Climbing and Combat Controls in Assassin's Creed III Have Been Overhauled

Ubisoft has unveiled a few more details about its upcoming Assassin's Creed III title, this time talking about the climbing and combat controls that have been changed, as opposed to the mechanics seen in its predecessors.

The Assassin's Creed saga is an extremely popular series but, with the last few games, things have gotten a bit stale, since not a lot of innovation appeared.

With Assassin's Creed III, Ubisoft introduces a wide variety of new things, from the protagonist Connor, to the historical setting of the American Revolution, and more.

Among the biggest changes are the ones that relate to the free-running and combat controls, which no longer require players to press lots of different buttons in order make Connor do what they want.

"The goal was to create a character who was as nimble and as capable in a wilderness environment as Ezio and Altair were in cities," Ubisoft Creative Director Alex Hutchinson told the PlayStation blog. "We wanted to turn the frontier into a 3D playing space of uneven surfaces and slopes and trees….so when we looked at the controls, we thought we could clarify them. Having to hold two buttons at once in order to climb was definitely something we wanted to address."

Basically, free-running now happens when you press R1 on the PS3 or the RB on the Xbox 360 and this makes Connor do a few more things than in previous games.

"In Assassin’s Creed III, if you hold R1 you’ll free run safely. You’ll stay relatively horizontal, so Connor will run past trees and he’ll only take “safe” jumps. But if you hold X as well, then the run becomes “unsafe” — he’ll try to go vertical, and if he hits the edge of a cliff, he’ll jump. Hopefully it’ll give peoples’ hands some relief, but it’s also a way of telling the game whether you want to take risks or not."

This new control scheme also affects combat, as you can easily get in and out of fights without needing to lock onto enemies, like before.

"We’ve managed to unify that new control scheme with our fighting. R1 is always sprint, so you don’t have to lock onto enemies anymore in order to attack them. And if you want to get out of a fight, you just hold R1 and off you go. We have this idea, too, that Connor is always in motion — that he can assassinate on the run. So we have ways to run past a guard, snatch his musket, shoot his buddy, kill the next guy, and keep on moving."

What do you think about these changes in Assassin's Creed III? Are things going to be more fluid or do you want the traditional control scheme to make a comeback?