“We must continue the fight and defend the free will of the people. And no matter how small, our Brotherhood is the only hope and our kingdom needs no crowns. What we believe in, our values, our Creed, will unify us. And I promise, that for all the sons of Egypt I will be the father that I was not that day in Siwa.”



Here we are. Uncharted territory for me. The start of the infamous RPG trilogy, an attempt to take AC back to formula by literally diving deep into the origins of the series’ iconography with even a middle eastern setting to create that faint atmospheric tie to AC1.

To start the review off I guess I can talk a little bit about my history with this game. I was fully on board with a break after Syndicate given that I came out of it underwhelmed back then but the moment Origins was unveiled my interest in the series essentially completely died because I rejected this entirely on principle alone. I didn’t follow the development cycle and didn’t even become aware of the jump to rpg until way later.

What caused that rejection though? It’s pretty simple, I thought the idea of a game about the origins of the brotherhood was ultimately pointless and seemed desperate even. I had a strong feeling it would devolve into groan worthy iconography setups (which tbf I wasn’t entirely wrong) and a misguided narrative. Why should I care about the creation of the Creed? The Creed was painted as misguided and corrupt in AC1 with Altair having to reform its values entirely in order to secure that it would live on properly through the next generations. You literally kill the old man of the mountain in what’s essentially a history divergence moment that led to the Brotherhood not fading from existence like they did in real history. Any form of the assassins that came before Al Mualim should not matter, that was my view on Origins and I sticked to my guns for almost 5 years.

I’m a different man nowadays tho so it’s time for me to face my demons. And I have to say, Origins is pretty sweet.




Since this plays completely different from the games that came before we gotta talk about that gameplay extensively.

It’s fine. I think movement is a severe downgrade (the new “parkour” is bad, fuck BOTW dawg) and the world is clearly not designed for an actual Assassin’s Creed game which sucks because I know that’s not changing for 2 more games. Having that botw esque climb on anything mechanic is useful and definitely something I feel like the more open older AC games like Black Flag and Rogue seemed to lack sometimes but having absolutely no control over stuff like sprinting or a proper parkour system is just a terrible call. Combat is decent, it’s fun in short bursts but gets repetitive with time. I played this shit on hard so I definitely had the hardest time out of any game so far due to the get hit twice and die nature of it all. Stealth is really simple and also just kinda functional. That’s pretty much how every facet of gameplay goes. It’s all decently fun but I definitely vastly prefer the old formula to this rpg take.

Progression is definitely where this was losing me the most. I think Unity and Syndicate both had great implementations of a leveling system and this game basically went the boring and dull route instead of having any ounce of creativity. You only really get xp when doing side quests so you’re artificially forced to grind some side content in-between main missions in order to keep Bayek properly leveled for the campaign. It’s lame and since the campaign has a hefty chunk in the middle where it becomes a series of isolated subplots that don’t move the grander narrative at all, it really makes that issue even worse.



Now let’s talk about that narrative and ho boy, there are some slips here and there but I definitely think that overall it delivers.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way, Bayek of Siwa is immaculate. He makes this game work. He’s essentially classic Kratos in Assassin’s Creed and much like that character, there’s a beauty to the simplicity and raw emotion that drives him forward. Abubakar Salim is EASILY the best voice actor to ever work in the series, his portrayal of Bayek is actually next fucking level. This game’s narrative is the most no-nonsense revenge story that I’ve seen in a while. It’s refreshing really in an era so in love with stories about breaking the cycle of violence to witness Bayek’s brutal and straight up primal quest to avenge Khenut and free his soul to the afterlife. I love how the one moment he hesitates to kill his target it’s not because he didn’t want to continue the cycle of violence but because he didn’t want to let go of his son and move on. Beautiful shit honestly.
I was initially disappointed by the lack of philosophy in this story since if you wanna go back to basics that was the core of AC1. Upon further reflection though, I feel like having the Brotherhood be born from such a raw human emotion and leaving all the philosophical “You either cum on the sink or you sink in the cum” stuff to Altair works really well and completely kills my big gripe I had with this game since its announcement.
I like Aya a lot, I wish she was in it more but I guess you guys really wanted to empower the misogynistic producer. Great job Ubisoft.
The way the Brotherhood is conceived is pretty cool but this game also had a lot of what I like to call “Solo: A Star Wars Story” prequel writing that definitely had me groaning at times. Stuff like the origin of “May the father of understanding guide us” and Aya fucking saying Requiescat in Pace had me howling but other stuff like the ring finger ritual, the symbol of the brotherhood and the origin of the “Stay your blade from the flesh of the innocent.” tenet (I played the Hidden Ones dlc yeah it was dope as hell) were pretty good.
The worst part of the narrative is definitely that middle chunk with the 4 targets that was clearly there just to pad out the gigantic open world design philosophy because the main quests were essentially one-off subplots that didn’t really contribute towards the main narrative. They were fun on their own but by the last target I was getting tired of it. The 3rd act of the narrative delivered doe.
It’s a very heartfelt story with some incredible moments (that opening scene is a violent hook).

