INTRODUCTION

It was 10 years ago that we were first introduced to Ubisoft’s Assassin's Creed franchise. The Assassin’s Creed franchise is an historical open-world, Action-Adventure title, where you reprise the role of various Assassins in their centuries-long conflict against an organization known as the Templars. The first game in the series was well received with each installment gaining more critical and commercial success.

It was not till 2014’s Assassin's Creed: Unity that the series started to see a loss in both quality and overall general interest among the gaming community. Many started to consider the Assassin's Creed series as a means for Ubisoft to capitalize on the series past successes by pumping out installments on a yearly base.

After Assassin's Creed: Syndicate, Ubisoft finally decided to give the series a much needed break and after a year of absence, we are welcomed with Assassin's Creed: Origins. Is Origin’s reimaging enough to bring the Assassin's Creed series back to its former glory? Let's find out.

STORY: 9/10

Assassin's Creed: Origins is set in the year 46 BCE in Egypt during a conflict between Cleopatra and her younger brother for the throne (the game takes a fictional approach with real-world individuals). You play as Bayek, one of Egypt’s last Medjay (Protector of the people) and assist Cleopatra, along with Aya, Bayek’s wife, in Cleopatra’s campaign to become ruler of Egypt by assassinating various targets provided by her. As the story unfolds, you start to uncover a dark and sinister plot and get to see Bayek and Aya from the brotherhood of Assassins.

The Story while semi-fictional, is an enjoyable one. One of the best, if not the best In the entire Assassin's Creed series for me. People who are more familiar with Egyptian mythology and Egyptian & Greek history of the time will find more value in the adventure as you get to encounter various historical figures of the time, That is not to say those not familiar with the history will not enjoy the story. Without spoiling much, let me say, it is a really good experience and I can't wait to see if and how Ubisoft plans to expand upon the storyline established by Assassin's Creed: Origins.

Where it gets a bit disappointing is In the present day timeline, it is better than the past few entries, but there wasn't much of it to warrant it as a good incorporation to an otherwise exceptional storyline.

GAMEPLAY: 9.5/10

As mentioned before, Assassin's Creed is a historical open-world, Action-Adventure title, where the primary means of getting around the world is by freerunning/parkour. While there are other means of travel such as horses and camels, freerunning is what sets the franchise apart from every other open-world title.

Origins’ gameplay is laid out into 3 sections; Main-Quests which are the missions which progress the story, Side-Quests which are secondary objectives which aren't mandatory, but helps in gaining Exp points which level-up’s your character and finally “Events” which are special missions that show up on the map at random times, doing these missions will reward you with rare or legendary item. “Events” missions are available for a limited time and is dependant on a constant internet connection to access and will not show-up unless you are connected online. Other than this and the Nomad Bazaar where you can buy Hookah boxes there isn't much of anything else that dictates that you stay online.

Aside from these Quests there are various other activities in the world such as clearing enemy strongholds, bandit camps, hunting for materials to upgrade your standard equipment and tomb explorations.

To help you on your journey, you are allotted with a large assortment of weapons ranging from Swords, Spears, Blunt weapons, various types of bows and Shields. Weapon damage are categorized based on the weapon’s rarity, the game appoints weapons as “Common”,”Rare” and “Legendary”. Each low level weapon can be upgraded to Bakey’s current level by spending in-game currency at the local blacksmith.

Speaking of weapons, Ubisoft also implemented a huge facelift to the combat system for Origins. Unlike past entries which used a “Paired Animation System” where by the player character would engage with an enemy and combat animation would be determined by a predetermined AI animation, Origins opts for a “Hit-Box System” where, when the player has a weapon equipped and swings said weapon, anything within range of the weapon will get hit and everything else outside the Hit-Box range will miss. This system works well with the game as it requires more strategy from the players than just pressing one button to attack and another to block.

Along with your arsenal of weaponry, you have an eagle companion named “Senu”. Senu acts as the games answer to past titles Eagle-Vision. For those of you who do not know, Eagle-Vision is a special sense used by various Assassin's in the series, to pinpoint various items in the game, such as; Enemy placement, item locations etc.

