What place does melee really have in shooters?

[Westaway]

Imagine a shotgun. It is always a one shot kill, with unlimited ammo and almost NEVER misses because it has lock on. It is also going to be in every shooter. Well, it's real. It's called melee, and me and a lot of others are begining to question its role in moderne shooters.

Well? Why is it there? It seems to be the plague for the shooter genre, and seems to
absolutly dominate close quarters. Games are no longer shooters, but "games with guns if you want to shoot some one more then 5 meters away"

I'm going to take a look at why 3 games and why knives and other melee based weapons are destroying the all of the moderne shooters. ModerneWarfare2, Transformers and Gears of War 2.

But why do they so over-powered? Well, I have thought up of 3 answers for this question.
1. Always at the ready, knives don't have to be equiped. Meaning, if you walk around a corner, knife, dead. No skill involved, you press one button for a one shot kill. The other person can do nothing but knife first or die.
2. One shot kill. Yeah, they usually do more then a bullet from an ak-47.
3. The lounge+lock on. You see him. He's 4 meters away. VOOM. Dead. Easy as that.
None of these should be like that. Why have shotgun when you can have this?

MW2. The knife by itself is absolutly outrageous and is the best example of what not to do.

Transformers wfc. In this game, melee has a generous lounge and does nothave tobe equiped, but itisn't always a one shot kill. The best strategie would be to take a few shots the melee. It's getting there, but it isn't the best.

Gears of War 2. This is the best melee systeme I have ever seen in a long time. (besides not having one) It's not a one shot kill unless you have something equiped and frankly, it really is useless as it should be. Sure, there are some gunn that make it better, but you're realy slow so it doesn't matter and they're just there for show.

So how should they work? Well, if you have to have them, make it like GoW for tpf, but for fps there are a few option.

1. Everyone has them (meaning you don't have to customize your guy so he has one)
Well, say you press a bumper or a specific button fo it to come out. It have no lounge and takes 3 hits to kill. It slashes like in Fallout 3, but it takes a while for each one to go through. You press the same button you pressed to take it out to use it and hold it to put it away.
2. Only some people have chosen to have it. You don't have to equip it, and works like CoD but slashes, 2 shot kill.

Hope you agree with me on how melee should work in the future.

 

[kimba_lion]

whats more fun than knifing people in the back in mw2???

or throwing knives at people from affar??

its amazing and fun!!

 

[The Procrastinated End]

So a knife to the throat/heart/head shouldn't kill someone? Well I guess it goes with the idea of taking multiple bullets to the torso and being completely fine by hiding for five seconds.

 

[Jedamethis]

I agree with your points 100%

 

[snowman6251]

I like the way Halo did melee. When I say that I do not mean the sword or the hammer. That shit is stupid.

Sneak up behind someone and bash your gun into their neck, breaking it. One hit kill. Acceptable.

Smack them with your gun barrel from the front, decent damage but not a one hit kill. Acceptable.

Also if a knife or whatever is a separate weapon that you slowly have to equip, making it useful only when ambushing someone, that is also acceptable.

But yeah I'm fairly certain running around with marathon, lightweight, and commando, with a revolver and a knife, is fucking stupid even by the fantasy world that is MW2.

 

[Thk13421]

Yes, lunge on melee is stupid. Yes, melee weapons should be equipped. However, I think, that being said, melee should still be a one hit kill. Those first two things should balance melee out enough.

 

[Hiphophippo]

Team Fortress 2 did this right.

Team Fortress 2 did everything right.

 

[viranimus]

I fully disagree... and think its been far too long in coming to allow melee to have its place in shooters.

Actually I would like to see a new sub genera emerge from this... utilizing fps mode of movement and stages, with melee predominant techniques, and through some fighter games in to give a variety of melee techniques.

But thats just me... and you want the truth? Melee absolutely has its place in shooters. Shooters have had 5+ years of console dominance and the place for melee is something to stave off stagnation, which the shooter genera is starting to reek of.

