Doubts about the combat system

[Dr. Manhattan]

Hi, I just started playing, arrived at the elven sanctuary with the forge.
I like the game, but I am having a hard time enjoying the fights and how the mobs spawn.
Basically I find the combat system.... dull. I really want to play it but even on hardest difficulty it's still bad. Does it improve, like, does it get harder with stronger opponents or it remains a constant parry simulator? (any breakthrough is welcome)

[Asaiah]

On the surface, just putting a dozen or so hours into the game, it will just feel like very simple combat from 10 plus years ago, and in reality maybe thats all it is but because I really like games from that time period I just excuse the combat.

Some things I really like about the combat is how it expects common sense from you without spoon feeding information. If you try to use a sword on a orc chieftain a tier above you its gonna be a long fight, but its a different story with a hammer that is more effective against armor.

All the weapons have a different combo that responds better depending on the situation and your personal combat style.

On one of these many discussions talking about combat someone described the combat as a form of "pinball" where you can bounce inside a group of enemies from one to the next interrupting them without getting hit yourself - its much easier to play it that way when you are geared at least to the same tier you are in.

So I think there is more here than a lot of people see, but at the end of the day its not a combat system like Elden Ring or something of that nature in that way its simplistic. For me, thats not a bad thing.

Yeah, there are more dangerous things like Trolls and Drakes and such deeper in, and without looking up guides on how to deal with them it can be pretty fun to figure out solo.

[Agarillobob]

the combat is the weakest point of the game

the overall combat is void of current combat standards many games have.
They made some very weird and outdated choices like making armor just like a second healthbar and giving you enemies that have a higher DT then your currently available weapons. You can only deal with entering a new area by using specific weakness weapons until you get the current on tier weapons. especially later on enemy groups will be mixed so you cannot bring 1 weapon to do the job yet it is not clear which enemy is weak to which weapon type unless you see the grey numbers.

You are often hitting the ground beneath an enemy as soon as any incline is introduced. You might be swinging forward at a weak enemy but the game decides to target another enemy 5 meters away and your swing will simply miss because they are too far away and your dwarf will charge into that direction possibly misplacing you into an enemy group. Hitting flying enemies is near impossible sometimes for no apparent reason.

Being able to on the fly switch your armor to basically have infinite health on top of having 8 shields in your hot bar making you virtually invincible.

Dodging gives you a TON of iframes any souls player could only dream of.


The Combat system is shotty, There are no deeper mechanics into the combat system, it feels like a shovelware gen7 game.
The combat system embeds the game as being mediocre. Just good enough to make do but nothing that shines.
I really hope for an end game DLC that overhauls the combat system and world generation.

[Dux_Britanniarum]

I love the combat system.

It is quite simple. But the beauty of that is, its easy to pick up and play. Its also quite realistic... because actually the weapons we are using are pretty basic. Stab. Bonk. Cut. Block. Shoot.

While it is simplistic, there is also plenty of room for nuisance and specialisation. But you need to learn how to do that yourself, there's no rpg system giving you points to make you hit harder. You need to learn which weapons are best against which enemies. Which runes best compliment those weapons. You need to know when to block, when to attack and when to dodge.

I also love the armour. Unlike other games which just reduce the amount of damage you take. Our armour essentially gives us more health in the form of an armour bar. Now that is very old fashioned, but it also means the armour actually feels like armour. You can 'take hits' as long as you've blue armour remaining in your bar. Sometimes when wearing armour that's what you'd do - take hits with it. It will protect you, until it breaks. Then it won't. Pretty realistic to me.

So you're in the elven quarter and you're just starting. I figure then you've got a iron sword and iron axe. Similar but different weapons.

The sword is good for single target damage. the attacks with it do sideways slash, sideways slash, forward stab (which does more damage than the previous two). A sword is good when you are surrounded and you're wanting to do quick attacks but are also trying to focus one target down. slash slash stab...block with your shield. Its charged attack is a single high target damage move.

The axe is similar but all its swipes do the same damage. Its also slower. It does more damage than the sword's slashing, but less than its stab. For a charged attack it does a spin aoe.

As you explore you'll find other weapons. Ones that will take time to learn. But all of them are great and have their own place.

[william_es]

Stop spending time arguing about what it is not, or should be, and just learn how it works.

Repairing is quick and cheap. I literally built repair forges before I knew a fight was coming (soon as I triggered a horde), and learned how to repair during combat. Different weapons are good at different things. Dux above has a really good breakdown.

Also the combat system has a chaining combo system. It reminds me a lot of games like batman arkham. If you do attacks at the right timing, instead of just button mashing as fast as possible, your dwarf will automatically switch targets and bounce back and forth between enemies. Done properly, the enemy can't attack you from behind because you never stop moving. In the beginning of the combos, you're only hitting each target once, and they're left still standing. But as you continue, you get in final blows on them, and they start to drop life flies. I would find myself shouting out "one down, two down, 3rd down". They just start going down like dominos.

[Dr. Manhattan]

Originally posted by william_es:

Stop spending time arguing about what it is not, or should be, and just learn how it works.

Combat feels like it came out a ps1 game, I don't need to understand how something works in order to judge it. I wasn't looking for a souls style, but even a simpler Valheim style could do. This one is simply plain, flat, boring

[Gearhart]

The game generally looks and feels like its about 15 years old, the combat from video i have seen is very basic and simplistic. The game just visually looks bad and outdated.

[Memonkey8me]

Played for 30 hours plus on xbox honestly if the combat was more interesting would probably played alot more,For me I hated the target,lunge at enemy system mostly.