Assassins Creed Origins

Assassins Creed Origins is a 2017 action-adventure video game developed and published by Ubisoft. It is the tenth major installment in the Assassin’s Creed series and the successor to 2015’s Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. The game is set in Ancient Egypt near the end of the Ptolemaic period (49–44 BC). The story follows a Medjay named Bayek, and explores the origins of the centuries-long conflict between the Hidden Ones—forerunners to the Brotherhood of Assassins—who fight for peace by promoting liberty, and The Order of the Ancients—forerunners to the Templar Order—who desire peace through the forced imposition of order. Featuring a large open world, Origins adopted elements from role-playing video games and incorporated an overhauled “hitbox-based” combat system.

Development of the game began following the release of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (2013). Development was led by Ubisoft Montreal with assistance provided by other Ubisoft studios around the world. The game had a development time of 4 years, by a team of nearly 1,000 people. The team consulted Egyptologists and historians extensively to ensure that the setting was authentically represented in the game. While Assassin’s Creed had been an annual franchise since Assassin’s Creed II (2009), an extra year of development time was given to the team to further polish the game. This was largely a response to the tepid sales of Syndicate, and the troubled launch of Unity, which was plagued with technical issues when it was released in 2014.

Announced at E3 2017, Origins was released on October 27, 2017 for Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It received positive reviews from critics, with many calling it an improvement over previous entries and praising the story, characters, voice acting, reworked gameplay systems, world design, historical accuracy and the visuals. The game drew criticisms for its pacing, quest design and technical issues. The game has sold over ten million units worldwide and was nominated for several end-of-the-year accolades. Ubisoft supported the game extensively following the game’s launch, releasing two paid expansions and Discovery Tour, a series of guided tours for educational purposes. The game was followed by Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, which was released in October 2018.

Gameplay

Assassin’s Creed Origins is an action-adventure stealth game played from a third-person perspective. In the game, the player assumes control of Bayek, a Medjay tasked with protecting the Siwa Oasis. Players complete quests—linear scenarios with set objectives to progress through the story. Outside of quests, the player can freely roam the open world environment on foot, horseback, camel-back, horse-drawn vehicles or boat. The open world includes the entirety of Egypt, featuring vast deserts, oasis, lakes and ancient cities such as Alexandria and Memphis.^[1][2] Bayek can also dive underwater and explore the lakes and the rivers, a first for the series.^[3] As the player’s explore the world, they will encounter different non-playable characters who needs assistance from Bayek. These side missions, which typically involve rescuing prisoners, defeating enemies, collecting items or investigating items of interest,^[4] often take Bayek to locations of interest, where the player can find treasures.^[5] Throughout the game, players can explore tombs and pyramids, raid bandit hideouts, solve riddle puzzles to find rare loots, and discover synchronization points, which would then unlock additional locations of interest and serve as fast travel points.^[6][7] Other side activities players can undertake including comepting in gladiatorial arena, where the player fights waves of increasingly difficult combinations of enemies culminating in a boss fight,^[8] participating in chariot racing,^[9] and solving stone circle puzzles.^[10]

Players would earn experience points by performing act such as completing campaign missions and side missions, to discovering a new locations, to killing enemies. As the players earn sufficient experience points, they would level up and earn skill points, which can be used to unlock new abilities.^[11] The skill tree has three unique branches: Hunter, Warrior and Seer. Hunter improves Bayek’s ranged abilities; Warrior makes Bayek a more capable melee fighter; Seer turns Bayek into a more lethal and efficient assassin.^[12] Missions and areas have a level recommendation, meaning that players need to reach a certain level before completing them, or else they would be easily overpowered by the game’s enemies.^[13] To further enhance combat efficiency, Bayek’s hidden blade, quiver, stabilizer glove, bracer, breastplate and tool pouch can be crafted using the resources collected from hunting wildlife, dismantling gears, attacking convoys carrying supplies.^[14] They also need to earn coins through looting and completing locations of interest. Coins can then be spent on purchasing or upgrading weapons, outfits and mounts.^[15] Gears and crafting materials can be purchased from a special vendor through loot boxes, though these boxes can only be purchased through the in-game currency.^[16] Despite this, some cosmetic items can only be purchased via Helix coins, which can only be purchased through real-world currency.^[17]

Combat

Previous titles in the Assassin’s Creed series used a “paired animation system” whereby the player character would engage with an enemy and combat would be dictated by a series of predetermined animations based on player inputs and scripted AI movements. Origins moves to a “hit-box system”. When the player wields a weapon, they will strike at whatever is in range, allowing them to hit and injure enemies directly, and creating the possibility of missing an enemy entirely.^[18] There are two modes of melee attack; light attacks are fast but weak, and heavy attacks are slow but strong.^[3] Complementing this is the way weapons fall into different categories (common, rare and legendary) and are rated on their damage dealt, speed and range.^[19] Bayek is equipped with eight types of melee weapons and four types of bows and arrows.^[20] Legendary weapons can usually be obtained through defeating high-level enemies called the Phylakes.^[21] As enemy combat is also dictated by the hit-box system, the player has been equipped with a shield and needs to balance their offensive and defensive capabilities.^[22] Players need to use different weapons when facing different enemy archetypes.^[3] They may also need to dodge or parry hostile attacks. Adrenaline slowly builds up during combat. When the player’s adrenaline bar is full, they can unleash a devastating attack with their melee weapon.^[23] Bayek also has access to tools such as sleeping darts, poison darts, and firebombs, and can use the environment to his advantage.^[10] For instance, he can light enemies on fire after shooting oil canisters with fire arrows, and set traps near braziers, killing enemies when they attempt to call for reinforcements.^[24]

Locations within the game world are designed to enable the player to choose their playing style by offering stealth and open combat as equally-viable choices for completing objectives. Players can assassinate enemies by sneaking up behind them using the hidden blade, though higher-level enemies are not easily killed.^[25] The “eagle vision” mode, which was used by the franchise to give the player the ability to scout an area by highlighting enemies and objects, has been replaced by a Bonelli’s eagle named Senu as a companion.^[26] The player can take control of Senu and scout an area in advance, highlighting enemies which will then be visible when they return to controlling Bayek. Players can hide in tall grass, or navigate the rooftops to avoid enemies’ attention.^[27] Bayek however can whistle to draw enemy toward him, allowing assassination when the player is still in hiding. As with other Assassin’s Creed game, Bayek is an expert in free running and can climb nearly all structures. The player can also tame various predators which will serve as a companion for the player and assist them against enemies.^[28] Naval combat returns in sections where players control Bayek’s love interest Aya, who would command a ship and attack hostile ship vessels.