Blackwood - Official Melee Combat Overview Trailer

This video from Off The Grid Games details their approach to melee combat, aiming for a balance between grounded and free-flowing styles that feels heavy yet allows for skillful maneuvers. A significant challenge was making hits feel impactful, which they addressed using camera shake, precise positioning, and inverse kinematics (IK) to ensure hits align with enemies. The camera also plays a role, staying closer to the player in melee and softly locking onto nearby targets or incoming attacks without sacrificing player control. Enemy reactions are incorporated through parries and dodges, emphasizing timing and reading enemy actions. Lower difficulties feature timing indicators for parries, while higher difficulties remove these, requiring players to rely on animations and cues. Take-downs are contextual, depending on distance and angle. The environment can also be utilized, especially when outnumbered, allowing players to use surroundings instead of just trading hits. The developers are conducting private tests, observing gameplay, and making adjustments based on feedback. Interested players can sign up for future testing rounds on their Discord server.