Collecting My Thought on Assassin's Creed Origins—A Worthwhile Discovery

Ever thought the Assassin's Creed series needed a reshuffling of the deck? Welcome to Assassin's Creed Origins. This time we go way way back to the waning BCs to find out exactly how the Creed came to be. Ubisoft's rendition of Ancient Egypt is lush, exotic and expansive — it implores foolhardy exploration. And as you set out on your foolhardy exploration, the first thing you will notice is the omission of high profile activation as high profile is already the default. This is just the first indication that sneakiness and subterfuge are no longer the gameplay focus. Instead, Ubisoft has opted for a more combat-centric approach, and this appropriately conveys the pre-Creed context of the game. It seems however, that the team went overboard with the overhaul and decided to also replace the structured memory sequences with a more commonplace RPG-style presentation. Ability trees, quests and character levels all served to take away from the Assassin's Creed identity and make the story harder to follow.

The game revolves around Bayek and Aya, Egypt's self-appointed executioner it couple seeking to avenge the death of their child Khemu. As they eliminate their targets and begin to mingle with key figures of antiquity like Cleopatra and Julius Caesar, the background history is revealed to be more engaging than the story itself (bar the ending). Another change that is worth talking about is that the Animus Database that usually informs the player of the historical importance of certain landmarks visited in-game has been replaced with the extra-game Discovery Tour mode. This mode explores the history of the setting much more thoroughly and is done in a way that is reminiscent of an audio tour in a museum, allowing for more in-depth learning. The only downside of this is that it is not harmoniously intertwined with the gameplay as its precursor was. Despite this I still had an absolute blast learning about Ancient Egypt through this mode, from Djoser and his Step Pyramid right up to Eratosthenes and his armillary sphere.

The attention to detail and respect to history has always been evident with Assassin's Creed games. It is what makes them so great. With the introduction of the Discovery Tour and the insights it offers into the team's study and treatment of the subject, you can't help but appreciate it even more now. It is a shame that this effectively stole the thunder from the game proper, instead of bolstering it. But if a game manages to turn one without any academic history in... well, history, into a bootleg armchair Egyptologist in the span of two months, one must consider that game an overall success then, mustn't one?

#LearntANewWord Peripatetic.

#FavouriteCharacter Aya is so effortlessly sexy and badass. She wears the pants in the relationship without emasculating her husband or defeminising herself.

#WeirdestSound Upsweep is only mentioned in the game, but when I looked it up, it turned out to be one freaky as hell unidentified noise.

#FavouriteName In my honest opinion tallying every possibility: Imhotep.