User blog:Thedoucheinthenorth/The combat of Skyrim - yay or nay?

I did write a blog not so long ago which provoked an interesting debate on this issue, and it got me thinking. I personally like the combat in Skyrim, but I haven't played many open-world games and almost no other medieval based open-worlds. It does look slightly silly when your pummeling a mage or whoever with massive swings of a steel warhammer, but the killcam things when you smash in their skull are satisfying.

Defining combat
Either way, this does not seem to be the heart of the issue. When we speak of combat, we speak of damage, velocity, fluidity, enemies, upgrading combat skills, physical/projecticle (i.e. using weaponry) and indeed magical. Do the swords swing fast enough? Are the axes sharp enough to shave with? Do the maces cause enough damage to rip apart the space/time continuum, destroy Chuck Norris, Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson (I never understood why the toughest people have first names begining with 'c') all in one swing while simultaneously resurrecting, Lorkhan, Trinimac and Talos? (he's alive as a god, but not in his human form o/c)

In my experience...
A lot of the time, one's concept of weaponry often seems to be based upon what one uses what weapons on. If you use an iron sword on a dragon of course it will take no easy time to kill it. If you use a steel warhammer (I love this thing) on a frost troll of course it will unrealistically kill it in only two hits or more. Two-handed and One-handed, to some (I would call them cynics) seem to be dogged by the same problems of this concept of 'whack-a-mole combat'. (nota bene: I did coin that term. Look on my blog "Two gameplay faults with Skyrim") By that, I mean you simplistically hit the enemy until they fall to the ground. I never actually had much of a problem with combat until I started looking for faults. I always thought it was a little bit hit slash bludgeon, but with the advent of spears in Dragonborn, I'll be able to stab once I get the DLC. More or less though, armed combat seems good to me. It can be improved, like anything, but for now I'm not complaining.

Magic combat is a little bit different. I don't really use a whole lot of magic, so I'm the last person who should be commenting on this, but I've suffered my fair share of irritating mages. They seemed adamant on using frost atronachs, fire, lighting, ice, and many other routine magical attacks, but every once in a while I'll come across and Arch-Mage or whoever who forces out of my comfort zone of combat.

Conclusions
What do you think of the functional effectiveness of Skyrim's combat? Is there room for debate? Is it vexing, or are you covered by Skyrim's combat plans? Let me know on the comments section below.

I may add to this blog in the coming days/weeks/months/years, but for now this is off the top of my mind. Consider this edit 1.

-TDITN