It’s been a long time since we last appreciated an Assassin’s Creed game.
and that break from the yearly cycle a year ago has done this arrangement the ton of good.
This time were in Egypt.
And it’s billed as the dawn of the Creed, where over the course of the tale ancient fighters slowly come together to create the first-ever Assassins clan that then goes on to fuel an army of heroes up to the present day.
You play Bayek, a warrior who returns to his hometown of Siwa to find it occupied by a villainous force headed by Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII and his vicious underlings.
As you can guess, it’s not long before you’re at the forefront of the fightback and the mission goes beyond you homestead, stretching out a story across all of ancient Egypt and taking in places like Giza, Cyrene and Alexandria.
As with other Assassins games it ties into real life events, slowly revealing an intense battle between the Pharaoh, Julius Caesar and Cleopatra with dark forces trying the influence proceedings from the shadows.
The campaign is classic AC and will scratch that mythological itch for fanboys and girls of the franchise who missed out last year. It does indeed show how the Creed came to be and its rival force the Templars – in this game named the Order of the Ancients – too.
Origins offers up the biggest world to date in the Creed series and is truly awe-inspiring in its first few hours.
You’ll find yourself boggled by the sheer size of this densely populated game, which seems to have endless side missions to explore and delve into as well as the basic game itself.
You can literally lose yourself in the world while winding between mixed events and tasks and putting the campaign on the back burner.
There are stealth raids, gangs of crooks to defeat, captured allies to free, races to enjoy, the list goes on.
Ubisoft have done a wonderful job in filling this huge world with tons of things to do and shows once again how well they make these types of titles, second only perhaps to Rockstar.
Gameplay is tight and fun. The new combat system is fiddly at first, as you learn to master sword and shield, parry and attack, bow and arrow.
But once you bed-in, the fighting is high quality and consistently enjoyable. I loved nothing more than using my trusty eagle to fly over an area full of baddies, marking them out to me on the ground, and then taking the gang on one-by-one, using both stealth assassin kills and out-and-out brawling combat to fell enemies.
The story is extensive and will last you tens of hours if you take time to enjoy the odd side quest too from time to time.
One gripe was that it threw you in to a detailed tale too quickly without really giving a laymen’s intro to what was going on.
That left me a little baffled at first and will stump a new arrival to the franchise totally.
Origins seems to model its upgrade system on Activision’s space epic Destiny, with ever improving weapons both rare and regular to bolster your abilities, and extra skill unlocks at typical intervals as you progress through the game.
It makes Bayek feel like he is constantly growing in not only stature and ability but weapon wielding and fight mastery too.
All in, this is a great open world action adventure game.
One packed to the brim with quests and missions of varied styles to enjoy.
It’ll take you a long time to get through everything on offer in Orgins and with a gripping story holding it all together you will be wanting to keep coming back for more.
