It's a very elegant system that's arguably the closest to real life swordfighting.
I did some LARP sword fighting against real HEMA users and this is nothing like the real thing.
I disagree. It's very much like the real thing (as far as video games allow anyway).
So you did some practical sword fighting too? Anyway you are probably right that the real thing can't really be converted into video games...
No, but I
slept at a Holliday Inn watched a shit ton of HEMA videos on youtube. Keep in mind, I am not saying KCD combat is exactly like RL sword-fighting, I am saying it's the closest video games have ever gotten to it (afaik anyway, might have not played some other candidates).
The thing about RL combat (whether swords, MMA, boxing, whatever) is it's contextual and reactive, you are not doing something in a vacuum, you are doing something together with your opponent, you do A, he does B, you respond with C, etc. Most video game combat systems don't simulate that at all (the ones where you just click to do some action irrespective of your opponent), or simulate it at a very basic level (timing parries/rolls). In KCD, they actually simulate this in a realistic manner, you have to defend yourself against your opponent's attacks, while at the same time, respond to their defenses and adjust your combos on the fly.
Name one video game that has a more realistic melee combat system.
Perhaps that Blade and Sorcery game on VR? Never played it myself. Problem with KC:D is that the combos are rather unintuitive, I only ever managed to memorise one or two. And the main criticisms seem to be about fights against groups, with the auto lock and so on. Games combat was designed for duels and in these situations I liked it a lot.
Yes, combat against multiple opponents was clunky. I do hope they improve it for KCD2 (if it comes out successfully). In their defense, it would be a clusterfuck in RL too to fight against multiple opponents with sharp weapons.
I really don't get the people who don't get KCD melee combat. Is it the decades of being exposed to shit melee combat (ala Morrowind click-click-click, or Skyrim click-click-click, or Dark Souls click-roll-click)?
It's a very elegant system that's arguably the closest to real life swordfighting. You alternate directional attacks and blocking, and when you do one directional attack, the enemy will almost always block it themselves (that's very logical, only in video games will enemies let you hit them all the time), but that creates opening to combos. So by memorizing the various combos for your weapon, you select the next step for the appropriate combo depending on the situation and eventually use the combo to land damage. While also defending yourself. Excellent system.
The only knocks on the vanilla system are masterstrike (which ruins the flow), and some variables need to be adjusted slightly for optimal flow. I linked exact instructions on how to do both in Codex review.
Masterstrikes ruin the system HARD tho. All the points you made are completely irrelevant when masterstrikes exist. Combos are useless because enemy will randomly masterstrike in the middle of them, it's especially annoying because better enemies masterstrike far more often, so ironically the best swordfights you can get are against trash. Against tougher opponents fights basically become the boring af quick time events with only one button - you only want to masterstrike, since any non-masterstrike attack can just result in enemy doing an unblockable masterstrike against you. If they removed masterstrike, the system would be much better.
You're right that it can be somewhat fixed by modding the game, but when judging the combat system, you're supposed to judge the vanilla. I make a point of always saying how dogshit masterstrikes are, whenever I talk about KCD combat, because maybe if enough people complain about this shit, they'll remove it in KCD2.
It's so easy to remove, and then you have arguable the greatest melee combat system in an RPG ever. The whole argument about mods, I dunno, there are so many all time great games I could not play without mods (aside from KCD, Deus Ex, Fallout: New Vegas, Bloodlines, others), it's not a big deal to me. Though to be fair, I have no idea why they included masterstrike as implemented in the game. It really does ruin everything else they were trying to do with the combat system.
! And I got really annoyed when I shot the first boss with a bow and the follow-up in-engine cutscene showed me defeating him with a sword. I stopped right there...
