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Assassin’s Creed Origins Game Review

Assassin’s Creed Origins is a 2017 action-adventure video game published by Ubisoft for multiple platforms. It’s one of my favorite games of all time.

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“We could never have been.

Everything has told us our love is impossible“

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Assassin’s Creed is one of Ubisoft’s biggest, long-running franchises, but Origins is the first entry that turned out to be a significant turning point for the entire series. Before this game, the AC entries favored stealth and were limited in exploration. This one changed that. The stealth elements were now minimized while the open-world experience is truly enormous. The next entries would follow on this formula as well.

Set in Ancient Egypt near the end of the Ptolemaic Period, the story follows Bayek, a Medjay from Siwa along with his wife Aya as they fight for peace and liberty. This game is the prequel to the entire series as it sees the precursor to both orders – the Templar Order and the Assassin Brotherhood. Here the two are called the Hidden Ones and the Order of the Ancients.

A lot has been said about the plot of this game, and while it’s certainly not the greatest part of this experience, I personally really liked it. I would have preferred the game being set in a more ancient Ancient Egypt, but clearly it was more interesting for the majority to depict this later period as it was rather diverse with Nubians and Greeks etc. The mixing of the real historical events and the fictional ones is actually very well done here.

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The finale of the storyline is rushed, but undeniably powerful in the depiction of the beginning of this new order that is the precursor to the whole AC franchise. I personally really appreciated the very brave depiction of Cleopatra and Caesar, both portrayed in a rather negative and selfish light. That twist with the two betraying the protagonists was the most unexpected and memorable development in this story. It was awesome.

I liked the villains all standing for a certain animal and through them the important animal imagery for Egyptians was faithfully depicted, but still the villains needed more character development, though they are uniformly terrific as bosses. Another storytelling highlight has to be the death of Bayek’s son in the beginning and the loss of his finger, both very dark, brutal sequences in a game that portrays the ancient times with a clear-headed, painfully realistic eye.

Bayek is a truly phenomenal character. It is very easy to root for the poor guy and his brooding, cynical nature is definitely perfectly explained due to his tragic backstory. The relationship with his son is beautiful and their moments are among the game’s saddest. The voice acting is excellent through and through, but Bayek’s actor steals the show. As for Aya, she is also great and their romance was superb. She is badass and the parts where you play as her were some of the best in the game, but the problem here is that her part in this story was so important that she needed a bit more screen time.

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Origins is an open world action-adventure game with stealth elements and presented in third-person perspective. In short, it’s all of my favorite things combined into one. There is one new addition to this entry in the series that the previous ones did not have and that is a strong emphasis on RPG elements, but more on that later. As for the stealth, it is reduced a bit and personally I would have appreciated more fortresses/any other areas to have to be conquered with stealth alone, but still the game lets the player decide what they personally want to do. I myself often times would just go full-on battle mode, but there were certain sections I beat with stealth. Whatever you choose, it’s bound to be immensely entertaining.

The game follows the usual forty (later fifty) level cap with each new level strengthening Bayek even further. The game consists of cutscenes and the main storyline, but it also consists of side quests that aren’t important to finish, but if you are a completionist such as me, you will find most of them highly enjoyable. That is because the NPCs are very well realized here and there are many interesting personalities you can encounter while playing even the most minute and unimportant of quests. The level of dedication that the devs put into each quest is worthy of the highest praise there is.

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Talking about the side quests, the mystery ones where you have to research a certain crime that happened were very intriguing and visually gorgeous in the flashback recreations. Those are the standouts for sure. Another highlight is the type of quest that changes the allegiance of the guy or girl whom you are trying to help. The twists and turns made some of these quests much more memorable than they would have otherwise been.

The main quests are also excellent and the cutscenes are mostly highly important for the main storyline. The world is vast and it can be explored multiple ways. It is so utterly gorgeous that going on foot is actually preferable in certain areas, but most of the time a horse would be your best bet as I personally did not find camels all that great. Horse-drawn vehicles are super cool, though a rather rare occurrence.

There is also the option of swimming and diving, another first for this entry. As a big underwater enthusiast, I adored these parts and some of the highlights of the entire game were set underwater where you can find corpses, treasure and even some important quest materials. The diving is intuitively done and enjoyable. There were too many rivers and lakes that felt unrealistic for Egypt, but then again I did not complain when they looked and felt so incredible to explore.

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This world is super vast. Some have accused the game for being overly empty in the desert area, which just might be the dumbest criticism for this particular game. The sparseness is just right and highly realistic, which I appreciated. There is just enough you can do in these deserts while their sheer vastness is astonishing. The pyramids can be explored in their entirety, each and every one with the more important pharaohs. There, you can learn a lot about history while getting some seriously demanding puzzles in the process. I got lost countless times in these tombs. This is probably the most purely adventurous part of this whole game, and the one that due to its setting sets it apart from every other in this franchise.

The gladiator arena is such a nice touch as this fittingly ancient mini-game and the same goes for the chariot race. Fast travel is wonderfully incorporated with that iconic AC jump being amazing per usual while Senu is perfectly utilized as your trusted pet eagle. She can harass enemies while being an indispensable help in tracking down objects. Solving the stone circle puzzles was not only visually gorgeous, but also a genuinely touching reminder of Bayek’s main loss.

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The skill tree is the most RPG part of the game and it worked for me, though for a completionist such as myself, I was always going to get all three of these branches (Hunter, Warrior and Seer), but I did focus on Warrior the most myself. The reason why I chose this branch lies in the sheer spectacle of the combat itself. It’s absolutely brilliant what they did here and it just might be the single best gameplay mechanic of Origins as a whole.

