Reccomend Shady a game!

[ShadowFireLance]

Requirements:
At least decent graphics where I can tell what's going on.
Decent playability/replay value.

And on to the most important part;

I recently finished Dishonored, and I loved it.
The entire "Can fight through with Magic and my sword or move above, around, and under." appealed so much to me, And I loved it.
The free roam part was also pretty cool, and the ability to do everything my way was awesome.

I've Played Assassins Creed, but they don't fit so much.

So basically what I want in a game is; "Magic. Stealth. Options. Free Roam."

Any suggestions?

[Hiro Protagonest]

Mark of the Ninja. But there's no obvious magic until you get Mark of Serenity, AKA Blink, which breaks the game in half.

[warty goblin]

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic is by same developers as Dishonored. It is rather more linear, but has a much richer melee combat system. There's also magic, and some reasonably decent stealth, but really, just stab everybody. Far more satisfying.

As an added bonus, the dialog scenes are only 75% as annoying as Dishonored's. And they're shorter.

[psilontech]

Deus Ex and Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Some might have trouble getting past the dated visuals of the original, but they never hamper gameplay.

[Cespenar]

Seconding Deus Ex.

[LordChaos13]

Prototype 1/2?
Free roam, Im fairly sure shooting tentacles at helicopters more than 10 body lengths away while doublejumping in mid-air is magic, you can fight semi-long range relatively quickly if you go straight story missions and the bonus missions in 1 (especially the timed ones) can take a while to full 100% it

Also they have New Game+ and the higher difficulties need to be unlocked by completing the story

[Choyrt]

My suggestions:


http://ingomar.wesp.name/2011/10/deus-ex-human-revolution-review/deus-ex-human-revolution-cover-system.jpg

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is the best looking and most recent, but also consider:

http://cf.shacknews.com/shack_images/sshots/thief/092499thiefgold5.nphd.jpg

Thief (invented game stealth mechanics and they hold up still)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f2/Systemshock2_ingame_final.jpg

System Shock 2 (same people as thief, and perhaps my favorite game ever)


Also, you play Fallout New Vegas at all?

[thethird]

I was going to go with thief.

[Woot Spitum]

I assume you have played Skyrim? It pretty much defines free roaming, can be played stealthily, magically, or any combination of the two, and there are a lot of options for character building even if you don't even think about mods. Which there are a lot of.

Edit: It also has great graphics and a ton of replayability. I have logged over 200 hours on the game and still haven't done everything.

[Hiro Protagonest]

I assume you have played Skyrim? It pretty much defines free roaming, can be played stealthily, magically, or any combination of the two, and there are a lot of options for character building even if you don't even think about mods. Which there are a lot of.

Oh yes, because holding down a button and seeing if the enemy spots you is really good stealth play. :smallannoyed:

[Woot Spitum]

Oh yes, because holding down a button and seeing if the enemy spots you is really good stealth play. :smallannoyed:

It's still better than most games that aren't pure stealth. For pure stealth I would recommend something like Splinter Cell or Ghost Recon, but they don't have magic. Thief is good, but the graphics are dated and the OP wanted good graphics. And several someones already mentioned Deus Ex.:smallbiggrin:

[warty goblin]

Oh yes, because holding down a button and seeing if the enemy spots you is really good stealth play. :smallannoyed:

That's pretty much what stealth gameplay is. No, avoid Skyrim because the combat still sucks. Maybe more than Oblivion's.

[Illieas]

There is the hitman series. The series started the whole kill this guy but you can approach it 10 different ways. It has everything minus the magic. For a today's market the newest one (absolution) works out pretty well. But it is more closed in than previous entries and single run through can be pretty short. It has some incentives to retry as it grades you on your stealthiness and how you killed him. Previous entries were longer but the difficulty and length were higher. A staple is reloading alot otherwise you are gunning your way in and way out.

Second choices:
Splinter cell series
Deus EX series
Metal gear series

[Triaxx]

Skyrim is tons of fun. Yeah, you can say the combat sucks, but it's still lots of fun.

While there's no magic, the original Deus Ex is still incredibly enjoyable. Can't think of anything else.

[Morgarion]

Skyrim's combat sucks? That's a new one. Care to elaborate?

