Ways to Combine Shooting and Melee in 3rd Person and Make it Fun?

[DBLT4P]

ok first I'll be a little more specific: the simplest way to illustrate what Im going for is: Metal Gear Solid 4/Peacewalker + Dark Souls.

A game or combat mechanic that combines the 3rd person perspective (which I find more immersive, allows for better environmental awareness, as well as a greater ability to interact with the environment) with the viable choice to use guns (or some other form of semi-auto Dakka) and/or melee weapons. Where both require skill and have depth to their mechanics/style and a structure that allows "realistic" enemy strength, that is a single monster is just as capable of killing you as you are of killing it, and increased difficulty is not dependent on hordes or making the enemies walking tanks, allowing the development of a PvP aspect to the game.

Bonus points if you can figue out how to work in jump/jetpacks and keep it balanced.

Edit: *sorry need to clarify-I'm not looking for a game that does this, I was asking how you would do this if you were designing a game*

 

[Kahunaburger]

Should be Stranger's Wrath meets Dark Souls. I.e., first person with ranged weapon, third person with melee. That was a good idea that I'm surprised nobody picked up on.

 

[Wayneguard]

Unreal Championship 2 did the 3rd person/1st person gameplay VERY well. It's on the original xbox and i'm sure its online servers are either closed or sparsely populated. The main game is still entertaining though and it works on 360.

 

[mParadox]

Vampire Masquerade [http://goo.gl/SeBvN] had that sort of thing. Granted the third person melee was wonky as hell, but when you got the hang of it, it was quite fun and made for brutal finishes.

 

[renegade7]

ok first I'll be a little more specific: the simplest way to illustrate what Im going for is: Metal Gear Solid 4/Peacewalker + Dark Souls.

A game or combat mechanic that combines the 3rd person perspective (which I find more immersive, allows for better environmental awareness, as well as a greater ability to interact with the environment) with the viable choice to use guns (or some other form of semi-auto Dakka) and/or melee weapons. Where both require skill and have depth to their mechanics/style and a structure that allows "realistic" enemy strength, that is a single monster is just as capable of killing you as you are of killing it, and increased difficulty is not dependent on hordes or making the enemies walking tanks, allowing the development of a PvP aspect to the game.

Bonus points if you can figue out how to work in jump/jetpacks and keep it balanced.

I honestly think Zelda OoT's approach would work. True, that game didn't have a 'shooting' mechanic in combat per se, but if they just tweaked the bow mechanics a little to allow for some sort of gun then I think that would work.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast is a pretty damn spiffy run at this, odd part is even tho it's on the Quake 3 engine the superior part is actually melee combat, but the guns still do a fine enough job with a pretty large variety and secondary firemodes.

 

[MortifiedPenguin]

Warhammer 40k: Space Marine got this down to the tee, hell it even has jump/jet packs.

 

[baddude1337]

Warhammer 40k: Space Marine got this down to the tee, hell it even has jump/jet packs.

I'm surprised this wasn't the first thing mentioned. It is pretty much the game that did this.

 

[Siege_TF]

You could make the melee weapon a really short ranged shooting attack, like the shotgun that you can replace your beam sabre with in more recent Armoured Core games. I typically go for a rocket, missile, machine gun, shotgun for each of the 4 ranges (although I need to be playing habitually for rockets to work as an extreme range weapon).

 

[General Twinkletoes]

While it was very generic, I like transformers war for cybertron, it was the kind of game that I could play the campaign on for hours on end, and have done a few times. The melee system in that game is just a one button swing, but it is so damn satisfying, especially if you do it as you transform, it makes you look like a total badass.

 

[Dryk]

Warhammer 40k: Space Marine got this down to the tee, hell it even has jump/jet packs.

I'm surprised this wasn't the first thing mentioned. It is pretty much the game that did this.

The problem being that the game became really annoying at the end where they traded out the endless swarm of Sluggas for Chaos with long-range bolters.

Also for some reason people thought that being vulnerable while you regain most of your health bar was unbalanced... because being able to chain heals as long as someone is left alive would've been so much better -_-

 

[Vault101]

Uncharted. I can't begin to describe how the melee combat in that game makes fights so much more fun.

I don't know..in the third game at least it felt like I was just mashing buttons :/ (at least in number 1 there was a seaquence to it)

I actually prefer shooting in 3rd person...I feel more conected to my charachter if I can see them

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Uncharted. I can't begin to describe how the melee combat in that game makes fights so much more fun.

I actually prefer shooting in 3rd person...I feel more conected to my charachter if I can see them

yeah this, when i just see the end of a floating gun/sword, I tend to be taken out a little bit by it...I like to see all of it!

OT: there are lots of games that do different things well, and I think it's just that, it depends on the game entirely..I'm not sure if I would like uncharted mixed with some rpg's, and if all combat was the same it would get a bit boring, so I like the fact that not everyone takes the same approach to it.

 

[BreakfastMan]

Guns? Yup. Melee? Yup. Both equally viable? As far as I can tell from my time with the game. Hard enemies? Oh yeah. Combat that requires a good deal of skill? You better believe it. Seems like it will work for your purposes to me.

 

[Vault101]

yeah this, when i just see the end of a floating gun/sword, I tend to be taken out a little bit by it...I like to see all of it!

OT: there are lots of games that do different things well, and I think it's just that, it depends on the game entirely..I'm not sure if I would like uncharted mixed with some rpg's, and if all combat was the same it would get a bit boring, so I like the fact that not everyone takes the same approach to it.

not only that but I feel like first person is associated so much with bland miltary style shooters that you really havnt got anything to work with

as opoased to portal or half life

 

[Professor Lupin Madblood]

Warhammer 40k: Space Marine got this down to the tee, hell it even has jump/jet packs.

I'm surprised this wasn't the first thing mentioned. It is pretty much the game that did this.

The problem being that the game became really annoying at the end where they traded out the endless swarm of Sluggas for Chaos with long-range bolters.

Also for some reason people thought that being vulnerable while you regain most of your health bar was unbalanced... because being able to chain heals as long as someone is left alive would've been so much better -_-

The campaign's sluggish pace towards the end was the result of poor writing and enemy planning, not the result of a faulty mix of swords and guns. The multiplayer does a really good job of mixing them together, and the majority of the campaign (the parts where you fight Orks) also merge it really well.

 

[Dryk]

Warhammer 40k: Space Marine got this down to the tee, hell it even has jump/jet packs.

I'm surprised this wasn't the first thing mentioned. It is pretty much the game that did this.

The problem being that the game became really annoying at the end where they traded out the endless swarm of Sluggas for Chaos with long-range bolters.

Also for some reason people thought that being vulnerable while you regain most of your health bar was unbalanced... because being able to chain heals as long as someone is left alive would've been so much better -_-

The campaign's sluggish pace towards the end was the result of poor writing and enemy planning, not the result of a faulty mix of swords and guns. The multiplayer does a really good job of mixing them together, and the majority of the campaign (the parts where you fight Orks) also merge it really well.

Yeah maybe I remember it wrong, all I remember from the last part of the game is the jump-pack section which was actually pretty good and this one open room with little cover and a bunch of Chaos at the top of a staircase getting the better of me over and over.

But now that you mention it yeah the multiplayer was good... when it worked for me. I had to leave once because it through me into a game where literally everyone else was on the other side of the world... then it made me host and I got chased out.

 

[wintercoat]

Didn't Oni do this, albeit with a heavier lean towards melee combat? Never actually played Oni, so not 100% on that...