The best part aboutcombat in gamesis thatyou get to decide the flow of the fight and how you want to approach it.Whether you want to keep a distance or get up close and personal, you can overcome your enemies however you see fit.
But there’s something undeniably visceral about getting up close and personal with your enemy and pummeling them with your bare hands,a keen blade,or a colossal weapon.
10 FPS Games With Unique Mechanics
Move over, Call of Duty.
A good melee combat mechanicdelivers punchy and satisfying feedback to each strike and allows for more agility to dodge and counter enemy attacks.
With that in mind, we’ll be ranking games based onhow well their melee combat compares to their gunplay or sorcery.
13The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Have At Thee!
Memes and constant jokes aboutconstant remasteringaside,Skyrimis one of the most iconic sword andsorceryfantasy RPGs. It has a healthy balance of ways the Dragonborn can deal death, whether it’s through swords, archery, or magic.
The melee combat might not be as exhilarating or stylish as DMC5 or soulsborne games, and can be easily written off as overly simplistic, but it’s undeniably solid. Think ofSkyrimas a Honda Civic: it’s basic, sure, but it’sa vessel for you to modify and upgrade to become almost entirely its own thing.
Granted, it might be a little cheating since Skyrim’s melee combat is best enjoyed when youenhance it with mods, but it still deserves a spot on this list for its versatility.
12NieR: Automata
A Dance Of Death
NieR: Automata
Fextralife Wiki
On top of having an amazing soundtrack and atearjerkerof a story,NieR: Automatahas some of the best combat in gaming and is arguably the besthack-and-slash.You can seamlessly chain combos between weapons, and there’s so much variety that you can experiment on how to deal insane amounts of damage to your foes.
Not only do our favorite YorHa androids come equipped with some deadly weaponry, they are also accompanied by Pod companions that can maintain continuous fire at the enemy along with charged attacks, though they deal negligible damage on their own and are there to only supplement the melee combat.
While it’s tempting to rank this higher on the list due to its masterful gameplay,NieR: Automatais a melee-focused gameat the end of the day.
11Marvel Rivals
Massive Superhero Brawl
Marvel Rivals
While every Hero inMarvel Rivalshas a melee attack, not all of them specialize in punching the enemy in the face.
But the ones who do are absolute menaces on the battlefield. Mostmelee heroes, specifically Duelists, are monsters at assaulting the backline. You wouldn’t want to be caught by a LordSpider-Manwith the classicthwip-thwipuppercut combo, or kidnapped by aWolverineand thrown into the enemy team.
Most recently, we also haveEmma Frost,whose Diamond Form in her hybrid kit makes heran unstoppable force as she choke slams any squishy enemy into oblivion.
While melee combat inMarvel Rivalsis a little simplistic compared to the others on this list, it no doubt offers a viable playstyle for anybody looking to throw down in a good scrap.
10Sleeping Dogs
Woah, I Know Kung Fu!
Sleeping Dogs
As a cop, Wei Shen can use guns and police gadgets to subdue his foes, but where’s the fun in that when you can just beat your enemies to a pulp amidst the beautiful,neon-drenched streets of Hong Kong?
Sleeping Dogsperfectly capturesthe brutality of a classic John Woo film, where you can beat up bad guys with a mix ofkung fu and street fighting. The combat mechanics are incredibly intuitive and allow you to fight several enemies at a time through a third-person perspective.
You can block, dodge, and counter enemies that resemble a precursor to the kind of seamless melee combat we see inSifu.You can also execute some savage environmental takedowns that probably cause permanent damage in real life.
9Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands
Swords, Guns, And Sorcery
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands
As a looter-shooter and one of thebest single-player shooters, theBorderlandsserieshas always touted that it has billions of guns that you can shoot, and while most of thosegames are built with gunplay in mind,Tiny Tina’s Wonderlandsplaces melee combat a little bit more to the forefront than its predecessors.
As aspin-offof theBorderlands 2DLCTiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep,Tiny Tina’s Wonderlandsis heavily inspired by TTRPGs like Dungeons and Dragons, and allows you tofully customize your Fatemakerinstead of a fully fleshed-out Vault Hunter.
Not only can you pick and choose what kinds ofstrange weaponstheFatemakercan use, but certain classes can be melee-focused, like the Brr-zerker or Stabbo-mancer, whose abilities turn them into deadly whirlwinds of blades. With a wide selection of melee weapons to use, you can blow up, melt, immolate, and freeze your enemies with powerful strikes and ground slams.
