Assassin's Creed: Origins

[lizbee]

prof_pangaea expressed interest in my thoughts on the game. Which was honestly foolish because you know how much I love having and sharing opinions!



As I mentioned in one of my recent gaming posts, this is my very first Ubisoft game -- in fact, it's my very first game that's not from Bioware and also not Portal. And I only had a vague idea of what the whole Assassin's Creed franchise is about, beyond the fact that there are assassins and, I assume, they follow some sort of creed.

I've now played about eight hours, and I've more or less got the hang of the interface. Muscle memory is still in the process of adapting to the combat system, but we're getting there.

The plot: we're in Ptolemaic Egypt, and you're playing a dude named Bayek who has spent his life as a medjay, who were the police force of New Kingdom Egypt. The office had died out by the Ptolemaic era, but there's a lot of implicit stuff about old fashioned values and nostalgia for pre-Hellenic Egypt, so I'll let it pass.

Bayek had a pretty good life until he and his son were abducted by five shady dudes and, in the process of escaping, Bayek accidentally killed his kid. Now he's on his own personal atonement through revenge tour; his wife, Aya, is helping out, but also messing about with politics, ie, she has befriended Cleopatra. The Ptolemies produced a bunch of Cleopatras, but you don't have to wonder: it's that one. So far she's only been discussed as a rival for her brother-husband, the Pharaoh Ptolemy, but I assume she'll turn up in person eventually.

As for Ptolemy, he's a Bad Pharaoh. His regime is oppressive, and the five bad dudes who started this whole mess were working for him. So I assume that we'll get to assassinate him eventually.

I'm still in the early stages of the game. I ran around Bayek's home of Siwa, helping some people out, killing some soldiers and stealing their stuff, and committing my first assassination. Then I headed to Alexandria, but aside from reuniting with Aya and letting her shave Bayek's Angst Beard off, I've been completing missions in surrounding towns. Just levelling up and getting used to the whole system.

Oh yeah, and along the way, I discovered that I'm not just Bayek, I'm also a contemporary (or near future) woman named Layla, who spends her time chilling in a fancy isolation tank, absorbing Bayek's experiences. He might be her ancestor? Or a past life? I assume this is something to do with the wider AC mythology and I'll figure it out eventually. Anyway, she and her BFF Deanna seem nice. Probably.

It's an absolutely gorgeous game, and I'm glad that I'm playing it on a giant television so I can appreciate the scenery. There's a very handy feature where you can jump on your camel and tell it to just follow the road to your chosen destination, and then sit back and admire the setting while also getting a moment to drink water and eat a piece of fruit.

The Egyptian setting is used really well. Like, by the time of the Ptolemies, the pharaohs who built the pyramids were already ancient history, so there's just this vast variety of architecture and setting. I suspect a lot of the cultural stuff is inaccurate -- but it's been a while since I studied ancient history, and we never did much on the common people of Ptolemaic Egypt, so I'm not sure -- but the architecture is all great. And I remember just enough Latin to get the gist of what the Romans are shouting at me as I enter their encampments. (And, though I never actually studied ancient Greek, I know just enough to know that the Hellenic merchants shouting "idiote!" at me are using it incorrectly. This is the best possible use of my classics degree.)

Having said that, I feel quite bad as I loot tombs. (See also: why I have never really considered playing Tomb Raider.)

And, although I very much enjoy parkouring around Alexandria and basically playing The Floor is Lava, I find that I'm ... not very much into the killing? You know, the killing that's quite intrinsic to the whole concept of the game?

I shouldn't be surprised, given how much I struggle to not play Paragon in Mass Effect. Oh, occasionally I'll use Renegade interrupts, and ME3 has several situations where the most ethical option is the Renegade one. But I don't like cruising around the galaxy killing people for funsies, and it's the same in Thedas, and, as it turns out, Egypt.

I can get behind the assassinations themselves, but just invading camps and killing soldiers sits wrong. They didn't choose to be here. They probably just want to go home to their families. They would have left me alone if I hadn't tried to infiltrate their military bases!

Suffice to say, I'm putting a lot of work into cultivating stealth. And frequently turning to the cat and saying, "This game is really violent!"

ALSO it's weird playing a game where I don't get to make choices. Boy, I'm spoiled by RPGs! Having said that, I hear that Assassin's Creed: Odyssey has more RPG elements, so I'll probably play that eventually. But I'm not inclined to go back to older AC games.

(It's far too soon to think about my next game. Dragon Age: Inquisition is meant to take 150-200 hours, and I spent 320 hours on it. AC:Or has an estimated 50-75 hours, so I'll probably take at least 100.)

Comments

[prof_pangaea]

I can get behind the assassinations themselves, but just invading camps and killing soldiers sits wrong. They didn't choose to be here. They probably just want to go home to their families. They would have left me alone if I hadn't tried to infiltrate their military bases!

this is interesting because there are definitely games where i would really hate killing and perpetrating violence, and others where i would LOVE IT and i think it depends on the tone of the game. if it's mythical enough in its world-building, which is what my impression of assassin's creed is, i don't think i would mind. but not sure since i haven't played it. but i was watching a stream of red dead redemption 2 last week and that game is VERY realistic, to the point that a train robbery i saw just made me uncomfortable -- although i hear you also get missions where you have to go fight kkk members and i'm pretty sure i would have no problem with those lol