What are the best games with freeflow brawler combat on Steam?

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Dec 17, 2017

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Here’s the Deal

6 Options Considered

Best games with freeflow brawler combat on Steam	Price	Steam Rating	Platforms
-- Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor	$29.99	Very Positive	Very Positive
-- Mad Max	$39.99	Very Positive	Very Positive
-- Ryse: Son of Rome	$19.99	Mostly Positive	Mostly Positive
-- Batman: Arkham Knight	$29.99	Very Positive	Very Positive
-- Batman: Arkham City	$19.99	Very Positive	Very Positive

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor

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Different enemies require different tactics

Bosses in this game have different immunities and different weaknesses. This is why it's important to get intel from defeated orcs: they will reveal a chieftain's vulnerabilities (for instance: takedowns, finishers, ranged attacks, fire,...). See More

Top Con

Only about 30 hours long

While 30 hours is not the shortest game out there, it is pretty short for an open world action RPG. Sadly this 30 hours is the majority of content in the game, if one just wants to do the main missions, the game can be completed in under 6 hours. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Top Pro

Great out-of-stealth combat

Stealth and takedowns are only the beginning. Once you're out of stealth is when the party starts. This game provides you with an out-of-stealth combat system that is very similar to Ryse: Son of Rome. That means that essentially, enemies take turns to attack you, but they can join in on the fight at any given moment. That is why you can perform parries with counters as well as combat rolls for evasion. Besides the freeflow combat, there are also additional wraith skills to make this one of the best melee combat experiences in gaming. You can tame beasts for mounted combat. See More

Top Pro

Stealth & stealth combat

Shadows of Mordor features a climbing mechanic similar to Assassin's Creed games combined with stealth takedowns in the style of Far Cry 3. It all ties together very neatly and the gameplay is very smooth. Movement in this game overall is smoother than in Assassin's Creed titles. Takedowns are not your only option. You can also choose to brand enemies, which means that they will not attack you, but rather fight for you if you call upon them. See More

Mad Max

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Fun car combat

Mad Max' most prominent unique selling point is its car combat. Upgrading your car for performance and combat is the driving mechanic of the game, pun intended. You'll be scavenging scraps to upgrade engine, exhaust, armor, spikes, different weaponry etcetera. The combat will consist of ripping wheels of enemy cars with the harpoon (or pulling the war boys out of their cars), shooting fuel tanks with your shotgun, throwing thunderpoons at cars, setting enemy vehicles on fire with your side burners or simply ramming them. See More

Top Con

Quite repetitive

This game offers a lot of different activities. Apart from its main storyline, there are a lot of camps to clear out, scarecrows and sniper towers to take down, convoys to destroy and minefields to clear. Along the road you'll be collecting parts to upgrade strongholds. There are also races you can participate to that each have a different concept. However, if you plan to do all these activities, you can easily keep yourself busy for 60+ hours. It does get repetitive, since the open world is divided in 17 different regions that each have the same sort of objectives, as previously listed. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Top Pro

Intuitive melee combat

The melee combat is very similar to Arkham combat: You're outnumbered by warboys who take turns to attack you. You have a basic punch attack (holding the assigned button will make you punch harder), a parry skill + counter and a combat roll that serves as a universal evade. You do have a shotgun, but you'll never have more than 4-5 bullets on you, so save those for car combat. Melee weapons can sometimes be picked up from the ground, but they'll break quite fast. In other words: fist fighting is the focus of Mad Max melee combat. Getting a decent hit chain will make Max go into fury mode, pretty much destroying anyone in his way with his bare fists. See More

Top Con

Resources aren't scarce

The survival elements of this game that are meant to make this land feel hostile, are actually quite trivial. You won't really feel like you're in a troublesome shortage of water, fuel or even ammo at any point, definitely if you've upgraded one of the strongholds to automatically refill your supplies. See More

Top Pro

Immersive atmosphere

This game has a very gritty, raw atmosphere with an open world that's a former seabed, but is now dry and barren. The game does a good job of making you feel alone and trying to survive. Friendship doesn't really exist in this world, just favor-for-a-favor understandings. Make sure you always have enough supply of fuel, water and ammo on you. The graphics in this game are superb. Also, remember that your character is not a hero and does not care for glory. He's just out for revenge and most importantly: his car. See More

Ryse: Son of Rome

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Intuitive combat

This game is possibly the purest example of a freeflow brawler combat game. The player has a basic attack, a parry/block move, a defense/shield breaking move and a combat roll that serves as a universal evade. Successful hits are counted in a hit chain, that after a certain number allows the player to reach an enraged buff state called "burning eagle". This combat system makes it very suitable to play with a controller. See More

Top Con

PC port is not well optimized

Even people who have a powerful gaming PC to today's standards experience some stuttering in the framerate at some points. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Mostly Positive

Top Pro

Superb graphics

Ryse: Son of Rome has fantastic, realistic looking graphics. It was ahead of the curve in 2013 and still is up there with the best today. See More

Top Con

Repetitive

Make sure you love the combat system, because that's pretty much all you'll be doing throughout the game. It's a linear game with nice cinematic sequences, but in the end, you just move from place to place slashing up a bunch of copy paste mobs. The variety in this game consists of things like throwing pilums at archers, operating a ballista, advancing in formation with troops (including quick time button presses for blocking arrows and throwing pilums) or trying not to walk on traps etcetera. See More

Batman: Arkham Knight

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Supports arbitrary resolutions

Including 21:9 widescreen aspect ratio and 4K resolutions. See More

Top Con

Poor initial PC port

This game initially suffered from an awful PC port that made the game initially borderline unplayable. It was withdrawn from sale for a while until a better port was completed. Now, the game runs much better, but there's still some stuttering here and there. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Top Pro

Large city to explore

A large city comprised of three separate islands makes up the area playable in game. Which is huge, making for much to explore for the player. See More

Top Pro

A blast driving the batmobile

Arkham Knight has the open world aspect of the previous game but has now introduced the Batmobile for use on the street with a full weapon loadout. Being able to drive around thee streets of Gotham as well as use the vehicle to take down bad guys makes for an exciting experience not seen in the series before. See More

Batman: Arkham Asylum

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Freeflow combat pioneer

Arkham Asylum is the first game to bring us freeflow brawler melee combat in its full glory. It invented the combat genre where you fight a multitude of enemies who take turns attacking you, while the player has a basic attack, a parry+counter and a combat roll. Getting multiple hits in on enemies builds up a combo streak that makes batman stronger. This streak is reset by getting hit by an enemy. Other games, like Assassin's Creed, had superficially similar combat systems, but not as optimized as this and they did not feature hit/combo streaks. Arkham Asylum's freeflow combat system is very suitable to be played with controllers. See More

Top Con

Dark atmosphere

You won't realize how many shades of black exist until you've played an Arkham game. It's always dark outside, so to people who like daylight and colors in their games, this might get a bit dull after a while. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Overwhelmingly Positive

Platforms:Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Top Pro

Fun stealth & gadgets

Remaining stealthy and getting stealth takedowns is important in Arkham Asylum's gameplay. Arkham Asylum gives the player a relatively large number of different gadgets to use for different combat purposes, such as ranged takedowns, cutting ropes, diverting enemies' attention, blasting through doors, traversing longer distances and hacking. See More

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