The setting is incredible even if I do not think the whole big spacey open world philosophy fits Assassin’s Creed. I still gotta credit how beautiful Egypt is.

The OST is fucking great too, Sarah Schachner knocked it out of the fucking park. Bayek’s theme accentuating his core scenes and creeping in many of the other tracks is so good and the way it compliments the Ezio’s Family remix is immaculate. Other great tracks like “I Walk on Your Water” also really stand out.




Overall, I had a pretty good time. The bloated runtime with its pacing issues (I cleared Syndicate’s map 100% and finished with 26 hours while this game took me 48 and I still had a few regions unexplored) definitely were souring me for a bit but the strong characters and especially really REALLY strong MC make this a very hard to forget ride when it peaks. Not in love with the RPG Assassin’s Creed concept at all but this was definitely a story worth telling.

AC Origins é um jogo atemporal pra mim, e ele é uma das melhores ressureições que já vi de franquia nos ultimos tempos.

A construção de personalidade do Bayek, a forma que a história é conduzida e o nivel de detalhes na ambientação não podem ficar de fora, o jogo te passa de fato a vibe de egito e você se sente la!

Temo em dizer que como RPG, ele fracassa em alguns aspectos como por exemplo não conseguir matar inimigos 4 levels acima, o seu grind obrigatório com secundárias que sinceramente são bem secas e tem umas historinha bem merreca (nivel ubisoft).

Mas como ponto de partida pra saga de RPG, diria que esse é o correto de se começar e o melhor.

Se não fosse isso de grind obrigatório, esse jogo receberia nota máxima pra mim, afinal, não há nenhum jogo que me deu a liberdade até então, de escalar as pirâmides e descobrir o que tem dentro de cada uma.

Origins me surpreendeu em alguns aspectos e me decepcionou em outros. Sou fã da franquia desde os primeiros jogos, e naturalmente estava um pouco receoso de adentrar na era "RPG" da saga, já que ela marca um ponto de mudança enorme pra Assassin's Creed, mas ainda assim mantive o otimismo, especialmente porque sempre vi o Origins ser bastante elogiado.

Acho que de cara posso falar que é um jogo muito "sólido". Mesmo que ele não tenha revolucionado a fórmula de mundo aberto, tudo é bastante coeso e polido, e o mundo é bem populoso e vivo. Fiquei impressionado com a fidelidade histórica da Ubisoft com o Egito antigo, eles não se deixaram levar por nenhum estereótipo. Dá pra notar até nos mínimos detalhes que houve uma atenção dobrada pra representar essa cultura da forma mais fiel possível, até mesmo nos aspectos que a gente quase não percebe, como a rotina dos NPCs do cenário e sua vida cotidiana.

A Ubisoft nunca erra na ambientação, mas mesmo já sabendo disso, Origins me deixou de queixo no chão com as paisagens, falo tranquilamente que é um dos jogos mais bonitos que eu já joguei. O Egito é um lugar vasto e extremamente diversificado, e tudo isso dá as caras aqui.

O gameplay tá num meio termo entre "ok" e "bom". Serve seu propósito, é responsivo e funciona bem, mas algumas coisas do combate me frustraram um pouco (especialmente na segunda expansão), e em geral eu acho bem chato a maneira como o jogo inteiro é balanceado em torno do nível do seu personagem versus o nível dos inimigos. Se você estiver no mesmo nível que um inimigo, é fichinha, é uma luta fácil até nas dificuldades mais altas. Mas se ele estiver só 2 ou 3 níveis acima de você, prepara um café pra não dormir porque a luta vai durar uma eternidade. É bizarro o quanto o seu dano causado é reduzido drasticamente contra inimigos de níveis acima, de um jeito obviamente artificial. Fora isso, nada a reclamar, o stealth é divertido e funciona bem também.

Mas o que mais me frustrou no jogo foi a história. Pra um título que prometia ser a a origem do Credo (vide o nome), Assassin's Creed Origins é bem... Básico nesse aspecto. A maior parte da história segue aquela fórmula que a gente tá cansado de ver na franquia (busca por vingança e uma lista de nomes pra você caçar e assassinar), e quando ela finalmente decide ir pra frente e expandir pra temas mais complexos, acontece tudo de uma vez e o jogo acaba sem você perceber. A parte que diz respeito a formação d'Os Ocultos (grupo que precede os assassinos), é tão repentina e rápida que você quase toma um susto. A primeira expansão resolve um pouco esse problema, mas não o suficiente.

Enfim, esperava que a história fosse um dos pontos fortes, e como é uma das partes da franquia AC que eu mais gosto, a simplicidade de Origins nesse quesito me decepcionou um pouco. Ainda assim, tem personagens memoráveis e o resto do jogo como um todo faz a experiência ser bem bacana.

