Starfield Gives Bethesda a Chance to Innovate on Melee Weapons

gamerant.com:

Starfield is Bethesda’s first new IP in a long time, providing plenty of opportunities to innovate on some elements of past franchises – melee weapons, for instance. The intergalactic setting allows for more melee options, especially when compared to past titles in The Elder Scrolls or Fallout series. Such innovations could make for more enjoyable combat and overall more interesting gameplay.

In this case, it’s worth looking back at the melee combat in Bethesda’s existing series, then asking what Starfield might improve on those past systems. Even though the IPs differ in setting and context, there are a couple of ideas that Bethesda could improve and integrate into its new game.

Starfield Should Launch with Bethesda's Creation Club Instead of Waiting Like Skyrim and Fallout

The Elder Scrolls games, particularly Oblivion and Skyrim, have gotten their fair share of criticism in terms of melee combat. For one, there isn’t a lot of variety when it comes to weapon types. Whatever melee weapon the player chooses, it simply boils down to hacking and slashing either one-handedly or two-handedly. There isn’t much more to it than that, unfortunately. For instance, choosing between a one-handed sword and a mace doesn’t really change much of the melee combat, aside from slight differences in the speed of swinging. Morrowind gets criticism too, but its system for tracking hits is distinct from the two newer titles.

This admittedly watered-down system of melee takes tends to take away from the combat experience. While one could argue that Oblivion and Skyrim were made for players to focus more on exploration and role-playing, that doesn’t change the fact that the melee is decidedly lackluster. That said, Starfield could remedy this issue