Directional attacks with realistic weight behind them plus having to actually block hits for fear of dying can make simple hack and slash combat extremely satisfying and intense. That's what Bethesda should have worked on going from Oblivion to Skyrim. Instead it just feels like they tried to mask the fact that the combat mechanics haven't really improved by adding dual wielding and finishers.

My opinion of combat in Skyrim?

Excellent.

I'm not so sure in dual casting without having spellmaking. I'd rather be able to dual caste a double spell.

Is pointing and clicking any different than combat in, well, anything else?

I mean, there's ability combat, but that would totally svck for a single-player IMO.

Thus, point-and-shoot (or swing) is really the only option.

And I like it. The depth comes not from the base combat, but from the various methods:

-Running around to not get hit

-Blocking

-Spells and enchantments

-Sneaking

-Archery and aiming with it

Most criticisms of Skyrim's combat seem to come about as a result of severe overthinking.

Well of course, if you give yourself a two-hander and heavy armor.

Trying to take down a dragon with crappy combat skills and a dagger is not a mindless slug fest. Nor is it easy.

I don't know about you, but I think most of us aren't on a $5000 gaming computer that could actually run all the possible wounds and what stuff is there and etc. I certainly am not.

And ever been Fus-Ro-Dah'ed successfully by a Draugr Deathlord? Because that seemed very stunlike to me.

If they keep it in the next installment I hope they damn fix it. It's bugged as hell in Skyrim. Missing an enemy 2 feet away from you while aiming exactly in the middle of his torso and then kill cam getting jagged, shaking and looking at the ground which ultimatively causes the arrow to go through the enemy, for whatever reason, is no fun. Just as it isn't fun when I get caught in a kill cam by an enemy standing 10 feet away by teleporting in front of me, without any warning and no given chance to dodge or block the damn attack.

Yeah, that's not easy because it's stupid, as much as attacking an armed officer with a fork would be.

Sounds like someone hasn't played a game with directional attacks.

Right, because an assassin's never wanted to kill a dragon before.

Actually, I have. I like Skyrim combat better.

Sure, but using a dagger against a naturaly heavily armored aerial giant that breathes napalm is like attacking a tank with a toothpick and a box of bangers with both legs cut off, which is still unfair comparison as tank is not horribly agile.

If you had, you wouldn't be implying that pointing and clicking is all you can do in a game with melee combat.

Yay, I can point and click in a different direction. Still pointing and clicking.

More evolved and more fun than Oblivion, but there is room for improvement.

Things I like:

1. You can interrupt an opponent's powerattack by bashing him. This means you have to watch what your opponent is doing and react accordingly. Player involvement = fun combat!

2. It's possible to Dodge certain attacks by using appropiate foodwork. Dwemer spheres and Giants are two good examples. If you start circling a dwemer sphere when it is about to do its charge attack you can position yourself at its back and land a couple of free hits. Similar with giants: if you sprint towards them when they are doing their overhead smash you can reach their back without getting hit. Then you can retaliate. Again, having to pay attention to your opponent = player involvement = fun combat.

3. Fights against mages have improved substantially thanks to wards. Now you can finally block spells (pity you can deflect/reflect them though)

Things I don't like:

1. High level enemies still are health sponges. Bethesda still thinks that more HP = more difficult. Wrong, wrong, wrong!

2. There are no collissions whatsoever. Weapons clip through opponents, walls etc. as if they were holograms. On top of that, opponents don't react when getting hit. Nothing breaks immersion like an archer happily firing arrows at you as you are pummeling him with a warhammer. Mages also love to keep casting flames at you as you are hitting them again and again with your sword. It looks so incredibly fake that it hurts.

This is why almost all my characters are some form of battlemage. My current character uses a one-handed weapon, a shield, a bow, restoration, and alteration. Having many options adds variety to combat and being able to block makes it more enjoyable in my opinion. I start combat off with a flesh spell then I take out my shield and bash my enemy, get some attacks off, then block their attack. If I need to attack from afar I use my bow, and if I need to heal or block magic attacks I use restoration. When I get paralysis it will add some crowd control for when I'm attacked by many enemies.

I do think that adding more weapon techniques would be very interesting. I feel like Elder Scrolls could could take a page from Legend of Zelda's book. Twilight Princess had all those special moves you could learn. Maybe have enemies that have certain weak spots. In the Dragonborn DLC you had to open that one door by attacking with the Bloodskaal Blade in a certain direction; this could be applied to enemies.

Well, I used mods to quadruple all the damage and it made the game a lot more interesting, that's for sure.

...or a sword and shield, or a dagger and shield, or dual wielding daggers, and any of these with light armor. Crappy combat skills and a dagger just means tedious, so yes it isn't easy but still a slugfest just taking longer. Also pointless to do barring a specific roleplaying concept.

The most effective combat systems are simple to use and are natural to remember

Call of Duty is an example of 1PS. The most natural and syplistic layout yet the most effective

Gotham Racing for racing (which went on to be used in so many other racing games such as GTA IV & V)

Skyrim is the most natural medieval (fantasy) style of combat. A few tweeks could improve it minorly but if the complicate it to a completely different system it would loose it's path to perfection

Has anyone here played Dark Souls?

With the impact perk, dual casting makes them stagger (continually, depending on what spell). Second best to paralyzing, IMO...

No, is it any good? Been thinking about getting a new game...

I think you need to play more games before coming out with claims like that.

There are games that blow Skyrim out of the water in terms of complexity, while at the same time feeling far more natural and intuitive.

Yes, we've heard about that comparison a hundred times.

Even if Skyrim had Chivalry's combat. it would be a vast improvement.