Prior to its reveal, I got the chance to try two very different Assassin’s Creed Origins demos. The game has been in development for three and a half years, by the same team that developed Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and it’s clear from the onset that the team has used the extra time to reinvent the franchise and push it in a much fresher direction.
The first demo I played let me wander around the open-world of the Faiyum region. I was told that I was playing on an Xbox One X unit and that the game would render in dynamic 4K when gamers chose to play on Xbox One X with a compatible 4K TV.
I began exploring the ancient ruins of Egypt and immediately discovered a vast variety of wildilfe. This is one of the biggest game-changing features about the world in this new installment. Like Far Cry and Horizon Zero Dawn, you’ll come across all kinds of wildlife. For the most part, they’re going about their everyday routine. This is until you choose to attack them.
A large portion of the animals you’ll encounter are fairly timid, but you’ll quickly come across more aggressive ones too. Hippos and Crocodiles, as an example, can easily make short work of Bayek, and they’ll not hesitate to attack you all at once either. Simply put – animals aren’t afraid to act in groups rather than individually when attacking you, so choose your targets carefully.
Naval combat makes a return, developed by a dedicated team at Ubisoft Singapore, who worked on the same systems and mechanics for Black Flag. While the boats themselves are pretty different from those in Black Flag, the naval combat in Origins feels just as good as Black Flag. It’s also great to see that the transition between land and boat feels seamless and intuitive.
While learning about Origins, I was surprised to discover that there was some pretty in-depth RPG elements baked into the core gameplay. Previous games, like Unity, have briefly flirted with the idea, but Origins represents a huge change for more veteran fans of the franchise. During combat, you’ll now deal numbered damage to your opponent. This can change greatly depending on which weapon you’re using as well as what kind of attack you’re using. This also plays into the fact that your opponents level up alongside you. So, once you’re battling opponents of much higher levels, it’s important to know just how much damage you’re doing.
Assassin’s Creed has always been about stealth at heart and Origins doesn’t disappoint. You’ve got a brand-new Eagle named Senu at your side. You can change to Senu by pressing up on the D-Pad and literally use him to go anywhere on the map to scout out objectives, find objects before you entry a location stealthily or even find treasure. I felt that it was being a little overused during this demo, but I was assured that you were still able to go in swords blazing if that was your preferred play style. It did make me feel like I’d actually consider playing stealthily and coming up with a plan of attack though.
Overall, Origins is the overhaul that Assassin’s Creed needed and feels like a success over games like Unity and Syndicate. The location is undoubtedly interesting and something we haven’t seen explored in the gaming universe for quite some time. It’s also clear that Ubisoft has made some genuine attempt to move the series forward and reinvent elements that needed to be reinvented.
Press Start is attending E3 2017 as a guest of Ubisoft. This does not prevent us from covering titles exhibited by other publishers, nor does it hinder us from providing honest impressions about Ubisoft’s show line-up.