What happened to good 3rd person action combat games?

[JustLooking]

I mean we haves shit like Mortal Combat that is pretty much wanna-be 3d, 2d and some shitty fighting games like For Honor but I wonder whatever happened to 3rd person combat action games? Why they don't make games like Prince of Persia Warrior Within, Severance Blade of Darkness and Vindictus ?

I think the last kind of "fresh" games that I played that had fun and engaging combat that required any type of skill was Dragon Dogma on DLC levels and Witcher 3 with Enhanced(Autistic) Edition mod. Dark souls can suck my dick, Kangaroo Kao had more engaging combat than this piece of crap.

Are there any games like this in production or are there any news about such games? I mean games, where you have plenty of control over your character movement, no auto-targetting, no autolocking, hard to master and just fun to experimenting with different ways of killing your enemies. It seems like all 3d person combat games now are for kiddies than can only figure out how to press single or at the very max 3 buttons and clap how they win every fight with ease and every second game is Dark souls clone.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Yakuza

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Oh right, right

Spoiler

Realms of Arkania HD

 

[Matador]

Devil May Cry 5 is great.

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

i really enjoyed divinity 2 and alpha protocol

old now though so maybe OP is right

 

[deem]

A lot of modern action games are masquerading as RPGs.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

The werewolf game released last year(or was it earlier this year?) was kinda shit but I had fun with the combat. Felt like a 00s brawler game.

 

[Thac0]

Astral Chain was the last fun pure action game I played.
The nips have not yet hybridised action and roleplaying games as much, to the benefit of both.

 

[RNGsus]

Yeah, what happened to Human Head Studios?

 

[Maxwell's Demon]

Astral Chain was the last fun pure action game I played.
The nips have not yet hybridised action and roleplaying games as much, to the benefit of both.

Uh... the Tales Of... series? Scarlet Nexus? Dozens of anime series spin-off games (e.g. Sword Art Online video games).

 

[Thac0]

Astral Chain was the last fun pure action game I played.
The nips have not yet hybridised action and roleplaying games as much, to the benefit of both.

Uh... the Tales Of... series? Scarlet Nexus? Dozens of anime series spin-off games (e.g. Sword Art Online video games).

Those don't count because they are gay shit played by weeabos while western hybrids sell 10 million units, get 99 on metacritic and win codex Goty.

 

[Maxwell's Demon]

 

[J1M]

I mean we haves shit like Mortal Combat that is pretty much wanna-be 3d, 2d and some shitty fighting games like For Honor but I wonder whatever happened to 3rd person combat action games? Why they don't make games like Prince of Persia Warrior Within, Severance Blade of Darkness and Vindictus ?

I think the last kind of "fresh" games that I played that had fun and engaging combat that required any type of skill was Dragon Dogma on DLC levels and Witcher 3 with Enhanced(Autistic) Edition mod. Dark souls can suck my dick, Kangaroo Kao had more engaging combat than this piece of crap.

Are there any games like this in production or are there any news about such games? I mean games, where you have plenty of control over your character movement, no auto-targetting, no autolocking, hard to master and just fun to experimenting with different ways of killing your enemies. It seems like all 3d person combat games now are for kiddies than can only figure out how to press single or at the very max 3 buttons and clap how they win every fight with ease and every second game is Dark souls clone.

The short answer is that they started choosing to show damage numbers on the screen and that had consequences.

 

[Nutmeg]

You could argue they were never good compared to 2D action games. They're usually very sloppy in terms of hitboxes and very generous in terms of i-frames to compensate for depth ambiguity, a far cry from pixel perfect, frame exact 2D action. Kind of similar to why isometric 2D action games suck.

That said I've not yet played some of the bigger names in the genre, having mainly stuck to hybrids closer to the RPG or adventure end of the spectrum than action (so, Dark Souls, Nier Automata, Dragon's Dogma, Resident Evil, 3D Zeldas, Ys etc.). I find the sloppy action in these games pairs well with the fundamentally anti-game structure of RPGs to make for entertaining sandboxes. Ultimately a guilty pleasure of sorts.

I need to give Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden, Bayonetta, God Hand and Vanquish a go.

Another one I want to checkout is a game that's popular in Japan but which no one plays in the West - Spikeout. One of the first in the genre and one of the only ones with an old school arcade ethos.

 

[MapMan]

Waiting for SIFU



Combat system similar to Sekiro

 

[King Crispy]

ELEX












































2!!!

 

[karoliner]

ded

 

[Ash]

What happened to good 3rd person action combat games?

They died along with most other genres?

 

[Ezekiel]

Thanks for reminding me I never finished this. Last boss was an annoying difficulty spike. Would have liked it more with a voiced protagonist.

 

[Lemming42]

Answer: they're gone. But I was going to play through a lot of third person games some time ago, to see how the genre changes over time. Does anyone have a good list? Made a list a while back but apparently I only went up to the year 2001, here it is anyway. Haven't played all of them so can't vouch for them all being good:

Fade to Black (1995) - this is kind of crap but it's the first 3D TPS

Tomb Raider (1996) - excellent

MDK (1997) - good
Tomb Raider 2 (1997) - excellent
Nightmare Creatures (1997) - alright
Excalibur 2555 AD (1997) - fucking terrible

Tenchu (1998)
Die By The Sword (1998) - downs syndrome simulator
Deathtrap Dungeon (1998) - bad
MediEvil (1998)
Heretic 2 (1998) - good
The Elder Scrolls: Redguard (1998) - really cool, awful controls though
Space Bunnies Must Die! (1998)
Tomb Raider 3 (1998) - alright

Syphon Filter (1999)
Drakan: Order of the Flame (1999) - fuck yeah
Outcast (1999) - ULUKAI
Tomb Raider 4 (1999) - alright
Urban Chaos (1999) - fucking great, massively overlooked game

Spider-Man (2000) - alright
Rune (2000) - alright
Star Trek DS9: The Fallen (2000) - lol

Oni (2001) - alright
Severance: Blade of Darkness (2001) - great
Max Payne (2001) - all time best ever

That's an incomprehensive list for sure. Can anyone fill in the gaps, or suggest third person action games after 2001?

