My god. After all that build-up I've finally created enough of the story to accurately write a review on what Ubisoft did with 'Assassin's Creed: Origins' in order to breathe life back into a flagging franchise and whether I feel that it worked. (Okay, spoiler; it obviously did. But I want to see whether or not it deserved to revitalise the AC brand or not.) I'll be honest, after two dedicated blogs on backstory I may have written more than was necessary, but at least there is now no excuse for anyone to complain about being 'lost' because everything is literally right there for reference. With all that said, obviously there will be a ludicrous amount of spoilers in this upcoming post-view as I want to dive all in on this game in order to justify the nearly 50 hours that I spent on this game. (I guess that alone tells you that the product was by no means unbearable.)
Before I start I should say: SPOILERS, SPOILERS, SPOILERS! I'm about to spoil this whole game going forward and you should be aware of that before ruining things for yourself. I take these blogs as a very cathartic form of self-therapy and perhaps you can get some similar benefits out of this article too, but not if you want to experience the narrative fresh and by yourself. If you just want my opinion on how this game is, scroll past all the words to the 'Synopsis' section. Otherwise, join me on a trip to Ancient Egypt. (Or rather to 2016 which is when the marketing for this title began.)
Ubisoft knew that Assassin's Creed had developed the reputation of being something of a joke after 'Assassin's Creed: Unity' and they needed to remake their image in order to earn back some of their respect. Of course, this realisation did nothing to halt the production of their next title, 'Assassin's Creed: Syndicate' due to their tendency to double up on projects. Syndicate came out to average reviews (for an Assassin's Creed game, which tends to be one mark above 'average') and general disinterest from the gaming public. (Which kinda personally offends me seeing as how that title as set in England but that's neither here nor there.)
'Assassin's Creed: Origin' was decreed to skip a year in the annual Assassin's Creed release window in order to make sure that everything was perfect. Although, officially this year gap was a long time in the making considering that AC:O would mark another substantial leap forward in the game engine, warranting extra development time. (But I would argue in turn that Unity was the mistake which pushed Ubisoft to ditch that failing engine.) Whatever the truth behind it, Assassin's Creed Origins would leave fans lonely throughout 2016 and start to stir up the mythos of the series a bit. Afterall, just what were Ubisoft working on that was so grand it needed an extra year in the oven to bake? Those are the kind of questions that can really start to fuel the old hype-train enough to leave the station.
Throughout the next year, 2017, we started to receive the pertinent information such as the title, which had already been leaked, and the setting, which had similarly been leaked. Remember this as the time when Ubisoft, not Bethesda, was the leakiest ship in gaming. (And if you're wondering whether or not they ever fixed that issue with leaks: this year's Assassin's Creed is called 'Ragnarok' and will follow the age of the Vikings. Why even bother with a press release, guys?) Official words did reveal something interesting, however, that this game would be following the mythical origins of the Assassin's Order in the sands of Ancient Egypt. Something which any etymologist would refute given that the word 'Assassin' comes from 'Hashshashin', the mythical order of Persian Assassins that were the focus of the first game, but let's not nitpick just yet.
In the months leading up the launch it felt like everyone was ready to write off this title long before it ever hit shelves. There were tons of PR nightmares that arose from early looks such as pre-order locked missions which reminded everyone of a DLC practice that felt archaic, Multi-layer DRM (Digital Rights Management) which threatened to severely slow down the game on PC and the premature reveal of lootboxes being present in the game. (Remember, this was in the year of Battlefront 2, so you imagine the kind of ire this particular revelation kicked up!) People didn't even seem to like the way the game was animated, with complaints coming out about the lifeless way that character's lips moved during conversation. (Although in the finished game we can see that this is more of an issue exclusive to the side quests.)
And so, with the world against it 'Assassin's Creed: Origins' launched on the 17th of October 2017 for all the big consoles of the time and was met with a reception that was... surprisingly positive! Amazingly so, in fact. It had been so long since the Assassin's Creed franchise had been showered with so much praise that all those issues that plagued the lead-up months were completely forgotten in a haze of exuberance. Everyone lauded the graphics, gameplay and story to such a degree that Ubisoft hadn't really enjoyed since the days of AC2 and Brotherhood, it almost felt like the second coming of Assassin's Creed. And I, like the ass I am, completely ignored it for all the other cool games that year.
In my defence, Assassin's Creed had courted and burned me so many times that I had to shun the franchise, my little heart couldn't take betrayal like that anymore. Heck, I didn't even pick up Syndicate until a year late and I still haven't bought that game's DLC. (Although that may be due to a fundamental disagreement with the direction that the studio decided to take Evie Frye, as much as it was to do with personal gripes. Actually, I suppose that is a personal gripe, isn't it?) So I waited for a full two years later before finally taking the plunge, and even then I got it second hand because I'm a cheap ass too. But in the end I was ready to give this title a fair go around, irregardless of the overwhelming positivity that this game had received. My opinion would be unfettered by those around me, this would be entirely my own go around.
On a side note, I do want to note that this title was actually the one that was used as a test run for Google's 'Stadia' project before it even had that name. I remember being courted by them to give this a test run for the promise of a copy of the title for free when I was done, but something innate repulsed me from the idea and now I can look back in hindsight and count myself lucky for the bullet I dodged. Imagine how annoyed I'd be if I had backed the early stages of Stadia instead of doing something more worthwhile with my money, like sticking it in a blender to see if the resulting smoothie was edible. (Okay, I'm getting a little of track, let's talk about Assassin's Creed.)
'Assassin's Creed: Origins' takes it's role as a series re-starter seriously, and that means reintroducing players to a modern day story-line in order to keep us interested and provide some vague connective tissue between titles. (Wow, what a novel concept!) For this game we are introduced to Layla Hassan, an annoyingly pretentious electrical engineer who Ubisoft are forever keen to remind you is the smartest person in any room she walks into. (So the exact opposite to 'relatable nobody' Desmond Miles. Interesting choice...) Layla is in the middle of a unsanctioned dig in Egypt through an old tomb in order to prove herself to her employers over at Abstergo.
