Why Target-based Combat Is Superior
“Locked on target, initiating opinion barrage!”
Hello there, today I’m talking about why target-based combat is superior to “swing your weapon in a general direction and hope that it touches a target” (SYWIAGDAHTITAT) style. Prominent examples of target-based combat include Rocksteady’s Batman Arkham series, Monolith’s Shadow of Mordor series and Insomniac’s Spider-Man for PlayStation. On the other hand, SYWIAGDAHTITAT style (pronounced “swing that”) games include Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt and Star Wars Jedi games (Fallen Order excluded).
While Swing That Style™ has more freedom of movement, that freedom can quickly turn into a failure of flow in combat. Modern games are usually built upon the “freedom” ground, which can be interpreted into an unhealthy number of ways. You are free to swing your weapon and miss, than hit 2–3 times, then miss a few swings again. But does that feel as good as hitting a 17-hit combo in a completely choreographed chain? Not to say I’m stating facts, but it objectively doesn’t.
Target-based combat helps the developers create long chains of combat movements without having to worry about the fact that the character would pretty much tumble and fall over their face if a strike missed mid-combo. Missing a strike is basically death in actual combat which, if you played any FromSoftware games, you already know. While realism is not a big factor even in relatively realistic Batman games, having your character perform an uniterrupted 26-hit combo REALLY establishes why your character is surrounded by 12 enemies at a time. Because you are that strong and capable and it takes more than a few grunts at a time for them to have chance of taking you down.
The way target-based combat brings together a fight sequence also increases the cinematic feeling of the game. As we all experience, video games are becoming more and more movie-like and having your character in a specific and calculated scenario combat-wise creates a much better ending to fight scenes, sometimes as if you’re acting out a cutscene. Coupled with finishers, the cinematic feeling reaches its peak. Also swinging your weapon around like a crazy person doesn’t really look great. Unless you’re a Jedi. Or Darth Vader. Or Kratos. Okay it might look cool. But it feels much better to land those strikes.
In conclusion, target-based combat creates a more controlled environment for fight choreography which helps the games stick to the cinematic experience they’re trying to deliver. I’m not saying all games that include combat should use it, but it’s definitely much more fun to have it in a one-versus-many type of situations.
