Video Game Review: Assassin's Creed Origins

Walk like an Egyptian

Assassin's Creed Origins (2017)

Format: PS4/Xbox One/PC (Reviewed on PS4)

Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal

What is it: The latest instalment in Ubisoft's successful, open-world action-adventure Assassin's Creed series. This game takes the series further back in history than ever before, to Egypt in 48BC and chronicles the events that led to the formation of the Assassin Brotherhood. You play as Bayek, a skilled Medjay (a sort of Sheriff) on a quest for revenge after his young son is killed by five masked men who have designs to control and enslave the country. Players travel around Egypt, exploring, seeking out and killing the masked men in a story that sees Bayek discover the larger conspiracy behind their plot, even help Cleopatra re-take the throne from her brother Ptolemy XIII.

Review: This is the tenth main game in the Assassin's Creed series and it arrives following a year's break from what had become an annual release - following the shocking technical bugs of 2014's Unity, and the concern of the ageing gameplay in 2015's Syndicate, Ubisoft wisely allowed the team developing Origins an additional year to produce the best possible game, rather than stick to the annual release schedule and risk another inferior one. The results are excellent - this is a well-polished, exciting game that's one of the best of the series so far.

Now, that isn't to say that this is a radical departure from the series - this is very much an Assassin's Creed game, sharing the same core structure and gameplay as we've seen countless times. If you've played any of the previous games, you'll instantly be familiar with the parkour mechanics that govern how you explore and assassinate your enemies, and the structure of many of the missions. What the extra development time has allowed is the creation of an epic story and a vast gameplay environment which, combined with some gameplay tweaks which I'll mention shortly, make the experience feel fully fresh again. You also get a lot of gameplay for your money - opening the map for the first time and seeing the sheer size of the game environment can be daunting, especially when zooming down into each area reveals a vast amount of side-quests and activities to discover. As well as the main story there's plenty to keep you occupied, including chariot racing and arena combat, and completionists will be kept happy for some time as they seek out every optional activity. The game itself is beautiful to look at - this is probably the best looking game of the series, with great attention to detail paid to the location and time period. Being able to climb up to the top of a pyramid while the sun sets behind you is really something.

The main story is really terrific, an emotional tale of revenge that follows a logical path around the various areas of Egypt as Bayek pursues the men responsible for the death of his son. It quickly develops as Bayek discovers those five men are only the beginning, the bottom rung of a larger group known as The Order (precursors of the Templars in the wider AC story). Along with his wife Aya, a bad-ass woman who's also a Medjay and burning for revenge, they seek out the remaining group members and become the foundation of the Assassin Brotherhood, but at great personal cost. It's an engaging story that only has one real flaw, and that's that the final act feels quite rushed - the final three members of The Order are revealed and dealt with far too quickly for my liking. The game does tie in the to wider AC story by featuring the Apple of Eden and vaults of the Precursors, who speak about events players will recognise from previous games, and there are short breaks where the player is transported to the present to take control of Layla, an Abstergo employee using a new portable Animus to experience Bayek's memories. These short sequences move the present-day story on (and even ret-con the events of the rather terrible Assassin's Creed film into the game) and, while largely uneventful, provide welcome breathing space from the main story.

One of the changes that have been made to the gameplay concerns stealth. In the previous games, all of the assassins have had "Eagle Vision", a kind of blurry view mode where they're able to identify their targets in a crowd via coloured auras. Origins features, well, the origin of this - Bayek has an actual eagle called Senu who dutifully follows him around. Players can summon her at any time by pressing up on the d-pad, whereupon they're transported up in the air to Senu and can move her around and visually pick out and mark targets from above - these marks remain when you jump back to Bayek, making infiltration into heavily guarded areas and picking your route to an assassination target incredibly satisfying. It also gives an extra layer of challenge to sequences when Senu isn't available, e.g. exploring tombs beneath the pyramids.

Combat has had a big shake-up, and it's a welcome change. Previous games featured a basic combat system that prompted players to just block and then use a counter ability for an instant kill. The combat here is much more fluid and it has to be said, more difficult, as there's no counter ability and you have to carefully choose when to attack and when to block. Specific limbs of your opponents can be targeted, and the addition of a shield to your arsenal really changes things up. Players have an adrenaline meter that fills up as you land or block attacks, and once filled can be used to unleash a powerful move that can result in an instant (and brutal) kill.

A loot system has also been introduced to the game. Players have the option of using four different kinds of bows for ranged combat and a wide range of different melee weapons for close combat, and these weapons can either be found in loot chests or dropped as rewards from enemies. Weapons can range in quality from common to legendary, with increasingly beneficial perks on the rarer versions, and they can all be upgraded at blacksmiths meaning that if you find a weapon you particularly like, you can hang on to it for the duration of the game by continually upgrading it. I was particularly fond of a legendary pair of dual blades I found quite early into the game - you lose the ability to use your shield with them equipped, but you strike incredibly quickly and look stylish as fuck as you do so. Shields, outfits and mounts can also be found and similarly range from common to legendary. The game features a truly vast skill tree which is unlocked as you level up, and you can tailor these unlocks to suit your play style - if you prefer using your bows, you can unlock all the hunter upgrades first that benefit them. It's entirely up to you.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
A terrific return to form for the Assassin's Creed series. While the core gameplay is essentially the same, the changes that have been made are enough to make it feel fresh again. Beautifully presented and with a strong, engaging story, this is a fantastic game that will satisfy both fans of the series and newcomers. 2017 has been a strong year for video games and Assassin's Creed Origins stands among the best of them.