Whilst I'm not exactly thrilled with our choice of main character for the foreseeable future, I do enjoy the prospect of playing as someone with such close links to the main villains of the franchise, in direct contrast to Desmond who's dad was literally the boss of the Assassins. I mean sure, that is the exact same thing that the series has been doing with it's main story for nigh-on 5 entries straight, but actually having a real character with personality in that position elevates that concept from novelty to an actual idea. For example, we get to see that Layla is desperate to get the attention of one Abstergo higher up whom she respects, Sofia Rikkin, which adds an interesting depth to the franchise lore.
You see, ever since the original game's villain, Warren Vidic, died in the same title as Desmond, it has felt like the entire franchise has been aimless without a central figure to rally against. I mean sure, we can theoretically mount our repulsion to the very concept of 'big corporate' but that's hardly a healthy attitude for a multi-million dollar company like Ubisoft to inspire from their consumers so they never devoted themselves to that angle. However, for those that like to delve into hours worth of optional terminal entries (à la moi) there was another antagonist that these games were steadily building up; the active CEO of Abstergo, and thus the highest ranking (known) member of the Templar order; Alan Rikkin.
We never saw him appear in the games, but significant hype was drummed up around him throughout the games as people started to imagine when his shadowy background influence would give way to a proper serious antagonist. (Aside from the stupid undead robot Martian Juno. God, I hate that plot thread) Of course, than that weirdly bad 'Assassin's Creed' movie came out and cast Jeremy Irons as Alan Rikkin and Marion Cotillard as his daughter Sofia. (Good actors and all but that was kinda weird.) Oh, and the movie killed off Alan at the end, leaving us with no villain again. (Goddammit Ubisoft, what is wrong with you guys!?)
Luckily, 'Assassin's Creed: Origins' reintroduces Sofia to let us know that she has taken her father's place, giving us an overall target, and that she knows Layla, providing us the basis of what could become a great protagonist/antagonist struggle. (but I'm like, ten games ahead of myself right now.) All we get right now is a laptop full of weirdly mismatched information regarding our protagonist to ensure that we know everything we need to in order to invalidate the need for a crappy 'revelations' style catch-up game and too much information so that we can find her kind of annoying. (I mean, she runs her personal 'I am very smart' fodder Reddit-blog from her work computer. Who does that?)
Honestly, there is so much that we learn about Layla from this computer that I've slightly forgotten the actually pertinent points, but I've got the wiki to freshen me up. Let's see... yep, she's unnaturally intelligent, a loner and apparently the kind of personal who will set-up a one woman dig into an abandoned tomb despite being told specifically not to by her employers in order to... impress her employers? (Because disobedience is always the best way to get up the corporate ladder, right?)
In the vein of all characters who are too smart for their own good, Layla has managed to DIY her very own Animus that is apparently better than the Abstergo model and will allow her to look into the DNA of long dead folk such as Ancient Egyptians. This is a big deal because the Animus we have been using up until know has been famously iffy with rendering memories that are more than 1000 years old due to DNA decay. (which is the primary source of information for that Animus) From a narrative perspective, this has allowed the team to seed rumors about some Precursor civilisation that shaped early humanity without having to explain why the scientists don't just twist and dial and go find out for themselves. (They can't, it's too far in the past.)
Layla's super special Animus trumps all of that, however, because it has the ability to digital reconstruct damaged DNA threads by performing a bunch on techno babble. Unfortunately for the Ubisoft, I pride myself in reading too much into techno babble so I can actually translate their nonsense for you. Essentially, this machine guesses at the missing threads by using other DNA to fill in the blanks, in this case being Layla's blood. Ultimately, this means that Layla's Animus just makes things up and uses Layla's DNA to construct a rough approximation of what probably happened. (Which kinda poops on the whole 'Accurate depiction of the past' thing that Warren Vidic was all hot and bothered about in the first Assassin's Creed.) This means that this Animus is much more likely to go on weird trips into mythology because... okay, there's no techno babble excuse for that, the Ubisoft team just wanted to get more creative, and I don't begrudge them that. (The implications to the overall lore are kinda worrying, however.)
There is one big omission from this set-up that does strike me as odd however, and that is an urgent driving reason to visit the past. I mean don't get me wrong, I know why we as players want to visit the past; in order to get to play the actual game, but why does Layla want to? In previous games there has always been so important mystery that can only be unravelled in the past, such as the location of hidden artefacts or the truth surrounding a shadowy agency. In this title all we have is Layla's curiosity and some vague goal to impress her boss with this new Animus she put together. I'm unsure if there's maybe something bigger that I missed, but if I did it's only even more emblematic of Ubisoft's failure to provide serious incentives for this adventure.
But enough beating around the bush; Layla decided to test out her new Animus on one of the sarcophagus' that she happens upon during her little tomb raid, much to the distress of her over-the-phone friend Deanna Geary. This mostly means that the player is forced to undergo some boring put-this-there task, but then they are given free reign to jump into the head of the person she grave robbed. (Lucky for her that she didn't accidentally exhume the coffin of a career dung scooper then, huh?)
This throws us to 48 BCE, right into the eyes of Bayek, the last of the respected warriors from the old kingdom, The Medjay. (And you can bet that the game goes to great lengths to never tell you exactly who the Medjay are or why you are the last one, just like all good repeated plot points.) Bayek is hunting down a fellow called Rujek inside of a huge pyramid before he minds himself in a deadly boss fight against his right hand man. At this point the player is introduced to the combat which is actually surprisingly good for the Assassin's Creed series. It utilises a technique that the Ubisoft team seemed to think was really revolutionary called 'hitboxes'. (apparently the paired animation system that they had been trying to make work for the longest time just wouldn't cut it anymore.)
