The In-Game Versus Mechanics Need To Be Reworked
scrubjr
Member Posts: 4
I understand that the fighting-game-esque vs. action gameplay in Marvel Contest of Champions is not necessarily the main focus of or most important aspect the game, however I do think that it is one of the most fun and enjoyable aspects of the experience. Considering this, it's a bit of a shame how many issues there are with the mechanics of it in my opinion.
This is mainly an issue with the online player vs player modes, because having a balanced tightly designed game isn't really necessary when it's a singleplayer player vs computer experience. And for what it is, I think it's very fun. It's simple and tight to control on phone screens, punchy, responsive, and satisfying. When it's head to head between two players, however, both of them are actively trying to win and strategy gets introduced into the fighting of the game, which introduces some glaring issues keeping it from being as fun as it could possibly be.
THE PROBLEM
First of all, defensive play is much too powerful, it's very easy to run away and avoid interaction with your opponent. I think the developers were aware of this at least somewhat due to the noticeable lack of a match timer, meaning you cannot run away and run the clock out on a lead. That's a good start, but it doesn't address the main issue of the neutral game, and that is blocking. Holding block seems to be a theoretically unbeatable strategy in the Vs modes, as you can unblock and counter attack extremely quickly. This leads to block being a perfect wall of defense, if your opponent jabs it or does their super attack, you can almost immediately let go of shield and counter jab them in response, leading to a full damage combo. The game does give a solution to counter blocking though, and that is the strong attack.
The strong attack has a host of problems in of itself. In traditional fighting games, the counter to simply holding block is a grab, and grabs are very fast in these games, usually coming out in 3 to 5 frames and this is because a slow choreographed counter to blocking doesn't work, and that's the issue with the strong attack in Marvel Contest of Champions. Because of the way a strong attack is inputted, it takes almost three fourths a second before the actual attack starts, with a noticeable choreographed pose while charging the attack. This means that if your opponent attempts to strong attack you out of your block, you can react to the strong attack before it comes out, let go of block, and quickly counterattack before your opponents ever hits.
This issue is also exacerbated by the game's meager chip damage against shield. This means that even if your opponent is playing smart enough to not go for the strong attack or medium attack and they instead send flurries of quick weak attacks to pressure your shield, it barely even does any damage to the person shielding, making this form of shield counterplay equally as ineffectual. There's also the low amount of block stun these attacks do, making dropping shield and counter attacking a common possibility.
HOW TO FIX IT
There are a couple ways you could go about solving these problems. One would be making strong attack faster and less choreographed which is a good idea, but I think that would be under-doing it, and it may be difficult for the development team to individually address every character's strong attack and tweak them accordingly. I think that, instead, universal changes to the blocking mechanic are necessary. One main fix would be adding lag to the shield release animation, which would make baiting and counterattacking a less effective strategy. Another good change would be increasing the amount of block stun the light and especially medium attacks do, making extended block pressure sequences more viable. Increasing the chip damage on block would also be a good way to promote block pressure.
There are definitely other problems with Vs. mode like the quasi-infinite "wake-up strong attack" looping combo some characters can perform in the corners of the stage, and how level 3 specials are still high damage unblockable cinematics in vs mode with no counterplay, but I just wanted to explain some of the core issues I believe are hurting the Vs. modes in this post.
Thank you for reading.
This is mainly an issue with the online player vs player modes, because having a balanced tightly designed game isn't really necessary when it's a singleplayer player vs computer experience. And for what it is, I think it's very fun. It's simple and tight to control on phone screens, punchy, responsive, and satisfying. When it's head to head between two players, however, both of them are actively trying to win and strategy gets introduced into the fighting of the game, which introduces some glaring issues keeping it from being as fun as it could possibly be.
THE PROBLEM
First of all, defensive play is much too powerful, it's very easy to run away and avoid interaction with your opponent. I think the developers were aware of this at least somewhat due to the noticeable lack of a match timer, meaning you cannot run away and run the clock out on a lead. That's a good start, but it doesn't address the main issue of the neutral game, and that is blocking. Holding block seems to be a theoretically unbeatable strategy in the Vs modes, as you can unblock and counter attack extremely quickly. This leads to block being a perfect wall of defense, if your opponent jabs it or does their super attack, you can almost immediately let go of shield and counter jab them in response, leading to a full damage combo. The game does give a solution to counter blocking though, and that is the strong attack.
The strong attack has a host of problems in of itself. In traditional fighting games, the counter to simply holding block is a grab, and grabs are very fast in these games, usually coming out in 3 to 5 frames and this is because a slow choreographed counter to blocking doesn't work, and that's the issue with the strong attack in Marvel Contest of Champions. Because of the way a strong attack is inputted, it takes almost three fourths a second before the actual attack starts, with a noticeable choreographed pose while charging the attack. This means that if your opponent attempts to strong attack you out of your block, you can react to the strong attack before it comes out, let go of block, and quickly counterattack before your opponents ever hits.
This issue is also exacerbated by the game's meager chip damage against shield. This means that even if your opponent is playing smart enough to not go for the strong attack or medium attack and they instead send flurries of quick weak attacks to pressure your shield, it barely even does any damage to the person shielding, making this form of shield counterplay equally as ineffectual. There's also the low amount of block stun these attacks do, making dropping shield and counter attacking a common possibility.
HOW TO FIX IT
There are a couple ways you could go about solving these problems. One would be making strong attack faster and less choreographed which is a good idea, but I think that would be under-doing it, and it may be difficult for the development team to individually address every character's strong attack and tweak them accordingly. I think that, instead, universal changes to the blocking mechanic are necessary. One main fix would be adding lag to the shield release animation, which would make baiting and counterattacking a less effective strategy. Another good change would be increasing the amount of block stun the light and especially medium attacks do, making extended block pressure sequences more viable. Increasing the chip damage on block would also be a good way to promote block pressure.
There are definitely other problems with Vs. mode like the quasi-infinite "wake-up strong attack" looping combo some characters can perform in the corners of the stage, and how level 3 specials are still high damage unblockable cinematics in vs mode with no counterplay, but I just wanted to explain some of the core issues I believe are hurting the Vs. modes in this post.
Thank you for reading.
1
Comments
You are aware you don't fight actual players in this game, right?
Like zero. Zip. Zilch.
Absolutely 100% of the time you're fighting AI... in every form of gameplay.
Edit: just saw your name. Now I have my doubts about the sincerity of your post
Even if those truly are AI, I have memory of friending other users and playing versus them online, which would be considered a "form of gameplay."
In arena, duels and quick match; you're fighting AI just as you would in story mode.