They can, and they sure get some awesome finishers to counter, the only problem I see with the 2-handed system is that the attacks are pretty straightforwards and generally very slow. Well, that′s supposed to be like that, but it could use a bit more variety. I think one of the first things the modders will do is simply to add some more attacks. That should fix 2-handed.

Dual wielding feels unfinished for me for example there only one type of power attack and no parry,
In most of other aspects its much better then vanilla Oblivion combat and actually feels like modded version of Oblivion combat with better animations.

The next time I encounter a particulary strong, sword using enemy, I′ll save and fire up fraps to record the fight.
I′ll post the results here.

I greatly enjoy the shield combat in this game. It's tactical and dynamic, and doesn't feel clunky at all to me. Dual wield is not as engaging, though, since it's just about killing quickly and moving away from power attacks. Just button mashing, basically. But 1H+shield is super fun for me.

I don't though. I'm just talking about how people seem to always go right to God of War when talking about combat in games, as if GoW's gameplay is at all good.

I dislike the fact they have removed shield, sword AND magic in one go. I miss casting a cheeky spell while still in combat with my sword in one hand and shield in the other, switching is a pain. And words can not express how much i hate the critical finishes. The slow-mo finishing moves i feel are unneccesary and don't really add anything to my game, however others may like it because it looks cool. But other than that it is not a whole lot different to other ES combat; dodge, block, swing, cast spell...it looks much better through, but i would expect that as an absolute minimum given that last ES game was 6 years ago.

What the... how do you NOT like the finishers? They add depth to the combat, make it more realistic AND look amazing. They have no downside at all. There is absolutely no reason to hate them in my opinion.
Actually it is the only logical step to remove the additional spell, it′s just unrealistic. You cast the spell out of your hands, not of your bellybutton.
Also what do you expect from a sword fight except hitting, stabbing, dodging, blocking, and cutting other peoples heads off? That′s what swordfights are all about.

The finishes are realistic? When you punch someone does the world slow down around you? Didn't think so. As i said others may like them but i dont simply because all it is is flashy and slows comabt in the game. I want to move onto killing the next bad guy, not spend time watching a finish on the one i have already taken down. If it is any consolation i dislike the slow action in other games too.

Again witht he realism in casting spells? I would like to point out we are in a world with magic and Dragons...what's is wrong with wanting to cast a spell and swing my sword at the same time?

As for the fighting, well i did say it was similar in all TES games, i did not say this was a bad thing, but you seem to be under the impression Skyrim is the only game with this 'amazing' comabt system. A block has been a blockhas been a block in Morrowind and Oblivion too.

It only really gets interesting to me is when there are multiple enemys, which is when it gets tactical, so not due to the combat mechanic itself.
With 1H+Shield+Light Armor you picked the combination where it plays best though, in my experience that is.
You still take some damage because you dont wear Heavy and have to use the skills you have to some extend (both, your personal ones and that of your character) . Also it plays much more intensive with that combination.
Sadly if you pick up good gear and the right/wrong skills or just alteration magic or shouts it already gets boring again, even with this "best" setup you have.
Playing this game with all of the above I dont even want to imagine.
The difficulty seems to be adjusted so you can win without any clue what you are doing by just hacking and slashing and gets to easy as soon as you know how it works a bit.
On higher difficultys it dosent get much better since its just stat changes which just prolong the fights most of the time.
More enemys and/or enemys with more powers would have been much much better.

No actually not. In morrowind a hit was a miss and in oblivion a stab was a swing. Skyrims combat IS amazing compared with every previous ES game.


Matter of taste I guess, no argument needed. That′s why we game on PC isn′t it?



Shall I be a smarta??? Yes, it does, at least it COULD happen, if you are under extreme stress, and I think fighting a Dragon is quite stressful so...
Of course this does NOT usually happen, but it′s a great effect and makes everything so much cooler.
By realism I mean the additional moves that you get to experience, and btw, most of the finishers are in first person and as quick as a regular hit, so you don′t lose any time at all.