Sumarizando: É um jogo bacana, divertido e cheio de conteúdo. Não é exatamente o que eu esperava, mas ainda assim eu gostei e estou animado pra começar o próximo. Odyssey me aguarda!

If this shift in the series is a result of Unity and Syndicate underperforming commercially, then I'm glad they failed. This shift towards an RPG format seems to have prompted Ubisoft to start investing some time into their characters as well, and it's paid off with the most interesting main character since Ezio.

Assassin's Creed has always excelled at creating incredible open worlds that make me take an interest in the history of a place I didn't previously care about. They've managed to do it again here, but Bayek carries this fucking game on his shoulders. A story beginning with a parent losing a child has a chance to fall really flat with players who can't relate, but it's written extremely well and it makes Bayek feel far more human than earlier AC protags, who feel much closer to superheroes than anything else.

The writing does a lot of the work, but Abubakar Salim puts in an excellent performance here to bring Bayek to life - it's a combination of the two that makes it believable. You understand what his values are without needing to be beaten over the head, and you can see through his interactions with children when he's reminded of his own son, without needing some hallucination or flashback to spell it out. Bayek very often feels like a man held together by ideals and duct tape and that's what sucks me in.

I know a lot of people were turned off by the shift towards RPG-lite mechanics and to be honest, they're alright here, but they're definitely half-baked in comparison to Odyssey. There are times where the difficulty between missions spikes a little too much and it feels like you're meant to level grind since these are sudden jumps, as opposed to a slow-growing gap between player level and mission level. The system of having multiple bows is a little weird and feels kinda clunky at times, and I basically just ignored one of them for about half the playthrough.

Moving away from paired animations makes the combat feel exhilarating at times, and the hitboxes match up pretty well to what's going on on-screen (I don't know how they fucked this up so bad in Valhalla after getting it right two games in a row). Aside from the sections where it feels like you're meant to level grind, the combat is generally challenging without feeling unfair and watching the Phylakes turn from a genuine roaming threat into juicy sacks of loot is a satisfying change.

All in all, Ubisoft very clearly put work into this game and the result isn't perfect, but they made some pretty dramatic changes to their flagship franchise and managed to create something worthwhile. Some of the changes that I think worked well for Origins don't work so well for later games (looting tombs was neat for Egypt and not so cool in Ancient England), but I'm really happy that Ubisoft decided to try something new when they could have just raked in the cash by shitting out another AC game that was 5% different from the last one. I think some of the things I liked most about Origins won't return to the series for a while, so I'll let the rest of you enjoy the newer games as they hone this formula - Origins is my own personal flash in the pan.

Assassin’s Creed is in a somewhat strange place in the gaming sphere; the yearly entries from 2006–2016 have left many fatigued from the series, yet every time a new game is announced the internet explodes with excitement. There’s something about Assassin’s Creed that is incredibly attractive — the promise of exploring a near-perfect recreation of landmark historical settings is just too enticing. The first five to ten hours of most games in the series are veritable masterpieces, leaving the player in awe of the sheer dedication to detail put into Revolution-era France or Ancient Greece. Unfortunately it’s at that point that the game begins to drag, and the player realizes that there’s about 30 more hours of game to get through.

With the first two entries of the new Ancient Trilogy, Origins and Odyssey, this drawback was only exacerbated; Assassin’s Creed is now a full open world action-adventure RPG, with all its waypoints, quest markets and fetch quests. The wonder of Ptolemaic Egypt and the excitement of experiencing a truly legendary time in human history, however, more than makes up for it.

Assassin’s Creed Origins is a slow burn. The player will take control of Bayek, the last medjay (basically national police for Egypt in service of the Pharoah). Bayek’s life is immediately turned upside-down as he loses his son in the opening scene of the game. He vows revenge on the shadowy order that executed his son and takes to the streets of Egypt to hunt down the killers one by one.

Having at least started every game in the series, I feel comfortable saying that Bayek is my favorite protagonist in the franchise. He is relatable in that he works to hone his own weaknesses into strengths; he is determined to make his own loss something good, something powerful for his country. He is driven by a need for both justice (good!) and revenge (not so good) and directs every moment of his energy towards fighting for the people of Egypt from the shadows. This excellently written character is brought to life by Abubakar Salim in some of the best video game voice acting/motion-capture I have ever seen. This, finally, is a protagonist I know, understand, and can fight for.

If you’ve only ever played the previous “Classic” Assassin’s Creed games, this one is going to give you a bit of a culture shock. Origins throws out much of the tired formula of the classic games in favor of full RPG mechanics. There are dozens of weapon classes with dozens of variations each, all available for several distinct upgrades. Armor and shields work much the same way. Bayek will need to gather crafting materials (animal skins) to upgrade his tools and armor, while most weapons can be upgraded for gold coins (drachmae) at a blacksmith.

