5 Survival Horror Games With The Best Melee Combat, Ranked

Although the genre is built mostly around avoiding combat and staying away from enemies, survival horror isn’t without its own forms of combat. And when it comes to survival horror, melee combat is sometimes where the focus lies. Most protagonists in the genre aren’t trained soldiers or fighters, but everyday people.

Survival horror protagonists tend to be ordinary people that are thrown into extraordinary circumstances, so the idea of everyday items being weapons has become a staple. Some games in the genre, however, have some great melee combat systems. These games break the stigma of survival horror having awkward combat. They have proven to be the best in this long-running genre, where using melee weapons to fend off monsters lurking in the darkness is a common occurrence.

5 Silent Hill

Use Melee Weapons Against The Forces Of Darkness

Conceived as a competitor to Resident Evil, Silent Hill went in a different direction and studied the complex inner workings of the human psyche. While Silent Hill does offer some guns as a way to dispatch the nightmares of the cursed town, the best part of the game’s combat is its melee system.

Thanks to the game’s excellent sound design, with weapons that feature an appropriately dull thud upon impact, the whole thing meshes together in a way that is both fun and perfectly situated into Silent Hill’s dark examination of humanity. Harry Mason’s swings feel slow and deliberate, the symbol of a man who is fighting for his life for the very first time. Some of the weapons are absolutely gnarly as well, including a rusted pipe and a hammer.

4 Dead Space 2

Improves On The First Game’s Melee Combat

The original Dead Space played a major role in the revitalization of the survival horror genre. Three years later, the sequel launched and made massive improvements to every aspect of the first title. One of the key areas that Visceral Games focused on was the melee system. The combat was perfectly fine in the first entry, but improved in the sequel.

In Dead Space 2, Isaac’s ability to use his hands and feet against the dark horror of outer space has expanded. The game’s developers at Visceral made his melee range shorter, and removed the Necromoprh ability to block punches. It feels much more physical and brutal than the first, as the sound design and blood effects are expertly done. Elements of it carried over into the 2023 remake of Dead Space, proving that this iteration of Isaac Clarke has had a bit of influence on the series moving forward.

3 The Last Of Us

Joel & Ellie Survive The Apocalypse With Brutal Weapons

After being acquired by Sony in 2001, Naughty Dog established themselves as one of the premiere developers in the world and one of PlayStation’s most valuable assets. In 2013, Naughty Dog continued to prove they were worth every penny when they launched The Last of Us. The game was met with worldwide critical acclaim, much of it directed at the title’s delightfully brutal and violent melee combat system.

Survivors Joel and Ellie make their way through the harsh world of The Last of Us with a limited supply of ammo, but melee weapons of all sorts are abundant. Ranging from axes to machetes, metal pipes to shivs, there’s a wide range of deadly weapons at the player’s disposal. Using a neat system where these melee weapons can eventually break after a set number of uses, it forces the player to be smart with their deployment of these offensive tools.

2 Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem

Target Specific Body Parts With Host Of Weaponry

Eternal Darkness was developed initially by Sillicon Knights as an N64 exclusive before moving to the GameCube. The game takes a lot of its inspiration from classic horror stories by Edgar Allan Poe and HP Lovecraft. In this dark, dreary world, the player has access to a great selection of both firearms and melee weapons. But it’s the way these weapons are used that makes Eternal Darkness so much fun.

Using a free-flowing targeting system, Eternal Darkness allows the player to target specific body parts in an effort to gain an advantage over the nightmarish creatures they must fight. With a sword, the player can decapitate and blind enemies, or chop them down limb by limb. It’s a terrific system, one that would do well in a much-deserved remaster for the Switch and its imminent successor.

1 Condemned: Criminal Origins

Survive The Horrors Of True Crime With A Weighty Melee System

Condemned: Criminal Origins was a fascinating title from the seventh generation of video game consoles, released as a console exclusive for the launch of the Xbox 360. This first-person survival horror adventure features a brutal melee combat system, one that takes cues from the action RPGs of the era.

Players can block with the multitude of available weapons, which showcases a great arsenal that ranges from baseball bats to toilet seats. They can then counter-attack, and it all feels excellent. What helps sell this is that the lead character is an FBI agent, lending some credibility to his use of weapons and helping to set Condemned apart from others in the genre. It’s a masterfully done horror experience that is still worth revisiting today.