The days of the "tap X to win" combat strategy in Assassin's Creed could be falling to the wayside as Assassin's Creed Unity is nixing the series staple of counter kills and chain kills.
Get A Taste Of Unity's Cooperative Multiplayer
In many ways, Unity has offered Ubisoft a fresh start for the Assassin's Creed series. It's the franchise's first foray into exclusively new-gen consoles, and the Montreal-based developer is taking the opportunity to rethink the way the game works. It's why the game is simply called Unity instead of Assassin's Creed V. The game is leaving a lot of tropes from its predecessors behind, and that includes the combat system.
.@StriderMeow That won't be possible anymore since we removed the counter and chain-counter. The guards are also more aggressive! #AskACBen
— Assassin's Creed (@assassinscreed) August 16, 2014
The new information comes from a public Q-and-A session with Lead Game Designer Benjamin Plich via the @assassinscreed Twitter page, which also goes into many elements of the game's multiplayer co-op and custimization options. You can find a summary of the Q-and-A over on the Assassin's Creed subreddit.
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Fans of the Assassin's Creed series are likely all too familiar with the breezy combat system of games past. After an initial timed counter, players only had to continue tapping the attack button while flinging around the analog stick, and soon enough Ezio was standing ankle deep in the lifeless remains of about a dozen of Rome's finest soldiers.
The new combat system in Unity seems to have replaced the counter with the parry, a move that still keeps Arno from taking damage but doesn't automatically dispatch with the opponent. Instead, it grants Arno an opening to gain the upper hand in the battle, but not without some skill on the player's side. This combined with the increase in enemy aggression Plich mentions should make for a suitably engaging combat system. Hopefully, beefing up the combat difficulty will also better incentivize taking the stealthy approach more often than charging into a heated situation sword first.
Ubisoft's other Assassin's Creed game coming out this year, Assassin's Creed Rogue, seems to be more similar to the Kenway saga in terms of game engine, so this revamp in combat might only be present for the new-gen offerings this year. If Unity can set a good example, though, future Assassin's Creed games will hopefully be able to focus less on guard slaughter and more on working in the shadows, like any good Assassin should.