OT: So much for trying to not post today

 

[InnerRebellion]

I hate MW2's melee. I really, really do. A knife stab to every body part should not be an insta-kill.

 

[lolandrew4]

The melee system is alright, I just think it needs to be tweaked a little bit; somehow.

 

[RuberGruber]

Melee usefulness in shooters should be very dependent on the pacing of the game in terms of scaling with the level, movement speed and the accuracy of normal weapons. They shouldn't be all-powerful death dealers in close-range accessible by the push of a button. It's been a staple in a lot of prior fpses that melee weapons are to be equipped to all players and have respectable damage in close combat, 2-3 hits should always be enough. 2-hits works well with most tactical or modern-era type shooters because there are weapons that can usually weapons that can kill with one shot from a distance anyways.

It'd be boring anyway if fps's were just a bunch of jerk-off's shooting each other with guns, there should always be an ass-hat running around with a crowbar or something.

 

[snowman6251]

I hate MW2's melee. I really, really do. A knife stab to every body part should not be an insta-kill.

My favorite thing about MW2 is that lightly tossing a knife into someone's foot is significantly more lethal than taking a bullet from a Barret 50. cal to the chest.

 

[Blind Sight]

I feel that most melee systems just need to have a block to counter it, it's just good balancing. I find Modern Warfare 2 is really bad in this category, simply because some people focus their entire play-style around knife kills. Gears of War 2 had a decent block for the chainsaw, if you raised your chainsaw as you were being attacked you're forced into a button-mashing duel that could lead to either you or the attacker being killed. It makes the one-hit melee attack actually risky, and thus people use it less.

 

[Miles Tormani]

Okay, I think we can all agree that the knife in Modern Warfare is overpowered.

But, seriously. If someone is right in my face, I'm out of ammo, have no grenades, and if I take the time to reload, I die (a common occurrence in Halo), why SHOULDN'T I be able to make a last ditch effort of swinging my gun at them for a chance of blunt force saving my life?

I'm not saying it should be a one hit kill always. God no, that's stupid. But just because Modern Warfare (and Activision's other games) fucked it up, doesn't mean every other shooter shouldn't have melee ever. It's better than the guy with the sniper rifle killing you at point blank because your reload time is longer than his "shoot you in the face three times" time, at least.

 

[Skratt]

I really like the CS:S & L4D melee options. Futuristic MMORPGs never get it right, auto attack point blank pistol vs melee tank - just seems...off.

As for the 1 shot one kill, that's about the gist of a knife to the back, so I can't understand how you can have a problem with it. I could see if there was a level balancing problem where there are so many corners, people just wait around them and knife kill you, but I recommend you start carrying grenade like objects, learn where they are camped and force them out.

 

[SturmDolch]

The best melee was in BF2. One-shot with the knife, but you had to equip it. Same as grenades, actually; you had to equip them. I like it a lot better. I don't know if it's realistic or whatever, but it's more fun and satisfying when you get a kill with the knife. And it's more tense when you have to use a grenade.

 

[Thaius]

I think Gears of War almost has it right. The problem is how much damage it does. I think it would be a lot more balanced if it just stunned the enemy for a second. As it is, it's so powerful that not only does it stun someone for a second, but someone could down you by pressing B twice. That's just not okay. They need to make it so it doesn't do much damage, but stuns the person for a second. That would be an awesome use of the melee without completely destroying the balance of the game.

Not that the chainsaw already does that...

 

[ProfessorLayton]

Your spelling... your grammar... oh my...

That's not always true. Look at Bad Company 2, where it takes a second to ready your knife so it isn't automatic. Look at Counter-Strike: Source, where two right clicks are the only way to get a knife kill on someone with full health and even then you have to equip it. Melee kills are good for being stealthy and for not wasting ammo. Just because some games have crap melee systems doesn't mean they shouldn't be in games at all. Think about melee in Left 4 Dead...