Where has unarmed combat gone?

[shrekfan246]

Kinda surprised it took until comment #17 for somebody to mention the Batman: Arkham games... probably one of the best hand-to-hand brawler-style combat systems I've ever played.

I suppose it's highly likely that the OP has already played them, but still. They weren't actually mentioned in the OP, so, yeah.

Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City. Great combat system, great stealth system, and has Animated Universe Batman and Luke Skywalker as voice actors.

 

[Eternal Skies]

I don't really know if it would fit TC's tastes, But Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence had some interesting Unarmed Combat, unfortunately in order to use it at its best without being fed a bullet buffet, you had to either use a gun to hold up the enemies which sort of defeats the whole purpose of Hand-to-Hand... Or be very, very good at hiding.

 

[Bitcoon]

Oni 2, anyone?

Damnit, you got me all excited thinking there was a sequel. D:<

 

[esperandote]

You wanna play an unarmed combat game, you don't wanna play fighting games because you can't look pass a desing issue you don't agree with and a narrow minded preconcieved idea of its mechanics, is your loss.

[returns to play KOF XIII]

 

[scorptatious]

Well there's the Batman Arkham games.

While Batman does use gadgets, he mainly focuses in hand-to-hand during combat against groups of thugs.

I'm afraid it won't be able to satisfy your blood lust though, as Batman doesn't kill.

 

[Tanis]

First game that comes to mind is Zeno Clash.

Maybe a beat-em-up like God Hand.

 

[TheCommanders]

I completely agree that DE:HR had terrible unarmed combat. I don't really understand why it used up an entire bar of battery power either. If you're good enough to sneak up behind someone, you should be rewarded, not punished! Although part of my problem could be that I have an incredibly bad case of the "might-need-it-later" syndrome, so I didn't like having to use the somewhat limited battery restoring items.

 

[Cheeseman Muncher]

As has already been mentioned, the best example of hand to hand I've seen lately's been in the Batman games. Fair enough he doesn't kill anybody, but at the same time it still feels pretty brutal and the combat itself is impressively fluid and diverse.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

Apologies for the poor pic, but Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butchers Bay/Dark Athena both had good unarmed sections when you were in prisons! Quite challenging too. Then before you had Urlaks, you could use unarmed as stealth for 1HKO's, or to beat up guards and nick their guns!

 

[Fappy]

Unarmed combat was fun in Oblivion. Too bad they had to go and butcher it in Skyrim. Don't know why the brawl system took president over using hand-to-hand combat in serious combat scenarios.

 

[dimensional]

A Fine. I cannot stand fighting games, or their standard mechanics. Meaning: a lingerie model and the concept art for a horror movie stand face to face and take turns whacking each other in the face until one falls over. Repeat 2-3 times as necessary. Really it's not all that different to watching someone play Rock'em Sock'em robots, just significantly flashier.

The entirety of the mechanics for close range battles in real time are found in fighting games, you are basically asking for those mechanics and ignoring exactly what the conclusion of those mechanics in a game are.

Also your summarry of fighting games is really dumb. I'm not sure if you meant to express yourself so dismissively but I almost reconsidered even responding to you.

You basically said what I was going to say for me I went in to this thread going huh WTF wheres the unarmed combat gone well in almost every fighting game ever thats where the OP then says he wants it as a core mechanic well yeah thats what it is in these games.

You want unarmed combat but you dont want a game about unarmed combat seems to be the general jist and thats not really that easy to pull off. An easy way to make combat satifying is to give people powerful stuff i.e guns,weapons,magic etc these provide instant feedback through simple actions which is a lot harder to do with unarmed combat to make that more satisfying you really have to make it more technical hence why its best incarnation is in fighting games but games such as Condemned and Zeno Clash do a pretty good job in breaking some middle ground. Or you can just make your character overpowered so they basically are the weapon such as in Asuras Wrath.

 

[Baralak]

Batman Arkham Games... enough has been said...

As for why we don't see much of it anymore? Gets me... I found the brawler combat in the Arkham games to be superior to most shoot em ups and hack n' slashers I've played. I guess it's difficult to get a good melee brawler system right... either that or developers are already fixated on swords and guns anyway...

Speaking of Melee's and Brawler's there's the Super Smash Brothers series. Okay... so it's a fighting game but not in the same vein as most 2D fighters...

Eh, my problem with the Arkham games was that, aside from the combat, everything else about them sucked. Then again, I'm not a Batman fan.