Anyone else bothered by Unity's Combat Changes?

I feel strongly about this as I've really liked the power you had in previous AC games. In Unity I think they've straight up ruined Assassin's Creed combat full stop. A lot of the coolest shit has been excised from the game. Here's a list.

• Using Hidden Blades as weapons in Open Combat
• Instantly Killing Enemies in Smoke Bombs
• Cool Murder Animations
• Counters instantly killing
• Counter Comboing
• Unarmed Combat
  • Stealing a dude's weapon
  • Murdering him with it
  • Big weapons that kill enemies in one hit
• Gunslinging

Beyond those things the system they've replaced it all with is just awful. At a low level it's not fun at all because you have to wail on dudes to kill them due to the lack of counter killing and, judging from the Quick Look since I'm not interested in playing any more of it, at a high level there's no variety since you have to upgrade individual weapons to being overpowered murder instruments. Gone are the days where you can grab a broom and brain guards with it. In Unity you'll have the weapon you upgraded to full and that's it. Not that you're missing much though obviously since now there's no counter killing there's no cool murder animations anymore for each weapon. Ugh. Terrible. Oh, also I really don't like how apparently you can't counter if you're in the middle of another animation.

Anyway the thing that bothers me right now isn't that Unity is bad. Yes, it's clear that Unity is bad and I'll never play it again. The thing that bothers me is the next game. The one that takes after Unity that doubles down on these changes but fixes the other shit or puts in something new that's good. What if counters instantly killing isn't in Assassin's Creed games anymore? What if counter comboing is just gone from now on? What if you will actually won't be able to disarm dudes and murder them with their own weapons ever again? If that was the case... I don't think I'd ever want to play AC ever again.

Am I the only one who feels this strongly about that part of Unity?

I feel like most of those changes were made to make you feel underpowered without your fellow Assassins. And yes it sucks. Whether it will be in the next AC depends on whether they double down on the co-op. (Maby they'll make AC: Friends and AC: No Friends next year)

Wow. That's pretty interesting and disappointing. I don't have Unity, but if they made the changes you say they did, then yes, that ruins AC combat for me. People complain about combat in the AC games being too easy, but I think that was what made it great. Being able to chain together kills after a successful counter let you easily kill dudes with sometimes brutal animations that continued to make me smile even as I got into the late game. Hopefully with the lukewarm reception Unity and Rogue are getting, Ubisoft will go back to the drawing board and keep the systems that were working, like the counterkill system, and reinvent the rest of the systems a bit.

I really kind of hate many things about Unity, but I thought the combat was really good compared to what the series has been for several years now. All of the flashy instant killing was really awesome in Brotherhood. You felt super powerful and it just looked so damn cool. But instant killing my way through four straight games got very old. Combat began to feel like a total annoyance because there was no challenge to it. Getting swarmed by enemies began to feel like a tedious waste of time, because I knew I was never in danger.

I quite enjoyed feeling underpowered for much of Unity. I didn't upgrade my Assassin very quickly which meant I had to be careful about who I chose to engage, rather than carving a bloody path through the entire game like you can from Brotherhood through Black Flag. I found the counter system in this game really satisfying, even if slashing an enemy 5 times with a sword before he goes down is still silly (and let's be honest, that's almost every game that has swords or weapons of any kind).

Also, I disagree that there aren't any cool kill animations. If anything they're way more brutal in Unity!

I would of preferred if they kept things such as the ability to disarm, but everything else was what made me not care for AC in the last several years(apart from the ship stuff in Black Flag), the problem I have is still I find the combat hasn't changed enough. It feels like a mix of still being nearly the same easy shit as always, and a wannabe batman countering system that feels clunky and can't quite do it right.

I actually like the changes. Now they can have challenging parts in the game without insta fail stealth sections. There was suppose to be that whole stealth/run dynamic in previous ACs but straight up beating and shooting everyone was much faster and easier. You get cought? Whatever, it'll be faster this way anyway.

Now if you've been seen you have to do well at the combat against a few guys to survive instead of murdering an army in your sleep

Makes the coop challenging and meaningful. Haven't tried the end game missions but there's actually end game missions now!

