I must be sincere I have not been a massive fan of the Assassins Creed franchise or shown any genuine interest in playing any of the games. I don’t have a specific reason other than I am not a fan of third person puzzle style games. As I have stated in the previous post, I am a massive fan of first-person shooter games and fighting games. I do not often venture out from those types of games. But my son was raving about the game and how cool Assassins Creed Origins is and how great the gameplay is. It peeked my interest, so I decided to watch him play and see what the big talk was all about. I must say after seeing the gameplay and different abilities it peeked my interest, and I began playing the game myself. From the beginning it was an excellent experience, the beginning story made me want to know more about the character (Bayek the Medjay) and how he would avenge the death of his son (Sabu). The environment is ancient Egypt which I must say makes things interesting. As you progress along the story it becomes more and more exciting and forces you to want to play more to find out the next plot twist. Each quest is more challenging than the next, along with gaining more abilities, you receive upon completing those quests.
The Little Things that Matter :
I think one of my favorite aspects of the game is the fact it takes place in ancient Egypt. I mean how cool is it that you can enter the pyramids and the sphynx to explore them. You can also snap a picture from the top of the pyramids and the sphynx. It inspires you to want to take a trip to Egypt to see the pyramids and Sphynx in person. Besides the time zone, the overall gameplay is not what I expected it to be. I thought going around completing quests that will improve Egypt and its people. Later to find out that you are looking back into the future from the tomb of Bayek and his wife. You are even able to play a few scenes as his wife (Aya) and see how she plays a role to remove the bandits from Egypt and support Queen Cleopatra. As you move your way around you might run into Crocodiles, Hypo’s, Hyena, or other predators trying to take your life. You at times fight your way through and destroy the animal king for that location. At times you are requested to save other citizens from those predators to complete a portion of a quest.
The reward system is just what you would want from a game. As you move around each area of Egypt, you loot that area, and you have the chance of receiving a weapon, armor, or item to improve your overall fighting experience. If you complete a quest that is a higher level than your current level the chances of receiving a legendary gear or weapon increases. If you do not want the items you have looted you can go to the blacksmith and the crafter. There you can sell them all the unwanted weapons or gear as well as purchase items they have that might interest you. As we all might know the blacksmith will sell weapons, he can also upgrade any weapons you already have that you might want to improve. The crafter sells uniforms as well as purchasing any materials you might want to sell. If you do not want to sell animal skins you have. You can hold them until you reach a certain amount. Then you’re able to upgrade your quiver, satchel, and utility belt. Every time I play I increase levels by at least three. This is also from looting all the chests in one location and from eliminating enemies through the quests and side quests.
The Battle Front :
The enemies set before you are not as easy as one might think which makes things fun and exciting. You can’t just walk into a palace and start taking people out. You must come up with a plan on how you are going to prevent them alarming other location and calling in reinforcements. Along with not being seen by enemies traveling to each torch location. A palace or location has one or two captains that are a higher level than you are. This also provides a challenge to the battle as to clear the area you must eliminate those captains, without alarming other soldiers in the area. When soldiers are alarmed that increases the overall battle from one on one to ten on one. Which is a severe challenge in itself, I have found that if you move your way around the compound silently eliminating soldiers and leaving the captains for last, it decreases the chances of battling more than one enemy at a time. The battle becomes easier to control and increases your chances of defeating the captain or commander. The higher the level of the quest the higher the complexity of the fight and the more skill needed to complete.
The artillery truly helps in every possible battle; the fact that you have two bow and arrows, two hand combat weapons, fireballs, sleeping darts, and a shield that might cause enemies to fall asleep or lose health is a benefit. This is separate from the possible abilities you gain as you level up. The more abilities you unlock, the higher your chances are at eliminating an enemy quickly without alerting any other enemies around. One ability you have is to tame an animal so that animal is your own. Meaning it will follow you around and battle with you as you take on different enemies. Now you have lion and lioness in this game, imagine roaming around with a pride of lions. How easy would your battles be with lions fighting the fight for you? I just think that is a cool ability to have in a game, makes me feel like “The Beast Master.” Besides your abilities you have adrenalin rushes that have two various levels. One level allows you to tackle your opponent and wale on their chest with sword or knife blows. The other will enable you to go ham and kill everything in sight while taking limited damage. I must be honest the first one comes in handy when you are battling a captain that is one level higher, and you need to keep him under control. The other is not as useful during that type of battle, although it does come in handy when you have more than one opponent around you.
If the battle requires long range, your bow and arrows are up to the challenge. You have several different ranges of bows to use, and each provides its own damage range. Depending on where you hit the opponent. Some can take an enemy down with one shot to the head. Other require two headshots to eliminate the opponent, which is fine as it keeps them at bay and prevents them from shooting you with their bow. If you happen to run out of arrows, you have another bow that has arrows. This can be helpful when in the middle of a battle and no time to run for an arrow supply run. Although at times you do have some close by from the enemy archers you are trying to take down. Being able to aim and shoot a bow and arrow is fun, also watching characters slowly die from an arrow that is stuck in them helps decrease the number of enemies you must battle. One of the best battles I have been is when Bayek had to fight in the Coliseum. Imagine that fighting inside the Coliseum during the time when gladiators’ battle for freedom, money, and at times fun.
Conclusion :
When the sand clears and you dust off your boots, this is a fun game that takes you through a time period and shows you all the impressive sights from during that time. I enjoy playing and have spent several hours doing so. I want Bayek the last Egyptian Medjay to be the Medjay of all time. I also want to make sure that I serve the good people of Egypt the best I can. This game makes me want to look at some of the other Assassins Creed games that I started to play and lost interest in over the years. Trust me I have passed on several of them over the years. Not to say I do not have issues with this game, they are not that many to touch on. You do have Phylakes who are hunters, which no matter how high of a level assassin you are, you are still unable to kill them. They follow you around the cities and if they catch you are dead. No fighting or trying to live by damaging them, one hit and it’s over for you. At times you will run into a situation where the enemy has a skull over their head, and again you can’t kill them. But if you reach a similar level to that enemy you are later able to cause damage if not kill them. Which honestly makes that not a real situation but at the time it does suck to run into one of them and just die. Overall though Assassins Creed Origins is an excellent game. I might purchase the season pass to see how far they take Bayek on his quest to serve Egypt as its Medjay. I am thrilled my son turned me on to this game, as I am pleased with the storyline, the gameplay, and the fight scenes.
