Author Topic: Your favorite combat in a video game?  (Read 3721 times)

Septipheran

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Your favorite combat in a video game?
« on: January 18, 2013, 07:24:44 PM »
I started playing The Force Unleashed 2 today and the combat in this game is ridiculously fun. The original had sort of clunky controls on the PC but the second one is so refined in my opinion. I rebound my force attacks to my numbered keys, my block to shift and force sprint to one of my side mouse buttons. It feels like a Champions Online/DCUO hybrid, without the awkward UI hurdles of the latter. It's making me wish so badly that The Old Republic had this kind of combat, I can't get enough of it.

I'm curious as to what game's combat systems other people here are fond of. I know a lot of COH players don't tend to dig the more active "twitch" gameplay, and in a lot of cases I feel that way too, but it's such a breath of fresh air to me to see it done right.

Mysterious J

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Re: Your favorite combat in a video game?
« Reply #1 on: January 18, 2013, 08:17:47 PM »
At the moment I'm pretty fond of combat in GW2... it's just complicated enough to reward thinking ahead and practice, while being simple enough that even somebody with pretty hopeless reflexes like me doesn't get completely pasted.  It also has a pretty wide variety of combat mechanics, and you can tailor your character (or at least select your profession) to match what ones you find fun and interesting.

JaguarX

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Re: Your favorite combat in a video game?
« Reply #2 on: January 18, 2013, 09:24:26 PM »
I like Champions's Online combat system.

Septipheran

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Re: Your favorite combat in a video game?
« Reply #3 on: January 18, 2013, 10:52:24 PM »
I like Champions's Online combat system.

I do too. Does GW2's combat work like Champions jamused? I don't know much about that game other than that it's a fantasy theme and it's owned by NCSoft. >.>

TimtheEnchanter

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Re: Your favorite combat in a video game?
« Reply #4 on: January 19, 2013, 12:09:38 AM »
Wow... umm... loaded question? Especially for no specific genre.

Septipheran

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Re: Your favorite combat in a video game?
« Reply #5 on: January 19, 2013, 12:29:13 AM »
Wow... umm... loaded question? Especially for no specific genre.

lol there's clearly no right or wrong. Just a general preference.  :) Feel free to be specific if you want though. I guess I just don't like a wide enough genre of games or something- the last shooter I played was Golden Eye and most traditional MMO combat is generally the same. So for me personally that just leaves the different takes on action based combat. Shrug.

pewlagon

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Re: Your favorite combat in a video game?
« Reply #6 on: January 19, 2013, 12:29:43 AM »
I dislike how Block works in Champions and its necessity. I would rather block be passive or automatic. Keeping track of Offense and Push Button Power ups should be enough. Tera Online and GW2 do combat exceptionally well.

Electric-Knight

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Re: Your favorite combat in a video game?
« Reply #7 on: January 19, 2013, 01:33:46 AM »
Die By the Sword (1995, I believe), using the full VSIM keyboard controls.
Favorite. Ever.
I have a long-winded tirade to launch into about that game, how much I enjoyed the combat controls and how it failed to catch on and stuff... but I'll just leave it at that for now.
Ah... hell... I can't... just to explain...
You used the WASD movement controls with your left hand...
But your right hand used the numpad keys to control your sword arm - 4 swung the sword across your body to the left and 6 swung it out to the right; the distance of that movement was controlled by whether you tapped or held down on those keys. 7-9 was high left-right, 4-6 was mid left-right, 1-3 was low left-right; the numpad ENTER key held your blade stiff for parrying (in any and all the directions as you controlled attacks), the 0 key extended your sword arm out farther.
The game's engine was made to calculate momentum physics - the damage inflicted was modified by the arc and speed of your swing and any additional movement you may have been performing during it (running, spinning, jumping, stepping into it, etc.).
Body locations were also a factor and damage and loss of limb(s) (and heads) were a factor.

An example of the fun I had with it:
Playing in a one on one death match with a friend (two friends who were at the same house, taking turns being killed by me, actually)...
They called me on the phone and we were laughing and whatnot... then the one guy started talking smack and being all silly about how he was going to beat me this time... And I very calmly stated to him, "I am going to cut off your head" and hung up.

Into the game we went... he came barreling towards me like a maniac... I side-stepped (also moving forward slightly... adjusting the height of my blade) and, with one clean swing, I sent my friend's head rolling upon the ground as his body collapsed.