Bayek has a symbiotic relation with Senu with which he is able to sense and see what Senu sees while Senu is in flight. Using this Airel Scouting method, You are able to mark enemies, know their ranks (this game incorporates a rank system. Higher the rank, more difficult the enemy will be to take down until you are of equal or higher rank), find hidden items and entrances as will as other item locations.

Similar to Unity and Syndicate, Origins also has a skill tree which you can use to unlock various skills.

The game feels and plays well with a extremely appreciated change to the gameplay. But while the system is a nice change, there were times when the mechanics did not work as intended. This lead to some frustrating moments in the game. An instance of this is while killing two enemies by using air assassination to kill the first target and the other with the Chain Assassination skill, sometimes the chain assassination icon fails to pop-up after the air assassination icon and ends up alerting the guards.

VISUALS: 10/10

Assassin's Creed: Origin is a technical feat when it comes to visuals. The game runs on Ubisoft's heavily modified in-house game engine called “Anvil” Engine, and the game is simply breathtaking. Everything from Shadow effects, Volumetric lighting to God Rays boasts a sense of realism. Assassin's Creed: Origins, simply put, is a technical marvel from Ubisoft’s part. Even on base hardware, the game will blow anyone's mind away. Even small details that many may miss just makes the game all the more amazing. One detail to highlight is, when you drop a weapon and you're in the desert, you can notice that the weapon gets slowly sucked into the sand. The world map is also the largest world map Ubisoft has ever made with a wide range of wildlife.

 

Transition in the open-world is seamless, meaning, traveling from one end of the map to the other can be done with zero loading screens, with loading screens only appearing if you choose to fast travel. The game also boasts a dynamic day and night cycle, which is a first for the series.

Only thing that is not as detailed as the world are the NPC character models, which is not completely bad, only seems bad in contrast to the gorgeous world Ubisoft managed to create.

An amazing showcase of what the current generation systems and Anvil Engine are capable of doing.

PERFORMANCE: 8/10

The game runs on a dynamic resolution on all console hardwares, with PC being the exception. On the standard PS4s (includes both original PS4 and PS4 Slim) and Xbox Ones (includes both original Xbox One and Xbox One S) the game runs at a dynamic resolution of 1080p@30fps, with drops in resolution happening to maintain a stable frame-rate. While the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X targets 4k@30fps, neither system manages to hit that mark. The PS4 Pro averages between 1440p and 1600p while the Xbox One X manages to average between 1700p and 1800p. On average, the resolution is 55% to 60% better on the Xbox One X. PC offers the option of 4K@60fps. The game also offers the option of HDR (High-Dynamic Range) if your TV supports the feature. Please note that the original Xbox One system does not support HDR functionality. All other systems support this feature.

When it comes to frame-rates, sadly, none of the versions of the game are stable. All of them dip below their standards. The dips are most apparent during cutscenes and less apparent during gameplay.
It is also worth mentioning that the game is having a difficulties running on PC with high CPU loads. Ubisoft is looking into it and will be fixed if it already hasn't. 

AUDIO: 8/10

Main OST Of The Game

Audio has been pretty well done when it comes to voice work. Each voice actor managed to portray their respective characters with a certain fineness that manages to help reflect the characteristics of the person being portrayed. Even minor details such as adding an egyptian accent or voice being muffled while having a cloth around the character’s mouth only added to the immersion.

While voice work was well done, the soundtrack seemed bit lacking. The game did not have any soundtracks that was as memorable as soundtracks from Assassin’s Creed II

or Assassin's Creed: Revelations.

OVERALL SCORE: 36.5/40

STORY: 9/10

GMAEPLAY: 9.5/10

VISUALS: 10/10

PERFORMANCE: 8/10

91.25% RATE OF APPROVAL

CONCLUSION:

Assassin's Creed: Origins is the series back in form. The year long break the series took gave it a much needed facelift and gave it an opportunity for being a Game of the Year contender. This year surely had many great games, but none, for a long time have ever managed to come back in such a fighting form as Assassin's Creed: Origins. I cannot wait to see how Ubisoft will progress the series further and whether Ubisoft will revert back to yearly installments or release each game with one or two years gap. Only time will tell.

Official Trailer

 Note: All Screenshots of the game were taken during my play session. I review the game when bought and edit the review for steemit.