- There is no hit detection at all. The game calculates a hit by whether the target is in range + the reticle is right on top of them. You basically shoot an attack out of your reticle like a super low range bullet that moves at the speed of light and is only 1 pixel wide.
- All weapons have the same attack speed and reach isn't even a factor in combat.
- There is no variation to attack swings whatsoever. There are no slashes or thrusts, just a generic pew pew attack.
- Movement is fubar'd to all hell. You can just run backwards forever and kite someone since you move at the same speed. At high skill, jump allows you to fly faster than people can run, so chases just turn into two people jumping around and mashing their mouse button.
- There is no commitment to making attacks, so you can just mash your attack for as long as you have stamina. In M&B, making an attack makes you vulnerable and the animation commits you to the swings you make.
- Positioning doesn't matter because there is only one hit box.
- Dodging and parrying aren't actual dodges or blocks, but merely instant damage mitigators that reduce the damage done by the magic pixel cursor bullet.
- And then there's that whole range thing you dismissed... because you know... it's not like it's an important factor in a game with an archery skill, right?
You might as well just make an argument that PacMan is almost like M&B because you can go around and eat ghosts in real time. Actually PacMan has better combat because it doesn't require you to futilely try to keep a reticle on someone while mashing the shit out of two mouse buttons.
Well XYSON has probably the worst combat system I've ever seen. So hooray for blazing that trail.