In fully embracing the RPG genre Assassin's Creed Odyssey has put player choice front and center across the board. This doesn't just apply to the branching story and new romance options , but also in the way you fight and the skills you bring onto the battlefield. We recently sat down with Odyssey's Game Director, Scott Phillips, to discuss the redesigned fight mechanics and the addition of customizable combat abilities into the series.

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"The core of the fight in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is based on top of the redesigned fight from Assassin’s Creed Origins, so it's... very focused on being aggressive and being active, so you’re dodging a lot, parrying a lot," he says, continuing, "There’s less hanging back, less turtling, and more out there, in the fight, being aggressive." How aggressive you want to be is, of course, up to you, and there are three different trees of special abilities you can unlock, each of which focus on a specific aspect of combat, from brutal melee moves to stealth or ranged attacks."Do you want to focus on more melee abilities, or do you want to focus on assassin [skills], or do you want to be more of the hunter, the ranger playstyle? You can mix and match those, map them on your controller where you want them, upgrade them how you want to upgrade them, where you want to put your focus and your ability points [earned] from increasing your level through XP." He continues ""All of that leads to the player being able to break down a situation, evaluate what’s in front of them, adjust their abilities and their gear in order to maximize the way that they like to play."Watch the video above for a full demonstration of each style of combat ability, and check out all of our Assassin's Creed Odyssey coverage here.

JR is an editor at IGN , who is going to have an anxiety attack about what skills to unlock first. He'll probably bleat about it on Twitter