Battle Shapers has my favorite melee attack of 2023 so far

The movement and gunplay in upcoming FPS Battle Shapers are satisfyingly smooth and responsive, but oh my god, the punch. You play as Ada, a combat android who handles like Overwatch’s Doomfist and looks like Mega Man Zero’s forgotten daughter, and who’s been tasked with junking out-of-control robots—in part with her giant mechanical fist. That fist has become my favorite melee weapon of the year so far. 

The tutorial introduces Ada’s punch as a way to gain shields back from enemies by finishing them off Doom 2016 style, but there’s so much more to it. Stepping backwards will charge a knockout uppercut, pressing forward delivers a brutal forward jab, and hopping left or right brings out nasty hooks. Once I figured these mechanics out, my runs stopped ending so prematurely, and Battle Shapers revealed its true hand as a first person beat ’em up.

Guns all have small magazines and awkwardly long reload times, and are used best in short bursts to set up foes for Ada’s prize-fighter fist. Before each run, Ada can switch out her core, which represents a subclasses that determines Ada’s passive and active combat abilities. I gravitated to the Overdrive core, which gives Ada badass Wolverine claws that let you attack while dodging, buffing damage and movement speed for every foe you tag on your path.