around 90lbs total. To put the silliness into context, find a backpack, fill it with lead or something till it weighs 90lbs, set up a mannequin, set up a line 5 yards from the mannequin, run 50 yards with the backpack, jump from the line and stab the mannequin in the throat with a knife before you hit the ground. I guarantee you wont be able to get even close to doing that. If you really want to get immersed in it get a friend to stand behind the mannequin with an airsoft or paintball gun and shoot you the whole time. Balanced or not, its so silly it kills the experience. Give them genetic enhancements, power armor, even magic powers would make more sense. Also if you do decide to do this, please put it on youtube for the amusement of all.
That got kinda long, it just bothers me OK?
Also TF2 gets the closest for balanced melee weapons of the current shooters I'd say.

 

[InsipidMadness]

Put it this way, stopping power introduced to a game. Last I checked, in a fictional sense, if you've got adrenaline running and you get shot, big-whoop you keep on running. If you're running along and you catch a 5 pound wrench to the face, you're eating the pavement. It's just the difference between piercing trauma and blunt trauma. Granted the guy you just hosed should bleed to death moments after, he'd still be capable of plunging a knife to your throat. What I don't get is when you're at least 10 feet from a guy, but apparently you can close the gap like a boxer, and kill a man with a two inch blade; I call shenanigans.

I will agree on the melee being overpowered. It should be a last ditch effort if you happen to share a corner with the enemy coming the other way, but anyone with a brain inside their skull will realize that, gun in hand, bullets ftw. Knives from behind make sense, what doesn't make sense is everyone getting the lightest stuff they can find, and whatever lame perks associate it, to go around melee-ing people through shotguns and bullets. It's my opinion that if two people are in melee range and one person is shooting while the other is charging in for the kill, the guy with bullets wins. If you get the drop on someone and punch them to death, so be it. But if you make it your goal to stride the map while ignoring damage just to melee, that makes you a tool.