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What makes an easy (or hard) melee enemy? It depends on the combat game, but there are common enemy characteristics found in most melee games. Reverse engineering games is an exercise every game designer should do. Let’s look at the FIRST enemy in God of War. #gamedesign 
The Draugr is the first enemy you fight and, unsurprisingly, it’s not much of a threat on its own. Its ROLE is to be a “punching bag.” On a side note, another fun game design exercise is to read up on your favorite game wiki and design additional content on paper.
AGGRESSION - Enemy attack frequency is a big factor in combat difficulty. I use the “Block Test” (if the game has one) where I stand and block to observe how often they attack. The Draugr has a TONS of downtime where it just idles - which is encouraging you to hit it.
MOVEMENT SPEED - The faster the enemy, the sooner they can get into attack range, making the player uncomfortable. The Draugr’s speed is relatively fast giving the ILLUSION it's dangerous since the rest of their properties are so weak. Speed matters more in numbers with them.
ATTACK RANGE - Draugrs ONLY attack at close range, meaning the player has more time to react or plan if the enemy is farther away. Enemies that can attack from close AND far range increases the player’s cognitive load during a fight.
ATTACK SPEED - Average reaction time is ~.25s. The faster an enemy attack, the more you rely on pattern recognition, strategy and patience. Draugr attacks hit at roughly 0.5s giving the player time to read and react. Players can also land an attack when they start theirs. 1/2
Prior to attacking but once choosing to attack, the Draugr plays a "Movement Enter" animation that serves as a visual tell to let the player know they are going to be attacked by this enemy. Inadvertently works as a double attack tell. 2/2
ATTACK READABILITY - Posing and time to hit go hand in hand to make an attack readable to the player. An attack can be generous in how long it takes to hit, but if the posing is poor or not exaggerated enough, the player won’t be able to confidently judge when it’ll hit. 1/2
With a side by side comparison, you can see the Draugr has distinct silhouettes during all of its pre-hit attack stages (move/aggro to target, startup pose, early follow-through pose). 2/2
ATTACK RECOVERY - Draugr spends a decent amount of time being locked into his attack before it’s allowed to reset and attack/move again. Enemy attack recovery provides a cumulative time effect in combat that gives the player additional breathing room to attack or reposition.
ATTACK COMBO - Draugr’s main attack is a grand total of 1 swing! Even if it hits the player, it will reset and enter a “cooldown” period and back away from the player. This gives the player time to process what just happened without having to worry about follow up attacks.
ATTACK TRACKING - Draugr turns towards a target during the attack startup frames to have a chance to hit. I use the “Walk Test” to move the player away from an incoming attack. Generally, easier enemy attacks can be avoided by walking out of their range.
ENEMY MOVESET - This Draugr only has 2 attacks both of which are close range and hit roughly around the same time. This allows the player to “test drive” the combat mechanics with very little cognitive load or advanced strategy.
GROUP AGGRESSION - Using the “Block Test”, you can observe the frequency that 2 enemies attack the player. Referred to as “taking turns”, each enemy will generally attack after the other enemy has finished. 1/2
There’s probably other factors that determine how far apart these enemies will initiate their attack (as in one instance they both attacked at the same time). In the video, they usually alternate between attacking if they are roughly the same distance away from the player. 2/2
DAMAGE OUTPUT - The Draugr’s attack depletes roughly 15% of Kratos’ starting health. Obviously, this makes combat very forgiving during these teaching moments. Their damage output becomes more dangerous during harder encounters.
ATTACK STRENGTH - The player’s hit reaction is very minimal - no knockdown and recovers much quicker than the Draugr has time to reset and attack again. Kratos actually recovers (allowed to perform any action) before the Draugr is completely done recovering from his attack. 1/2
Even when the player blocks its attack, it plays a big reaction with a lot of recovery just to illustrate how weak of an enemy it is. 2/2
HEALTH - It takes 7 axe swings to kill this enemy. The first enemy is here to make the player feel powerful but also teach/learn other mechanics. These 7 hits serve to encourage the player to try the axe throw, launcher and other means to inflict damage faster via risk reward.
DEFENSE - This Draugr has no abilities to preemptively guard, counter or evade axe swings (unlike later enemies) so once the player makes contact, they’ll most likely die unless there are other enemies around to interrupt the player.
ENEMY STRENGTH - Aside from having no defense to escape player attacks, once this enemy is hit, they will take hit reactions that last longer than the fastest of the player’s attacks - this is what is referred to in fighting game circles as being “stun locked.” 1/2
I believe harder God of War difficulty modes gives these first enemies hit armor where player attacks do not cause hit reactions. Definitely a method to make the combat harder since they can freely attack while getting hit. 2/2