After being put in medias res, the game allows us to settle back into the beginning of the story (49 BCE) as we see Bayek, with a glorious head of hair, lazying around the sleepy town of Siwa with his bouncing son Khemu. Together the two of them have such fun learning the way of the land and bonding in that irreplaceable father-son way, that you just know the dad is going to die in some horrible way. But wait a minute, we're playing as the dad! Guess that means you're up next for the chopping block, little Khemu...
Bayek and Khemu are kidnapped by a group of men who all seem to walk around in ornate burial masks but are never stopped my passer-bys for any reason like, off the top of my head, sacrilege. (Yeah, I guess religious spirituality isn't at all important to the ancient Egyptians, huh.) They are bought to an underground vault underneath the temple of Amun whereupon we can clearly see a bevy of Precursor Martian tech. (We're already on this plot thread? Whoopee...) Bayek is given hold of a golden orb and told to open the vault, something which he has no idea how to do. Khemu decides to play the hero and through some of the dumbest handwork I've ever seen in my life, one of the masked men (who refers to himself as 'The Snake') managed to redirect Bayek's stabbing knife into Khemu's chest. (Jeez, the kid must of had a magnetic attraction to knife points, what are the chances?)
Then we fast forward back to beginning of the story where we discover that Bayek has spent the last year hunting down all the masked men from that day, with this Rujek having been one that was known as 'The Heron'. Our Medjay returns to Siwa to find it beset by the tyrannical rulings of a figure known as 'The Ibis', who turns out to be the local priest Medunamun. (Look, this game is set in Egypt, expect these names to get longer.) It is at this point that we are learn such injustices are writhe under the leadership of Ptolemy XIII and the narrative establishes our first overarching villain in that corrupt regime. (Which totally justifies the impending wholesale slaughter that we are about to unleash upon the numerous city guards who are just trying to do their jobs. "That'll teach you to attempt to keep your fellow man safe and end up with a corrupt ruler by chance!")
With this we have our motivation to continue the story. Bayek has had his son's life stolen from him and wants good old fashioned revenge on the masked people who caused it. This Medjay has no idea what any of that vault nonsense was about and he doesn't care, he's just in it for that most basic of reasons, in order to avenge his child. As a lore nut, I should be rather annoyed at this dumbing down of the story, but with the absolute train wreck of a lore that the Assassin's Creed franchise has cultivated over the past 13 years I actually find it quite relieving. It also helps us believe that little Layla is watching along with journey without being completely lost as to everything that's going on. (Of course, that conflicts with her lack of reaction to later scenes but I'll just choose to ignore that little inconsistency.)
It also helps the simple narrative that our leading character is actually surprisingly likeable. Bayek of Siwa is charismatic in his own way whilst being proper and authoritative when needed. His role requires him to play everything from the laughing friend, the half-crazed lover and the heart-wrenched griever and his voice actor, Abubakar Salim, does an absolutely phenomenal job with all of them. Ezio is still my favourite and I adore Edward for his brilliantly constructed arc, but I feel that Bayek is perhaps the most emotional protagonist this series has ever had in all the right ways. I'll make a bit of fun with it in my blog because that's just my style, but every single one of Bayek's passionate moments ring perfectly and I'm honestly sad that Ubisoft's new design philosophy means that we'll only see this character once, as I'd love to see Bayek grow even more in the future.
After 'liberating his home' (by way of murdering the Ibis), Bayek's journey takes him to Alexandria whereupon his meets with his wife, Aya of Alexandria. She is a Greek immigrant and easily the second best character in this entire game as she shares a great deal of Bayek's grief but chooses to channel it into a desire for a higher purpose. As a former mother who lost nearly everything a year ago, it's actually quite interesting to see her dedicated towards a new cause, that being the rise of the one person with the heritage to potentially overthrow Ptolemy, his sister Cleopatra. This actually sets her apart from Bayek, who simply channels his grief into vengeance, and creates some friction between the two of them that is genuinely refreshing to see set-out in a Ubisoft script. (It's as though someone actually put in effort!)
None of their disagreements get in the way of their absolute adoration of each other, which is apparent in the way that they try to jump each others bones in practically every scene they have together. (Seriously, they're like horny freshmen.) It is during this initial interaction between them that Aya grants Bayek an Assassin's Hidden blade (which he has done just fine without up until now, but I shan't turn down a gift) and then she immediately commits a cardinal sin by proceeding to cut Bayek's beautiful hair. Luckily, as I was playing a newer version of the game there was an option to restore those glorious locks, but I'm ashamed at Ubisoft for even entertaining the idea of being rid of them. (For shame, Aya of Alexandria!)
Aya has already taken the liberty to finish off two other masked men, 'The Vulture' and 'The Ram', leaving only the man who was directly responsible for Khemu's demise; 'The Snake'. (It is a little weird how they brush past the fact that those were Aya's first ever kills. It reminds me of how in Assassin's Creed 2 Ezio goes from a rich kid who's never seen a drop of blood in his life to a hardened killer ready to put down more people than the black plague over night.) Bayek and Aya share a night and then go on a reconnaissance mission to discover the identity of 'The Snake'. Although the majority of the legwork most be done by Bayek because Aya managed to get herself spotted by one of the men. (That's what happens when you leave it to amateurs.)
After a little minor sleuthing Bayek finds out that the royal scribe, Eudoros, is the man in question and so he sets off to finish his year long quest. After tracking the man to a bathhouse, Bayek relinquishes all of his weapons to enter in through the front door in a bath robe, which Agent 47 would tell you is the absolute worst way for an Assassin to close the distance to his target. (At least find a way to lure the guy outside!) Bayek pays for his poor planning when he finds himself locked in a tizzy with Eudoros that almost ends with the Medjay getting strangled to death by a fat man in a public bath. (What a way to go!) Instead, Bayek manages to activate his hidden blade through his clenched fist, but veterans of the franchise will remember that the old hidden blades were designed to cut the index finger off of those who use it and so that is the day where Bayek loses his. (What a cool call-back, I must admit.)