1/10

It's not so much "good" as it is well done fluidity wise for a hack and slasher. The boss engagement by button sequencing is what I refer to. I look at 90% of the games and I have rarely if ever felt that combat was/is fluid. I mean chaining movements works but its always hard to get realistic grab/attack angles to be relative to where an enemy is and all that. (like side grabbing a person for a behind throat slit kind of thing). To me it has never been done to a point where I am truly satisfied but it seems to be one of the hardest things to do because of variables.

It is a very similar system, it just looks better. You can stab or swing in Oblivion too depending on the weapon, plus if you want realism the Morrowind was more realistic. At low levels you could actually swing your sword and miss the target. That didn't happen once you mastered you chosen skill and practiced. Again, these games are very old now, Skyrim should indeed be awesome, it has had enough time to become so.




I can honestly say in the 12 years i have been performing martial arts the world has never slow-mo-ed around me no matter how many hits to the head i have taken. As for the experience- I just want to get into the next fight and take down the other bandit in the group who is kicking my ass, i dont want to have to watch a mini-cut scene finishing off the pervious guy. I know it doesn't take any time out of the world or combat but it is taking 'me' out of the combat situation. Finishing moves are for Mortal Kombat or something like Bayonetta, not an ES rpg. But that is just a personal preference. It may have been nice if there was perhaps an option to to turn this feature off?

It's alright.

Melee combat is a messy hassle. It feels better than the Oblivion cookiecutter block-hit-hit-block-hit-hit tedium, but it still feels messy and loose.

Skyrim's combat is infintely better then Oblivion or it's predecessors.

And it became. Just read my initial post, Skyrim′s combat system can be GREAT.




Sorry but, just no. Morrowinds combat system was the worst ever to see the light of day. Don′t mistake me here, I love Morrowind, but the combat was certainly not it′s strong point. It is NOT realistic at all to miss a target standing directly in front of you with a double-handed sword.
Even worse, you missed them when you could see the sword was physically hitting them.



You know, I was joking. Of course this doesn′t happen in training fights, it happens in close-to-death-fast-reaction-is-needed-situations. Such as explosions. Or a sudden fire.


I say this is a matter of taste. There sure will be mods to turn off finishers along with other combat improvement mods. For me, they add realism and immersion as I perform more moves that simple hacks and slashs just like an IRL swordfighter might do. And it gives you a short break filled with awesomeness to take on the next enemy.
Actually, the finishers go off almost every time at either the last or the strongest enemy of a group for me, so it doesn′t break the action at all.
Let′s just be happy that we′ll be able to fully customize our games, so they′ll fit our personal preferences!

...for instance, I hate mortal combat.

@Vincent:

As far as slow-mo goes, when I played football for Freshman/JV in highschool time never slowed down except the time I had the wind knocked out of me and paused before running again. Mostly it ended up being reaction without thinking and then looking back reflectively and it's always more of a blurr than anything else.

I really enjoyed the combat but I thought it suffers a bit from the same problem as basically all RPGs, at the late levels fights last a little too long because everyone has so much health.

i feel TES combat system is clunky in general, but then it doesn't get in the way much. im fine with it i guess

seriously, the combat in skyrim is barely any different form oblivions.

go play dark messiah on the pc and experiance a real 1st person melee combat experience.

i was hoping having arkane studios in the house would allow them to make some proper changes, guess they didnt want them to touch their game, oh well

I disagree.

In my opinion, the combat is boring as gently caress.

I never missed enemies once my character improved in Morrowind. Early on when my level was low i missed but the graphics wern't exactly great in the game so the fuzzy-nes can make it hard to tell. I play on Xbox not PC so no mods in any of the games. Once i got to an awesome level in Morrowind i pretty much one shotted most targets in a single swing or stab. On occasion it would appear not to connect but the target still went down or the health depleeted so that is more poor graphics side of it. Pretty much the only difference in combat between Oblivion and Skyrim is dual weilding, bashes and slow finishes. The basics of combat were there before so i still don't see why alot are considering Skyrim more epic, in other areas maybe it is, but combat isn't a whole lot different.

Mostly its better than Oblivions but still has a lot of major flaws. The only working melee tactic with my battlemage is cast, hit-run, hit-run, hit-run, cast, hit-run until it dies. Blocking is seriously needed for all styles and it needs to feel less messy and clunky.