Assassin's Creed Origins is an action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the tenth major installment in the Assassin's Creed series and the successor to 2015's Assassin's Creed Syndicate. It was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on October 27, 2017.
The game is set in Ancient Egypt during the Ptolemaic period and recounts the secret fictional history of real-world events. The story explores the origins of the centuries-long conflict between the Brotherhood of Assassins, who fight for peace by promoting liberty and The Order of the Ancients—forerunners to the Templar Order—who desire peace through the forceful imposition of order. Origins received positive reviews from critics, who praised the story, voice acting, immersive world of Egypt and visuals, while criticizing some of the pacing and technical issues. Despite this, some critics called it the best installment of the series since 2013's Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.
Assassin's Creed Origins is an action-adventure stealth game played from a third-person perspective. Players complete quests—linear scenarios with set objectives—to progress through the story, earn experience points, and acquire new skills. Outside of quests, players can freely roam the open world environment on foot, horseback, camel-back or boat to explore locations, complete optional side-quests and unlock weapons and equipment.
The "eagle vision" mode, which was used by the franchise to give players the ability to scout an area by highlighting enemies and objects, has been replaced by a Bonelli's eagle named Senu as a companion. Players are able to take control of Senu and scout an area in advance, highlighting enemies which will then be visible when they return to controlling Bayek, the game's main character. Players can also tame various predators which will serve as a companion for the players and assist them against enemies.Naval combat, underwater exploration and tomb raiding return to the series. However, unlike previous games in the series, Origins Does not include many tall structures for climbing to unlock areas of the map.
The game also features revised combat mechanics. Previous titles in the Assassin's Creed series used a "paired animation system" whereby the player character would engage with an enemy and combat would be dictated by a series of predeterminted animations based on player inputs and scripted AI movements. Assassin's Creed Origins will move to a "hit-box system". When the player wields a weapon, they will strike at whatever is in range, allowing them to hit enemies directly, injure individual body parts, and creating the possibility of missing an enemy entirely. Complementing this is the way weapons fall into different categories and are rated on their damage dealt, speed and range. Enemies will be drawn from several basic archetypes that use a variety of tactics in combat which, combined with the hit-box system, will require players to learn the attributes of individual weapons and tailor their playing style to succeed in combat. As enemy combat is also dictated by the hit-box system, the player will be equipped with a shield and will need to balance their offensive and defensive capabilities. Locations within the game world will be designed to enable players to choose their playing style by offering stealth and open combat as equally-viable choices for completing objectives.
Origins introduces an arena-based combat system where the player fights waves of increasingly-difficult combinations of enemies culminating in a boss fight. While the introduction to the arena is incorporated into the main story, the arena mode stands alone from the wider narrative. The game world features several arenas, with a variety of enemy combinations and unique bosses not found in the game world. Players will be able to unlock additional weapons and equipment by completing arena fights.
A future update to the game will add "Discovery Tour", a sandbox mode allowing players to freely explore the open world with no objectives or combat, and embark on guided tours that highlight aspects of Egyptian history.
Premise
The player takes on the role of a Medjay named Bayek as he works to protect the people of the Ptolemaic Kingdom during a time of widespread upheaval: the Pharaoh, Ptolemy XIII, struggles to maintain his rule whilst harbouring ambitions of expanding his kingdom; his sister, the recently deposed Cleopatra, begins marshalling loyalist forces to launch a counter-coup against Ptolemy; and frequent incursions into the Kingdom by the Roman Republic under the command of Julius Caesar lead to fears of an imminent invasion. Bayek's role as a Medjay brings him into contact with the secretive forces manipulating these events and sees him become the first Assassin.
Development
Development of Assassin's Creed Origins started in early 2014, after the completion of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. The series had been following a yearly release cycle, but after the launch of Assassin's Creed Syndicate in 2015, Ubisoft chose to delay the release of Origins until 2017. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot cited a desire to focus on the quality of the individual titles, the opportunity to develop future games with new engines, and the disappointing sales of Syndicate as the reasons behind the decision. The team enlisted Ubisoft Kiev to develop the PC version in parallel with the console versions.
Information on Origins, then titled Assassin's Creed Empire, first leaked in January 2017, showing several screenshots of a character on a boat and in front of a cave. The game was officially revealed on June 11, 2017.It is being developed using the latest iteration of the AnvilNext engine. During production of Assassin's Creed III in November 2011 Ubisoft conducted a fan survey exploring potential settings for future titles. Ancient Egypt was one of the most popular choices, but Alex Hutchinson, the creative director of Assassin's Creed III, dismissed the results as he considered Ancient Egypt—as with the other two chosen settings, feudal Japan and World War II—as being "the worst choices" for a setting. The development team hired Egyptologists to assist in making the open world more accurate to the time period.
The original score for the game was composed by Sarah Schachner, who previously worked on the series with Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag and Assassin's Creed Unity.
Marketing
In August 2017, Square Enix announced a promotional crossover between the Assassin's Creed franchise and Final Fantasy XV. Taking the form of an in-game event, it introduced Assassin's Creed-themed content to the game. Assassin's Creed-themed content was also made available in other Ubisoft games such as Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands.