Through that post-kill limbo that this series insists on maintaining, we learn that this guy is The Hippo and therefore is not The Snake responsible for killing Bayek's son and that really throw's the Medjay for a loop. And before I continue, I must make note of the fact that, although I slightly mock them, I cannot deny that for this entry the AC team absolutely brought their A-game when it came to designing these post-murder chats. Previously these amounted to little more than cradling the victim while they prattled on about nonsense, but now they are these increasingly cinematic and symbolic affairs that are so picturesque that I think I've got a screen shot from every single one in the game. Truly bravo to whatever part of the team designed these, they made it worth killing each main target just to see what imaginative dreamscape they would cook up next.
Bayek returns with doubts and a missing finger (the latter of which Aya never comments on) and is convinced by his wife to visit her new vassal; Cleopatra and Apollodorus. At this point we get to see Cleopatra brazenly offering to sleep with anyone as long as they promise to be executed in the morning, and I find myself questioning the accuracy of this particular historic depiction. (Then I'm reminded that historians knew practically nothing about old Cleo, not even how many sprogs she managed to spit out, and I lose all fuel to complain.) Through this secret meeting we learn that Cleopatra was ousted from the throne by these masked men and how these people all have a name; 'The Order of the Ancients'. (But's let's just call them proto-Templars to make things simpler.) Also there's this odd plot point about how the entire order is called The Snake, but it doesn't really make any sense and everyone drops it in no time.
At this point we enter that familiar point in Assassin's Creed games where the story presents us with a slew of targets to systematically hunt down and a vague premise to do so. The best examples of these moments, which I'm happy to say that Assassins' Creed Origins meets the criteria of, allow players to pick and choose these targets at their whim. This is the equivalent of that moment when you crawl out of the dungeon in Oblivion, or exit the Vault in Fallout 3; it's that time when you see the big open world before you and smile in the knowledge that it's all there for you to explore.
And what a world it is! I've often spoken about how Ubisoft's world designers are some of the best in the business but Origin's Egypt completely redefines those words. I repeatedly found myself stunned at some of the draw dropping vistas over Alexandria or over the dunes at Giza, and I'm not usually the kind to do that. Heck, I spent half my playtime in the photo mode because of how stunning everything was, and repeatedly was drawn off my objective because I saw something cool looking in the corner of my eye. Up until I played this game I always held 'Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood's Roma as the best world in the franchise but I cannot stand by that claim in good conscious after having played this game. Visually, Origin's Egypt is simply one of the most stunning locales ever digitally constructed. End of conversation.
If only the same could be said for the mechanics behind that world. As you explore Egypt, you'll start to realise that beyond the sheer spectacle of your surroundings there is really only one thing to encourage you to keep exploring and that is to loot chests and to raid forts. Simple enough gameplay loop and actually quite mindless, that's the sort of half-arsedness that Ubisoft are known for. But for whatever reason I just can't help but feel particularly let down by Ubisoft this time, and maybe that stems from the pure quality of the world in which all this content inhabits. You'd think that the plain novelty of being surrounded by so much mastery would spark enough imagination for them to get a little bit creative, but alas no.
"Well, at least they've fallen back on a formula that they're good at rather pursue some new idea that could end up falling flat on it's face, right?" Actually no, Ubisoft did try to achieve something new, it was just so cookie cutter that it isn't worth applauding and executed so poorly that I have no idea why the left it in. The new forts are play areas in which Bayek is forbidden to roam and is inhabited with two main objectives; loot x amount of chests and murder x number of important guardsman. This may seem like a fun way to spend some down time, but the second that you realise that your map is practically infested with these 'forts' you'll lost all appreciation fast. These locations are repetitive and end up being little more than chores once you slip into the 'complete everything' haze that these games are designed to induce.
What makes things even more baffling is the ambient world around these 'activities' which seems so easy to nail that I'm genuinely amazed that Ubisoft messed it up. The ambient world is supposed to consist of mainly NPCs and the odd guard who are designed to make the world feel more alive and provide literally no other benefit. In previous Assassins' Creed games, these were the crowds that you jumped over or ran through on your way to escape guards, but somehow in this game these in-between locations have become the worst 'no man's lands' you can imagine.
I noticed this all the way back when I first entered Siwa and spotted a chariot rider careening down the street and screaming for the crowds to get out the way. Initially I impressed and marvelled at how the studio had decided to use ambient NPCs to illustrate how the corrupt hand of the Ptolemy had infested the usually sleepy town of Siwa. This praise died as soon as I realised: No, that's just how every single guard in this game gets around. That's right, every single guard races along their patrol routes as though their life depends on it and if you are unfortunate enough to accidentally be in their way you'll get a single warning before your life is forfeit. This can turn a gentle stroll through the lovingly crafted streets of Alexandria into another pointless slog-fest that builds and builds as more guards show up until you get sick of it and turn the game off.
What makes this even better (although I'll admit this is more a niche scenario) is the way that guardsmen are tasked with patrolling inside of those aforementioned forts. This makes it so that you can expect to be right in the middle of a stealthy infiltration before all the king's horses and all the king's men come trample your face into the dirt before alerting everyone to your presence, making late game stealth incredibly bothersome to maintain. (And rather moot.) before long you'll start to realise that every inch of this map is crawling with useless guards doing nothing and attacking with the slightest provocation, I mean I like the combat but this game really did push that to the limit with the amount of time I had to pull my sword out of another bloody heavy's skull.
