RoSoDude Question, since your opinion seems to be quite
around here.
Have you experienced or ever found first person combat that you genuinely enjoyed or found engaging / well design?
The question is mainly targeted at Melee combat over shooting (FPS).
Follow up - Would you consider Kingdom Come: Deliverance well done or needlessly gamey and complex?
EDIT
Based on the above post, I would assume Dying Light was considered well done by you.. but does that translate beyond killing hoards of zombies?
Yeah, it's true that I am a big fan of Dying Light. It's a mashup of every AAA cliche of its time (open world, zombies, climbing, crafting, leveled loot, talent tree grinding) but executed in a coherent package that's actually rather good. The movement (which is mostly just auto-mantling on steroids) and combat mechanics (think Dark Messiah with more polish and more CQC moves) are the meat of why it's so entertaining, on top of the fact that the devs put actual effort into creating challenging gameplay scenarios and difficulty options that make the experience genuinely harder. The first-person melee is very satisfying, from camera movements to impact sounds to hit reactions, and you get a lot of contextual moves (dropkicks, slide kicks, grapple throw, running tackle, headstomp) that can be chained together in creative ways to dispatch enemies but also leave you vulnerable for the whole duration so it's not a total cheesefest like Dishonored. The world is a parkour + combat sandbox that affords you a lot of opportunities for creative kills, like kicking enemies into Dark Messiah spike walls or baiting them into electrical and fire traps, or simply dropkicking them off of rooftops. You will be killing hordes of zombies and the occasional raider, but the enemy roster is pretty good and poses a real threat. It is a very "gamey" game so if that bothers you, look elsewhere. I have a
full critique of the game here if you want to know more of my thoughts.
So, that's my answer for best first-person melee, followed by Dark Messiah, followed by (and I shit you not) System Shock 2. It may be super basic, but the simulated wrench swings that can collide with enemy weapons and have to be timed with your movement to hit for stagger are actually quite good. Thief has the same melee combat (plus more player mechanics -- you can block and also swing from the right) but the enemies are fairly hard to read with some undodgeable BS attacks so as to discourage fightings, while SS2's enemies are better-tuned for CQC. Well, if you ask me they were a bit too easy and cheesable, which is why I
made a mod to patch up their melee AI, and that process really made me appreciate the basic but solid melee mechanics in Dark.
I've not played Kingdom Come: Deliverance so I can't comment in much detail. The fundamentals seem pretty good (stamina system, lock-on with focus on aiming attack directions, various offensive and defensive maneuvers) but I don't know what depth is really there, how it interfaces with the RPG systems, etc. I haven't played Chivalry or Mordhau so I don't know much about those either.