Great times! :D

(I mostly enjoyed actually playing through the single player game too)
Die By The Sword (and its add on expansion Limb From Limb)!!
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Mysterious J

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Re: Your favorite combat in a video game?
« Reply #8 on: January 19, 2013, 03:43:28 AM »
I do too. Does GW2's combat work like Champions jamused? I don't know much about that game other than that it's a fantasy theme and it's owned by NCSoft. >.>

It's been a bit since I played CO, but I'd say the combat's aren't very similar...though they're both more dynamic than CoX, in that they let you run and gun.  In Champions, iirc, you are nursing your end bar.. you start with a certain baseline, some things cost more end (and the more powerful, the more end), you recover at a certain rate based on your stats, and you have an Energy Builder attack that also gives you end; you have a block button that you can hold to block and reduces incoming damage, but prevents you attacking.  Badguys have warnings that pop up when you are going to need to block because they're building a big attack.  Various powers require holding down the keys for different lengths of time (either to build and release, or continuous fire).

In GW2, by and large cooldowns are the only thing you are monitoring...except for Rogues' special initiative mechanic and dodging, there's not really "this power costs this to activate".  But most powers are situational: you aren't trying to figure out the right order for the best DPS, you are waiting for the right time to activate a particular power.  E.g. if you have a power that reflects ranged damage, you're looking for some ranged attacker to be about to take a shot at you. If you have a power that makes you immune to damage for three seconds, you're waiting to see an enemy go into an animation indicating a big strike is coming, or to attack an enemy that you know responds with something nasty as its opening attack. If you have a power that damages the enemy and grants you and your allies a certain number of seconds of magic armor if you fire it across an area where somebody has laid down an AoE debuff field, you're looking to use that when you see such a field and against a target that will trigger it.  Etc.  Everybody can dodge, which is activated by double-tapping a direction (or assigning a key) which makes you immune to damage for a brief time, like a couple seconds.  It's all very timing depending, without actually being twitchy; situational awareness is much more important than good reflexes.  Many powers have either chains, where the have different effects on the first, second and sometimes even third time you use them in a certain span, or combos where they have additional effects depending on what powers you or other players have put into play during the battle (generally by laying down fields or walls).

Add to that most professions can swap their powers in combat (either by swapping back and forth between equipped weapons, or elemental attunements, or gadget "kits", or entering special modes), usually with a certain cooldown, you can really come up with a play-style that suits your strengths and preferences.  E.g. if I play a warrior, I really like to be armed with Greatsword and either Bow (for AoE) or Rifle (for single target), because the Greatsword has three attacks that either let you hit at range, close range, or carve a path through the enemies while granting temporary immunity to damage.  During combat I never go toe-to-toe, constantly charging in, smacking, barreling out, swapping to ranged and laying down fire or knocking charging attackers the hell away (rifle butt to the face), then swapping back and charging in again.  Other players, or me at different times, could instead equip Sword and Shield, for better close in fighting and ways to block and knock down, or something like Axe and Horn more buffs and debuffs to apply to enemies.  You can change these out any time you're not in combat, so you're never locked into a particular style of play and can switch things up depending on what kind of enemies you are going to be facing.

It sounds complex, and it is a bit, but at any given time you only have at most ten powers to worry about: 1-5 are determined by your equipped weapon(s), 6 is a self-heal (the mechanics of which you can change by picking alternative healing powers as you level up), 7-9 are skills that you acquire as you level (and you can swap out between combat), and 0 is an "Elite" skill that you can choose based on your race and/or profession when you get to a high enough level.  You don't have trays and trays of different powers, at least not all at once.  You also get to choose traits as you level that act like CoX set bonuses divorced from the enhancements (e.g. a Warrior can specialize in traits that do things like, say, grant additional damage if using a Greatsword, or 20% less cooldown on Axe skills), but most (all?) of those are static bonuses... you end up picking them to enhance the things that you like doing best, not as additional decisions you have to worry about while playing.
« Last Edit: January 19, 2013, 03:48:29 AM by jamused »

Feycat

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Re: Your favorite combat in a video game?
« Reply #9 on: January 19, 2013, 05:40:38 AM »
I'm on jamused's bus. GW2's combat is extremely fun, active and "crunchy" - it really feels like you're hitting things impactfully. It's very hard to go back to other games with static combat (push button, wait for global cooldown, wait for power cooldown, monitor end/mana to know how many times you can push button - stand still and let tank taunt the guy) without growing bored and frustrated.

houtex

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Re: Your favorite combat in a video game?
« Reply #10 on: January 19, 2013, 05:52:10 AM »
I was fond of the Mortal Kombat series combat.  It was fun to watch a master doing it.

Also, Mike Tyson's Punch Out was pretty cool too.

Adelante

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Re: Your favorite combat in a video game?
« Reply #11 on: January 19, 2013, 06:26:18 AM »
I can't believe someone else remembers Die By the Sword.  That game was freaking epic.  Loved it so much.