You can attack lightly but fast or heavily but slowly. This depends on the weapon type. I myself preferred the first type as I prefer quickness over the effect of the blow, so the swords and sickle swords were my choices almost all the time. The blades and blunts were simply too slow for me, though definitely impactful and powerful. You can buy and upgrade weapons at bazaars scattered throughout the game, which wasn’t my favorite thing to do, but it’s amazing for RPG fans themselves.

Dodging is simply perfectly utilized along with shields. The entire mechanic works incredibly well as this polished, complex battle that arises when you meet every tough opponent. My favorite part of the game was conquering the fortresses because of the greatness of the combat and of course the fun stealth elements. You can also use bow and arrow, which is a great choice for players who are not into very close fighting, and it’s another mechanic that is utilized incredibly well. The sheer chaos that can erupt when multiple soldiers attack you at fortresses produces adrenaline-pumping thrills throughout the game.

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Assassin’s Creed Origins also has an intuitive energy replenishing mechanic along with a terrific adrenaline-based power-up. Energy constantly replenishes after a certain time, which was a great choice to ease the playing in this overall perfectly done game in terms of difficulty level. The enemies all have their levels, which means that you have to find your own level or at least close to that level, which requires a lot of tactfulness on your part. The Phylakitai are these policemen that are scattered throughout the game’s world. They are the toughest enemies for sure and beating them was quite exciting. The braziers in fortresses summons stronger soldiers and there is the option to set up a trap that will blow the brazier and the soldier with it. It was hilarious and extremely satisfactory. The naval combat is also incredible here, but it was unfortunately rarely present.

Origins also has a lot of animals in it. You can poison them with darts or kill them. Once you kill them, you acquire material that you can then use to craft your breastplate, bracer and so on. It requires some grinding, but it’s not essential to do this. The game never forces you to do anything that you don’t want to do. It’s all up to you, which was wonderful to witness. Of the animals, clearly the toughest were those hippos. They killed me countless times. The crocs were also pretty strong and of course the elephants can only be killed in the most advanced acquired levels. Hunting the animals was also very well realized and the animals are quite diverse ranging from reptiles such as snakes to birds such as flamingos and birds of prey to mammals such as antelopes, hyenas, leopards etc. Seeing some of these animals hunt on other animals or fight other species was just great example of the game managing to make you a spectator and appreciate the huge level of detail that went into the most minute of NPCs and background action.

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I wish to go back to this game one day and play it in hard mode as playing it in normal was too easy for me. It was leisurely and fun, but I wanted more demanding battles overall. Still, it’s one of those games that are best enjoyed on a more normal difficulty level, so I didn’t mind that too much. I played it for over a hundred hours and finished every single thing in it being a completionist myself, and I encountered a bug only about ten times or so. The game is very smooth and polished. The controls could have been better utilized as it was difficult for the combat to control fully at times, but it’s a complex game, so of course this is not going to be perfect and easy. The level design is amazing, especially in the main quests. The present-time parts of the game weren’t as memorable as Bayek’s, but the character of Layla was admittedly well realized.

The score is only solid. For a game set in Egypt, Origins has a soundtrack that is serviceable and fine for what it is, but it needed something more epic and timeless to be honest. But where it excels is in the visuals. Wow, was I blown away with the graphics here. Graphically speaking, this is one of the most beautiful games out there. Everything looks so polished and incredibly detailed while the movements are also super smooth. It’s just perfection all around.

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The world building is truly something to behold. What they did here is basically bring many Egyptologists to the development team, and the result is this astonishing history lesson in and of itself. The architecture is mind-blowingly spectacular, the attention to detail in the use of Ancient Egyptian language on the streets and the hieroglyphs is staggering, the various robes all looked super cool and the weapons are impressive as well. In terms of the cities, Alexandria with the library was the highlight, but in terms of the landscapes, the rivers and lakes stole the show with the Mareotis Lake being my favorite. The animals, the scenery, the forests, the oases and the deserts all looked impeccable. I spent ours just admiring the view and taking screenshots. Collecting the loot and finishing every single location never felt boring because of this incredible word that they created here. It’s truly special.

Assassin’s Creed Origins is an underrated miracle of a game. This is open world action-adventure gaming of the highest quality. The gameplay mechanics are all incredible with the combat taking the cake as the best realized of the bunch, the RPG elements are very well incorporated into the proceedings, the main and side quests are both wonderfully written and the overall story and characterization are pretty good. Graphically speaking, it’s masterful and very smooth while the world building is truly astonishing. Consequently, Origins is one of my favorite games of all time.

My Rating – 4.9

The Hidden Ones

The first DLC for Origins takes place in Sinai and overall it is very well written. The enemies here are much more difficult while conquering the incredibly tough fortresses was super fun and exciting. The Sinai landscapes were different enough with the rugged mountainous terrain being very well realized. I liked this DLC quite a bit and I’ve had a lot of fun playing it, but at the end of the day its successor was more memorable.

The Curse of the Pharaohs

Yes, this second DLC is the best one without a doubt. Bayek has to fight the arisen dead pharaohs in Thebes and it was just wonderful finally seeing the fantastical side of an otherwise very grounded in reality game. The afterlife worlds looked just breathtaking with the scenery there being jaw-droppingly majestic. The pharaoh boss battles are great and quite demanding and this DLC flies by how incredibly fun and beautifully imagined it is.