How is Assassin’s Creed Origins combat different from the past?

Ubisoft had Assassin’s Creeed Origins Game Director Ashraf Ismail participate in a video QA for fans. The entire thing, coming in at just shy of five minutes, is focused on breaking down the game’s combat.

Here’s the video in its entirety.

The very first question Ismail answers is, in my opinion, the best in the clip. The question is “What would you say is the biggest change to combat in Assassin’s Creed?”

Ismail indicated that in previous Assassin’s Creed titles, combat was basically a series of engaged animations. If you swung your sword, you would line up with the enemy and engage in a one-on-one animation that plays out.

In Assassin’s Creed Origins, Ubisoft decided to move away from scripted animations towards actual hitboxes. Where you are, how you swing, the weapon you use, your distance from your opponent and the speed at which your weapon moves now all actually affect combat. Instead of simply playing out pre-scripted animations, you’ll actually fight in the way you would in, say, something like Bloodborne.

Article source: https://www.technobuffalo.com/2017/08/20/how-is-assassins-creed-origins-combat-different-from-the-past/