After seven years of annual releases, the Assassin's Creed series seemed to hit a wall creatively and technically. What had once been one of the more groundbreaking IPs of the last generation of consoles instead become formulaic, and even probably the most hardcore people in its fanbase were feeling a bit fatigued. So, Ubisoft did something we don't expect companies to complete once their series goes annual: they took a year off. Now, I can't definitively say how much that extra year of development helped they that worked on Assassin's Creed Origins. I can happily say, however, that it worked, which Assassin's Creed is back-not just in the literal sense, however in a feeling it's again exceeding expectations of open-world action-adventure games enjoy it did if this first debuted about ten years ago.
Assassin's Creed Origins takes fans of the series back farther than any other game has using its primary setting, as you'll play being an Egyptian person called Bayek towards the end from the Ptolemaic Era (47 BCE to be exact). Bayek is the last of a variety of Egyptian protectors referred to as Medjay, however when he does not protect his own son from the sinister threat lurking in the shadows of the country's highest ranks of government and society, Bayek's mission ranges from one of protection to 1 of vengeance. With the help of his wife, Aya (who you also play as with certain missions), along with other key allies, Bayek will slowly identify the puppet masters-known only as The Order of Ancients-that have been manipulating Egypt from behind the curtain, whilst potentially finding peace over what he has lost.
The story of Assassin's Creed Origins is probably the most personal tales from the series, and Bayek's journey (and subsequent transformation as a character over the course of the game) is regarded as the complete since Edward Kenway in Black Flag. What drives Bayek is a visceral and easily-justified emotion, but his evolution because he explores the planet, meets new characters, and eventually comes to grips together with his internal struggle while coping with the obviously outward conflict from the Order is really a beautiful aspect to play and find out unfold.
Bayek's tale also succeeds in another pleasantly surprising way: it's unpredictable. We know going in that Origins is a prequel towards the remaining series, the game's events will lead to the development of the Brotherhood of Assassins, and of course you're going to kill many people sooner or later. It could have easily drawn an upright line from the catalyst of Bayek's rage-the death of his innocent son-to the development of the Creed. Instead, how we reach that formation, and then what happens after we actually get there, was both shocking and tremendous fun to experience. Seriously, it kept me around the edge of my seat for that entirety of my 30-hour playthrough.
The narrative also does a fantastic job of referencing past games in subtle ways. These nods won't detract from the experience if you are new or have only played a few Assassin's Creed games previously, but definitely in the enjoyment factor if you're someone like me who has played every main game up to this point. And, should you pay close attention, you will be rewarded by seeing how Origins fits perfectly in to the chronology the series had established up so far, whether referencing the very first assassin, Xerxes, or laying the groundwork for Altair, Ezio, and all the other assassins that would come after.
Origins isn't just a return to the roots from the Brotherhood, however-it also brings back a vital element from previous games that had slowly been phased out in recent iterations. Basically, you'll get to experiment in the current era. Early in your adventure, you'll leave the latest version of the Animus and take control of Layla Hassan, an Abstergo employee with an axe to grind. Inside a real throwback, you control these segments in the same third-person viewpoint always used when inside the Animus. Layla's story is exclusive on its own, but just like Bayek's, finds a way to fit perfectly into the Assassin's Creed overarching narrative-it even makes that Michael Fassbender movie somehow make sense! In ways, Layla's adventure might even become more important than Bayek's, because it lays the groundwork for where the series can go from here.
While it's great that this new Assassin's Creed tale really has righted the ship in terms of the narrative element of the game, what's going to really suck you was all of the brand new gameplay. Sure, you are always going to skulk around within the shadows and use your hidden blade to assassinate people, as well as some of the naval gameplay that actually hooked people in Black Flag returns in designated sections (it's really awesome sailing a trireme). But, I admit that I was very worried when we were first shown all of the RPG elements being put into the sport, with recommended levels for enemies and areas of the planet, random loot drops, and potential grinds for resources to upgrade gear. After you have literally story from start to finish, though-and being permitted to craft my very own Bayek through his three skill trees and adapt him to my personal playstyle-I think Origins strikes an excellent balance between the action in the series we love which new layer of RPG gameplay that has been introduced.
The biggest worry I think I had was the potential for being surrounded by enemies who were way higher levels than me and not having the ability to really advance with the game. Although the game does give you the freedom (after it requires you thru the first assassination) to basically go wherever you want on the planet, should you stick to the main story, after which do all the side quests in every subsequent region, you shouldn't need to bother about where your level will be. By the time you need to move on, you should be right within that perfect range recommended on the world map.
Of course, this brings up the caliber of the side quests. I'll state that a good amount of them do a good job of grabbing your attention while fleshing the world and the characters. In fact, there are several side missions that are much more heart-wrenching than Bayek's personal tragedy. It's really easy to understand an exclamation point in your HUD, learn the plight from the NPC, after which end up following a thread that's several missions long, guiding you round the entire region before coming to a conclusion having a fat XP bonus, perhaps a rare item, and a feeling of satisfaction.
However, so that they can fill the world with content and ensure you have enough possibilities to level Bayek up so as not to hit a wall in combat, there are a fair amount that felt like copy/paste fetch quests, too. It is really an problem with a lot of RPGs, and not simply Assassin's Creed, and so I understand why they need to be there. Still, I saw some players getting annoyed by this fact and trying that you follow the primary story, only to find they may need to do those quests for XP-and this is when it could seem like a grind.
