2007-11 Monday 26th, A-Vault interview with new info and screens.

[AdamP]

"In Black Plague, the entire combat system is different. In fact, there’s essentially no combat. Players need to focus on sneaking and being very careful not to be noticed by enemies. The biggest change is that, unlike Overture, there won’t be a lot of free roaming enemies to sneak past every time you go through the same area; you’ll only need to survive specific encounters."

I think this will be a great improvement!
thanks windex for the heads up on that