Of course, this increased guard presence does have a purpose, and that is to better fit the light RPG elements that litter this world and gate off the latter-game content. Despite the world having opened up to you, you'll find level caps corralling you down a certain narrative path, be inundated with hundreds of identical sickle swords and spend hours looking at a ludicrously convoluted skill tree that is clearly designed to be more aesthetically pleasing than easy to use. What particularly baffles me about these light-RPG titles that we seem to get a lot of these days, is the way how these RPG elements become entirely meaningless by the endgame as you're just playing an action adventure game so levels end up pointless. (But thanks for wasting our collective time anyway, Ubisoft.)
Of course, there are a few more fun activities to spend your time on, such as the Phylakitai world bosses that get activated the moment that Bayek kills Eudoros. Apparently his second-hand man, who Bayek had to kill in order to get to the main man, was a member of a super elite Greco-roman paramilitary force that has very strong traditions when it comes to avenging the deaths of their comrades. As such for the remainder of the game you'll find that these world bosses will wonder about aimlessly for you to pop into their view. Their presence is marked with a blood-churning horn and their fights are notoriously tough to win out against. Although if you do you'll be be rewarded with a super cool armour that I immediately stopped using because it was too garish. (How can I be so self-conscious in video games as well as in real life?)
Then there are the side quests which I'll say do vary wildly in quality. A lot of them are simple fetch quests to go somewhere and do something, but some of them have actual plots and narrative threads weaving through them so it's impossible to wholesale write them off or imbue them all with praise. I would definitely say that the rewards for these quests are mostly terrible, and the experience usually isn't anything to write home about either, so you should probably just ignore most side quests unless you have to in order to level for a main quest or if you're one of those people who break out into nervous nail-biting whenever you see unfinished content on the map.
Finally there is the Arena which the player can unlock. (and the Colosseum, but those races are so boring that they're not worth an entry.) This arena pits Bayek with some of the hardest battle challenges in the game and will leave you positively exhausted after each boss. I know it's an inherently lazy comparison, but on the hardest difficulty it's like playing Dark Souls for the amount you are punished for being too impatient. Heck, things are so bad that the final fight requires you to kill the enemy without being hit once, because if you do she will poison you and you'll have to finish the fight with a time limit. On a funny note, I did start to realise how many of the enemy designs for this arena, especially their attack patterns, were borrowed from another Ubisoft game; For Honor. So if you spent far too long learning the moveset animations from that game, like I did, then you'll have a leg-up with these fights.
On an exploratory note, the player can also delve in the several tombs littered around the land in order to discover their secret. (Which is almost always some Precursor Martian monolith that those aliens set up for no apparent purpose other than to talk random gibberish.) I took the plunge of visiting all of these sights and can recount that every single one of them rewards you with an eye wateringly boring monologue filled with year-one philosophy student garbage. I honestly wanted to turn off my sound for each one of these but was scared I might miss some important piece of lore thrown my way. (Spoiler: there isn't any.)
One of the more cool hidden tomb secrets came from a crossover event with Final Fantasy of all franchises, which spawned a pretty bad-ass event for FFXV which I remember really enjoying at the time. Assassin's Creed's side of the crossover was a hidden ancient tomb which seemed to depict the legend of the Chosen King and his fight against the Star Scourge. Solve a little puzzle and you'll be rewarded with an amazingly rendered cutscene wherein the pyramid shoots out a beam into the sky and summons Ardyn to show up in his full jester-esque regalia. Then, FFXV's Bahamut swoops down on his wings made of swords and summons Ardyn back into the heavens to continue their fight. (Also, you get a sword and a horrifying four-legged chocobo mount.) I have no idea where this fits into the Assassin's Creed lore, but I will say that I loved every second of this crossover. But that's enough looking at non-canon stuff, let's go back into the actual story.
With the order of the Ancients now on his hit list, Bayek travels to a city consumed by the sands known as Letopolis. There he finds a helpful man by the name of Taharqa who stewards the city and offers to guide our Medjay on his journey by pointing out one of the ancients, The Scarab. After ordering us around for a bit into two situations that slightly resemble ambushes, Taharqa invites us our dumb ass home whereupon he proceeds to poison Bayek and bury him in the sands outside town from the neck down. (He could have just killed us, but that wasn't stupid enough, I guess.) With help from a psychic connection to his pet eagle, Bayek manages to free himself from the world's slowest death, tracks down and kills Taharqa, who was obviously The Scarab, in front of his wife and Son, Kawab. (I'm sure that won't come back to bite you up the arse, Bayek.)
Now suitably humbled, Bayek stumbles after his next target, The Crocodile, in the Faiyum, where he happens upon another friendly fellow and doesn't immediately stab them in the face like I would have. Good thing too, as this Greek, Hotephres, has managed to get on the tail of our leathery friend and needs our help to narrow things down. Unfortunately he was careless, as everyone in this game apparently is, and managed to lead the Ancients directly to his family which then results in the death of his young daughter, Shadya. (Dang Ubisoft, killing two kids in one game! You savage.) Eventually Bayek narrows down his target to a stateswoman named Benenike and channels all his rage into murdering her, clearly taking particular relish in ending a child-killer, for obvious reasons. (Again, Abubakar Salim absolutely crushes that scene.)
From there we are given an excuse to go to Giza in search of The Hyena, although if you're as stunned by the world as I was you've likely been all over these pyramids already. With some slight detective work Bayek can see that there is a operation to mine Silica out of these tombs, which is apparently the only natural resource on earth capable of powering Precursor tech. (Which is crap considering none of the earlier games ever need Silica to get things running, but okay.) Eventually he manages to track down this Hyena and discovers that she is a grieving mother who lost her child and decided to devote her life to bringing her daughter back to life. (There's a necromancer in the making if I've ever seen one.) The woman, Khaliset, is suitably enraged as her efforts are interrupted by Bayek and engages the Medjay in the first climatic boss fight of the game. (There have been others but those sucked.) Predictably, Bayek wins.
