Assassin's Creed 5: 10 Essential Features It Needs To Overhaul

7. Combat

Before the excellent Arkham Asylum came along, the combat in Assassin's Creed always felt pretty solid, and whilst gamers would often find themselves sticking to a couple of trusted weapons it remained fresh. Then Batman happened; Rocksteady showed the world how this sort of combat system could work, with everything coming down to timing and precision, almost like a rhythm game in some respects. Since the Arkham games, Ubisoft have failed to capture anything close to how good Rocksteady made their combat feel. There is always a satisfaction to pulling off certain finishing moves - particularly in Black Flag - but combat often felt repetitive and strangely weightless, not to mention the difficulties of making sure you're actually attacking the right person. For the next game Ubisoft need to come up with a way to give the combat more heft; we should feel the impact of our protagonist's punches and sword fighting should feel more visceral and organic. There is nothing inherently wrong with the system the developers have chosen to use, but they need to make it more reliable and less random-feeling.