Xbox Empire - Closed

[Barozi]

Since I've completed the main game and the first DLC I might as well post my "final" (still one DLC to go) impressions of Assassin's Creed Origins. (Pretty much spoiler free)

Graphics and Performance:
Incredible looking game. Good draw distance, barely noticed any pop-ins, game runs very smooth, very enjoyable with the Xbox One X patch even if it's not quite a 4k resolution. I think it runs roughly at 1800p most of the time and that's fine by me. Textures aren't incredible though and as I mentioned before many NPC faces are really dull. I also feel like there's an extremely limited amount of different NPC walking around. They sometimes wear different clothes but they look way too similar overall. I think the game has only about 3 different hairstyles for each gender. Quite impressed with the water in this game, lighting is also spot on and fire looks quite decent as well.
9.0/10

World design and Mission design:
After playing this game I'd really like to visit Egypt. There are some incredible sights. The deserts look amazing and even if there isn't that much to do in them, so what? Definitely doesn't hurt to have them. Aside from the deserts, I don't think this game feels empty at all. Landscapes filled with animals, little villages, farms, bandits roaming around. Really well done. However there are a few copy and paste things I don't really like. Enemy encampments or forts look far too similar. Temples are pretty much copy and paste as well. Traversable houses are also the same everywhere.
This lack of variety can also be found in missions. I'm not going into much detail about main missions which are fine for the most part, but many side missions are just extremely similar. You can almost bet your ass that the quest giver wants you to talk to some dude who tells you to go to an enemy camp or animal lair to either kill the captain or get an item. I've seen worse but they could've mixed them up just a little more. I think there were only about 3 side quests where I had to collect some specific animals parts in order to complete them. Also unlike every other AC game there was barely any mission that required you to climb your way to a certain point.
Another thing to talk about is that the suggested level to start a mission is pretty much the absolute minimum. You will often face enemies that are 2 and sometimes up to 3 levels above you and they will completely destroy you in one or two hits.
8.0/10

Sound and Music:
I'm one who barely remembers the music in games (with some exceptions like Halo). I don't have anything negative to say about it and I do remember it being quite fitting. However I was extremely annoyed by the repitition of some NPC dialogue. Feels like Skyrim in some ways where one guy voiced every single blacksmith and a few guards I think.
9.0/10

Story:
Doesn't have much to do with Assassin's Creed until the very end. The present time segments were the most useless in a long time. Everytime it took me out of the animus I got back in immediately. It was much more interesting when you played as Desmond or when you worked as an Abstergo employee in Black Flag. I found a bit silly what happened to Khemu, but I still enjoyed these flashbacks.
7.5/10

Gameplay:
Talking about combat first, I think this is where I think the game lacks the most. Bayek has to be the slowest fighter in all of Egypt. Once you alert a guard he will instantaneously attack you and even if you react fast enough to attack yourself, the enemy will hit you first almost every time. It's insane how lucky you have to be to hit someone. Your best bet is to block a strike or evade first and attack while the enemy is still in his attacking animation. The enemy types also piss me off quite a bit. Many block constantly, so your light attack and not even your heavy attack will hurt them. You always need to do a charged heavy attack on them and it's really tedious. That rogue looking enemy type is pretty much immune to basic light attacks. I pushed him into a wall once and then chained three light attacks together. He always did the evade animation but there was no space to evade with his back at the wall. Doesn't matter, he is invulnerable during the animation. Also enemies are constantly using charged heavy strikes against you. Every single enemy type also has a ranged weapon, which is a bit unfair when you fight 3 or more at the same time.
Freerunning doesn't feel any different from Syndicate.
Naval combat is pretty boring in this one. I really disliked these sections and I loved them in Black Flag and Rogue.
Animal hunting feels great but boy are the hippos annoying. They might be the fastest animal in all of video gaming. Runs fast as shit and attacks much much quicker than you do.
I also like the loot and the upgrade system. Although I find the cursed weapons to be a bit pointless. Other than upgrading my weapons here and there when I didn't find another one, I had no use for the money.
8.0/10

Main characters:
I really like Bayek. Often driven by his anger, very humble to the people he wants to protect.
Aya was also pretty cool but I didn't really understand what both of them did at the end....(not trying to spoiler anything).
Voice actors were also pretty good.
9.0/10

Overall: 9.0/10

Fantastic game in the series and one of my favourites alongside AC 2 and AC 4. Spent 50 hours and I didn't feel bored at any point. Still have one DLC left so my total playtime will probably be somewhere around 55 hours. I heard that Odyssey is better in quite a few aspects, so I would like you to tell me if some complaints I had here have been changed in the sequel.

Last edited by Barozi - on 21 March 2019