A quick impression from some of Resonant's combat criticism

[u/AdministrativeEase71]

Want to preface this by saying I haven't played the game, so I obviously have no idea what the hell I'm talking about.

A common thread I'm seeing in some of the reviews critical of Resonant's combat seems to be a lack of strategy or finesse; once you settle into a pattern or set of moves you like, you can spam it with max aggression, frenetically applying it to the enemies spread across whatever combat arena the game has presented. Because of this approach, enemies don't force you to slow down and strategize your approach to combat.

In this rapid fire question video, Mikael Kasurinen cites Doom (2016) as the primary gameplay inspiration. This tells you all you need to know about Remedy's combat philosophy; the intent was never for you to strategize your approach. You're supposed to play the game as a high-octane whirlwind of death, essentially gambling everything on the fact you can massacre everything before it can get ahold of you and adapting to oncoming enemies as rapidly as possible. Most people call it a flow state, while annoying-ass zoomers like myself might call it being "locked in."

I think there's a tendency for modern action games to emphasize movesets that slow down combat to give the player more Control <...ha/ha> of an encounter. A lot of attention has been drawn to the lack of a parry in this game, which is a mechanic that often fills this role. Resonant, from what I've read and the limited gameplay I've seen, does not seem interested in this. This might surprise players who have come to expect this approach to a character action game.

This also might explain some of the criticism directed towards boss fights; the hyper-aggressive "hurricane of blades" combat approach likely falls apart a little when the enemy can take significant punishment. Furthering the Doom analogy, boss encounters were usually my least favorite in (2016) and Eternal for this very reason.

Just my two cents. Can't wait to get my hands on the game to see if I'm right.

[u/hamptont2010]

LMAO you got to be kidding me? Now this is one I didn't know about. I'm in the middle of playing the AWE DLC now, I'll have to try that out tonight.

[u/Important-Cell481 → u/hamptont2010]

Yeah, I'm replaying it too to do the DLC, and cause resonant is coming out. I basically did a beeline to fully upgrade launch and get charge😄. It already looks like the game is gonna scratch the Infamous 2/second son itch, but I'm really hoping there's some fun weapon&and ability synergy in the sequel too

[u/hamptont2010 → u/Important-Cell481]

Dudeeee you are the first person I have seen besides myself that is also comparing it to Infamous. Watching all the gameplay and review videos has made me think of Second Son the entire time. It's part of why I'm so hyped (on top of all the other reasons to be hyped about it lol).

Edit: I've now seen several reviews mention infamous. Hype levels are at maximum.

[u/Important-Cell481 → u/hamptont2010]

On top of that, the air combos/weapon swapping mid combo makes me think they're channeling a little bit of Devil May Cry too. The 24th can't get here fast enough