Can Origins breath fresh life into the series?
Set in mysterious Ancient Egypt, Assassin’s Creed Origins is a new beginning. Experience a new way to fight while exploring the Great Pyramids and hidden tombs across the country of Ancient Egypt, and encounter many memorable storylines along your journey. And discover the origin story of the Assassin’s Brotherhood.
It’s been a while since a true Assassins’ Creed game and I personally think it needed a break from yearly releases, so I was hopeful that the next game would be something special…but was I right? Origins takes place in Ancient Egypt before the Creed is created while switching back to modern times working for Abstergo using the Animus as someone else like you would expect from the series.
The gameplay has been seriously mixed up from past games, Origins feels more of an RPG thanks to its XP levelling system and weapons/armour that dishes out a certain amount of damage depending on its own level. Combat is also vastly improved with the triggers working to swing your weapons or raise your shield, while X makes you dodge attacks and you can also use bows to strike your opponent from close to long range. The enemies all have their own level too, so if you are fighting an enemy of a higher level it’s likely to be the end of you, especially if they have a skull icon above them.
You can also send in an eagle to survey the surrounding area and highlight targets for you, much like the drone in Ghost Recon Wildlands, which really helps when planning your strategy. You can even change the time of day with an upgrade for a better advantage. There are tons and tons of side-quests to be found, each of which will level your character to stand a better chance against the main quest missions and these are nicely varied, something that I wasn’t expecting since past Creed games’ side-quests have been fun but limited. To go into every specific side-quest or activity would take forever, trust me…the game almost seems endless in terms of content, plus there’s more to come through DLC.
I played Origins before the release of the Xbox One X and wasn’t particularly bowled over by the visuals, but I think it was more a case of my TV settings because when I finally did get the X and the X Enhanced Patch for the game…it was a revelation. It’s truly a stunning game, Egypt looks breath-taking in 4K with superb HDR that is fully customisable to your display. Character models are nicely detailed, the voice-acting is decent while the soundtrack is perhaps the most epic of the series to date.
The Verdict
Assassin’s Creed Origins has to be the best entry in the series to date. It’s a complete shakeup of the formula and it works incredibly well, plus it looks absolutely stunning in 4K HDR. The changes will take some getting used to for veterans, but it’s so much better for them. Simply put, this is a must-have for your console.