Combat (yes, there’s real combat now!) is much improved from Syndicate. Bayek utilizes a combination of bow and arrows, melee weapons and shields to fight and depends on well timed blocks, parries and dodges. Interestingly, unlike most RPGs, I never fell into a specific kind of fighting style, instead switching to a new weapon whenever I got a more powerful one. Swapping between the heavy blunt and mirror blades quickly in one battle gave me the edge to defeat a boss without much hassle; Origins rewards players for utilizing a diverse fighting style.

Origins runs beautifully, and on my 2060 Super I was able to achieve a constant 60 FPS in 1440p 144 hz without a single frame rate drop on ultra high settings. The beauty in Assassin’s Creed Origins is topped only by its successor, Odyssey, across all of video games. The water is indescribably real, lapping up against mossy cobblestones in the agora. The swaying of the palm leaves in the salty breeze is almost too realistic. The least immersive thing about the game would have to be NPC faces during speech, but even counting that as a negative would be nitpicking.

The UI of the menus is a little cluttered and confusing, but I quickly became accustomed to it. The first thing I’d advise any player to do is shift the UI mode to “Light”, removing a lot of the unneeded clutter from the screen. The crafting menu, skill tree and map are all pretty straightforward, but again feel crowded with more information than I needed. The white line highlighting hidden enemies through walls (wallhacks) after your eagle, Senu, sees them contrasts the rich, saturated tones of the world to great effect. Senu can also scan for treasure and hidden entrances from the skies while escaping the interest of guards and is fun to fly around and take pictures with while Bayek is riding his camel 5,000 meters to the next destination.

I’d also be remiss not to mention that the PC version comes with a feature called the Animus Control Panel, allowing you to access the console of the game from a sleek and handy UI (no more ~unlock id “00f0334b”~). Change speed, jump height, enemy behavior, color saturation or even playable character and enjoy the game however you’d like.

Throughout the story, Bayek will uncover a trail that leads him closer and closer to his son’s killer, known only as The Lion. You’ll meet larger-than-life historical figures such as Cleopatra, Ptolemy and even Julius Caesar himself on this quest alongside Bayek’s wife, Aya. You’ll take control of Aya for select missions of the game and although she’s fun to play, she’s just not my favorite part of the game. Her pragmatic and direct personality is a sharp contrast to Bayek, who is something of a tortured idealist. Both want the best for Egypt but seem to be constantly at odds on how to get there, making for an interesting husband-wife dynamic. Ubisoft uses “glitches” in the Animus to sneak Egyptian mythology into the story here and there, and in the post-game Bayek can fight actual Egyptian gods like Sobek the Crocodile Lord and Anubis, the Jackal-headed King of the Duat. For the most part, however, Origins is very true to history and grounded in realism.

Assassin’s Creed Origins is the dramatic re-imagining the series has desperately needed for some time. The beauty of the open world in Origins is quite nearly unparalleled even by the sequel, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Bayek is an immediately likeable protagonist the player will be willing to fight for, and his quest to find the balance between justice and revenge is a path we have all been on before. The combat could have been smoother but is still fun, and sneaking/assassinating is just as good as it’s ever been. For the best experience I suggest turning the UI to “Light”, ignoring the waypoint markers and using the Animus Control Panel to turn on assassination one-hit KOs. Although it can get bogged down in the hundreds of side quests on the massive map, Origins doesn’t lose sight of Bayek’s original motivation and the theme of turning your own loss into love for others permeates the whole story.

O RPG fez um bem muito grande pra franquia Assassin's Creed, não é perfeito, mas revitalizou e deu um novo ar muito bom, pra mim tem o melhor sistema de exploração de jogos de mundo aberto de hoje em dia.
Normalmente vc só pode se movimentar normalmente como em the witcher por exemplo. Mas a verticalidade e a exploração fazem a saga RPG ser muito boa de se jogar.
PONTOS FRACOS
- O ponto que eu mais tenho que falar, que mais me incomodou foi a questão do XP e o gap entre as missões principais, as vezes a trama ta tão boa que vc so quer continuar, mas o jogo te força a fazer missões secundárias pra continuar a história.
- BUGS eu não sei se é meu PC ou o azar, mas no final do jogo tive muito problema com bugs e rendering.
- Não consigo entender o tesão que a ubisoft tem em batalha naval, com ctz é desnecessário aqui.
PONTOS POSITIVOS.
- Bayek of Siwa. Simplesmente o melhor protagonista da série, complexo, muito bem interpretado em ambas as versões que eu joguei, mas a versão americana interpretada por Abubakar Salim é simplesmente estupenda.
- Personagens secundários são muito bem desenvolvidos.
- Os vilões são absurdamente bons, os arcos de cada um da ordem dos anciões é muito bem desenvolvido em geral, alguns da pra perceber que é meio rushado, mas o saldo é positivo.
- Aya é simplesmente um show a parte, que personagem FODA. simplesmente incrível, muito bem desenvolvida do começo ao fim, minha unica coisa a reclamar é que eu gostaria que ela fosse mais participativa na história.
- Exploração: INCRIVEL, Tumbas, pirâmides, deserto, oásis, cidades gregas, cidades egípcias, alexandria é um show a parte também, que construção, que ambientação FODA, a ubi é imbativel nesse quesito.
- Combate é legal, mas fica melhor nos próximos.
- Missões secundárias, algumas são muito repetitivas, mas a maioria tem uma história boa.
- História, o enredo é fantástico, muito bem construido, muito bem amarrado, eu senti que no final fica um pouco apressado ali na parte da guerra no nilo após a fuga do elefante que é FODA.
É isso, mais um jogo memorável da ubisoft.

