Knife In A Gunfight: The History And Evolution Of First-Person Melee Combat

It’s easy to see why guns get all the glory in video games. Unleashing the BFG on a group of Hell Knights never gets old, and sniping a headshot from across the map is always satisfying. Compared to their louder, flashier cousins, melee weapons were often a neglected portion of the first-person video game armory. Thanks to some key titles in the past 25 years, modern games like Dying Light and Fallout 4 have embraced the notion that using a machete or sledgehammer in first-person can be just as much (if not more) fun than shooting a gun.

Ultima, Nazis, and Demons

Almost 20 years after Maze War and Spasim pioneered first-person gaming, Blue Sky Productions (later known as Looking Glass Studios) released Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss. This 1992 dungeon crawler is one of the most important 3D first-person games, inspiring foundational works like The Elder Scrolls and Deus Ex. Underworld famously replaced the previous tile-based environments of games like Wizardry with a true 3D world to explore. Most interactions played out through your character’s eyes, from exploring shadowy labyrinths to fighting goblins.

If not for id Software’s Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, computer RPGs might have ruled the first-person genre unopposed. Wolfenstein 3D set the stage in 1992 and then id unleashed Doom a year later. Full of macabre imagery and graphic violence, Doom’s runaway success caused a moral panic and established first-person shooters as a dominant genre. 

The game also deviated from Wolfenstein’s simplistic melee combat in important ways. While B.J.’s knife wasn’t very useful or notable, Doom introduced one of the most iconic weapons in gaming: the chainsaw. The chainsaw attacks roughly four times faster than the space marine’s fists and has a high chance to stagger some enemies. While the numbers behind the chainsaw make it a plausible tactical choice, the true importance of the weapon is how viscerally satisfying it is to use. Instead of strafing and shooting Cacodemons from a distance, players could get up close and personal with the chainsaw. No other weapon in Doom could compete with the low rumbling of the engine, the high-pitched whine as the revving blade ripped into an enemy, or the resulting shower of blood. This level of combat was a far cry from poking Nazis with a knife in Wolfenstein or dragging a mouse to swing a sword in Ultima Underworld.

The ‘90s saw the introduction of some other iconic melee weapons as well, which developers used as an additional way to show a game’s personality. Duke Nukem 3D shook things up with the Mighty Boot kick instead of just a punch attack. In an early version of the game, players could equip and “fire” the Mighty Boot while also using the separate quick kick key. The hilarious result is Duke kicking with both feet while still being able to run and jump. Goldeneye 007 devoted a whole multiplayer mode, Slappers Only!, to its wacky Roger Moore-era judo chop.

Up next, Call of Duty and Halo...

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