Most awesome melee combat systems

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Bushido Blade 1 PS1 - Great 1v1 melee combat system. I feel this is a game that actually gets forgotten about a lot when talking about great melee systems. Highly versatile and responsive for a PS1 era game. Would love to have a slightly more polished but functionally similar system in a modern version.

 

[Seishisha]

Gotta chime in with dark souls before someone else does.

Even if the combat is relativly simple, the sheer varieity on offer is pretty awesome, daggers handle differently to swords, axes different to maces and so on, when you account all the weapon types you realise there is a bunch of different playstyles and alot of nuance even if the mechanics remain the same.

 

[The Madman]

Still Mount & Blade unfortunately. I say unfortunately because you'd think after around 9ish years someone else would have come along and done it better, but if someone has I've yet to have played the game.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Chalk another vote for The Last of Us and the Arkham games (City in particular).

I'll also throw in Dead Island, which nobody liked, but I happen to think it did a pretty good job with first-person melee combat. It could get messy when fighting crowds, but one-on-one it worked beautifully.

Then guns start dropping from trees and it becomes a regular FPS, but that opening stretch I like a lot.

 

[BrawlMan]

I wanna try out Kingdom Come: Deliverance.

Platinum games and Team Ninja do it the best.

Like the Arkham series, Platinum Games' combat systems are too automated. You don't even need to turn towards your opponent. The character will stylishly turn for you with the attack buttons, rushing enemies several feet away, one after another. I played the Bayonetta demo and MGR. Both were dull, I have to say. And performing a parry in MGR is so similar to performing an attack that a lot of the time you'll successfully parry by accident. Only being able to perform a parry animation when being attacked makes the timing too simple.

I know this boils down to personal preference, but I never had a problem with Rising's parry mechanic. Mostly. I think the main problem was that they didn't have a proper tutorial nor explained it that well. I remember on day one, everybody looking at this guy's video guide on how to properly do it.

<spoiler=TheSeraphim17 Tutorial Parry>
Once I figured out how to do it, I rarely ever got the parry nor the light attack button mixed up.

Me? I'll put:

Bayonetta 1 & 2
Devil May Cry 3 & 4
Killer Is Dead
No More Heroes
Streets of Rage 2
Hyrule Warriors & Samurai Warriors 4
Transformers Devastation

Dark Messiah!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWuTnouTqXQ

Dark Messiah is weird. The kicking and environmental traps are really satisfying, but I found trying to actually slice and dice people was awful. Your weapon is so weak. It basically became a game of finding the closest insta kill piece, then maneuvering yourself so you can kick people into it.
I'll never forget this one moment where I cut a rope that was holding a chandelier or something, and just dodged back and forth waiting for the knights to run into this pendulum of destruction. It was hilarious.

I think Ninja Gaiden 2 has one of the best combat systems. Most enemies don't have a ton of hp, their limbs are cut off, and you can instakill with satisfying animations. Cool weapons, and really fluid animations for the main character.
Shame about those bullshit enemies though.
So much hype for this game, so much disappointment

I tried to like Ninja Gaiden 2, but felt too tedious and cheap in a lot of areas. I gave up after the stage in Rome. What didn't help was the game was buggy as hell;especially if you downloaded the DLC challenge missions. Doing so would cause the game to crash when you reached a certain boss. I know they fixed it later, but one it took too long to patch it, and two, I raded in my copy long before that patch ever happened. I am more of a Shinobi guy anyway. And by Shinobi, I mean the ones on the Genesis.

 

[Worgen]

To me nothing has yet beat Bayonetta. I just love how that game plays and feels!

The only thing that beats Bayonetta is Bayonetta 2. Seriously, its hard going back to the first from the second one.

 

[Rabish Bini]

Condemned!

Simple as shit, but it's so goddamn visceral, really adds to the tension.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

I'm going to go out of bounds here. I'm going to say State of Decay.

Not just for the fact that the controls were responsive, but after a few points you were a bad ass. Add to that the fact that your random characters have random buffs on weapons means that you can pay the way you like.

Also, The Warriors. God, that was a fun game.

Batman Arkham Thing

(Also Shadow of Mordor I suppose since they use practically identical systems.)

While it got a bit cluttered with gadgets and enemy types as the series went on it has a very nice sense of flow that I don't think I've seen matched. And even Arkham Knight added some cool touches like the team-up moves. Superbly animated too.

Oddly enough, I've always found Arkham games on this point of maddening, because there's such brilliance that is severely marred by not knowing what the game's going to do next.

I'm in the middle of a free flow combat, there's a guy who's stunned and someone about to swing a pipe at me... but I have my bat-a-rang upgraded. So I can use it to knockdown the swinger, do a beatdown combo on dizzied guy, do a ground pound on the guy I just hit with the bat-a-rang, and then go after the last guy who's miles away trying to pick up a crate!

Except... no.

Because for some reason, the game decided that I'm not aiming at the pipe swinger. I'm actually aiming at the Crate guy who's way on the outskirts of the arena. And I get hit by the pipe swinger. Thus my free flow is ruined.

I might be doing something wrong, but that happens to me way too frequently. Which sucks, because it looks so beautiful when you get the right flow going.

 

[Satinavian]

Another one for Mount and Blade. By far the best Melee system i have ever played.

 

[Foolery]

Gotta chime in with dark souls before someone else does.

Even if the combat is relativly simple, the sheer varieity on offer is pretty awesome, daggers handle differently to swords, axes different to maces and so on, when you account all the weapon types you realise there is a bunch of different playstyles and alot of nuance even if the mechanics remain the same.

