10 Things Assassin's Creed Must Learn From Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain

6. Overhauled Animation & A Reliable Set Of Brutally Effective Melee Attacks

There's something about controlling any Assassin's Creed protagonist post-Revelations that feels as though it's pot luck if they do what you want. There's always been a sense of this, with the first game's reputation being that Altair would run the wrong way or get really intimate with the edge of a roof when you were attempting to chase someone down - and since then it's a quality that's never really been refined. Now the games' increased level of animation and graphical polish make for an in-the-moment control loop that's governed by said animations playing out, not what might actually be best for gameplay. You can feel it whenever you try and turn your character around, have to deal with multiple enemies at once or try to infiltrate a place proficiently. You're not controlling your hero in the symbiotic way the best games convey (like MGS V), you're aware you're triggering a set of animations that'll get you from A to B, and that translates to how you deal with enemies too. Rarely do you feel remotely confident strolling up to anyone and trying to take them out; a sharp contrast to the tactile set of animations you have access to in MGS V. Things are stripped down to allow for round-the-corner knockouts, grab n' choke interrogations and three-hit melee strikes. You know exactly what you have access to, no matter if the alarm bells are ringing or you're still thinning the ranks, and pulling them all off feels effortless and above all; fun.