That only leaves the Lizard hiding all the way in Memphis and this is the only assassination for which Bayek is tasked with using his brain. He finds the town gripped by several 'curses' which have the townsfolk fearful of their lives and angry at the high priest for failing to save them. That priest, Pasherenptah, (told you) basically throws up his hands in defeat and makes Bayek solve all of his life problems, like a real priest would. This entire quest lines showcases Ubisoft's sneaky way of disguising learning in gameplay, as you discover the right way to preserve bodies (Through use of Natron) and learn how important it is that the Apis bull is kept safe. (Even the bull getting sick is enough to throw the town into panic)
Eventually Bayek figures out that the culprit of all this chaos is Hetepi, a aspirant for the position of high priest, and the Medjay deploys himself to carry out the hit. There is a little fun complication in that the target decides to play dress-up with his friends in order to get several people dressed in almost the same garb as him. (But not exactly the same clothes! He needs to ensure that there's a decent chance of death, afterall it wouldn't be fair!) What follows is a competent puzzle section of 'spot the difference' coupled by a satisfying assassination.
After all this, Layla decides to try all of our patience once more by dragging us back to the modern world and deciding that she needs something to spice up her Animus time travel trip. To that end she goes digging around the tomb to find Aya's sarcophagus for which she can use it's DNA on her machine to fill the gaps in Bayek's DNA. There are so many things wrong with this scene from a common sense standpoint, but I feel like my brain might just leap out my forehead if I even begin to go into them so I'll just allow it for now.
The result of Layla's meddling is mission through Aya's eyes wherein we travel the seas in a section that was ripped directly out of Black Flag. (At least in terms of controls.) We get to sail the open seas in a longboat and engage in navel warfare once more in a delightful send-up to one of Assassin's Creed's more enduring gimmicks. For our troubles we are rewarded with a moment when Aya entreats Pompey The Great to ally with Cleopatra. A great little way to show that Aya is actually doing her part to assist the cause beyond hanging out with the prospective queen, Although I personally would have preferred a more 'hands-on' section of gameplay.
Let me stress that again. This antisocial nerd who spends most of her time telling people on Reddit how clever she is just murders a bunch of people for the first time without a moments hesitation. (Huh, in hindsight that actually sounds a lot more plausible.) She also manages to best trained hitmen due to 'The Bleeding Effect' which seems to have set a lot quicker for ol' Layla than it ever did for Desmond. (It never even seemed to happen at all for the poor nobodies in the between games.)
After this bout of happy murder, Layla decides to hop back into the Animus because... I dunno. Her best friend's dead, her employee is trying to kill her, she probably won't get that 'Employee of the month' sticker now; might as well spend the rest of the day in some dude's memories!
Back in the BCEs, Bayek and Aya are reaching the endgame as they are told of two more members of the Order of Ancients, these two being members of Ptolemy's personal guard. One of their number, The Jackal, turns out to be a centurion by the name of: Lucius Septimius, and Bayek decides to track him down before he does anymore serious harm. He follows the trail right the way to the severed of Pompey the Great. (Goshdarnit!) This unfortunate development encourages Cleopatra and friends to make a desperate plea to Julius Caesar for support in taking the throne, requiring Bayek and Aya to sneak Cleopatra into the city of Alexandria through a carpet rug. (Ubisoft managed to resist any fat jokes in this section, to my utmost surprise.)
Ptolemy stomps his feat about in trying to get Caesar to sign allegiance over, but then his sister jumps out of a carpet and steals the air out of the room with some heavy flirting. It doesn't take much to turn Caesars attention and then just like that, bish bash bosh, there's a civil war brewing across Egypt. (Why do Assassins always herald times of great upheaval and turmoil? Heck, some of the time they even have a hand in causing these upheavals. I'm starting to wonder about how 'good' this organisation ultimately is.)
From a narrative perspective 'Assassin's Creed: Origins' does a great job of bringing characters into the conflict of the age in such a visceral way, by literally making us an inciting factor. Some of best games in the franchise did this exact same thing, like The Ezio trilogy and Black Flag; whereas the weaker entries just had us stand witness to history like AC3 and Unity. It is a fantastic tool for justifying your historical setting whilst ensuring that the players don't immediately get bored as soon as the famous people start talking, because you know those people personally and are invested in them as characters.
That being said, I will admit that this civil war section does drag on for a bit as it mostly is a highly linear set-piece sequence. One positive, however, is the fact that my earlier wish was granted and we got to play as Aya for a brief period in which we saw that this 'novice killer' is every bit as bloodthirsty as her husband. Interestingly, I noticed that all the 'RPG' elements of the main game were entirely bypassed for her section, (by automatically level matching all enemies and equipment) which makes one wonder why Ubisoft bothered to put them in at all. Whatever the case, Aya gets to have her moment to shine as she lights a beacon on the Tower of Alexandria signalling everyone to attack. (And she doesn't have a giant Dragon swoop down and save her, DA:O style.)
The big 'set-piece' within this set piece, however, is the moment when Bayek and Caesar both mount a chariot to go racing after Ptolemy, (I presume) and the entire section is a giant rip-off of 'Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater's Motorbike chase scene. I originally made that observation as a bit of a joke, but then an Elephant came barrelling out of nowhere to chase you down whilst the Medjay tried to hold it off and I just couldn't hide my incredulity. I mean sure, Elephants are quick animals (at least quicker than we give them credit for) but a chase sequence against a chariot? Really? With Julius Caesar in the driving seat? Who raised this Shagohod Elephant anyway, Colonel Volgin?
The civil war ends off on grand fashion with Bayek fighting one of his targets, The Scorpion, alongside the fellow's war elephant (And yes, that boss fight was every bit as frustration as that sounds) before offing him and moving against Septimius in a grand one on one duel. During this tough encounter our foe makes it abundantly clear that he was the one who guided our Medjay's knife into Khemu's chest, for no other reason than to make this fight seem even more climatic than it already is. (We're in the middle of a civil war to decide the fate of all Egypt, what more could you possibly need?) Bayek wins but is literally pulled off of Septimius by Caesar before he can finish him off. Ol' Julius hits the Medjay with the usual "Due process" nonsense and I guess this Egyptian takes orders from Romans now because Bayek just goes along with it. (What are you doing? Just finish the bastard! What is a creepy old dude like Caesar really going to do when the heavily armed warrior man says "No"?)