Hard, rewarding content in AC. Something impossible with the uninvolved, easy ass combat of AC 1 through 4.

Now if they could fix all that jank in the AI and get that frame rate up...

I think the gameplay is a fresh change. In the last few AC games, the gameplay was easy as shit, so actually having some challenge is great. Sure, the chain-counter kill mechanic is neat, but it made the game way too easy. And not having cool kill animations is just wrong. Unity has the coolest/most brutal kill animations I've seen in a while.

I hated how easy and boring the combat was AC4. Being OP isn't fun if you don't even earn it. It basically took all the thrill out of being an assassin.

Doesn't sound like Unity necessarily made the right changes, but it definitely needed changes. Shadows of Mordar did counter combat and brutal kills way better than AC.

From what I've played so far the combat is still just as easy and effortless, but no longer really entertaining because all of the entertaining elements have been removed.

I agree, OP. As strongly as you. And like you, I'm afraid it's going to be what they do going forward, and completely ruin the series. I don't understand why they had to change it. Those things have been a series staple for so long, they don't deserve to be removed and replaced (with this slow clunky thing) like that.

I mean, come on, they made the parkour so good... then you get into combat, and it breaks up the pace of the game. What the hell... Should I purposely avoid combat? Is that the reason for the change? What kind of reason is that?

I do hope the devs revert back to the old system. Seriously, I really do feel so bad about this that it not only ruined this game, but the whole series going forward. It was never a huge problem in the old games. You'd think they would have changed it by AC3 if that was the case. But no, they continued on that path because that's what AC combat is. Every single new game built on the combat. Added new moves that you could do (or not do, up to you).

It just sucks. This whole thing. The buggyness and framerate issues aren't even my problem with the game. Taking away fun from the combat is what is.

It's not that I don't like difficult combat. I feel like this combat system reminds me of the Witcher 2, where you have to roll and stuff. And I was fine with it then. But this kind of system has no place in AC...

I really hate not being able to use someone's body as a meat shield against guns

@themasterds: I agree 100%. The previous game's combat wasn't perfect but at least it looked kewl and had animation variety. They didn't make it harder they just made it more boring. They removed the spectical and replaced it with bland tedium

I actually really like the change, I have some issues with it but in general I much prefer the new style. I do wish the hidden blade was a legitimate weapon to use and that smoke bombs let you assassinate guys, and that you could use enemies as human shields against firearms. However I much prefer the new challenge the combat brings over the boring combat of the past few games. It was so easy and there didn't seem to much of an incentive to get new weapons. Also if you don't think there aren't cool finishers than you have not seen the long weapon kills. Also the kills are less flashy but they seem way more brutal.

There is also quite a bit of variety in the weapon choices, you have bladed and blunt versions of one-handed, two-handed, and long weapons. Plus rifles are also one of the melee weapons which include their own brutal finishers.

The increase in difficulty seems to be largely to motivate the player to use the new stealth stuff. Which while it certainly needs some work is a huge step in the right direction for the series. That is kind of my thought on Unity as a whole, it is lacking in a bunch of little things but has made a huge step forward for the series and I can't wait to see how they build upon it.

Im glad they tried something different as in different not different as in "lets make this like Batman too". AC needed some shaking up and changing the combat, even if its ill conceived at this point, is something they needed to get around to doing at this point. I dont want to play a series where the tricks I was using 7 games ago continue to work. That's just not fun.

To those saying the old games were easy yes, they were. You're right. However that did not stop them from being really satisfying when you brained dudes with brooms, plugged dudes with a myriad of guns or stabbed guards a half dozen times just jabbing. It made you feel powerful.

At first in Unity the combat is tedious. Later, if you have the stomach to play on or pay cash money, the combat becomes easy but anticlimactic none the less.

I feel like the system is designed to make weapon stats matter in order to attempt to monetize them. I find the whole thing profoundly crass and, also, not fun at all.

