Okay, so what is "right?" I know that we spend lots of time here trying to avoid game cliches, but I strongly feel that it would be immensely enjoyable to have hack & slash when you want it, and then more unusual/tactical conflict when you don't. Because of this, I'm going for map design that has regions where there are hordes of enemies that have a durned good reason to just be milling about until you come on the level. So with a phased plasma rifle in hand, your best suit of power armor, and legions of nanite infected zombie mutants just over the hill, what are the best things to remember in creating good hack & slash gameplay?

Sorry about that, the above was me. Thought I was logged in, I guess I wasn't.

--Ter'Lenth

- Lots of power ups. You may want to find a reason to removed these from the player when he leaves the zone.
- Unlimited ammo.
- Unlimited enemies.
- Several bosses milling about as well. Maybe even groups headed by bosses depending on how hard you want to make it.

Ok my 2 cents:

• The 'bazillion critters' effect. Put your horde of nasties in a big open area when the player first encounters them - let the player see that there are about a bazillion little critters up ahead. This gives the player time to choose the best weapon for the job, go and heal, or save the game for lots of replay later (I must have played the Ravenholm cemetary scene from HL2 about a hundred times). Some players might crap themselves when they first see the true size of your horde, but they'll appreciate overcoming it all the more once they've slapped their last nasty aside.


• Let the player get the first whack. Some players might want to find some decent cover, or set some booby traps, or just run in there and start smashing/slashing/fragging away (Deus Ex is a great example of a game that does this). Personally, I'd like to throw a nice grenade in there just to soften them critters up. Ambushing the nasties while they're all naked and dancing 'round the fire is much more fun than being ambushed in the jungle by a bazillion nasties while you're thinking about beans on toast.


• Lots of routes for nasties to come from. Make the player cover all angles, move around to better cover, choose his shots carefully, and really get into the thick of it. Keep your players on their toes and they'll love every minute of it.


• Give the player lots of one-hit critters that flood from everywhere, but also one or two slumbering nasties that take a few hits but can tare you a new one if they get too close. Keep him backing up and running away from fights that are just too big. Put a few 'boss' critters in there who order the others around - once the bosses are down, reduce the the other critters' chance of spotting and/or overwhelming the player.


• For God's sake don't fade the corpses out if you can help it. Clutter the area with remnants if you can - make it _look_ like there's a fight going on. Give the player a nice big pile of bodies as he wades through the horde - get the critters to leap over the bodies as they approach.


• Character superiority. In Jedi Outcast, you commonly come across a huge room full of stormtroopers who have absolutely _NO_ chance of hurting you - your lightsaber deflects every blaster shot away. The room is suddenly a playground for the player - feel free to wade in there, chopping arms and legs off, mind-tricking stormtroopers to turn against their best pals, force-throwing stormtroopers into walls, and so on. This is always fun as long as the player has such abilities at his disposal - simply blasting away would have been a little tedious!

My best hack'n'slash moments:

• Ravenholm cemetary scene.


• Swatting stormtroopers around with the force in jedi outcast. (Install the dismember mod, find lots of stormies, use force speed and quickly zip in there and chop everyone into bits - sometimes you'll get them all before they've even realised you're attacking)


• There's a really good swarm of nasties in one of the black isle games - it might be icewind dale 2 - that took me a while to complete but was lots of fun.


• Anywhere I get to shoot lots of imps with the shotgun in DOOM or DOOM2
  

cheers,
jones.

By far the best melee situation I've ever seen in a video game (that I can think of right now) is the Mercenaries mini-game in Resident Evil 4.

It's a little more desperate than what you're probably going for. Even if you're a mightier warrior, though, you'll appreciate the interactive environments (diving through windows, knocking down ladders, blowing up barrels, bracing doors with furniture, etc.), the reactive and varied enemies (I love shooting the torches and igniting the guys carrying them. Same goes for dynamite), and the crisp controls for firearms and melee combat (suplex!).

Another great example is the Dynasty Warriors series. A handful of moves, a few buttons, and you've got a rich, diverse control scheme for kicking hundreds of asses.

ajones' advice about a few tough guys in there with the weenies is very good. Halo knew this, and so did Resident Evil 4. You can fight off an unlimited supply of Grunts with just a rifle and a few grenades, but one or two Elites in there will really mix it up. Ganados can swarm all they want, but when one chainsaw dude shows up, it's time to drop a 'nade and find a window.

Here's one of my favourite: Phobia 2. No nonsense, just shoot as many aliens as you can, before they get you. Also it's sequel Phobia III (for which I can't find a link) is very good.

This reminds me so much about Serious Sam: The Second Encounter.

Quote:

Original post by James Trotter This reminds me so much about Serious Sam: The Second Encounter.

What I really hated in Serious Sam was the monsters appearing from nowhere. Doom suffered from the same problem. Don't do that!
In Phobia 2 and 3 the aliens always come from the edges of the screen as you would expect.

I really liked the combat in Oni myself (though i think mixing in back-yard wrestling moves was out of place and annoying after the umpteenth unblockable suplex..), weapons and ammunition were pretty rare but effective, so most of time i'd be kicking butt with fancy moves. Whatever action game i'm playing, be it Doom, System Shock, Halo, Resident Evil, i enjoy having my back to the wall with only 2 clips of ammo left, and armies of zombies around the corner (Halo's 2 weapon limit and the ability to pick up and go catered to this very well).

Except the monsters in Serious Sam were never a grave threat. The "suprises" were really effective there.

Serious Sam is the finest example of 'fun' First person hack/slash you'll ever find. Many monsters, amusing monsters, excellent pacing, satisfying means of dispatching monsters, no environment problems to interfere with dispatching of monsters, excellent pacing, pretty shiny things in between hacks and slashes...

Play it if you can find the full copy.