I'm just arrived in Damascus and am engaging in my first combat. The swordplay tutorial said to press the attack key when your blade strikes to do a counter-move (punch, whatever). But, it said do the same thing to create an attack combo. So what's the difference? All I get are combo moves but never counter moves. What am I doing wrong? I'm using a gamepad.

Also, when I'm getting my butt kicked in combat, the game says to sprint. Is it correct that I have to "disengage combat" (button 6)before I can sprint?

Now that you're getting the idea that I have no idea what I'm doing, let me continue...

Can I attack a guard with my hidden knife? If so, how do I do that? Is it suicide to attack a guard with your hidden knife when he's attacking you with his sword?

And lastly, how do I interrogate someone? The game tells me to interrogate a guard in Damascus and I have him targeted but when I stand next to him there's no prompt on how to do it.

Thanks.

To counter you have to hold the High Profile button and then press attack just as the enemy swings at you

you don't have counters till you get a rank upgrade which happens after you assasinate and return to al mualim.
as for attacking with hidden, it is suicide as you can't block with it -- but once you get counters try a few with it. they're awesome.

as far as i know you interrogete the dudes in red caps -- just punch him and after a little fight he talks.

EDIT: you do have to press disengage and run like hell

That's a good point, if you're in Damasc for the first time you'll be unable to counter at all. Which is a bit asinine really, I mean how would losing a rank make you forget how to do something? But what the who. Try grabbing and throwing people as well, if you're near to an edge or fence you can tip them over by doing that. And when they're on the floor they're obviously not able to do anything so it allows you to get a few good, solid hits in

After you get the hang of it, you can easily kill tens of guards with just the switch blade

I used my Hidden blade almost exclusively for the massacre in Arsuf, and even for the majority of the final battle

bob, have you tried it on al mualim?
trim that beard of his

Yeah, that's how I got him at the end. But I was trying to say that without putting in a spoiler

I had a sneaky feeling that I couldn't do "counters" at this early stage.

I will try to throw some guards around - I keep forgetting about that.

quote:

But I was trying to say that without putting in a spoiler

Yeah, be careful with that! I haven't enjoyed a game like AC in a long, long time!

I gave my stepdaughter the bird's eye view of Damascus and she was blown away - she thought it was a video or something.

yea, the first time i went to damascus, i was "are you kidding me?" immersion, immersion.

try this if you get outnumbered, but you don't want to have to run:

1. remain out of combat.
2. equip your hidden blade.
3. run around the guards as bit to avoid attacks, and after one of them attacks, grab/throw him. (this can be difficult since targeting him will put you in combat mode, so you have to aim at him "manually")
4. right after you throw him, run towards him in high profile and attack. as long as he's still on the ground this will be an instant kill.
5. repeat this for each guard. and if you get hit too much (since you can't block like this) you're already out of combat so just run. even running in circles or climbing the same building and hopping down repeatedly can work, just until your health is back.

this can be difficult i'll admit, since you can't block while doing this. there's a way to do this while in combat, but it requires so much switching back and forth between weapons that it's almost harder than just beating them the regular way...much harder to explain to, although it's simple and satisfying once you get the hang of it

i hope that helps. everyone seems to have a totally different playstyle in this game so i recommend trying everyone's ideas a few times

Also, always try and be sure to have a wall at your back, it limits how many can come at you at a time. Halves them from six to three