As a preface, I want to get one thing straight here. I do not think boomhits are a bad thing and am at no point trying to get a concept like this across! They are merely a possible ingredient that you can decide to add to (or randomly have appear and decide to keep in) your replays. Kind of like how chocolate is not a necessary component of a cake but a chocolate cake sure can be delicious!

Now that's out of the way, let me throw the main concept out here. Generally, boomhits are vastly overrated by the community. I think a good part of this is due to many replay makers starting off on the multiplayer side of the game, where there is a much greater focus on harder hits, higher points and greater dismemberments making a better battle. Sure, I'd agree there's nothing wrong with the way this works - that's pretty much how multiplayer is meant to be played. However, single player is a completely different ball game in practice and this is largely due to one feature - the ability to try again.

Since you can test your moves, experiment with variations, correct your mistakes and tweak every last joint until you get the desired result, single player really needs to be looked at differently. The "bigger = better" consensus of multiplayer need not apply here. You need to adopt a different mindset to be able to appreciate a smooth, flowing kick to the neck that only gets a decap can be as good as a similarly smooth kick to the chest that breaks both pecs and the chest joint combined. The actual placing of the kick should not matter so much, it's the kick itself, along with the movements preceding and following it that should be the focus of attention here.

If you are going for a joint cluster such as the chest though, it's an opinion among many people that it's best to get as many dismemberments as possible in that hit. Sure, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that but at the end of the day it's just that, an opinion. Just because someone didn't spend an extra 15 minutes tweaking a hit to get one extra dismemberment doesn't mean their replay is now objectively worse than it could have been. Maybe they were looking to make a delicious savoury replay and the chocolate boomhit would have completely ruined the intended flavour?



This thread is open to discussion on the above article. Keep it civil and feel free to post/link replays to illustrate your points (NOT for C&C purposes).