Everything wraps up oddly neatly as Aya watches Ptolemy escaping the fighting across the sea and raises her bow before locking eyes with the boy king and lowering her weapon. (I knew it! Aya's been acting weird this whole game, I knew she was a traitor! She also been sharing looks with that Greek guy Apollo-whatshisface from earlier, are they in this together? I sense conspira-) Oh wait, she just decided not to shoot him in order to watch his boat get accosted by the approaching alligators and see Ptolemy get ripped apart by Sobek's finest. Whoops, my bad. (I've got to stop calling 'double cross' so quickly. First there was the whole 'Asami Sato' situation and now this, why am I such an arse?)
As we get at least once in every Assassin's Creed game, the next section is the weak point in the story where nothing interesting is really happening so we get talked at for way too long. Cleopatra takes throne and ascends to Pharaoh-hood whilst accepting the roman invaders into her city confusing practically everyone. Septimius is acquitted of all the crimes that he is obviously guilty of (Must. Resist. Topical. Politics. Joke.) and Bayek and Aya are left in the lurch as far as being buddy-buddy with the queen goes. Cleo cuts all ties and Aya is starting to realise that the woman she dedicated her anger to has just punked her, which Bayek doesn't really help her get over by being similarly as mad.
Bayek, Aya and all of the people who helped you throughout the game (Excluding the ones which are too important to show up now) all meet up at night to complain about being lied to and at this point they come to a shocking revelation; Cleopatra has joined the Order of the Ancients. Turns out Caesar was the head of those masked doofuses all along and these well-meaning talented idiots just managed to hand the Order all of Egypt. They talk about how their mistake was being so public with their killings, (Yeah, because that was your problem. Not trusting the obvious power-hungry harpy.) and pledge to be more mindful of their actions in the future. Together they vow to act only from the shadows to serve their intentions, they become The Hidden Ones. (Which we can think of as Proto-Assassins, for now.)
The team remember that Caesar seemed particularly interested in The Tomb of Alexander before he and Cleopatra left to do whatever it is adults do in locked rooms together, (I'm 9) and so they decide to follow that lead up. Lucky they do, as they just so happen upon Apollodorus bleeding out on the steps warning them that Caesar's lieutenant, Flavius, is 'The Lion' and thus the leader of the Order of the Ancients. He also subtly mentions that the order has taken Alexander's staff and strange glowing orb, which is something that will make veterans of the franchise like myself immediately moan. ("Not another god-damn Apple of Eden! Are they shooting these bloody things out of factories? What the hell is going on?")
Bayek returns to Siwa upon a scene that will be depressingly familiar to those who finished the original Assassin's Creed; a city of mindless townspeople who seem oblivious to everything happening around them. He finds out that the vault has already been opened and that Flavius has fled to the other side of Egypt in order to pad this part of the game out a bit more. And pad it does as players have to go to the roman-occupied corner of Egypt to finally finish the dick and get your Apple back. This marks the culmination of Bayek's journey (Guess he just forgot that Septimius was the one who killed his son) and he meets with Aya on a picturesque beach to discuss where things go next for the couple. After losing their child and being dragged along on a journey of blood and chaos, the two of them have started to drift away from each other and so Aya decides to rip the plaster off straight and essentially breakup with Bayek. (Not sure how 'divorce' works in Ancient Egypt, but I'll buy it.) The two of them mourn the loss of their lives and hope for future happiness as they devote themselves to their new lives as Hidden Ones, and Bayek throws down his Hawk-skull amulet that used to belong to Khemu. Once he leaves, Aya lifts the amulet and in one of the most eye-rolling moments ever put to cinematic action, the imprint left in the sand is the logo of the Assassin's in later games. (But how did Han get the Solo in his name?)
Having broken the threshold for contrivances, Layla is thrown out of the Animus and back to the present day where she finds herself face-to-face with William Miles. (A fact which betrays how Layla never bothered to set up 'intruder' alarms even after being made aware of the fact that her employer was trying to kill her. Way to go, smartass!) Will decides to recruit Layla, knowing how vulnerable she is right now to suggestion, and Layla weighs her chances of seeing another day and decides "Hey, why not join a league of trained murderers?" However, before she can be off she's still super invested in Bayek and Aya's tale so she dips back into the Animus one more time in order to catch the resolution.
The epilogue scene is easily the best in the Assassin's Creed franchise, and I'm including the bad-ass face off against Cesare Borgia in that metric. We get to play as Aya as she infiltrates the Roman senate in search of Caesar. What follows is a grand sneaking mission that was reminiscent of the Ezio's infiltration into Lucrezia Borgia's villa back in 'Da Vinci Disappearance'. (That's not a euphemism, I swear!) This is capped off when Aya comes face to face with Septimius for one final climatic showdown for the ages wherein the former mother gets to murder the one who bereaved her. In his death dialogue, however, we are treated to yet another shocker. (Although this one would likely go over the head of those who aren't series veterans.) Septimius refers to Caesar as 'The Father of Understanding' meaning that the vague figure who all Templar's revere in their greeting to each other is none other than Julius Caesar himself! (What a twist.)
As a minor note of complaint, I was a bit bummed that the team didn't even bother to dress Brutus in his armour. You know, the armour that you spend half of 'Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood' unlocking. The armour that, in the lore, was meant to be what he wore when he killed Caesar. It's just a little telling for how much the team cared. But I digress.
