The Art of Combat

Violence is a powerful, terrible thing. In real life we often seek to avoid it however we can, wishing to stay away from brutal, ugly fights and keep things peaceable for as long as possible. In games however, we thrive on it. Violence and combat are key components of many of the most popular games and franchises in history (Final Fantasy, Assassin’s Creed, God of War, Call of Duty, etc. etc.). From RPG’s, to Action games, to FPS’s, to soulslikes we love playing a game where we get to fight some shit. Yet, even with this commonality, the style of violence we see in all of these games vary dramatically. The question then becomes: why? And do those variations work in favor of the game or against them? 

For our purposes here we’re going to look at real-time combat exclusively. I love me a turn based game don’t get me wrong, but the way they approach combat is simply so radically different that it would be an entirely different article to approach that concept (And maybe it will be!).

The Ability Spam: Classically seen in MMO’s like World of Warcraft and ARPG’s like Diablo, here you are given a list of abilities, typically with a cooldown, some type of resource management, most commonly mana, and your goal is to use them in sequence to take down your enemies. There are variations within the system, an ARPG often will rely a bit more on tactical movement given the isometric viewpoint they are often played at, while an MMO like Guild Wars 2 will give you some space to be a bit more reactive, but ultimately the base structure is the same: plan out your abilities, spam them out, profit.. To a certain degree, it becomes a fast-paced spreadsheet operation: If I stack x amount of bonuses and buffs, while my partner applies these debuffs, and then the DPS hits for the maximum amount of damage possible. It’s a style that will highly encourage proper builds, min-maxing of stats and abilities, and a highly granular view of every spell mechanic in the game. This is the style of combat for the true numbers sickos in the world. 

Benefits: Great for pure numbers thinking, allows deep research into getting the exact perfect build, and is quite frankly built for the person who was thrilled when they got more math work in school.

Drawbacks: The making of the build becomes the gameplay, reliance on outside guides as opposed to individual skill, in solo games can lead to super overpowered builds that trivialize gameplay, making the game boring.

The Hack n Slash/1 vs 1000: The hallmark of Koei’s Warriors games, this is the style for pure carnage. In here, you are the ultimate fighter going against a sea of lesser enemies, brutalizing your way through hordes of opponents in the search of an ultimate goal. You don’t really care what the individual enemy is doing and instead you’re going to just lay waste to thousands with a single sweep of your sword/spear/sickle/staff/umbrella/whatever they’re giving to the people in these games these days. We’re not thinking about tactics, we’re not really thinking about clever skills, we want high combo numbers, high damage output, and high casualty counts. Even in the slightly less mindless variants seen in God of War and Bayonetta, this is still a style of combat that is more about you than it is about the enemy. It’s not necessarily reactive, though it can be a little, it’s just about dealing as much death as you can and hoping no one really gets in your way.

Benefits: Can be mindless, great power trip, fun for building up combos and testing how far you can go, great to just have a good time laying waste to things

Drawbacks: Less strategic than most other types, less tactical, more about flash and style than substantive combat, offers less of a severe challenge.

The Soulslike: Dodge roll, dodge roll, dodge roll. Named of course for Fromsoftwares Dark Souls games, sometimes referred to as the Soulsborne style, this is a fast, patter recognition based, very twitchy kind of combat. Here we’re all about knowing what the enemy is going to do before they do it, and planning our actions around it. Every slight twitch, every little sound, the slightest move of a frame, everything is a signal in this style. While the endless dodge rolling nature is sometimes made fun of, the fact is that actually trying to endlessly dodge roll will typically result in your death. This style demands a lot of your focus and attention. Even knowing the correct builds and the facts of the combat will not help if you cannot shape your reactions and your mind around what is happening on your screen. It is unforgiving, it is brutal, but it is oh so sweet when you finally unlock that part of your brain that can function in this world. If you ever wanted to feel like you’ve seen the matrix, you can find that sensation when you embrace a soulslike at its core.

Benefits: Very reactive and twitchy, fun to focus on and react to as its happening, very engaging for those seeking a challenge, really gives you the feeling of being locked in to a fight

Drawbacks: Can be unforgivingly difficult, does not give a lot of leeway or off-ramps for the fights, not many ways to cheat around it if you aren’t feeling it that day, can be seen as unfair 

Freeflow/The Arkham: My personal favorite type of videogame combat, this is where you can truly play a fight that feels like a deadly dance. Seen in the Arkham games, Spider-man, and Shadow of Mordor/War, here you are flying from enemy to enemy, countering blow after blow, striking at the horde around you as you dance between the raindrops, untouched. If you want to know the feeling of being lethal, graceful, and utterly unstoppable this is where you go. While the enemies here are deadly, and their attacks are sure to hurt you if they connect, they are still no match for your deadly dance, let alone the gadgets and secrets you can let fly out at any time. Whether it’s Spider-man's webs, Batman's grapple gun and freeze grenades, or Talion’s focus enhanced bow shots, you are an arsenal waiting to be let loose, turning the enemies blows against themselves as you wait for the perfect swing to finish them off.

Benefits: Smooth, intuitive, and flowing, allows you to take on a horde and both feel engaged with the enemies while still feeling like a superpower above them. They are deadly, sure, but you are deadlier.

Drawbacks: Requires a lot of focus and attention, need to keep track of a lot of moving parts, depends heavily on reaction time and ability, less on prior knowledge of enemies.

Now one I don’t quite know how to get into here is the shooter, and that is only because even within the shooter there is so much variation. While you can have your bog-standard here’s your assault rifle and now walk through a warzone that you can see in Call of Duty, you can also get the fast moving and high intensity thrills of Titanfall 2 or the demon slaying, power shooting, glory killing violent delight that is Doom and Doom Eternal. If you want to get real weird with it you can even dive into Metal: Hellsinger which asks the brave question: what if Doom was a rhythm game? (You should all play Metal: Hellsinger though, seriously). Personally, I prefer the Titanfall style, but that’s moreso because I love a game that lets you move. Maybe some people prefer a more grounded, plodding combat, but quite frankly I don’t go to games for a grounded experience. I want the extremes.

The real question though is: why bother going through all these combat styles? Is it just because I was bored and wanted to talk about video game combat? Well, yes a little bit. It’s my blog, I get to do that. But on a more serious note, it's to engage with what exactly each of these styles of combat is trying to do. Combat is more than just gameplay: it’s story. How you fight tells me who you are as a person. Are you methodical, examining every option, planning out a perfect strategy before fighting? Or are you reactive, flowing from one punch to the next, looking for just one opening to send your enemy to kingdom come in one fell swoop? Each of these styles tells a different story, and it's fun to see both how they engage with the player and the world that they exist in. In real life, violence is brutal, short, and often ugly. A fight is not a pretty thing to witness out on the street. In a game though, it’s an art. It’s a beautiful dance, one that shows not just what you and your opponent can do, but who you are at your core.