Alright, I beat Assassin's Creed Origins. I have some mixed feelings.
Overall I really liked the game even though it was way more RPGesqueish than I expected after having played the first game in the series. I thought there would be more "modern day" plot elements to the story, but surprisingly there was basically none. I'm not upset about it really, though I did like it in the first game especially the way it left you hanging.
While I had a rough time getting into the game initially, by the time I left Siwa and headed towards Alexandria I started to really get into it. From that point on I was really in to it, I loved it. I enjoyed getting those marks, going to each area and doing all the supporting side quests illuminating more of what was going on with the main target of that zone (crocodile, hyena, etc). Where this falls flat for me as at the culmination of all of that - when you go back to the northern part of the Nile to meet Cleopatra once they are all dead and the "Battle for the Nile" quest begins or near abouts. At this point the game sort of goes off rails completely. There are abrupt stops to sequences, time skips that don't feel natural (even if they are short periods of time), and just jumps in general that feel very janky. Once all that is over with it unfortunately doesn't really get any better. Going back to Siwa was interesting, but I would have really liked there to me more than just the corpse of a friend there that absorbed all of Bayek's attention - what about the technological marvel right in front of you? No comment about that whatsoever? Just odd.. I thought they would go into some of the artifacts in more detail for the plot but really scarcely mentioned or shown.
Going after the final two marks was not very exciting for me either - they both end up as boss fights basically and the supporting quests in the area aren't so much as supporting quests as opposed to side quests that aren't related. And those are fine, I like most of those, but in this case I expected more to be focused on the mark target like in the rest of the game so it was disappointing. I don't really mind the big naval battles, but they aren't super engaging either. Once or twice would have been enough for me, but I think you end up doing it 3 or 4 times. It's a cool spectacle the first time or two. Going to Rome was OK, I again don't like how it boiled down to a couple cutscenes, a boss, a small stealth segment though, but in this case I understand why - it's not geographically close to the area they developed for this game and is just the ending, I can let that pass. The scene with Caesar was cool, though. I was thinking in the scene with Cleopatra they were going to show the whole snake thing - but it makes sense that they didn't because it happened much later than Julius' death. As a general rule the final areas you visit in the game just aren't as appealing as some of the earlier areas as a whole. I understand why, it's geography, but there must have been something more they could have done.
One major question I have about the story though is that Bayek and Aya pretty much split, take up homes in completely different regions to do their own thing - yet in the "future" they are both entombed in the same Egyptian tomb. Why and how? This doesn't appear to be explained and while it made sense throughout most of the game, towards the end that is not as convincing for me they would end up in the same place.
Gameplay is fine - it's serviceable and enjoyable for the most part. I like assassinating targets in general. The AI/stealth system is too easily abused once you get used to how it functions, but it is what it is. I can't complain a whole lot from a gameplay perspective. The whole upgrading weapons and whatnot seems fairly pointless, I changed weapons maybe a handful of times the whole game and did fine. I did upgrade the static parts though (attack/range/quiver/etc) occasionally. The abilities aren't all that compelling, though some of the quality of life ones are nice (passive loot pickup, etc). Maybe there's more there than I give it credit for though. I mostly ignored the ability tree. I played on a hard and while I had a challenging moment here and there, it was enjoyable.
Loved exploring Egypt, it's great. Though surprisingly the main quest never takes you to about 6-7 of the provinces, by the end of the game there were about 6-7 unexplored regions in my map (meaning I had never set foot there). I might check them out now in the post game as I considering going to do some sidequests I skipped in some areas.
Overall I really liked the game - I loved it and couldn't put it down until the end/last couple of hours. It really falls apart there but doesn't destroy the whole experience. I'd highly recommend it in general. Now I'll be looking to step back and acquire the Ezio trilogy to start Assassin's Creed II.
Dr.Morris79
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