Things like skill trees and crafting systems have been slipping their way into Assassin's Creed for a while now. Origins however is the first game in the series to fully embrace the RPG genre. Boldly redefining the franchise while taking us back to the earliest days of the Brotherhood.

As interested as I was in seeing how the Assassins got their start, I didn't care about the protagonist Bayek, his wife Aya, or even his quest to avenge his son's death. This is in part because the game picks up a year after he already set out to destroy the Order, giving it a bit of a non-linear quality. I got more out of the side-quests and historical setting. A lot of effort went into making the characters you come across in both the main plot and the mini side-stories scattered across the world feel real and memorable. The best part of the narrative though is definitely the origin story of the Creed. Seeing how all of these different things we've come to associate with the series over the years came to be is a lot of fun.

On the gameplay side of things the biggest change that can be found is the combat system. No longer are fights a dance of well-timed parries and counters. Instead we get something much more free-flowing with a mix of light and heavy attacks not unlike a SoulsBorne game. A wide variety of weapon types allow you to experiment with different playstyles and find one that best suits you. This is true of ranged combat as well. The new bow and arrows are probably my favorite addition to the series. Being able to put some distance between you and your foes can be life-saving. Pulling off headshots never gets old. Especially when you dive further into the skill trees and get crazy new abilities like the power to control arrows mid-flight.

Origins is a massive game that's filled with things to do. Admittedly you're just completing the same handful of tasks over and over again, but the action manages to stay fresh due to how diverse the environments are. Each section of the map is unique. Affecting things like enemy patrol patterns and the kind of terrain you'll maneuver through. Entering a new zone for the first time and getting caught up in it's beauty and how different it was from everywhere else I had previously explored was enough to keep me going until I got that platinum trophy.

The new modern day segments return to a format similar to that of when Desmond was still around. They introduce a new protagonist for this side of things, but man is she annoying. Like Rebecca and Shaun levels of bad. Not much happens in the few brief excursions outside of the Animus, but it's nice to see signs of Ubisoft potentially doing something significant with this part of the series again.

Origins marks the first real evolution for Assassin's Creed since introducing multiplayer back in 2012. With a better story and more variety across the board the next entry could be talked about as one of the best RPGs of all time. Some excellent groundwork has been laid here, making the franchise feel fresher than it has in years.

8/10

Amazing game, though I have some mixed feelings. I'll start with the bad, so I can end on a good note.

First of all, the level gating in this game is completely and utterly blown out of proportion to the point it ruins the gaming experience. Missions will be near impossible to beat, as you'll likely be 2-shot and not going to do any damage because you're a level or two below the requirement. You can't even assassinate them with one hit if they're more levelled than you. This is more of a problem at the beginning of the playthrough, but it's still irritating.
My next issue is the controls. I don't know why, but I've always had problems with assassin's creed controls, as remapping breaks a lot of things. It doesn't help the fact that the controls change from game to game, too.

Now with the bad stuff out of the way, let me talk about things I loved. Starting off, I love the whole atmosphere and aesthetic of the game. This is now one of my favourites in the franchise. It's different from the others, but it still felt like an Assassin's Creed game. The DLC were also quite nice, albeit somewhat repetitive sometimes.
Next, the soundtrack is amazing. I really enjoyed all of it. I also love Senu. She's fun to use to explore the area, and she helps out in combat.
Speaking of which, the combat is awesome. I'm a fan of all the weapon types in this game and I love dual wielding in games in general, and this one really delivered. With all the cool moves and Overpower skills, I really felt like a badass warrior assassin.

Fiquei simplesmente apaixonado por esse jogo. A história é basicamente uma declaração de amor da desenvolvedora pra franquia. Muita gente não curte os elementos de RPG, mas pra mim (sou suspeito porque eu amo RPG) eles funcionaram muito bem.

