10 Ways Assassin's Creed Origins Has Already Saved The Franchise

8. Completely Overhauled Combat & Focus On Stealth

Following on from classes, ACO's combat is quite literally Dark Souls. No longer do you attack with the face buttons, instead it's a lock-on with the right stick and usage of the shoulder buttons to attack or defend.

Souls fans will know this to be one of the most tactile and satisfying combat engines in gaming, though for Origins, there are some slight changes.

Where in Dark Souls, L1/L2 is used to ready a shield or parry, and R1/R2 is for quick and heavy attacks, here both L1 and R1 are 'short' attacks (presumably also used when defending with a shield), and L2/R2 is longer range.

This puts the impetus on placement and range as attacks now matter more than ever, goading your opponent to strike first and countering for the win. Long-time fans will remember how much the original AC's combat was an exercise in waiting for a counter prompt, and this feels like a semi-natural extension of that.

Also taken from FromSoftware's games, you'll be able to dual wield, and as mentioned, we'll gain access to a shield to block arrows for the first time, meaning no more scrambling for an enemy to use as a human pincushion.

All in all, if the animation can come together (the E3 presentation looked very spotty in places), this will be a very welcome upgrade.