On topic - if you loved Dishonored, you'd probably at least like Splinter Cell. I can't stand Pandora Tomorrow, but I enjoyed the others to various degrees. The first one is the stealthiest. But don't be fooled by the gripe flavored cool-aid everyone else is drinking, they're all stealth games at their core. Even Conviction.

[warty goblin]

Skyrim's combat sucks? That's a new one. Care to elaborate?


It's imprecise and flaily. To my mind, good first person combat is extremely precise; a matter of delivering targeted strikes and careful maneuver to control the distance between oneself and the enemy. That is the strikes should feel like there's a sword moving from point A to point B, and I should be able to move smoothly. The controls in Oblivion and Skyrim just aren't tight enough for the movement, and the attacks are impossible to target because they're just flailing. Halo had better, more controllable melee than that.

Skyrim adds control stealing and perspective breaking finishing moves. If the animation were actually decent, that'd be one thing, but watching my character flail in the general direction of an enemy while the camera vibrates in and out of a rock does not enhance my enjoyment. And it no longer has Oblivion's dedicated spellcasting key, which was wonderful for playing a warrior since I could just leave it bound to heal, and have both hands free for weapon and shield. Skyrim's interface is not so good I want to deal with it every time I need to top off the hitpoints.

Although I should probably give the thing another try. Last time I tried Skyrim, it was trying to compete with Saints Row III, and that's just not a fair fight.

[Cogwheel]

Slightly off-topic, so it might be best answered in PM, but Warty Goblin, what do you consider good first person melee (aside Dark Messiah, which I think you mentioned before)? I'm not arguing with you or anything, I'm asking because I agree but can find precious few examples of the sort of thing you mentioned.


Also yes, System Shock 2 and Thief are pretty good times. Deus Ex too I guess. Never got far in HR.

[Morgarion]

It's imprecise and flaily. To my mind, good first person combat is extremely precise; a matter of delivering targeted strikes and careful maneuver to control the distance between oneself and the enemy. That is the strikes should feel like there's a sword moving from point A to point B, and I should be able to move smoothly. The controls in Oblivion and Skyrim just aren't tight enough for the movement, and the attacks are impossible to target because they're just flailing. Halo had better, more controllable melee than that.

Skyrim adds control stealing and perspective breaking finishing moves. If the animation were actually decent, that'd be one thing, but watching my character flail in the general direction of an enemy while the camera vibrates in and out of a rock does not enhance my enjoyment. And it no longer has Oblivion's dedicated spellcasting key, which was wonderful for playing a warrior since I could just leave it bound to heal, and have both hands free for weapon and shield. Skyrim's interface is not so good I want to deal with it every time I need to top off the hitpoints.

Although I should probably give the thing another try. Last time I tried Skyrim, it was trying to compete with Saints Row III, and that's just not a fair fight.

Huh. It almost feels like we were playing different games. Not that I'm disputing the facts - the mechanics you mention are there, I just never thought of them as issues.

Are there even games that let you make such finely targeted attacks and have them matter (aside from headshots)? I've never encountered any.

[warty goblin]

Slightly off-topic, so it might be best answered in PM, but Warty Goblin, what do you consider good first person melee (aside Dark Messiah, which I think you mentioned before)? I'm not arguing with you or anything, I'm asking because I agree but can find precious few examples of the sort of thing you mentioned.



Huh. It almost feels like we were playing different games. Not that I'm disputing the facts - the mechanics you mention are there, I just never thought of them as issues.

Are there even games that let you make such finely targeted attacks and have them matter (aside from headshots)? I've never encountered any.

Since essentially the same question has come up twice, here's a mega-combined-super-answer.

Dead Island is probably the best example of a first person game that entirely revolves around targeted strikes to remove enemy limbs, and has a very good combat system for doing just that. It takes a little bit to learn, but works extremely well once you work it out. Now if only it didn't involve fighting exactly the same enemies in exactly the same locations over and over and over... still it makes me quite hopeful for Techland's forthcoming Hellraid, which seems to use mostly the same engine.