Acho o Bayek um puta protagonista e simplesmente amei explorar o imenso mundo que tem aqui. Completar 100% no mapa foi um deleite, ainda mais porque eu simplesmente amo o cenário egípcio. Sem falar que a ambientação é um absurdo de linda, destaque pras regiões de Alexandria, Montanhas Verdes e o Oásis do Deserto Branco que são de encher os olhos. Dá vontade de ficar só andando por lá de tão lindo.

Presenciei alguns bugzinhos mas nada muito extremo e achei o parkour um pouco impreciso às vezes, mas nada que comprometesse a minha gameplay. No mais, se tornou um dos meus favoritos da franquia e num geral. Mal posso esperar pra me atirar no Odyssey e depois no Valhalla.

I like the idea of Ancient Egypt in a game, and the main story captivated me in a way. However, the RPG elements didn't really please me; I preferred the mechanics of the previous games. Another significant issue with Assassin's Creed Origins is that the secondary missions quickly become repetitive, often involving tasks like moving from point A to B, picking up an item, returning it to the NPC, or storming a base to either kill everyone or rescue a hostage. I just don't find these aspects enjoyable. Despite that, you can have fun in some parts

O jogo que me fez amar a Ubisoft novamente.
Incrível o quão preconceituoso eu era com essa nova saga RPG de assassin's Creed e não dava uma chance se quer para qualquer um.

Hoje tendo finalizado o primeiro da trilogia eu vejo que perdi um grande jogo.
Sendo TOTALMENTE UM assassin's Creed e sendo um ótimo RPG para um leigo como eu.

Imersão do começo ao fim, amei explorar cada parte desse Egito imenso junto de bayek, que por sinal, é um dos melhores protagonistas dessa saga.

- É um bom Action RPG que te permite explorar bastante o mundinho dele, apenas limitando os inimigos que você consegue enfrentar por nível e ganha pontos por não ser tão grande quanto os jogos seguintes.
- O Egito antigo é uma ambientação muito legal. Pirâmides no deserto, com diferente tipos de deserto; as regiões a margem do Nilo são alagadas e populosas com grandes cidades; e ao litoral norte são verdejantes e muito bonitas, com maior predominância de gregos e romanos.

- Sua história começa como uma busca por vingança de Bayek pelo assassinato de seu filho através da região do baixo Egito, mas que se transforma quando é revelado que Bayek caça os integrantes de uma organização chamada A Ordem e o convoca a lutar contra eles. Bayek é resistente a lutar por essa causa, mas faz isso pois causa do seus interesses em comum.
- Entretanto personagens pulam dentro e fora da história a todo momento. Nomes que parecem importantes são citados, mas sem o jogo nunca mostrar quem são eles antes, esses nomes não significam muito.
- Bayek é um bom protagonista e bem estabelecido, que realmente carrega o jogo inteiro nas costas. Seu como personagem é interessante, mas é prejudicada pelos outros personagens que não tem nenhum desenvolvimento, com exceção da Aya e ainda sim não é muito.

After buying Syndicate in 2017 and deciding that it actually was a good game but I wanted to replay all the series before continuing, I still bought every next Assassin's Creed game that got released after Syndicate and directly shelved it. Origins waited the longest until it finally saw the inside of my blu-ray drive, and I was excited for it the most, because I already heard a lot of good things about it and saw some stunning game play videos.

Since then I also learned that Origins was seen as kind of a soft reboot of the series by fans of the franchise and learned that Ubisoft themselves rather see it as their second period of Assassin's Creed games after the first periode that started with the original Assassin's Creed finally ended with Syndicate in 2015. But what brought in this change? Basically, that Assassin's Creed wasn't selling as well anymore, as expected. From original AC to Black Flag, every new title beat the older ones in units sold (that is not counting the continuations of a series, as well as taking into account that Black Flag only fell short by a tiny margin to actually beat AC III - but it still made more profit than the original and ACII and plays in the same ballpark as Black Flag). Until the infamous double release of Rogue and Unity. Unity stood far behind expectations being only on place 6 of the the rang list, and Rogue became a disaster, with the least number of units sold in the entire franchise. Syndicate, playing in a famous time period and with a lot of infamous historic characters only managed to outsell Rogue, second to last. If you ask the players, you'll often hear that there is a kind of product fatigue - since 2007 Ubisoft was releasing a title every year, and in since 2012 this became two titles - one mainline title and either an DLC (Like Liberation or Freedom Cry) or a secondary title like the Chronicles series; and with the double release of Unity and Rogue even two main-line titles. And all the while there was no real innovation in the game-play and even the story (regarding Isu and modern-day story) got convoluted to a point that people couldn't follow anymore.

Additionally, with every title released, Ubisoft pushed the timeline further to the modern day - next in line after the End of the Industrial Revolution would have been modern day, already.

