Assassin's Creed Origins

• 1. Introduction

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  Assassin's Creed Origins is a 2017 action role-playing game from Ubisoft Montreal, and the tenth major installment in its series. Its setting was a reversal. Ancient Egypt was among the places fans of the series requested most often, and Ubisoft had turned the idea down. Alex Hutchinson, creative director of Assassin's Creed III, once named Ancient Egypt, Feudal Japan and World War II as "the worst choices" for a setting. Ubisoft went to the Nile anyway, and it rebuilt much of what the series was known for along the way. Why did the series pause for a year? How could studios scattered across the world agree on a single vision of Egypt? And how did a game about a hunt for revenge end up serving as a classroom tool?

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• 2. Time And Teamwork

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  Assassin's Creed had arrived every year since Assassin's Creed II in 2009, and then, in 2016, it did not. Sales of Assassin's Creed Syndicate, released in 2015, had fallen below those of earlier games. Ubisoft gave the next project an extra year so it could "evolve the game mechanics" and reposition the series as a "premier open-world franchise".

  Chief executive Yves Guillemot later described a second motive. The delay gave the Montreal studio room to polish its work and to learn from Assassin's Creed Unity. That game's troubled launch in 2014 had alienated the series' fans.

  Work began once Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag was finished, and it ran for roughly four years. Nearly 1,000 people contributed, yet only 300 of them worked in Montreal. Ubisoft called the approach "co-development". Unlike earlier entries, the supporting studios received more freedom, and their output became central to the finished game. Jean Guesdon and Ashraf Ismail, both veterans of Black Flag, returned as directors.

  Ubisoft Sofia and Ubisoft Singapore played prominent roles in designing the map and the quests. Sofia worked on the tombs and pyramids, while Singapore crafted the naval combat. Ismail argued that this freedom let each area of the world feel unique. Montreal still set firm rules. A quest could demand only a limited amount of travel, and each hub area was allowed just one "funny" mission and one eradication mission.

  The project did not stay secret. In January 2016, sources speaking to Kotaku said it was codenamed Empire and set in ancient Egypt. Ubisoft made it official at Microsoft's press conference during E3 2017. Origins reached PlayStation 4, Windows and Xbox One on the 27th of October 2017, with five special editions available at launch. A Stadia version followed on the 15th of December 2020.

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• 3. Building Egypt

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  Ashraf Ismail believed he knew why earlier games had skipped Egypt. In his view, the technology of those years had not been up to the job. The team chose the year 49 BC because it captured an "impressive clash of civilizations". Egyptian culture was still thriving but approaching its decline, while Romans and Greeks pressed in from outside. Rome would annex Egypt after the events of the game. Ismail called the moment "epic" because it showed the "death of one world" and "the birth of a new one".

  The first version of the map was borrowed. Artists took the world of Black Flag and turned every body of water into land. A map that vast needed meaningful things to do, so the team added role-playing quests, puzzles, hunting and military outposts. The result spans deserts, oases, lakes and cities such as Alexandria and Memphis. Players cross it on foot, by horse, by camel, by horse-drawn vehicle or by boat. The hero Bayek can also dive underwater, the first underwater exploration in the series since Black Flag.

  Universities signed agreements with the studio so that experts could feed research to the team. In-house historians joined academics such as Jean-Claude Golvin, who helped place landmarks and recreate ancient paintings. Consultant Evelyne Ferron persuaded Ubisoft to change a scene of public mummification in a temple, because it clashed with the "Egyptian mentality" of the period. Alan Gardiner's Egyptian Grammar formed the foundation for the language spoken by non-player characters, with further help from the works of James Allen and Raymond Faulkner.

  The stated goal was an authentic Egypt, not a perfectly accurate one. The designers watched films and television series to see how pop culture had portrayed the ancient world. They adjusted the game whenever a focus on history got in the way of fun. Where an event was well documented, artists followed the historians' consensus. Where research was thin, they designed and recreated the missing pieces themselves. Alexandria and Memphis were enlarged to give a sense of "pharaonic scale".

  Smaller touches made the world feel inhabited. The studio added sandstorms, and a player who lingered too long in the heat would see a mirage. Designers drew on Pergamon in Turkey, whose layout resembled that of ancient Alexandria. Artists handcrafted most locations but used procedural generation to scatter rocks, grass and trees across open land. A compass replaced the mini-map because the team felt it cluttered the screen and discouraged exploring. Characters followed daily routines, working by day and sleeping at night, and players could pick the hour at which to strike a target.

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• 4. Combat Reinvented

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  Earlier Assassin's Creed games relied on a "paired animation system". The player engaged an enemy, and the fight played out as a chain of predetermined animations. Critics had long complained that the series felt stale and overly familiar. Origins answered with a "hit-box system", in which a weapon strikes whatever is within its reach. That change made it possible to injure enemies directly and also to miss them entirely.

  Melee attacks come in two kinds. Light attacks are fast but weak, and heavy attacks are slow but strong. Weapons fall into common, rare and legendary tiers, and each is rated on damage, speed and range. Bayek can carry eight types of melee weapon and four types of bow. Legendary weapons usually come from beating high-level enemies called the Phylakes. Because enemies fight by the same rules, the player carries a shield and must balance attack against defense, dodging and parrying as needed. Adrenaline builds during a fight, and a full bar lets the player release a devastating melee strike.

