I encountered many threads talking about things like 'please I want this weapon', 'I want this attack', 'i want this combo attack'. While some people have a big desire to have these various features what I want to discuss is the actual combat mechanics, from the animation system to the physics system to the feel of dualing, parrying, blocking and attacking: The actual gameplay in combat.

To me the 2 best game combat systems I've ever experienced are Mount and Blade, and Dark messiah might and magic. The former game had the incredible directional manual blocking and directional attacking system based on which way you angled your mouse view when you attacked and your opponent had to then block that direction (like you would in a real life fight) or counter attack and/or use movement to evade. To me this is the greatest system thus far in gaming for combat but the flaws were the animations of the game are stiff, the physics are pretty much non-existent. Then comes Dark Messiah a game with excellent physics, animation and a great feel to combat. Knock backs or reaction to enemies being hit are probably the best feature. When you smash someone with a sword you can see them recoil from the attack and it truly feels like you are in a battle. The problem was this system didn't have the precision and detail of the mount and blade directional block and attack system.

Combining these 2 game combat systems into one would be ultimate combat system I think. It would feel extremely engaging, fun and skillful as oppose to 95% of game combat systems out there today (especially on console).

Now enter skyrim, the good news is that interviews and videos show there is this same knock back system in dark messiah so it does seem to feel a little better because of that but of course this directional block and attack system is not there. My guess for this is that such a system would be too hard to complex for casual game players, especially those players on console which are used to less aiming and more button mashing to win. Despite this I think it would still work well even on console and controllers and it would be incredible on pc with a mouse and a keyboard.

As it stands skyrim's combat to me seems superior to oblivion's stiff system (which was still far superior to morrowind's horrid dice roll system) but I feel they need to utilize the physics based system in Dark messiah more. How about knocking down an opponent and then have them get up and fight back? How about using the environment to your advantage with physics based attacks such as hitting objects at the opponent. The funny thing about all of this is the studio that made Dark Messiah was bought by bethesda but they are working on another game (dishonored). I wonder if they had any hand in developing the current skyrim combat system.

What do you think of Skyrim's combat in its current state based on what we have seen?

Never played M&B, but loved Dark Messiah. c:
So it's #3 for me.