So Ubisoft decided to take a break - leave two years out, and return in 2017 with the first game of their second period: Instead of stealth-action adventure games, Ubisoft decided to shift the focus to role-playing video games (though I would argue that the first period games also fit quite well in that description). The biggest changes for me in the game play are two: 1. the unguided open-world approach; where older titles would actively hinder you to reach certain areas at an early stage by putting an animus barrier around the area you can explore, or by denying you access via doors, portals, etc., in Origins and games to come you are allowed to wander freely right from the get-go. There are some hints as to what makes sense to do next (difficulty levels), but which mission you do first, which characters you interact with first or which areas you explore first is totally up to you - for better or worse. 2. the entirely changed fighting system that abandoned the "paired animation system" (i.e. when attacking an enemy both parties lock into an animation sequence during which nothing else can happen, and where the outcome is predefined by the situation and kind of attack) for the "hit box system" (i.e. you swing your weapon freely and as often as you want, and if it by chance touches the hit box of an enemy, that enemy gets an effect), which changes the entire way combats are played (allowing - amongst other things - to further categorize weapons into damage, speed and range, and allowing those weapons to be played in different modes (heavy and light)).

The other striking novelty is in the time setting and thus the story told: the four games of the second period range from 431 BC to 878 AD; the Order of Assassins was founded around 1090 AD, the Knights Templar in 1119 AD. Is this still Assassin's Creed?

Let's see how the first installment in the second period - which incidently is the 10th overall installment - holds up:

In the modern-day of origin we get to meet Layla Hassan, a young and brilliant hacker and maker who is working as a researcher for Abstergo Industires. She is on a mission in Egypt to retrieve some artifacts, but accidentally stumbles upon the mummified bodies. Instead of reporting this, Layla decides to use her modified Animus in the hopes to find out something useful that might secure her position at Abstergo.

Our main ancient character is Bayek of Siwa, on of the last Medjay in Ptolemaic Egypt under Ptolemy XIII, who does not only need to worry about an invading Roman army under the command of Julius Caesar, but also has to fend of revolutionist in his own ranks who are under the influence of his sister Cleopatra that seeks to overthrow his brother. In the midst of this, the son of Bayek and his wife Aya gets killed by a group of 12 masked men. Bayek seeks revenge and learns of the Order of the Ancients - a cult that believes in Gods called the "Ancient Ones" (which turn out to be our Isu) and try to control humanity with their gifts. This group has existed for centuries around the world. Bayek in his quest for revenge kills them with his wife Aya and the help of Cleopatra - and after that founds a group of people - "The Hidden Ones" to fight against these "Order of the Ancients" and protect the people from them - just like the Medjay of the old times did.

The story of Bayek and Aya is really captivating, thrilling and at times also heart-breaking. We get so much time with the characters and their feelings that we really start to take a great interest in them and be more engaged in the story as any other Assassins Creed has ever managed to do. I was identifying with these characters right from the get-go and knew their emotions and motivations, and it was fun playing them and exploring the world the main story and the side quests with them. The main quest is pretty straight forward - travel around Egypt to find clues about the Ancient Ones and kill them. But there are a lot of twist and turns on the way, and by traveling around Egypt we get to explore the wonders of it as well: we get to travel from small oasis villages to enormous ancient cities like the greek-built Alexandria or the Egypt build Memphis, but also cross the dessert and mountain areas and even get to climb the Pyramids and explore the tombs in the Valley of Kings. Besides traveling by foot we also get to ride camels and horses, carriages and even get to go by boat on larger lakes or the river Nile. This world is enormous, and to make it even more fun to explore, we get a ton of side quests; some are stand alone quests, others are series of quests and then there are even quests that spring from main quest events where we get to see how the people are doing afterwards - if we want to, as side quests are totally optional of course. But in Origins non of the quests feel repetitive as every quest has its own story and fate behind it, so this never feels like a chore to do.

The new fighting system feels great; its much more fluent but it also needs you to learn some tactics that vary with the kind of enemy you are fighting against; and it's become impossible to fight against whole group of enemies at once - whats true for you (hit box system) is also true for the enemies - if three of them hit you at once with a heavy attack that takes away a third of your life then you die in an instance. So even though fighting is much better and much more accurate and fun to do, it won't allow you to cut through your enemies like previous games did; so you need to adapt your strategy. I myself had a lot of fun with stealth sneaking around and killing my enemies from a distance with bow and arrows. The predator bow is an incredible weapon and there is an incredible ability that even allows you to steer your arrow while it is in the air, but you are very limited in arrows, so I tried to stake out an enemy camp find all my possibilities to recharge arrows and then strategically planned my takeouts - trying to not alarm anyone, if possible. Coolest thing I learned: A burning arrow deals much more damage, and to make your arrow burn you actually can stand next to a fire source, or - if at a distance - shoot through a fire source in which case your arrow will also catch fire. Boy had I fun finding the perfect trajectory lines or trying to steer my arrow mid air so it could pass through a fire source and still hit my target. To perfect your play style there is a skill tree and different weapons in various rarities that can be even further upgraded.

