Assassin’s Creed Origins is an action-adventure game set in ancient Egypt at the end of the Ptolemaic era. The story follows Bayek, a Medjay tasked with protecting the people, as personal tragedy draws him into a wider conflict that leads to the origins of the Assassin Brotherhood.
The game features a large open-world recreation of Egypt, including cities, deserts, and the Nile, with an increased emphasis on exploration. Gameplay combines stealth, melee and ranged combat, and role-playing elements such as character leveling, skill trees, and gear progression.
Origins handles its creative inheritance more elegantly than some open worlders, not least because unlike, say, the first game's Altair, its protagonist actually feels like he is of this realm rather than merely in it. And if the levelling and to-do list grate, the series has never offered a society and a landscape so worthy of close attention.
Assassin's Creed Origins has vastly improved combat and an astoundingly beautiful world to explore, but it felt a little afraid of going all in with its new direction.
A brilliant setting, new systems, and familiar features blend together for a strong prequel to the Assassin's Creed series.
A shining example of what exploration-based games can be, dropping many of its franchise's worst traits even while being sometimes held back by the mundane. Buy it.
Assassin's Creed Origins is a deep-dive into a truly stunning realization of ancient Egypt, with a rich series of cultures, genuine characters, and more mission variety than any other game in the series. The combat is challenging and thoughtful, and while the loot system doesn't match up to games like Destiny 2, there are enough different weapon types...
