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Possible Destiny Art

by Leisandir @, Virginia, USA, Monday, March 11, 2013, 10:23 (4035 days ago) @ Mr Daax

Hehe. You speak as if we haven't had melee weapons in virtually every other first-person-shooter since the dawn of time. :)

They're generally hold-out weapons or combined with a utility function: Gordon's crowbar provides an efficient way to open containers as well as early offensive power and late-game last-ditch defence; the competitors in Quake III had the buzz-saw gauntlet which was incredibly powerful but only useful in very specific circumstances. A lot of games these days have phased out dedicated melee weapons in favor of a hotkey, in the way that Halo has for ten years, but you still get the occasional knife or billy-club.

I'd be interested to see how Bungie might utilize such weapons, though. I'm not too fond of the Halo method, where they just do tons of damage and that's it, but that's mainly due to the concept of Power Weapons, which I'd be happy to never see again. One weapon type shouldn't be superior to another, it should have aspects which make it more effective in one circumstance or another. For something like a spear in a universe with assault rifles and rocket launchers, those circumtances could be environmental: either in level design or enemy type. You're holding out agains the Xenomorph and you've got a squad with you, it might not hurt to have two or three guys plant their feet and hold a spear out while the others pick off distant targets, assuming you've dealt with the problem of your weapon disolving. :P

There's also the route Stargate took, where your melee weapons are also your ranged weapons. Spears with built-in rayguns and whatnot, that could be fun.


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