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Best 3d real-time melee combat?

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ZeroGravitas:
Was thinking about this topic this morning: what game do you think has the best real time 3d melee combat?

I was originally thinking about this in the context of Mount and Blade or a game like Chivalry, but I guess it could include "fighting" games like Absolver or Soulcalibur or other games like Assassin's Creed / Shadow of Mordor / Witcher 3.

What aspects of the combat make it better than combat in other games?

nenjin:
I mean, this is a tough question.

Because what people value in a 3d fighting game can be very different.

M&B is a totally different beast than Shadow of Mordwar, which is totally different than the Dark Souls 3 experience.

PvE in this context is also a totally different experience than PvP.

It's not an unanswerable question I think but it needs more context.

For PvE, I'd have to say the Dark Souls series. Even though their controls are not fluid, or graceful....when the latency is right, it can be both of those things. The hitboxes of weapons and such actually matter, and sometimes you'll get a hit or a parry that you can't believe you got because the stars were right. Or you fail to dodge a massive attack that still missed you simply due to where your hitbox was at the time. When it works, the space you do or don't occupy in the Dark Souls games feel like it really matters.

M&B is satisfying to just lay in to a crowd of guys but it has even less finesse than Dark Souls.

By contrast Shadow of Mordwar/Assassin's Creed/Batman games, while the combat is enjoyable, feels like it's on rails. Any game with a "press a button when you see the prompt to counter" mechanic automatically feels more restrictive. The pay off is the fluidity and flow of combat, the unbroken drumbeat of asskicking you get to hand out because you barely need to pay attention to where you're swinging or what you're swinging at, just aim yourself in the general direction of an enemy and hit a button, the game will take care of the rest. The cost is sacrificing some of the utility and freedom of movement and actually feeling responsible for anything except timing and some general decision making about different attacks. And when they bring in "special" enemies, you really start feeling the lack of options. Those kind of games eventually boil down to "you have one or two things you can do to win, everything else has been deliberately made useless." While I enjoy.....can we just call them QTE Fighting games? :P.....these kinds of games, I'd never stack them up to anything that asks more of the player.

ChairmanPoo:
Shadow warrior 2 is free on GOG

JimboM12:
this might be controversial but... kingdom come: deliverance.

it takes actual practice both ingame and out to get good at it. at first you're swinging medieval longswords like they're baseball bats, but with some practice and skill, soon you can take out entire groups of bandits using the "master strike", or a parry into a counter. it takes a bit of stat grinding and timing to pull these off with a decent sword too but its immensely satisfying. the only gripe i had was the camera was a little too sticky, but someone felt the way i do and made a mod to make it less so and its become one of my favorite combat engines ever.

Virtz:
In terms of fun, right now I'd say Exanima. There's nothing more satisfying than timing and aiming your strikes at that perfect moment when your oponent's sword just barely misses your character while your own sword lands on their head. It might not be entirely realistic with how wide the swings are and how it'll likely never have real grappling due to the highly manual style of controls, but it's more gratifying than any game where canned animations play out and automate most of the moves. The sound design also helps sell the strikes, particularly against full plate armour.

Another one that always felt "right" to me is Bushido Blade. What bothers me in melee combat games a lot is how much punishment a character can take from weapons without flinching. In Bushido Blade people get their limbs disabled, or get one-hit murdered in the face.


And on that note, I hate how Assassin's Creed games went from mostly quick and lethal combat to boring RPGish number beatings. That is the polar opposite of good in melee combat to me.

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