Assassin's Creed Origins | Xbox One | Review

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After breaking away from the annual release cycle last year to put a mediocre film out instead, Assassin’s Creed Origins sees the series triumphantly return with a sequel-come-prequel that cures the rot which had begun to take hold.

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by Sam Sant

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@SlamShotSam

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Developer: Ubisoft
Montreal
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platforms: Xbox One,
​PlayStation 4, PC
Players: 1

Origins sees you take control of Bayek, an Ancient Egyptian peacekeeper seeking vengeance against the shadowy group that wronged him and his family. It’s an engaging, if familiar, main thread that mixes fiction and non-fiction in signature fashion to convey the story of how The Assassin Order came to be formed.

While you’ll spend most of your time inside the Animus reliving the memories of Bayek, on occasion you’ll also leave the machine to join a new present day protagonist. These brief sections provide a breather and plenty of optional lore to consume, which Assassin’s Creed diehards will no doubt appreciate.

As an aptly-named origin story, this game’s setting is the series’ earliest yet. Throughout the years we’ve visited faithful recreations of numerous real-world locations, but none have been quite as impressive as 48 BC Egypt. The iconic region has long been requested by fans, with Ubisoft rising to the occasion by crafting a vast and beautiful open world.

From bustling cities, to barren deserts and the Great Pyramid of Giza, environments are intricately detailed and authentic. The hot African sun casts impressive natural lighting and shadows, whilst an array of local wildlife dynamically interact with their surroundings, helping to anchor you in the simulation.

It’s impressive stuff when you consider the map’s sheer scale - a scale that’s seen Origins’ movement system modified to help with traversal. You now sprint as standard, rather than needing to hold a button down, and can effortlessly climb almost any surface without need for specific handholds. A mount at your beck and call, boats that spawn close-by when you’re stranded in water, and abundant fast travel points all further aid in making Egypt an easy and enjoyable place to explore.

Ditching the intrusive minimap for a minimalistic compass, as well as swathes of boring busywork for more meaningful side quests and activities, has also helped on that front. 

From bustling cities, to barren deserts and the Great Pyramid of Giza, environments are intricately detailed and authentic.

Though you’re free to tackle quests in the order of your choosing, if you’re under the recommended character level it’s a good idea to leave them well alone. Their inflated difficulty serves as a gating mechanic to control when you can viably go where, ensuring players aren’t immediately overwhelmed, but also providing motivation to keep gathering experience points and expanding your horizon.

A variety of weapons - each with their own rarity, statistics and status effects - are steadily pumped into your inventory as rewards and need to be swapped out or upgraded regularly. Upgrading weapons simply requires you to pay a blacksmith, though to improve the rest of your gear you’ll need to go hunting or intercept shipments and use the gathered resources to craft their betters.

You’ll put everything to use in the new and improved combat system, which is more satisfying than ever. No longer do enemies take it in turns to attack, letting you counter kill them one by one, but they flank and/or fire arrows as you’re actively engaged in combat. Encounters don’t look nearly as fluently choreographed as a result, but they’re far more compelling.

If you’re familiar with the Souls series or Breath of the Wild you’ll feel right at home with the new mechanics, which, in very similar fashion, see you lock on and avoid incoming attacks in anticipation of a window to launch a light or heavy counter attack. Though it’s more weighty and deliberate, especially when considering the pros and cons of different weapon classes, you can get away with button bashing for the most part.

Certain types of bows can be seamlessly integrated into melee bouts, while others are better served for stealth, but all of them shed the slight feeling of ineptitude ranged weapons have carried in Assassin’s Creed previously. It’s always been far preferable to take enemies on at close range, but Origins changes that, with a headshot being just as quick and deadly as your hidden blade.

Speaking of, stealth has seen a few small tweaks as well. Similar to Metal Gear Solid V you get a brief window of slow motion in which to eliminate an enemy after being spotted, plus you’ll now scout areas from a bird’s eye perspective as Senu, your eagle. Replacing Eagle Vision with a literal eagle’s vision is a better contextual fit and eliminates any ugly screen filters, all while offering up an animal companion to bond with. If Senu strays too far, however, you’ll often need to sit through a loading screen when you warp back to Bayek, which can be off-putting.

Covert infiltrations can also be made easier by utilising the dynamic day/night cycle to your advantage, as many guards retire to bed at night, generally making patrols lighter. An ability can be purchased from the skill tree that lets you change the time of day at will, while you can also unlock a range of familiar tools like poison darts and smoke bombs to further bolster your arsenal.

Combat encounters don’t look nearly as fluently choreographed as before, but they’re far more compelling.

All of the items and abilities available through the skill tree are tempting in their own right, pulling you in every direction and prompting careful consideration for how to invest your attribute points, as the best role-playing games do. Getting all of the abilities you have your eye on will take a while, which is good for longevity, though can feel ever so slightly like you’re being pointed towards Origins’ microtransactions when the game gently reminds you about its storefront.

That said, the implementation is nowhere near as egregious as some recent examples, and you’re given 200 of the premium currency for free. There are loot boxes, but they’re bought with in-game money, plus choosing to complete a daily online quest essentially awards one for free.

While Origins is the best Assassin’s Creed since Black Flag - also maintaining that game’s excellent naval combat - we’d have liked to see more polish from a title that spent twice as long in development. Glitchy animations, clipping, pathing issues and freezes are a few examples of problem we shouldn’t be seeing. While those are here to stay without a patch from Ubisoft, the impending release of the Xbox One X should at least help cut the lengthy loading times down whilst polishing the already shiny visuals.

In spite of the issues it preserves, Assassin’s Creed Origins is a successful soft reboot that comes just in time for the series’ 10th anniversary, modernising the Brotherhood’s adventures by taking inspiration from recent greats like The Witcher 3 and Destiny. It’s very easy to lose hours at a time to Origins’ improved combat and stealth systems, not to mention the wonderful setting, motivated by the developed RPG mechanics and a soundtrack with a touch of whimsy. Here’s hoping Ubisoft keep building on this foundation instead of running the new look Assassin’s Creed into the ground.

Pros

• Gigantic, beautiful Egyptian setting
• It isn’t absolutely crammed with meaningless tasks
• Improved melee & ranged combat systems
• Play your way with a variety of upgrade paths
• Removes arbitrary barriers to make traversal & parkour totally painless

Cons

• Combat encounters can occasionally devolve into tests of button bashing endurance
• Still has a few familiar technical issues despite an extra year in the oven
• Well-trodden narrative structure & character archetypes

9/10