Assassin's Creed Origins: 14 Most Promising New Features

4. That Overhauled Combat System

By far the most notable and discussed element of Assassin's Creed is the new combat system. Gutting the old 'just keep pushing buttons to win' setup and replacing it with literally the behind-the-back 'Dark Souls model', we now have a completely different approach to any encounter.

In Ubisoft's words they've built something focused on hitboxes, meaning if the tip of your swung sword doesn't hit the frame of your attacker, it won't do damage. This is contrast to past systems where hitting buttons would 'match' your hero and enemies together for semi-canned animations once you were within range.

Now it really matters whether you're wielding a sword, spear, dagger etc. There's a genuine and immediate difference to crowd-managing with dual swords as wider arcs can catch multiple enemies - or you could hang back and poke them to death with a spear.

This approach to combat is why Dark Souls is so revolutionary, and it's no wonder a franchise as big as AC is taking all the right components going forward.