Assassin's Creed Origins - Preview

Digital Trends checked out Assassin's Creed Origins at the E3:

‘Assassin’s Creed Origins’: Our First Take

After 2 years away, Assassin's Creed returns as a wannabe RPG in 'Origins'

Assassin’s Creed Origins is the culmination of the series’ two-year hiatus, and though there’s plenty new and different, some old problems remain.

It’s been two long years since the last Assassin’s Creed game, AC Unity, met with tepid reception from fans and critics. Ubisoft responded by taking a break to put AC back in the oven for a while, and the resulting game, Assassin’s Creed Origins, was unveiled for the first time during Microsoft’s E3 2017 presentation in Los Angeles.

Set in ancient Egypt, Origins will depict the, well, origins of the Assassins brother/sisterhood. You play as Bayek, an Egyptian warrior who, based on the demo Microsoft put in attendees’ hands at its Xbox showcase today, is both a skilled warrior and an instrument of his own interpretation of “justice.” In other words, he’s an Assassin.

[…]

Assassin’s Creed is more of an RPG than ever before

That loot system, too, is new to the series. We opened the menu to equip the prize, noting several additional inventory slots and an ability upgrade screen that looks straight out of a typical RPG.

Random loot drops, RPG-style upgrades, totally revamped controls and combat, and many more changes make it clear they’re holding little sacred. The new setting in Egypt has a lot of promise for both character-level drama and mythological overarching story, and seeing the Assassins’ origins has potential to tickle longtime series fans.

[…]

More information.

Assassin’s Creed is more of an*RPG than ever before

Please, die.

Originally Posted by luj1
Please, die.

There is a thread on Reddit, ask your questions of good ol' Guillemot, if you want to forward it there.
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/commen…er_of_ubisoft/
Once in a life time opportunity.

I enjoy the Assassin's Creed PC games a whole lot. Some have been better than others, and a couple of them have been only slightly worth playing (Unity being the most recent), but I enjoyed the latest one Syndicate quite a bit. I think that the quality varies greatly in part based upon which Ubisoft studio worked on it.

That said, I am glad that they are (or seemingly are) revamping it. It could use some shake-up of gameplay.

I get the impression that many game developers have been influenced by how great The Witcher 3 was. I am glad for that, although of course implementation, writing, etc. are all very important.

Originally Posted by BoboTheMighty
There is a thread on Reddit, ask your questions of good ol' Guillemot, if you want to forward it there.
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/commen…er_of_ubisoft/
Once in a life time opportunity.

The last opportunity it is - in 6 months the company will become Vivisoft.

Please, Ubisoft, may I have another?

From what I've seen, this is going to be the most 'fantasy' AC so far. Anachronisms up the Wazoo (2 millennia instead of 10 or more as in Far Cry Primal, so PROGRESS!), some weird conventions (human bosses/minibosses that are abnormally large, as in the old Age of Conan MMO) and eagle drones.

Still, it looks nice and as an AC / Witcher III lite hybrid it's probably going to sell well. Biggest potential problems I can foresee are:

1. Content spread too thin over too vast an area; the world map appears huge.
2. While huge, most of the landscape is desert and I suspect the Nile valley / oasis / delta swamp / rocky desert / sandy desert will get tiresome pretty quickly. You would need some really good, varied architecture and narrative content to compensate for this, but see 1.
3. Asset Repetitis Syndrome. Apart from Alexandria (which appears fairly small in the gameplay trailer, seems to miss city walls etc.) I got the feeling that I've pretty much seen most of it: animals, people, houses, temples. A lot of people probably missed this at first glance, but the temple in the gameplay trailer uses very few mural relief textures for the walls and pillars. They tried to camouflage this by varying the angle a bit, but if you look carefully you can't miss it. It's not going to be a biggie at first, but after the umpteenth temple or villa…Same with the NPC's. Again: very thin layer of butter spread out over an awfully large slice of bread. Not that noticeable at first, might get very annoying in the long run. If you were bothered by repeated visual assets in Witcher III, I predict you're going to absolutely loathe this game.

Anyway, as with every Ubisoft game (unless made by Ancel): wait for the reviews and watch videos by Youtubers whose judgement you trust.

Originally Posted by Ripper
Feed me Ubisoft

That's a good boy

Nice profile picture btw it's very appropriate

I watched part of 20 minutes of gameplay.

I'll pass, looks boring and if I want to be a badass assassin Dishonored 2 DLC looks way cooler.

True but DH2 is not openworld (not that it's something negative, the game is a masterpiece). You can't quite pull out DH designs on a huge map, means environment puzzles just can't remain the same.

One thing I have to add, DH games and this new AC game are singleplayer only. In the recent flood of MMOs and MMO crap bundled with campaign, I'll say welcome to any AAA title that dares not to go multiplayer. In other words, there is a higher chance I'll buy this new AC that is RPG wannabe, than some upcoming actual RPG that contains 2-coop, 4-coop and similar whatnot.