Chivalry: Medieval Warfare has a really luscious first person combat system. Besides a dedicated feint button, the blocking mechanic is quite frankly inspired, since it demands both timing, and getting the weapon in the middle of the screen. The mechanics for launching different strikes and follow-ups are also quite good. I don't think it tracks hit location in great depth, but I don't really think it needs to; the base swordplay is satisfying and precise enough. Pity its multiplayer focused, and the bots are so entirely clueless. Toss this system into a single player title, and I'd never play anything else.

Dark Messiah is in a lot of ways the apogee of first person slashing to my mind. It mostly accomplishes this through very good animation, smooth movement - how the hell Arkane got the usually kludgy Source to feel this good I have no idea - and a very simple but flexible set of abilities. You've got your directional power attacks, and your fast attacks, and blocks, and the almighty kick. What makes the system work so well is that the directional attacks all take a course through space instead of being a damage cone in front of you, and all end, more or less, at the center of the screen. This means you can aim them quite easily. Since hitpoints are tracked on a per limb basis, and a delimbing counts as a kill, the savvy warrior in Dark Messiah fights by controlling the measure through movement, the tempo through kicking or other disrupting abilities, and delivering a precise series of blows to an enemy's shoulder or neck for a quick kill. I can't say it's particularly realistic, but it makes a person feel like a skilled and coordinated badass in perfect control of their weapon instead of a graceless lunkhead waving a clumsy meat cleaver. In Oblivion I never felt like a master swordsman; I felt like an out of control spaz who won through having bigger numbers in their character sheet. In Dark Messiah I feel like Achilles.

And the finishing moved are awesome. Even in one of the scripted finishers, Dark Messiah still tracks the blade through space, and never takes complete control from the player, so you can hit multiple enemies with one finishing move if you're good enough.

[Cogwheel]

Thank you for that. Dead Island's right out for me, so I suppose I should look into Chivalry.

Am I misremembering, or did you have some very good things to say about Severance before?

[warty goblin]

Thank you for that. Dead Island's right out for me, so I suppose I should look into Chivalry.

Am I misremembering, or did you have some very good things to say about Severance before?

The combat in Severance is good. The problem is that everything else is kinda...not. Like any time you're walking and not in a fight. It's like driving a forklift.

If you're open to third person though, the playing field gets a lot wider. Mount & Blade is the obvious choice. Technically M&B can be played in first person, but I don't think the animation set works all that well for that; the moves just aren't readable from that perspective.

There's also a rather odd game called Legends of Aethereus (http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-LA/legends-of-aethereus), which does some interesting stuff. It's prime innovation is making every attack apply physical force to whatever it hits, so a solid thwack can ragdoll an enemy. It also features detailed tracking of weapons in space, and has a rather interesting moveset. Unusually enough it allows a person to launch limited attacks while defending with a shield. It's kinda rough around the edges, but if you're in the mood for something rather different, is a pretty good time. Plus the aesthetic is much less high fantasy that screenshots make it look; it's got a sort of lo-tech Sword & Planet by way of early antiquity vibe to it. There's crafting, but it manages to be mostly non-offensive; even bordering on the fun in places.

I've heard the new Shadow Warrior has good melee combat as well, but haven't played it, so can't say for sure.

[Triaxx]

Yeah, Mount & Blade is terrible for first person melee combat. It's the only way to do ranged though.

[Crow]

I've heard EA and Blizzard have some shady things going on with their games...

Edit: My mistake, I thought you had requested a Shady Game, and I tried to make a joke.

[ShadowFireLance]

I've heard EA and Blizzard have some shady things going on with their games...

Edit: My mistake, I thought you had requested a Shady Game, and I tried to make a joke.


Shady, Is not amused.

[GolemsVoice]

Hm, it more or less entirely lacks stealth and free running (but not free roaming), but Divinity II is pretty good in almost all other aspects. You can freely combine shooting fireballs and cutting up folks, or you can just play as a pure ranger with a bow. Additionally, it has some pretty funny scenes and is a nice change from the usual fantasy stuff.

[Arcas Corricol]

kick the can :D it's hard to go wrong with kick the can :D

[Abemad]

Another vote for Severance - Blade of Darkness

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoLgRznpUBA

While the combat may seem simple, it's really fun, and what little info you get about the world is awesome, and the puzzles are even better (at least the first time ;) )