High-five! Dark Souls is excellent at giving weight and impact to weapons, if you make a swing, you're committed to that action. Combined with the stats system and equipment, you get an interesting mix of deciding what gear to use. It's very satisfying.

 

[Athennesi]

Severance, by a mile. Excellent gore, clear sounds( you can "hear" your sword cutting through armor and flesh, instead of weird over the top CRASH! sound, like in Japanese action games), directional attacks and unique weapon attacks, nice mix of elegance/brutality/effectiveness in playstyles, breakable shields, etc.
Played all so far mentioned, but this one is king of melee combat.
For Honor and Deliverance look interesting though.

 

[Athennesi]

Gotta chime in with dark souls before someone else does.

Even if the combat is relativly simple, the sheer varieity on offer is pretty awesome, daggers handle differently to swords, axes different to maces and so on, when you account all the weapon types you realise there is a bunch of different playstyles and alot of nuance even if the mechanics remain the same.

Dark Souls is great with heavy weapons, but with lighter ones feels too clumsy and inelegant. Plus it's parry/backstab mechanics are what ruins it for me...feels more like a QTE as your character performs several actions without your control and with entire sequence being I-framed ( even when lying on the floor) it altogether ruins the immersion and flow of combat. And against larger enemies ( which is almost everyone in the game) it can look downright silly. Plus, no gore, it's sound design, lack of specific point of impact animations on enemies who barely even make a sound..imo, it feels far too "fake".
Imo, it's more impressive with variety of playstyles it offers, than with it's core mechanics.

 

[Zhukov]

Except... no.

Because for some reason, the game decided that I'm not aiming at the pipe swinger. I'm actually aiming at the Crate guy who's way on the outskirts of the arena. And I get hit by the pipe swinger. Thus my free flow is ruined.

I might be doing something wrong, but that happens to me way too frequently. Which sucks, because it looks so beautiful when you get the right flow going.

Well, in that specific instance it's because the game considers 'Throw Batarang' to be a counter to 'Enemy Throwing Projectile'. So it prioritizes the thrower as target. Kinda like how hitting the counter button will apply the counter to anybody currently attacking you regardless of where you "aim" it.

But yeah, the Arkham games can be awfully finicky with target selection. I found it especially annoying when you try to punch a dude and instead punch the electrified dude next to him which damages you. Also a pain when trying to prioritize medics or trying to hookshot guns out of enemy hands in mid melee.

 

[Cette]

Jedi Outcast and Academy. I can't think of a game that has better mechanics for any form of sword fighting much less lightsabers.

Plus the ability to call someone out in a duel and have both of you invulnerable to anyone besides eachother until one of you is dead was s fantastic idea and I haven't seen s game do that again since,

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Never found a game, old or new, that had better designed melee combat than the Arkham games.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Oddly enough, I've always found Arkham games on this point of maddening, because there's such brilliance that is severely marred by not knowing what the game's going to do next.

I'm in the middle of a free flow combat, there's a guy who's stunned and someone about to swing a pipe at me... but I have my bat-a-rang upgraded. So I can use it to knockdown the swinger, do a beatdown combo on dizzied guy, do a ground pound on the guy I just hit with the bat-a-rang, and then go after the last guy who's miles away trying to pick up a crate!

Except... no.

Because for some reason, the game decided that I'm not aiming at the pipe swinger. I'm actually aiming at the Crate guy who's way on the outskirts of the arena. And I get hit by the pipe swinger. Thus my free flow is ruined.

I might be doing something wrong, but that happens to me way too frequently. Which sucks, because it looks so beautiful when you get the right flow going.

I personally feel like this is only a problem in Arkham Knight. They introduced just way too many options and enemy variations that poor old Bats has no idea who to attack any more.

 

[pookie101]

i know its sacrilege around here but for me.. skyrim. if you hit someone with a warhammer they feel it, and even highish level ive been diced to pieces by someone dual wielding daggers

 

[Laughing Man]

Shadow of Mordor yes I know it shares alot of the same functions as the Batman series but Batmans always felt a little clunky and less responsive were as SOM just did it right, I would also put a word in for Dying Light which is fucking fantastic and really really statisfying, in fact a lot of the movement and combat mechanics in Dying Light are fantastic.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

How did it take until post 22 to bring up Dark Souls (and I will add its sequels)? Disappointing tho it is to even attempt to control on anything other than a console controller, the fact that with only two buttons they added so much depth and nuance to a combat system is exemplary. It is unrivalled in any other game I can think of. Each weapon has different reach, speed and movesets as well as varied stats. The end result is a game where practically every weapon can shine with the right build, satisfying and interesting melee encounters and the opportunity to role play many different kinds of warrior.

While I did enjoy the area design and (most of the time) the challenge, two of the other things DS games are reputed for, I could happily do without them as long as the combat remained. The dodging was a bit shit and magic didn't flow as well as the melee but the weapons and movesets were fantastic. A shout out to the Silverblack Spear for my Dex/Hex guy. Love it.

 

[Barbas]

Shadow of Mordor yes I know it shares alot of the same functions as the Batman series but Batmans always felt a little clunky and less responsive were as SOM just did it right, I would also put a word in for Dying Light which is fucking fantastic and really really statisfying, in fact a lot of the movement and combat mechanics in Dying Light are fantastic.

YES, so much of this. Can't believe I forgot about Shadow Of Mordor, AKA Tolkien meets ISIS.

And there is nothing like jump-kicking a shambler off the roof of a building.