How is combat going to be handled?

[jdnation]

Doubt they'd do that. It is more probable they'll redesign the Eddie boss fight, making you chase him around a larger prison/meat factory, avoiding obstacles, and throwing a few waves of enemies at you before you reach Eddie again to take your next shot.

[Droo]

Doubt they'd do that. It is more probable they'll redesign the Eddie boss fight, making you chase him around a larger prison/meat factory, avoiding obstacles, and throwing a few waves of enemies at you before you reach Eddie again to take your next shot.

That's fine so long as they majorly overhaul that battle because it's easily the weakest and least realistic part of the game, if not whole series.

[DinoNerd89]

I personally won't be surprised if the Eddie fight is removed entirely. Unlike the Cybil fight he isn't possessed by a monster or anything. He's still just a dude. It's entirely unrealistic for him to be able to take multiple bullets without them slowing him down, crippling him, or killing him.

The whole thing is very out of place. I can see the encounter playing out in just a cutscene this time.

That fight always baffled me too. I can understand regular monsters, and especially bosses being being a bit of a bullet sponge, but a normal human? One shot to the head should of taken him down, especially from the shotgun or rifle.

[leftshoe18]

I mean, sometimes a video game just does video game stuff. A boss fight that was as simple as shooting the enemy once wouldn't be very engaging (though the combat of the original SH2 wasn't very engaging most of the time anyway).

[Droo]

I mean, sometimes a video game just does video game stuff. A boss fight that was as simple as shooting the enemy once wouldn't be very engaging (though the combat of the original SH2 wasn't very engaging most of the time anyway).

I suppose when you think about it, the protagonists could also withstand being shot multiple times by enemies as well. Harry by Cybil. James by Eddie. Heather by nurses. Henry by Walter.

[Burning Man]

There's very little reason to think that the bullets are any more real than the monsters. There's only a few cases where the bullets are likely real (Cybil's handgun since that was brought in from the real world) but it's not unreasonable to think that their effectiveness varies depending on the wielder or the target in the other world - in some sense similar to the description of the Seal of Metatron.

In the fight between James and Eddie, James consciousness is holding him back from killing another human being. So, the effectiveness of his weapons aren't the same as in the real world.

The Heather-Nurse comparison is interesting. On Extreme X, a gunshot from a nurse will take Heather's health down to critical.

[jdnation]

I do feel the original did undermine itself here. It's a very small room, and monsters are one thing, but James and Eddie ought to be getting hurt more. This is why I think a chase sequence would be better and you'll have to shoot each other from a distance.

Setting: Prison leading to meat factory/Slaughter house

Phase 1- You chasing Eddie through lengthy but looping facility. All doors locked. Monsters/Obstacles get in your way. Eddie occasionally turns to fire at you. You never close the gap. Get 3 shots from the distance, make it seem like Eddie is only narrowly getting bruised. Eddie then runs down regular hallway through nearest doors, now unlocked. Chase Eddie.

Phase 2- Go through doors into an otherworld meat storage freezer room. Huge chunks of meat on hooks from ceiling swinging around, moving on impossible conveyor belts, twitching etc. Size of room is impossible to determine, seemingly infinite. Door you came through is gone. Meat obscures your visibility. You and Eddie playing hide and seek. If Eddie gets close behind you and takes a shot at point blank range, you die. You can try to shoot him from distance 3 times, or once at point blank range to win. Or get close to Melee him enough (Risky).

Then Cutscene. At Cutscene end you emerge back inside a regular meat storage room. Continue out towards Toluca Lake.

[Skele]

The Eddie fight should definitely get changed into a good cat and mouse scenario. Make it more similar to the Ellie boss fight in TLOU2, where if you get caught it's an insta-kill. I'd rather have that over Eddie eating 20 bullets for dessert before he awkwardly falls over and dies. The only problem is I don't know if Bloober knows how to pull this off, so I'd settle for just making it a melee fight instead, and then you have the option to use a gun at the end to finish him off.

[jdnation]

Well, like TLOU1, you could have a shoot-out with the 3-shots and you win rule. The animation just needs to sell you that the first two weren't lethal, or just grazed you. Possible with a dot-like 3rd person shooter reticule with drifting/unsteadiness from a distance even if aiming at the head.

In fact I think that's a good idea overall. You can aim with traditional over the shoulder 3rd person controls, but James should be unsteady - meaning you're likely to hit the general area, but not with pinpoint accuracy.

The reticule can be small and steady, but James' arms/hands should be swaying and moving a bit.

But I don't want glowing weak-points on enemies, nor the need to perfectly target one.

[The Adversary]

I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see an Eddie "boss" fight at all. He'll probably kill himself on his own terms.