The hardest enemy in Underrail uses his bare fists. I think that says it all, really.
Does it now? To me it only shows how committed Styg was to showcasing his "proof of concept" boss fight. Because that's all that fight really is. Carnifex is a pain in the ass because he spawns
very close to the player, so much so that he can
win the initiative, close the gap and start raping you, all in the very first turn. It makes for an interesting boss fight, but it doesn't attest to the "superiority" of melee in an abstract sense. You don't need to change a single number to make Carnifex a pushover, just make him spawn an additional half screen away from the player. Done. He went from "true terror" to "some dude I burst down in a single turn and lol".
VD's argument for melee:
If you have a sniper rifle, a decent distance by isometric RPG standards, meaning a screen's length, and you're facing a melee enemy, that enemy should never reach you, otherwise it's cheating. If you're facing 3 melee enemies, you have a problem. If the enemies throw a smoke grenade and you can't see shit, you have a big problem. If two enemies are charging at you and two managed to reach another party member who won't get up after a fight if he dies, so you have to prioritize and save his ass first and when you're done, the other two enemies are in your face, you have a very big problem.
Sounds decent but also relies on
superior numbers something that the player character in an RPG
rarely ever has on his side. That's another issue I have with melee in a game with guns: it relies on zerg tactics, basically. Except the player (or the player party) are the Protoss
by default. Usage of melee weapons implies your equipment is
cheaper, and advantage that only really matter when you can field an infinite number of soldier, not a 2-6 people
party. With limited numbers you don't care for "cost effectiveness", you go for "best of the best" at least post midgame. Depends on how the game economy works, but every single RPG ever has a "rich" economy after you're done doing the first few mandatory missions, and
at that point you're gonna ditch your sticks and equip real weapons aka guns.
The alternative means you're gonna have 4 dudes on your side fighting 6 dudes on the enemy side. If all your enemies have guns while 3/4 of yours have guns, that means one of your guys will either: a) rush the enemy and hope he doesn't get instagibbed from all the short range + no cover + burst fire attacks; or b) hide behind something and not contribute to the fight, while the people with
real weapons do the job. Best case scenario: 4 enemies have guns and 2 rush you, so your melee dude can play the "counter melee" role serving as a buffer between friendly gunmen and enemy zerglings. He is being useful, but as soon as the lings die (you know they're gonna die first) you're left with the previous situation.
Eh...hope you find a way to make it work. Somehow!
