Loving Melee - a Gaming Taboo

Let’s face it, we have all been there, either we have been huddled up in a corner with our ammo counter slowly dropping then panic sets in. Maybe charging into the thick of it with our swords raised up high. I have been there, in both of those situations; regardless melee kills have swiftly become something I thirst for, something I greedily grab with both hands as I watch their life blood slowly drip away onto the cold floor below.

Take Rainbow Six: Siege for example, whilst admittedly I no longer truly enjoy the game anymore, I am more than happy to pick it up from time to time but what I always find myself doing; regardless of role, be it attacker or defender, sniper or shield, I am always drawn towards the melee kill. If I think I can get away with it then I will most certainly attempt it, for example currently I am level 112, whereas my friend is level 110, and his total number of melee kills is 32. Mine? I have a rather large sum of 201 melee kills to date. Most likely I would have certainly earnt myself a few more by the time this article has been published.

So what’s wrong with melee? Well, nothing really, but some aspects of the gaming community, regardless of how small they are, or what game it is have a strong distaste for those who love to get up close and dirty. Especially in most modern FPS games you can almost guarantee that eventually someone will complain about someone only using their knife, only going for tags or similar things. Other people just flat out call those who love melee psychotic, sociopathic or other rather crude words. It is also not uncommon to be called a hacker, glitcher or even exploiter; I myself have experienced this a fair bit in my time.

So why am I, and so many others, drawn towards the concept of melee? To be honest it depends on the game and what “games” the person has been brought up on. For some people it is far more satisfying to lay down and snipe from a great deal of distance whereas some people find it much more satisfying to dodge, duck and dive through enemy fire in hopes of silencing them with whatever melee weapons they have on hand. To me the answer is all about satisfaction, in some games melee kills just aren’t that great and don’t really make much of a difference; one such example would be a game from a few years ago called Dust 514; a first person shooter based in the EVE: Online universe. With nothing more than a simple “thwack” coupled with fast respawn times means that melee kills are not only unrewarding but they are rather bland as well. They lack any sense of grit and they most certainly don’t feel as rewarding as one might think.

On the other end of the scale with have games like Warhammer 40K: Eternal Crusade which has a large proportion of gameplay being focused around melee classes, this works almost fluently alongside the execution system they have in place that encourages players to get up close and personal and put their foes out of their misery.

In between these games are titles such as Battlefield, Killzone and Titanfall. Games that have no direct focus on melee and don’t actively encourage it but these are the games where you truly discover if you have a thirst for melee or not. With simple, effective and sometimes brutal animations that can occur if you get close enough. These melee kills are normally rewarding when you sneak up on a sniper or several and proceed to absent mindedly slice and dice your way through their lines as if they were made of nothing but butter.

In conclusion?

Melee kills are something that are down to personal taste, as mentioned earlier people can prefer sniping, casting spells or even hurling explosives. Others may indeed just prefer to get up close and personal, be it out of character build or just simply because of play style. Sometimes the game encourages it, sometimes the game discourages it. In my opinion enjoying melee is just another part of being a gamer.

So to all you melee lovers out there; keep those blades sharp and keep swinging.

As for me?

Well, Dead by Daylight is out soon and you can bet your ass that I am sharpening my cleaver. I’ll be waiting.