Mister Bison

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Re: Your favorite combat in a video game?
« Reply #12 on: January 19, 2013, 08:14:52 AM »
I started playing The Force Unleashed 2 today and the combat in this game is ridiculously fun. The original had sort of clunky controls on the PC but the second one is so refined in my opinion. I rebound my force attacks to my numbered keys, my block to shift and force sprint to one of my side mouse buttons. It feels like a Champions Online/DCUO hybrid, without the awkward UI hurdles of the latter. It's making me wish so badly that The Old Republic had this kind of combat, I can't get enough of it.
From what I saw, Tera is this turned MMO.

I'm curious as to what game's combat systems other people here are fond of. I know a lot of COH players don't tend to dig the more active "twitch" gameplay, and in a lot of cases I feel that way too, but it's such a breath of fresh air to me to see it done right.
"Twitch" gameplay has its ups and down for me. I like how I can just relax and mash the buttons at times, but then it goes all "if you miss timing by a split second, you die" in the upper levels and it becomes frustating. Or in the case of The Force Unleashed (the first), "boss is very vulnerable only to this attack" then it becomes a spam fest (and frustrating when you discover the previous boss would have been easier if you had discovered the move he was vulnerable to). I disliked DCUO because it was half-assed twitch, that didn't have all the spark it could have had, especially because the controls are not responsive enough. And seriously, you don't need combination of moves before doing any other move, it's just silly. Or was I spoiled by City of Heroes ? (Momentum actually had justification, but in DCUO, do I have to puch 4 times to have a knockout blow ? seriously ?)
Yeeessss....

FlyingCarcass

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Re: Your favorite combat in a video game?
« Reply #13 on: January 19, 2013, 08:43:37 PM »
I'm rather fond of Blazblue and Guilty Gear's combat at the moment.

Electric-Knight

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Re: Your favorite combat in a video game?
« Reply #14 on: January 19, 2013, 08:44:19 PM »
I can't believe someone else remembers Die By the Sword.  That game was freaking epic.  Loved it so much.

YES!!!! So nice to see someone else know it. I actually have it installed (I always install it on my new machines, hehe).
Haven't played it in a while, but I'd just been thinking I would fire it up soon.
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Kaiser Tarantula

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Re: Your favorite combat in a video game?
« Reply #15 on: January 20, 2013, 12:50:58 AM »
There's a lot of games that have combat systems I enjoy, so much so that it's really hard to pick a favorite.

Right now, though, I'm really enjoying the combat in Dungeon Fighter Online.  It's a little bit Golden Axe, a little bit Final Fight, and a little bit Street Fighter, with just enough over-the-top awesome stuff at higher levels to make you feel like an absolute badass when you pull them off.  It's got its BS at times (especially in PvP, or against APC enemies that [loosely] mimic player characters), like near-inifinite juggle combos or attacks that you really just don't have any way of responding to without split-second reflexes, but by-and-large it's really fun.

It's very twitch-based though, so I cannot recommend it to someone who has issues with that.  Fortunately, the game's sprite-based and doesn't use 3D for anything but certain special effects, so even really crappy computers can run it smoothly.  My computer's a dinosaur that barely ran CoH slightly above the minimum settings (and doesn't run Champions Online at anything higher than the absolute minimum), and it runs DFO pretty silky.

The Fifth Horseman

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Re: Your favorite combat in a video game?
« Reply #16 on: January 21, 2013, 01:04:32 AM »
SRT OG: Endless Frontier, due to the way you charge and execute special attacks. First you have a (customizable) attack chain. Once the chain starts, you can interrupt the moves at specific points before they finish to progress down the chain and charge up your special meter (which then you can use to fire the special and finish your attack).
It's fairly simple, but requires some basic sense of rhythm and attention to visual cues. Works great even for someone who's completely klutz at normal fighter games.
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Re: Your favorite combat in a video game?
« Reply #17 on: January 21, 2013, 01:41:41 AM »
I'll limit my reply to MMOs (except for saying my favorite FPS combat was in Soldier of Fortune II...) because...um...I want to.

My all-time favorite MMO combat was in Fallen Earth. FE was the first MMO I played that offered my personal combat Holy Grail: reticule targeting in an MMO. About the only complaint I had with their execution of this was that rifle ranges were too short (by a pretty big amount). They were, apparently, kind of stuck with the short ranges because extending them would have required a LOT more computations..and they were already pushing their engine very hard indeed just to permit reticule targeting at all. But aside from that complaint, I loved it. An MMO, with an MMO's depth of character build as it pertains to combat effectiveness...with real aiming. Bliss.

Ran well, too, at least in its final form as an in-house game (didn't really survive the port to a different server architecture once it got bought by G1). It only had lag/latancy issues when things got really crowded in a small geographical area.

There were a lot of things I loved about that game (one of the two most immersive MMOs I've ever played, for one), and the combat system was definitely one of them.