The addition of the ability to be prone in Assassin's Creed Shadows has caused a rethink of the series' usual controls.

Assassin's Creed Shadows features a modification to the series' usual controls due to the ability to be prone.

In a blog post today detailing Shadows' parkour system, developer Ubisoft noted that the Assassin's Creed franchise's typical crouch and dodge buttons have been swapped out.

This change is due to mapping the prone ability to the same button as the crouch button, which is now located on the X button on a standard Xbox controller. Tapping X will now make your character crouch, while holding X will make you prone.

The ability to dodge, roll, and fall while parkouring is now mapped to the B button.

“In Shadows, dodging has been merged with parkour mechanics, unlocking a ton of new parkour moves,” said Shadows associate game director Simon Lemay-Comtois.

“This new mapping also disconnects stance switching (e.g. standing, crouching, prone) from parkour, ensuring you can use any stance without accidentally falling off a roof when you don't want to.”

Many traditional Assassin's Creed parkour moves return as expected, including the ability to perform a recovery roll to reduce the impact and noise when landing from a height.

The ability to descend has been increased with another more attractive option to perform a directional dodge on a ledge. Meanwhile:

If you are high enough to suffer fall damage, additional warning will be necessary when parking down. Of course, the franchise's handy hay bales are still present to cushion the fall at certain points.

Finally, here's a look at Shadows protagonist Naoe demonstrating the new prone position. Of course, you can assassinate enemies while prone. Thus:

Another big change within Shadows is that only some surfaces will be climbable. This is a change from the way several recent Assassin's Creed entries allow you to scamper up steep cliffs and rock walls, influenced in part by the addition of a Shadow grappling hook. In short, it means you'll need to look more carefully for surfaces that have physical handholds.

“This is something very important to us,” says Lemay-Comtois. “This means we had to think more about creating interesting parkour highways and gave us more control over where Naoe can go and where Yasuke can't, making our two playstyles even more contrasting.”

Assassin's Creed Shadows is finally arriving on February 14 after last year's delay. We recently learned that Naoe has a “Naruto career” and that the game will have a “canonical” story option for players who don't like making narrative decisions.