8Risk Of Rain 2
High Risk, High Reward
Risk of Rain 2
Risk of Rain 2is aroguelikethird-person shooterthat gets exponentially harder the longer you stay in the alien world, as your enemies eventually overwhelm you with a rain of projectiles in a bullet-hell fashion, or hordes of unstoppable enemies. It’s probably one of thebest 3D roguelikesin recent memory.
You can control one of 17 playable Survivors whose abilities vastly differ from each other. While most focus on gunplay and their unique abilities, some Survivors have built-in melee abilities.
Mercenary is the best Survivor for amelee-focused build,as his abilities are reminiscent of hack-and-slash mechanics, most notably like Vergil from theDevil May Cryseries due to his flashy moves.
Mercenary also comes with adouble jump and multiple dashes, which makes him a really mobile character to play as. Not only that, but you’re able to abuse his “Expose” debuff and i-frames from certain moves to pull through with his inherently high-risk, high-reward playstyle.
7Mega Man ZX
Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection
There’s something special aboutMega Man Zeroand its spiritual successors, ZX and Advent. It’s a fresh and new take on the classicMega Man franchise,andperfectly marries Zero and X’s combat styles together.
While Advent is the most recent entry in this particular series, and the Zero series is very much a classic in the franchise,ZX probably has some of the best melee combat to date.
8 Combat Heavy Games With A Pacifist Option
Break the cycle of violence, or something.
Now let’s not get too hasty here–I’m not going to knock Mega Man Zero’s melee combat, but ZX distills the move set of all four games into not just Model ZX, but also OX, a version of Omega from the Zero games whose moveset you copy after beating him in a secret boss fight.
Model OX elevates your classic Z-saber movesto a much more varied moveset reminiscent of Zero’s in his quadrilogy.
It’s a very special kind of satisfying to be able to cut through Mavericks like butter with the Z-Saber, slowing down the frames with each successful critical hit with your spinning attack.
6Monster Hunter Wilds
The Hunted Becomes The Hunter
Monster Hunter Wilds
Hunting down monsters requires equally monstrous weapons, andMonster Hunterdelivers by providinga variety that supplements your playstyle. While some Hunters might prefer raining fire with a bowgun or abow,most prefer the more personal touch of melee combat.
It’s no surprise thatMonster Hunterhas some of the best melee combat in gaming. Unlike other action RPGs where dodges and quick attacks make you feel untouchable,the flow of combat varies depending on the weapons you use.you’re able to zip around in the air with an insect glaive, or charge a powerful attack with a greatsword.
Monster Hunter Wildseven lets your playstyle be much more versatile with the added feature of equipping two weapons simultaneously.
The melee combat inMonster Hunterfeels grounded and methodical, though one might argue thatit feels like you’re wading through molasses.It’s a different kind of satisfaction that you would get from typical hack-and-slash games, where you feel like you’re constantly struggling to survive a monster’s onslaught.
Become A Walking Blender
Warframehas a really simple combat mechanic: take advantage of damage weaknesses and kill hordes of enemies without even batting an eye, spamming the same melee attack and turning into a mobile, ninja-shapedblender rocking an stylish skin.
The way Warframe works makes killing tons of Grineer, Corpus, and Infected really easy, adding to the fantasy as aliving weapon. You either deal tons of damage and shred through enemies, or they shred through you. Simple as that.
There’s also a ton of melee options to choose from, as well as guns.Sure, you can spray and pray with theawesome Soma Prime that you crafted,but why do that when you have a ton of melee weapons to slice and dice with, like dual Kamas, or the ever-classic Nikana?
Certain warframes can also summon Exalted weapons–which are their unique personal weapons–and hack through enemies like paper. As one of the three starter Warframes,Excalibur is an amazing beginner Warframeif you’re looking to not only shoot, but also slice enemies into ribbons.
4Ghost of Tsushima
Stand And Fight!
Ghost of Tsushima
Ghost of Tsushimabalances stealth and high-intensity sword combat perfectly in an impressiveopen worldwithstriking vistas, and almostsinglehandedly revitalized pop culture’s interest in samurais.
While you can sneak around and take down enemies with assassinations, archery, and gadgets,the main appeal behind the game has always been thesword combat,which you might have to resort to when enemies catch you out of stealth.
Alternatively, you can also choose to confront them head-on by calling them out to a standoff, or face boss-like enemies in duelsthat strongly evoke Akira Kurosawa’s films. You can even raise the stakes by playing onLethal difficulty,which makes everything, including you, go down in a few strikes, and forces you topay more attention to technique rather than blindly swinging your sword.
The melee combat is deceptively straightforward and robust, andhas a poise mechanic that allows you to whittle down to make enemies vulnerable to attacks.Some enemies, depending on the weapon they wield, are also weak to certain stances, like shield enemies being weak to the water stance.