After killing all the key Romans, Bayek is surprised to find that they were all fresh members of the Order of Ancients, (You can't kill an idea) and they are similarly surprised to discover that these rumours about an organised group dedicated to killing them off was true afterall. Essentially, this is the story that marks the beginning of the Templar/ Assassin rivalry, despite the fact that the Assassin's appeared to have no idea who the Templar order was at the beginning of the original game. (retcon powers activate!) This results in a bloody uprising against The Hidden One's bureau, one that draws the attentions of Amunet.
She berates Bayek for being so public with his murders (You know, the very thing which required this organisation to call themselves 'The Hidden Ones') and together they strike back against the Order's attack by sneaking aboard the head Roman's ship and killing their commander Rufio. (Who sounds like he should be a dog.) There's also some stupid side story about a resistance fighter who believes the end justifies the means, but his tale would have been better served in the main game, I think, rather than as a footnote at the end of this DLC.
The next expansion, Curse of the Pharaohs, is the real interesting one as it is all a thinly veiled excuse to dive head first into Ancient Egyptian mythology. (And I'm absolutely fine with that.) Taking place in the legendary city of Thebes, Bayek is a bit surprised to be seeing the mummified corpse of a Pharaoh rise from the ground and slaughter nearby pedestrians. Although this is apparently a regular event in Thebes, so it's a wonder how this news never quite made it to the main land like you'd imagine that it would.
The plot of this DLC basically revolves around Bayek tracking down various relics that have been stolen from the nearby Valley of Kings so that he can put to rest the curse that plagues the land. His journey is aided by various memorable characters, (Who are, oddly, all more memorable than the side characters from the main game) such as the informant Metri, the thief Sutekh and the pretty priestess who is obviously far too intentionally designed to be just a side character, Isidora. This is a quest that takes you all over Thebes and, far more interestingly, to the various parts of the Egyptian land of the dead.
It is here that I have to take my hat off to the world building team once again because these mythical lands are so of the most brilliant renditions that I have ever seen. The golden sea of reeds in Aaru is simply one of my favourite locations in all of video games and honestly even rivals my adoration for the Ash sea. (Which is the location that makes up the background of this blog, as of the writing of this article.) All of these locations are brimming with mythical monsters like the dog-headed soldiers of Anubis and the giant scorpions hiding in the reeds. At the head of these locations, sits a famous ancient Pharaoh that Bayek must slay in order to satiate their blood lust in the living world. This means you get to one-on-one with such legends like Tutamkhamun and Ramessess II.
Of course, any rational person might be thinking at this point: "What? You travel to the land of the dead? How does that work?" And the answer is, I don't know, they don't really explain it. At the end of the game you find out that Isidora was the one responsible for everything because she had an Apple of Eden and was using it twist with minds, but that doesn't really explain why there were portals to the after-life in the Valley of Kings, nor why dead corpses were rising in order to cause havoc in the real world. I guess it's just 'vague martian technology' and leave it at that.
Anyways, Bayek manages to stop and kill Isidora and takes away her Apple, which they know as 'The Aten', for safe keeping. It isn't long, however, before he immediately hands it over to Sutekh in order to run it off into the desert as far away as he can. (That's right, entrust it to a thief. Never have there been safer hands.) As a nice little Easter egg, you can wonder about Thebes immediately after the credits and find that Sutekh managed to wind up dead in a snake pit with the Apple nowhere in sight. Bayek might as well have just thrown the Apple off a cliff, Temple of Doom style. Wait a minute, do you think the rocks from 'The Temple of Doom' were also Pieces of Eden? My god it's all connected!
Synopsis
After it is all said and done I will admit that 'Assassin's Creed: Origins' is a lot better than it had any right to be, being the 11th entry in a flagging franchise. The gameplay improvements were great, the world is a masterpiece and the storyline is surprisingly solid for an 'origin tale'. (Although I will say that the story reads a lot better than it plays, if you know what I mean.) At the time there were a lot of reviewers who hailed this title as a bold new start for Assassin's Creed, and showered the title with 9's and recommendations. Honestly, I cannot agree with a single one of them.Don't get me wrong, 'Assassin's Creed: Origins' is an absolutely fine game with great characters and a serviceable storyline but this is hardly a culmination of all the best attributes that Ubisoft have to offer. I mentioned before how poorly the world is filled, but I must stress how crippling that is in a world this big and beautiful. This kind of space demands care and attention that plain isn't there and that is a travesty. As for the story, is plays things far too safe to be anything other than average. Again, that's not too much of an issue to tell the story that it wanted to tell, but when you realise that this is the eleventh entry in a thirteen year old franchise you have to put your hands on your hips and wonder if Ubisoft will ever try to shoot for something more with this series. I'd argue the only masterful part of this game, in terms of story, is the emotional arc shared between Bayek and Aya, but that isn't the crux of the plot and so simply shines a light on how pedestrian a lot of the surrounding narrative is. Kudos to the actors involved, I must say, but the writing team do need to push themselves a bit out of their comfort zones, I feel like there was a truly jaw-dropping story in this game trying to break free.
This was ultimately the game which has jump started the Assassin's Creed franchise a few years before it flat lined, and for that I am appreciative. 'Assassin's Creed: Odyssey' looks like a fine title that fixes a lot of the issues of this game and I'm looking forward to the announcement of 'Ragnarok' later this year. (Presumably.) But this title isn't the masterpiece that a lot of folk seem to be trying to paint it as and I don't want anyone coming to this title under the illusion that it is. That being said, I do think that this is the best Assassin's Creed title to come out for a number of years and I think that anyone who used to like this series but who might have fell off would be remiss not to give this game a look in. But if you hated the previous games, this one will not change your mind.
Ultimately, 'Assassin's Creed: Origin's is an 'Above Average' title that I give a moderate recommendation for, providing that action adventure games are your sort of thing. Even if you end up getting annoyed with the story and/or gameplay, you can use this title as an uncanny tour through one of the best recreations of Ancient Egypt ever realised.
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