There's lots of content here in Assassin's Creed Origins, though. Whether racing chariots, fighting when it comes to, or completing side quests and main quests, Ancient Egypt is a busy place. Another way to avoid that potential XP grind is that everything in Origins gives you XP. Kill an enemy, get a new area, synchronize the world from the high point, clear an opponent barracks, finish among the aforementioned missions, and so on, and Bayek will get stronger. Theoretically, should you wanted, you could just play and kill bandits to level up. Clearing a fort only nets an XP bonus once, but those soldiers will respawn at some point-or you can manually light a brazier in the fort to purposely call for reinforcements and much more enemies to fight-and you can kill them again if you'd like. I additionally mentioned earlier which i beat the game in 30 hours, but there were still dozens of side quests that i can finish. And, once i finished the story, I had been capable of going into the world and keep playing. In those 30 hours, I completed 93 total side and main quests and reached level 37, that was plenty for me to beat the primary story.
So, even when some of the people fetch quests leave a poor taste in your mouth, there's lots of other things to do in Origins-which leads me around the world itself. Ubisoft has crafted what's probably its most breathtaking world here in Ancient Egypt, but it's also easily the most massive. Every couple of regions seem like they could be how big entire older Assassin's Creed game, and also the major hub cities Alexandria and Memphis, as well as lesser cities like Philadelphia or Cyrene, are absolutely breathtaking. Whether it was the swamps around Krokodilopolis, the swirling sands around the pyramids of Giza (grave robbing the Pyramids might've been my personal favorite side activity), or perhaps Bayek's rural home region of Siwa, it never got old to just take a moment and appear around in the world created here. And, if you wish to get fancy, you can even have a picture in photo mode, then upload it for everyone to see.
Another worry some may have is spending a lot of amount of time in your inventory now that a lot of enemies will drop gear that you should potentially equip. Luckily, I found recption menus UI to become crystal clear, and comparing two items was as easy as just hovering over something in your inventory. Scrapping unwanted gear was also a terrific way to get crafting things like bronze and iron, and that made sure I had been rarely lacking in the resources I needed to improve the strength of my hidden blade or increase my health by reinforcing my armor. Irrrve never felt like I had been putting things off navigating the menus, and need more RPGs had a system as straightforward as Origins.
Moving around on the planet has also seen some changes this go around-although the improvements here are subtler than everything else I've discussed at this point. Bayek will still occasionally get caught on a rough patch of geometry on the planet, as well as the most part, it feels smoother than ever before when climbing or parkouring around. In particular, more of the hand and footholds in the world are cleverly hidden this time, but in a way that causes it to be seem like Bayek is accurately climbing a rock face rather than searching for conveniently-placed rocks jutting from the side. It is a tiny detail, but one that can help with immersion.
For combat, many of the buttons happen to be changed around. The default has become to assign your light and high attacks right shoulder buttons, as well as your new bow and arrows to the left shoulder. I finished up switching towards the alternate control with those right shoulder button attacks being reassigned to the face buttons, since the right trigger for me personally will forever be how you can climb in AC. Still, it's nice to determine the team trying different things, and also the options are there to go back to something more comfortable if you think the necessity to.
There's also a new parry system, however i struggled to obtain the proper timing since it was never really clear when I was supposed to parry. I'm not saying we need symbols above an enemy's head as with the Batman: Arkham games, but clearer tells could've helped here. I found it easy enough to obtain through the game on normal without having to parry almost the whole game, though, so that may well be a system that needs to go back to the drawing board entirely.
As great as Assassin's Creed Origins is, there are a few issues with the sport, and although I've nitpicked here or there over the course of this review, there's no making your way around the fact that the game has some rough bugs. Sometimes the animation breaks, and you'll end up getting something that appears like a breakdancing flamingo in the center of a pond. Or, Bayek can get caught on something he shouldn't get caught on. Nothing crazy, mostly comical, however they are there. Also, Alexandria may be the biggest city in the game, most abundant in NPCs out and about in a with time, and occasionally there were some framerate drops while running using that particular city's streets. Ubisoft had a review event for many folks to play the sport on an Xbox One X (which i didn't attend), and that i ponder whether that issue is remedied thanks to the system's higher power, or even the PS4 Pro's, as compared to my regular PS4.
Something that I don't think could be fixed with increased powerful hardware is some from the glitches on quests. There have been easily six moments through the game where an NPC glitched so badly that I required to restart the checkpoint. Frequently they just wouldn't go anywhere after i was told to follow them, or they would not follow me after i was inspired to escort them. There is additionally a couple of times once the game wouldn't recognize when I had achieved the condition to trigger the following area of the mission. The worst was when I died mid-mission on the late-game side quest where I was inspired to undermine war efforts by stealing the formula for Roman fire from the nearby fort. Even still, regardless of how many times I select it and try to restart the checkpoint, or perhaps restart the sport, Origins refuses to allow me advance the quest-even when I attain the objective I died on, which was to destroy some barrels full of the Roman fire. This was the only real instance of this, but it is frustrating nonetheless.
Now, considering again that I did 93 different missions, that means something went wrong often enough to become a notable nuisance without a doubt. Most of them were just inconvenient, and none of them experience-breaking to the point I couldn't actually beat the game-still, I felt they have to be stated, and hopefully there is a patch in the future which will smooth things out.
Despite these rough edges, Assassin's Creed Origins has already cemented itself as one of my personal favorite games within the series. The world is gorgeous, there's a lot of items to do-so much so that had I not been reviewing this game, I could've easily sank another 10-15 hours in before touching the final missions-and the story is one of the best told within the series' history. Yeah, there's some bugs, but it was impressive how the series could use of its slump and discover a new way to evolve, making all those RPG elements their very own in a way that feels fun and exciting. This was a epic adventure that was a lot more than fitting for what can serve as the starting point of the Assassin's Creed storyline.
