Assassin’s Creed: Origins Director Details New Combat System

The newest installment of the Assassin’s Creed series is bringing a lot of new things to the table, one of them being a revamped combat system. Assassin’s Creed: Origins game director Ash Ismail talked in-depth about the improved combat in the above IGN First video.

Although they focus on killing people, AC games have never been known for their combat. Origins is looking to change that. Ismail described the main difference between past combat and the improved system developers have implemented for Origins.

“In previous Assassin’s Creed games, fighting was a paired animation system. When you pressed attack, you and an enemy would come together regardless of distance, play an animation, then split apart. We wanted to move away from that,” he told IGN. “We’ve gone to a hitbox system. If you press attack, you’re going to swing your weapon and if something’s there, it gets hit and takes damage, and if nothing’s there, you swing at the air and maybe open yourself up. Suddenly the range of your weapon, the speed of your weapon, the range of your enemies and their equipment — all of this matters.”

More details on the combat system are offered in the video, like light and heavy attacks, as well as combo attacks. The system also offers shields for defense and parrying, dodge rolls for evading attacks, and charged special attacks for each weapon.

Weapons have new categories, each with different stats for power, range, and speed, so combat will be a learning experience as you get accustomed to the many weapons. There are ranged weapons with their own stats and attributes as well.

Watch the full IGN video for all the details, and it’s easy to see Assassin’s Creed combat has received a needed and thorough overhaul.

Assassin’s Creed: Origins launches on PS4, Xbox One, and PC October 27th.