So how's the combat system in this one?

Last AC game I played was brotherhood. How have they changed the combat system? the dual counters in AC 3 looked really cool, but not enough to warrant a purchase. Do they still have the dual counters and the revamped fighting system from the previous instalment? Have they made any additional changes/tweaks in this one?

bump

I found combat in AC3 better than AC4. It's hard to block attacks if you're on offense, something that was pretty easy in AC3 and gave combat better flow, similar to Batman games. Now if you want to counter it's much better to stop attacking and just wait for them to swing at you.

I dont agree at all with the above poster. I will try to say this as politely as possible but i think you just suck. Combat in AC3 was way to easy. It just requires more alertness and reactive timing in this one.

But anyway the combat is more simplified in this, as it was in AC 3 compared to the older AC games. It works fine and I enjoy it. It could be a little more polished but whatever.

Combat is just one aspect of this great game.

The combat didn't seem as polished as it could be. Kinda reminds of of the differences of ACB from ACII. The animations and movements weren't as crisp. Also, the sound effects in combat are, imo, sub-par; it doesn't sound like combat with dual swords/hidden blades should sound. And sometimes the sound effects are off as well.

The enemies though feel a bit less varied most of the time. It seems like half the enemies you encounter are regular guards or snipers. Of course you have brutes, elites, and agiles, but they aren't walking around in groups like they did before in AC3. This makes most of my showdown encounters pretty easy. You might have one or two brutes jump in with an agile or two, but it wasn't like AC3 where you would deal with six brutes, a ton of regular soldiers, a few agiles and captains, plus like five Jagars. So, in this regard, combat seems easier. Also, I think I've done two, maybe threedouble counters in the whole game, and only with the dual swords. I'm not sure if it's possible anymore to do it with the hidden blades.

I guess the main thing I noticed about the combat in AC4 is that soldiers in general are quicker, and you have to react and anticipate just a little bit faster than before on AC3, which is a good thing. Uhhh... I don't however like the grab icons when being sniped, you know, during combat. It's just so much different from how it was on AC3. Hard to get used to. I think it's because the camera doesn't zoom in on who's firing, so there's no queue.

Another thing, and I hate this, is sometimes you will be doing a counter attack on a guard with the hidden blades, and a sniper is preparing to shoot you, but you cannot break away from your counter-attack and grab someone as a shield. Some of Edward's hidden blade counters take too long sometimes to prevent from getting shot. So that's a problem.

Hand to hand battle on ships can also be a bit frustrating. Your men will interrupt your attacks at times, forcing you to restart your combo. And it just seems like men are scrambling about a lot of the time, which messes with your senses on who's attacking. The main problem I think is the camera is zoomed in just a little too far; I can't see who's around me most times.

I think the only thing about AC4 combat that I can say is a good thing is they attack you quicker. Other qualities seemed to have regressed, and certain minor problems make combat frustrating at times.

@q433: No need to over analyze this one. It's the same simplistic, shallow, contextual button mash that it's always been. Basically they took a barely passable combat mechanic and made timing a little more critical. AC combat has needed an major overhaul for a very long time, and it was ignored once again. The game would be so much better if they added combos, evasion moves, maybe even skills. Of course that would be overkill unless enemies were given intelligence, instead of acting like a bunch of simpletons that were thrown into battle with no combat training. Once again AC is a game with a pretty face, and gameplay distilled for the masses. Look elsewhere if you want decent combat. Even the forgettable Remember Me kicks AC's ass in that department.

that'd how I'd describe almost every aspect of the series so far.

It's the same old crap since the beginning of the series. The combat in this game is still simple with zero challenge that it almost blows my mind. And the same goes for the platforming aspect. The game still has too many time wasting mechanics, such as having to climb up and synchronize all the parts of the map. And all the stupid collectibles and s*** just gets repetitive after a while..

Saying all that I did enjoy Black Flag where as I found the previous titles in the series mediocre. But this is mostly down to because the environment in this game is more interesting to explore. And also because Ubisoft has managed to cover up their crappy platforming and combat by introducing naval ship combat and exploration. The game is about 50% at sea and 50% on land so the bad combat is not the main focus of the game any longer, and this has helped to improve it.

@Tommy7600: Agreed. I only played AC2 and brotherhood, and the combat in that game was alot better. You are correct in that if you're stuck in an offensive animation, you cannot counter. You tend to mash less in order to just wait for an enemy to start their attack animation.

The combat is sloppy, but at least it serves some variation to the gameplay (naval combat/expoloration and free running).

@ShimmerMan they're starting to fix some of the platforming problems at least. now you can simply hold in pickpocket button while you're running to automatically take the quickest path down/up/over. like just dropping off a building instead of jumping, and auto-vaulting/sliding under waist-high objects. that's the most annoying thing for me at least, maybe you mean something else.

@glitch2424: what do you mean? I can counter in between deathblow animations just fine. it just interrupts it to counter the new guy and the dead guy just falls over.

@Kickable: I don't think we're talking about the same game anymore, haha. I find that when you're in the attack animation, or at least DEEP into it (as in the last few frames/milliseconds of it), you CANNOT counter. Tried many times, and never succeeded. And that would make sense - when your sword is right about to stab a guy, it would look weird if the animation set jumps into another set. It would break the realism, or at least the visual belief of combat. Or maybe I just suck, I dunno. Haha