Starfield players want changes to “lame” melee combat

Starfield players want changes to the game’s “lame” melee combat and more options when it comes to building around them.

Starfield features some incredibly powerful skills and traits that can help give you an advantage over your opponents. In fact, when you combine this with the best Starfield weapons, you can easily breeze through even the game’s toughest enemies.

However, players who opt to use a melee build have found that their weapon and build options have led to them being outclassed by their ranged counterparts. This is obviously disappointing for those who prefer to slice and dice their way through quests, especially considering past Bethesda games have famously featured some incredibly satisfying melee builds.

Starfield players want changes to melee combat & builds

“Melee combat is extremely underwhelming this time around,” said one frustrated player. “[There’s] very few weapon choices, all with the same attack patterns, low base damage, no mods, no power synergy, etc. The best melee weapon I found still only does about 100 damage per swing, which is much lower than even one shot from a shotgun or semi-auto.”

This is obviously incredibly frustrating for fans who prefer to use melee-focused builds in open-world games. In fact, Bethesda’s very own Fallout series enabled players to use some incredibly powerful and satisfying melee weapons.

While there are perks that can help alleviate the issues of melee combat in Starfield, one of the biggest issues is the overall lack of damage and survivability when using them.

“I can’t imagine how you’d ever actually [use] melee without V.A.T.S. and better stealth,” replied another player. “Melee weapons also don’t scale like ranged weapons, there are no ‘advanced’ weapons, so the game just expects you to change your weapon whenever you reach a new tier, really lame.”

However, Starfield fans are hopeful Blizzard can improve melee combat and builds in the future. “I’m thinking this is one of those things we’ll see improved upon with coming updates,” commented one player.

“It certainly feels like a partial package in certain regards, but with a game this massive and [being] already delayed once, it’s not inconceivable that they’ll add good melee weapons. Mods too.”

Whether Bethesda improves upon the overall melee experience in Starfield remains to be seen, but for now, you may want to take extra care before you go swinging your axe around.