12 PC games with amazing combat

PC games have the potential to be a bit more cerebral than console and handheld fare. We have our Total Wars, turn-based strategies, sims and more, but who doesn't love a good satisfying fight every now and then? We're not talking about gunfights, they're an art unto themselves, as are dedicated beat 'em ups. They deserve separate articles. No, we're looking for a brawl. Something with punching fists and flashing blades, flying kicks and crunching bones. Here are 12 games that deliver with style.

It doesn’t explain itself terribly well, but once you’ve learned the intricacies of MGRR’s execution system, everything clicks. You play as the cyborg ninja Raiden from Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid series on a quest to chop giant robots into thousands of pieces. You can do this with precise analogue control, slowing down time to dictate the precise angle of your cuts. Chop the left hands of soldiers to retrieve microchip branding for extra points, or sever their spines to absorb their energy and replenish your health. On PC, it’s one of the few chances you’ll get to play a Platinum game (apart from that disappointing Legend of Korra title), which ought to be reason enough. Hopefully we’ll get Vanquish and Bayonetta on PC one day.

Link: Official site.

Ninja Theory’s underrated Devil May Cry reboot annoyed series fans for boring reasons, but is a great fighting game. Crisp, fluid animations sell the absurd combat physics—which dictate that Dante can defy gravity by firing guns—and are compounded by an excellent synergistic soundtrack that emphasises high impacts with bass-blowouts. The enormous moveset is a little overwhelming once you’ve unlocked most abilities, but successfully packs various classic Devil May Cry fighting styles onto one controller. Devil May Cry 3 may be the better game, but the smooth, beautiful 60fps 3D of DmC makes the reboot’s combat feel better. Look out for some brilliant levels as well, like the one built from the ticker tapes and logos of a US news channel.

Link: Official site.

One to watch, Gang Beasts has been improving from its early prototype in Steam Early Access. It’s already a great couch multiplayer game thanks to its adorable jelly baby fighters and a combat system that mimics the clumsiness of a real world brawl. Grab a foe with one hand while repeatedly punching the other, wriggle and grasp onto passing objects as enemies try to hurl you off a building. It’s clumsy and desperate and funny and violent all at once.

Link: Official site.

How did they do it? Attack Batman from any angle in Arkham City and he’ll counter perfectly. No clipping. No juddering into position. It’s seamless, and one of the few combat systems to bring finesse to combat involving dozens of enemies. It’s a system that about building momentum across multiple acrobatic strikes. You can spend that momentum to trigger special attacks that tactically remove threats from the environment. It wants you to adopt the forensic mindset of the dark knight. Scan the room, identify the threats—there’s a guy trying to tug a gun cabinet open. Catch the thrown chair, smash it over someone’s head. Break a leg. Release a batarang and finish the punk with a climactic slow-motion takedown. Gotham’s bone ward must be permanently full.

Link: Official site.

It’s a pleasure to watch mannequins kick limbs off each other in this strange turn-based combat game. Players tweak their fighter’s muscles to improvise punches, kicks and throws. Once the bout has been meticulously planned out by both sides you watch it unfold in real time.

The simplistic visuals have tremendous capacity for violence. Kick a fighters head off and it’ll fly through the air trailing blobs of blood. If your hand comes into contact with an enemy’s body part you can choose to grasp, which lets you tear your enemy to pieces if the angles are right. It has some of the slapstick comedy of Sumotori Dreams, but rewards an additional layer of skill. Get good and you’ll be able to launch spinning triple kicks that destroy an opponent before they’ve had a chance to bow.

Link: Official site

Imagine two drunk Minecraft characters brawling in a car park—that’s Sumotori dreams. Your wobbly character interprets your commands with the intense enthusiasm and disastrous balance of a sumo wrestler after several bottles of sake. The result isn’t a pure and precise combat system, but it is extremely funny. There are various arenas full of breakable rubble, spinning traps and—worst of all—gentle slopes. After each fight you get to watch both characters trying to right themselves for five minutes, falling over, groaning, flailing and falling over again. There's a free demo, so there’s no excuse.

Link: Official site.

On the opposite end of the spectrum to Arkham's smooth, seamless, almost rhythmic combat is Blade Symphony. It's an excellent approximation of fencing: technical, varied and tactical. Elegance isn't built into its DNA, but rather earned through skill and strategy. To approach anything like the balletic mastery of its best players, you need to be able to read and react to your opponent—shifting between its three stances in order to counter their own strengths and weaknesses. What makes it special isn’t just the versatility of the combat and your character’s moveset, but that it asks you to master these things against unpredictable human opponents. It's the best simulation of duelling in a game to date.

Link: Official site.

First person melee combat is hard; only a few games have tried to nail it. Zeno Clash is one, but that game didn’t have incongruous walls of spikes to kick enemies into. The architects of DMMM’s world have a strange fetish for log traps and contrived death pits, which makes it a great place to charge through with a fireball spell and a big boot of justice. It was made in an age when Havok physics still seemed amazing but some of that magic lingers to this day. We have a soft spot for Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. Maybe you will too.

Link: Official site.

Overgrowth is a fascinating experiment in dynamic combat that’s been development for ages (and still has a way to go). Mortal enemies—rabbits and wolves—do battle with tremendous speed using fists, feet and close combat weapons. Overgrowth’s combat is unique because of a procedural animation system that calculates the impact and consequence of every blow. Even the rabbits’ ears are coded to flex and bend accurately when rolling under a sabre swipe or delivering a spinning roundhouse to the body of a wolf. Overgrowth will eventually be an open world adventure with stealth mechanics, missions, quests and characters, but it’s already a fascinating fighting game, and one that’s set to grow in scope as development approaches completion.

Link: Official site.

A dedicated community of lightsaber duellists have fought for honour in Outcast’s multiplayer arenas for many years now. The fantasy of engaging in deadly Jedi vs. Sith showdowns is powerful, but the multiple stances and force-powered super-jumps of the Jedi Knight combat system allow for hugely technical bouts between experts. The lightsabers have very precise hit detection, and are suitably deadly, which allows for a high level of finesse. New players will have fun wildly VROOM VROOMing their way through NPC Storm Troopers, but those who master the saber will find an entirely different game online.

Link: Jedi Outcast.

The weapon sweeps of your hollow warrior may seem slow when you first come to Dark Souls, but every blow matters. A moment of clumsiness can open you up to a killing strike, even when facing basic enemies. It’s not uncommon to regard your opponent for a few moments over a raised shield, judging the swipe of his weapon, the weight of his armour. Can I get him within range of my bastard sword?

You’re forced to think tactically, because the properties of your weapons seriously matter. A sword with a bit of extra reach can make a whole class of enemy easier to deal with, but perhaps you prefer the lunging attack of a different weapon. Perhaps your weapon is too heavy, and you’d rather sacrifice reach for a quicker roll. Conflict is thoughtful, tactical and tense. It’s rare to enjoy fighting this good in an RPG.

Link: Steam.

It's rare for games to capture the pace and improvisation of a martial arts film. One Finger Death Punch succeeds because its combat is performed entirely with two buttons. If an enemy reaches your left-side attack range, you attack left. If they reach the right, you attack right. Each foe has a number, showing the number of times you must attack in order to take them down. Through just that simple system, you’re given a challenge of precision, timing and speed that’s further enhanced through special enemy types and weapons. Button mashing will always fail, and you’re constantly required to reassess the upcoming sequence of attacks. It's Guitar Hero with punching; your simple inputs creating an impressive scene of stickman violence and destruction.

Link: Official site.