Besides all of this there is also an arena where you have gladiator style fights and an arena where you have Ben Hur like chariot races, and there are even missions that are set on the ocean on a trireme, with Black Flag like mechanics for some boat fights. All in all this gives you a pretty decent amount of variety - and for an Assassin's Creed title that is saying a lot.

And if that is not enough for you and you want to immerse yourself even further into the life of ancient Egypt, there is an entire game mode where you are allowed to run around the world freely without any obstacles and visit certain landmarks or locations to go on a guided tour and learn about every days life, believes, economic systems or scientific achievements of ancient Egypt. This opens up the world on a much deeper level and makes you appreciate certain game aspects so much more; and it is a really fun way to learn new things or refresh on your textbook knowledge in an immersive way that even museums cannot offer; oh and btw. this mode has already been discovered by teachers who actually use some of this material in their classes.

Included with my edition came two DLCs:

1. The Hidden Ones: A new mission that takes place in Sinai, where Bayek helps an allied rebel leader to fight against the Romans. In general it was fun to play, but I felt it didn't feel and fit as good in the story. Some elements where copied over without even thinking about them making sense in the new environment or not - so while I generally liked it, I felt that it was just a sloppy addition that could have used more care.

2. The Curse of the Pharaohs: This is the DLC where you should put all your money in. Especially when playing this, you will even more so feel that the "Hidden Ones" was just a sloppy copy of the original game to add some missions and game time to the game. Not so with The Curse of the Pharaohs. This time you'll dive deep into the Egyptian believe system - deeper than you think: In Thebes all of a sudden Egyptian Pharaohs rise from the dead to punish the people. Bayek gets called to investigate this, and not only dives deep into the tombs found in Thebes and Luxor, but also reaches the Egyptian worlds of the dead: The "Fields of the Reeds", "Aten" and the "Duat" are places he has to visit to appease the raging pharaohs. And those where incredible experiences of interpretations of what Egyptians believed in. Each world has its own look and feel, enemies, missions and side quests that felt incredibly unique, and everything is framed in an really interesting story that also allows us to visit new real existing Egypt cities to explore. Definitely one of the best DLCs of the entire series.

So, was the wait, the re-haul of the entire game and the change from stealth-action adventure to role playing game worth it? In my humble opinion - as a story game enthusiast - yes, definitely. Everything was so much more immersive, so much more fun to play and got so much more depth. Heck, even Layla had more depth with the tiny portion we got to explore about here (mainly by going through her personal files in the computer, though) then Desmond had with all four of his game installments.

But take not just my word: While sales where dropping with every series since Black Flag, Origins was the first game to exceed all previous games in sold units, making it the first game since a decade to beat their previous record - by more than a million additional copies sold. Financially, Assassin's Creed did everything right; and story and game-play wise it at least impressed me the most; it's definitely in my Top 3 titles I enjoyed most - maybe even the best of them all? And I really have a hard time finding anything I disliked during the entire experience.

As much as I enjoyed the older Assassin Creed games in the Ezio days, they had clearly run that formula into the ground over the years so the series needed a change. Was the transition to an RPG a successful one? Well, moderately so. If you are viewing it as an RPG, I wouldn't say it's particularly deep in terms of builds or choices. You have a skill tree but you'll probably get everything in it by the end of the game. There is decent amount of loot and at least early on, you will have to choose what to upgrade so you can focus in on the three core tenets that the skill tree is built around, i.e. melee, ranged and stealth. I personally had a lot of fun focusing on bow combat. It's not a great RPG but it's a pretty fun action adventure.

Comparing it to the old AC games, there definitely is a lot more going on mechanically with the combat and stealth. The combat is definitely improved to need a bit more skill than parry kill streak hordes of enemies. The various weapons feel quite different so you can pick what suits you. Even though I saw there's more to the stealth mechanics here, I find it a whole lot less satisfying than the older games. This is probably more due to how they build the areas. Every area that you can sneak into is a wide open space that can be approached from all angles. This sounds like it provides you with a ton of options but it usually just leads to much less interesting spaces to infiltrate and exfiltrate from. The parkour being greatly diminished leads to this. The parkour in the older games was always a bit awkward and unwieldy but they could at least build a few areas that were fun to figure out how to move around in. Origins has you climbing the walls like Spider-Man which is much less interesting to me.

The open world is beautiful and fun to explore. I really liked delving into the pyramids dotted around the map. The cities aren't that well developed especially considering some of the past games but there was an attempt to give them each their own character. The side quests are pretty boring but they suffice enough to get you to move around the world. The story itself is fine but it's pretty weak as an origin story for the series. It is easy to get behind Bayek as the protagonist and the actor's performance deserves some praise. You can really feel the anger and passion that the character carries. Overall, the game is good even if I wish the series would focus more on stealth rather than action.