First Person Shoo-------Fighter?

[Gentleman_Reptile]

I loves me a good beatdown in my game of choice. The recent goregasm release Avp (take THAT Michael Atkinson) I found to be more fun when I WASNT firing those familiar pulse rifles, but when I was slamming and slicing and smashing my hapless opponent in a first person visual nightmare of blood and screams.

It got me thinking, almost anyone can design a passable first person shooter, but so few games have handled detailed first person melee combat competently. I'm not just talking about swinging a lead pipe or a blade in the general vicinity of the enemy character model and hoping that I make some sort of stock-standard connection, I'm talking about pressing the shoulder buttons to use both hands to grab your struggling opponent by the head, thumb-gouging his eyes out with the secondary shoulder buttons, then smashing his head through a car windshield with a circular flick of the analogue stick. All done in first person. Detailed grappling options, specific locational damage, and unique animations depending on the action.

Think Condemned, except with the intensity of Kratos vs Poseidon.

Mirrors Edge proved that there still dynamic possibilities for the first person perspective, rather than simply having yet ANOTHER gun bobbing around in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.

So what do you think? Is the concept of a first person fighter, or a first person 'melee only' action-adventure game a realistic idea? Or would the entire concept fall flat on its ass after a week of the novelty wearing off due to broken mechanics or lack of originality?

 

[The Madman]

To answer your 'is it possible' question, Chronicles of Riddick had pretty good first person melee combat, as did Zeno Clash.

Probably the best though is in a game called Dark Messiah of Might and Magic on the PC. Pretty damn fun as I recall. The game certainly had its flaws, but the combat was not among them and it's a pity the game didn't do better.

Spoiler: Gameplay trailer

 

[Estocavio]

Zeno Clash comes pretty close... Zeno Clash + Realism + Epicness = Potential

 

[Optimus Hagrid]

Hmm, that reminds me, that new graphics card I installed might be able to play Zeno Clash.

 

[omega 616]

If your talking about something like oblivion?

Or do you mean something like fight night round 4? Were it's like COD but instead of a gun bobbing round, you have forearms and fists in each corner.

I think there is a game like that coming out, I remember seeing it somewhere.

 

[imaloony]

I hate it. As much as I loved Mirror's Edge, its combat was aweful, and trying to fist fight from a first person perspective is a nightmare.

Another glowing example of this is Fallout 3 and Oblivion, which pretty much share the same combat system. The difference is that Fallout 3 has guns so you're not forced to use the god aweful melee weapons. You can do Third Person fighting in Oblivion, but this is even worse, as the camera is stiff and really snooty. When you have it out, it will stay at a fixed distance, making it really difficult to fight with the camera.
The combat itself boils down to: Block, Hit, Block, Hit, Block, Hit, which is incredibly repetitive and boring. Not dynamic at all.

So, yeah, first person fighting DOES NOT work. More guns, less lead pipes.

 

[rockingnic]

Red Steel, I think it is, is on the wii and you use a katana and guns in first person perspective. I here it's great too. But I, myself, find third person better like that of Ninja Gaiden so you can see where the enemies are at any time.

 

[Henrik Persson]

Red Steel 2 for the wii? Motion controlled swordfighting. Haven't tried it, but a review said the controls were finally decent.

 

[Denizen]

In left 4 dead 2 I love using the melee weapons for that purpose. In garrysmod im itching for more melee and close combat weaponry to utilize dismemberment mod to an extreme. I really think it can be done if designed properly. What helps is knowing the timing, the length of a wielded weapon (therefore timing the attack's reach while moving), and how affective it will be.

Oh and before I forget, this is why I love using the spy in TF2. I love going up close and personal with people and the best part is how freaked out they are by it. This is similar to how freakish serial killers will usually be using melee weapons which is why I was pleased to hear OP reference condemned. I would love a well executed "FPF" so to speak for the thrills of going straight up to people and tearing them apart or playing on their fears like a serial killer.

Though the notion of a serial killer's mentality of violating a person's personal space to viciously kill them ala melee/fighter-combat sounds horific to some, they are just dramatizing the context and are really missing out. Its just too irresistable in a game for me and a select few people for one reason: when done right, its just damn entertaining.

Here is a really good machinima video that turned into a project on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/user/kitty0706#p/u/9/R4AeuzH4e_o

Completely relevant

 

[Irridium]

Oblivion + Deadly Reflex mod = Pure awesomeness.

I would suggest that. Otherwise look to Zeno Clash, and I would recommend Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. That had some pretty fun first person fighting.

 

[GBlair88]

The Age of Chivalry mod for Half Life 2 is an FPF of sorts. Unless you're playing as an archer and then it's presumably just an FPS. Though I can't really give you any details as to how good it is as I haven't managed to play it yet.

 

[Wolfram23]

I would be really cool if Demon's Souls could be played 1st person. It has some of the best melee combat I've ever experienced.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

sorry but no, i hardly like first person as it is, but with a fighter, i just can't see that working well, its decent enough to be called average in oblivion and fallout, but otherwise i would be pissed and bored out of my mind after a while probably, the only first person fighter that i actually found amusing was the wii boxing, which i played maybe a handful of times, if that

 

[Torque669]

Zeno Clash. There you go.

Just from that image I now want to play that game.

Id love to create a first person fighter where you can choose between 30-40 fighters all from different countries and are known as the most dangerous prisoners in their respective countries (Or are imprisoned in places overseas etc) in a underground fighting tournament to the death to get their freedom.

I think that would be a pretty intense fighting experience.

 

[Vivace-Vivian]

It can of course be good. Think of Oblivion and Morrowind. True you can shoot with an arrow but you can fight too. Mind you hand to hand isn't as complex as one might like. I think with enough effort it would work but that's just not where the market is at. Hence, we don't see them.

 

[shingon]

there is a decent FPF called Lovely Fighter. It is a little weird, but it is pretty adictive. It isn't gore, and it has no blood, just fighting. The only downside is that it is fucking hard.

 

[TaintedSaint]

um.... Dead Island is a beat em up basically may be what the doctor ordered

 

[eimatshya]

My friends and I used to duel each other in Bushido Blade 2 using first person POV. I wouldn't call the mechanics of it particularly good, but the lethality of it made it fun. It was like a proper samurai duel.

 

[dimensional]

It can work as almost everyone else has said Zeno Clash is probably the most successful one I have seen in this regard and thats because the entire game is built around it. However even that became a mess when you had lots attacking you, really the third person view lends itself so much better to close combat and strangely feels more satisfying imo.

 

[DoPo]

Guy, guys

It's been almost 2 and a half years. Just saying.