I think this is why they did it also. To try and make people want to play co-op. But I have no interest in playing this type of game with another human. Also, they let you play the co-op missions by yourself, which is really frustrating, because the 5 star leveled ones are damn near impossible by yourself.

Thank god they did that. I haven't played it, but it's pretty fucking stupid that in a Assassin's Creed game you're basically just a T-800. Why would you ever bother with just going about being unseen, if the easiest way is always to kill everybody? I think this is a very smart move by Ubisoft.

I feel these kind of "changes" is just stuff they had to strip out from the game to make it proper next gen.

As you said the combat is very barebone and also how you interact with NPCs (pickpocket anyone?), missions, stealth and so on is very barebone. It suffers the exact same syndroms as all other next gen games like for an example Infamous second son where it looks great but all the features are stripped out. They will probably be on top on things in the next game now when they have got their game engine together.

This is not about the game being easy or not becouse lets face it every single AC game has been an cakewalk so just bury that discussion.

Overall I found the combat to be better, harder and more enjoyable. It required me to be on my guard more, dodge and run away from battles more often. I enjoy the variety of weapons, even if somehow Arno never figures out how to pick up a dropped weapon from an enemy. I don'y miss the super kick from 4 that instantly killed enemies. That made it too easy.

I do notice the enemy AI is far, far dumber. I rarely see them follow me everywhere, especially climbing up buildings. Mostly they just sit down on ground level and forget about me after the timer runs out.

But really, what bothers me most is the complete inability to grab people [or I have at least I never been able to figure it out]. It was a genuine tactic in previous games to grab someone and push/throw them off a ledge for an insta-death or push them into a wall to stumble them and get them out of combat for a cycle or two. Same for picking up a body and placing it so a patrolling enemy is distracted.

If I could make one combat change it would be to bring back the grab function. I miss throwing the roof guards off a tall building. It was just fun. :-)

I think we need another Arkham Asylum moment. The melee combat in all open world games are blending together and are in need of a breakthrough. Shadow of Mordor, Sleeping Dogs, Assassin's Creed 2 through 4, and many others are all copying the same formula that was introduced in 09'. Rocksteady made an incredible melee system that did melee combat right for the first time since...fuck I dunno, God Hand? As good as it is, too many games play exactly the same. You could hand me any of the above listed games and I would know what to do immediately. Hit X to build up a combo, Y to counter. It's universal at this point. What you could do to circumvent this, I don't know. All I know is I would love for someone to bust into the scene with a new, awesome melee system that sets the stage for the next 5-6 years, like Rocksteady did.

I have been obsessed with the series for a while and I got so hyped for unity! I got it for Christmas and it was a massive disappointment due to the awful new combat system! I hate the new system. It makes combat almost impossible for me and takes the fun out of feeling like your unstoppable within the games. Not going to lie, I do absolutely love everything else but the combat has really put me off the series. However, Rogue has been surprisingly enjoyable for me considering 90% of the game is recycled code from the previous games, so that has slightly restored my faith in the series.

Right now though, I'm getting hyped for the new assassins creed film that should be released next year or year after :) lets just hope that's not such a disaster!

i loved how in previous games you could even kill people with your hunting traps and almost any other thing you could wield. the guns in unity are extremely annoying because there are always like 7 guys around you and 3 of them are shooting, even while sprinting they can shoot so running away isn't always an option. but in general i actually liked the game.

@hardnipples: I really disliked Unity, only game that I have taken out and snapped in to small bits. I've gone back to Black flag, love that game.

@chronox I do understand why people dislike it, i also stopped playing it right after i finished the campagn, but i just didn't think it was total crap.. Black Flag was indeed one of the best ones

The combat in the series has been so insanely, extremely boring for me for so long that I'm happy any changes have been made. Combat has always been the worst part of these games for me. It's the only series I'd happily take a "Skip All Fighting" option because every fight is a cheese-easy counter-fest. I'm not into power fantasies and AC fighting is the worst offender. You can kill like 10000 people without taking a scratch. Ugh. If this game is supposed to change all of that, than that could be pretty cool. I love the worlds in these games but never the fighting. Crossing fingers!