By the way, I have no idea what my criteria was when I put the list together. If MediEvil applies, why doesn't like, Crash Bandicoot? No idea.

 

[Ash]

Answer: they're gone. But I was going to play through a lot of third person games some time ago, to see how the genre changes over time. Does anyone have a good list? Made a list a while back but apparently I only went up to the year 2001, here it is anyway. Haven't played all of them so can't vouch for them all being good:

Fade to Black (1995) - this is kind of crap but it's the first 3D TPS

Tomb Raider (1996) - excellent

MDK (1997) - good
Tomb Raider 2 (1997) - excellent
Nightmare Creatures (1997) - alright
Excalibur 2555 AD (1997) - fucking terrible

Tenchu (1998)
Die By The Sword (1998) - downs syndrome simulator
Deathtrap Dungeon (1998) - bad
MediEvil (1998)
Heretic 2 (1998) - good
The Elder Scrolls: Redguard (1998) - really cool, awful controls though
Space Bunnies Must Die! (1998)
Tomb Raider 3 (1998) - alright

Syphon Filter (1999)
Drakan: Order of the Flame (1999) - fuck yeah
Outcast (1999) - ULUKAI
Tomb Raider 4 (1999) - alright
Urban Chaos (1999) - fucking great, massively overlooked game

Spider-Man (2000) - alright
Rune (2000) - alright
Star Trek DS9: The Fallen (2000) - lol

Oni (2001) - alright
Severance: Blade of Darkness (2001) - great
Max Payne (2001) - all time best ever

That's an incomprehensive list for sure. Can anyone fill in the gaps, or suggest third person action games after 2001?

By the way, I have no idea what my criteria was when I put the list together. If MediEvil applies, why doesn't like, Crash Bandicoot? No idea.

Requirement: no bad/mediocre games. 7.5/10 and above. Fully real-time, no aRPGs, primarily action oriented + camera follows behind the PC. I'll simply label them either good or great, great being arguably must-plays

Devil May Cry - Great
Devil May Cry 3 - Great
Ninja Gaiden (2004) - Great
Max Payne 2 - good
The Punisher - Great
Tomb Raider 3 - good
GUN - good
Mercenaries - good
The Saboteur - Great
Duke Nukem: Zero Hour - Great
Duke Nukem: Time to Kill - good
Duke Nukem: LotB - good
Heavy Metal FAKK 2 - good
GTA: Vice City - good
GTA: San Andreas - good
Destroy All Humans 2 - good
Dead Space - Great
Dead Space 2 - Great
Resident Evil 4 - Great
Resident Evil 5 - Good
Cold Fear - Good
Tenchu 2 - good
Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven - Great
The Suffering - Good
The Suffering 2 - Good
Syphon Filter 2 - Good
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - Great
Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams - good
MDK 2 - Good
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time - good
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within - good
Total Overdose - Good
Blade (2000) - good
American Mcgee's Alice - good
God of War (2004) - good
God of War 2 - good
Bloodborne - good
Ghost of Tsushima - good
Shadowman - good

By the way, I have no idea what my criteria was when I put the list together. If MediEvil applies, why doesn't like, Crash Bandicoot? No idea

I agree with most of your list and am glad to see some classics and underappreciated games there. Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Mario 64 etc would not apply as they are primarily platformers. Same with Tomb Raider really but whatever we'll let it slide because they're classics.

These are all simply in a different league or category to almost all modern third person action games as they've all been homogenized into the same braindead popamole. The only games from the past decade that qualifies in my book is Sekiro and Dead Space 2.

One thing I disagree with is that Max Payne is the best all time third person action game. Overstated nonsense by those that did not play many classic third person action games. Though it certainly is good.
If we're talking third person shooters only, I would rate The Punisher, Duke Nukem: Zero Hour and Resident Evil 4 above Max Payne.

third person action games used to be good, though only a few greats.

est. 1996 - 2005 RIP

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

I played Darksiders through to completion for the first time a few months ago. It’s… okay. There are some really weird design decisions, and there are definitely reasons that it took me 4 or 5 play-through attempts to get all the way through without dropping it, but it’s rarely aggressively terrible, and there are some pretty good moments (especially compared to what we’ve been getting from the genre for the last ten years). Solid 6/10.

 

[Ash]

Yeah every single Darksiders game has its heart in the right place (continuing the 3rd person action genre without being braindead popamole) but the execution is sadly mediocre in each and every instance.

 

[karoliner]

Answer: they're gone. But I was going to play through a lot of third person games some time ago, to see how the genre changes over time. Does anyone have a good list? Made a list a while back but apparently I only went up to the year 2001, here it is anyway. Haven't played all of them so can't vouch for them all being good:



That's an incomprehensive list for sure. Can anyone fill in the gaps, or suggest third person action games after 2001?

By the way, I have no idea what my criteria was when I put the list together. If MediEvil applies, why doesn't like, Crash Bandicoot? No idea.

Some good but flawed games: Space Marine, Bayonetta 2, Vanquish, The Evil Within 1, Revengeance
More closer to platforming than action: Alice Madness Returns
More closer to RPG than action: Yakuza Zero
2D sidecroller: Cuphead, Muramasa The Demon Blade, Odin Sphere Leifthrasir(fucking Vanillavare port your games to PC already!)

 

[yellowcake]