  The stealth tradition survived, but as a choice rather than a requirement. Bayek can creep up with the hidden blade, hide in tall grass or cross rooftops. He can whistle to draw a guard toward him, then assassinate it from cover. Sleeping darts, poison darts and firebombs add options, and a fire arrow shot at an oil canister can set enemies ablaze. Traps placed near braziers catch guards who try to call for reinforcements.

  The old "eagle vision" scouting mode is gone. In its place, a Bonelli's eagle named Senu flies ahead on the player's command and highlights enemies for later. Players can also tame predators that fight beside them. Aya, Bayek's wife, takes the helm of a ship in sequences where naval combat returns.

  Progression borrows from role-playing games. Experience points raise the player's level, and skill points go into three branches called Hunter, Warrior and Seer. Hunter strengthens ranged attacks, Warrior improves melee fighting, and Seer makes Bayek a deadlier assassin. Missions carry recommended levels, and a player who ignores them can be overpowered. For the first time in the series, the game also offered difficulty settings.

  Gear can be crafted from materials taken by hunting wildlife, dismantling equipment and raiding supply convoys. Loot boxes sell gear and materials for in-game currency only. Some cosmetic items, however, can be bought only with Helix coins, which cost real money. Side activities range from a gladiatorial arena that ends in a boss fight to chariot racing and stone circle puzzles.

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• 5. Revenge And Brotherhood

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  In 49 BC, masked men seized Bayek, a Medjay charged with guarding the Siwa Oasis, along with his son Khemu. They carried the pair into an underground vault beneath the Temple of Amun and handed Bayek a dormant Apple of Eden, demanding that he use it to open the vault. Khemu helped his father escape. During a struggle with one of the masked men, Bayek accidentally killed his own son.

  A year later, Bayek had exiled himself and set out to find all five masked men. After two kills, he met his wife Aya in Alexandria, where she revealed that she had killed two more. The last target was the Royal Scribe Eudoros. His dying words suggested that more masked men existed. Cleopatra then explained that the men belonged to the Order of the Ancients. The Order had driven her from the throne and meant to rule Egypt through Ptolemy, its puppet.

  The hunt turned into a political war. Aya led a fleet to seek an alliance with the Roman general Pompey, only to find him murdered by the Order member Lucius Septimius. Cleopatra turned to Pompey's rival Julius Caesar and slipped into the palace rolled in a carpet to meet him. Bayek and Aya broke into the tomb of Alexander the Great so she could show Caesar its wonders, which won his support against Ptolemy. In the fighting, Bayek killed the regent Pothinus. Aya raised her bow against Ptolemy but held back and watched crocodiles attack his boat, after which he fell into the Nile and drowned.

  Victory soured quickly. Cleopatra became Pharaoh and cut ties with the couple, and Septimius became an advisor to Caesar. Bayek concluded that both rulers had allied with the Order. A dying Apollodorus named the true leader as Caesar's lieutenant Flavius Metellus, who had taken the Apple along with Alexander's Staff of Eden. Together they opened the vault at Siwa, which held a map of more Pieces of Eden. Bayek found Flavius in Cyrene, where the Apple had been used to enthrall the population, and killed him. That ended the hunt for his son's killers.

  The couple parted. Aya left for Rome, where she had joined the conspiracy of Brutus and Cassius against Caesar. She killed Septimius and took the first blow against Caesar in the Senate. She later warned Cleopatra to rule fairly or face a return visit. Bayek and Aya, who now called herself Amunet, founded the Hidden Ones, the precursor to the Assassin Brotherhood, and began training recruits in Egypt and Rome.

  A modern frame surrounds all of it. In 2017, Layla Hassan, a researcher for Abstergo Industries, was sent to retrieve an artifact in Egypt. She found a tomb holding the mummified body of Bayek instead. She secretly took a DNA sample and read his memories with a modified Animus device. Abstergo later sent a team to kill her, but she killed them first. William Miles then invited her to join the Assassins, and she declined but agreed to travel with him to Alexandria. Along the way, ancient structures built by the First Civilization carried messages hinting that she would play a pivotal role in a coming apocalypse.

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• 6. Bayek And Aya

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  Alain Mercieca became narrative director after a cinematic director saw one of his "punk plays", a work called Squeegee Nights. The lead he helped shape was deliberately older and more mature than earlier series protagonists. Ismail described Bayek as a "reactive" hero who could express many emotions. As a Medjay from Siwa Oasis, a traditional village, Bayek embodies an older way of life and Egyptian customs. With the Roman annexation approaching, he has to work out "what he needs to do, what he needs to become". That personal journey leads to the Assassin Brotherhood.

  Abubakar Salim, who voiced Bayek, was first told he was auditioning for an animated television series that required motion capture. Alix Wilton Regan voiced Aya. The plan for the two characters once looked very different. Early on, Bayek was expected to be injured or killed off, and Aya was to become the main playable character.

  That history gained new weight in 2020, when a Bloomberg report made an allegation about the publisher. It said Ubisoft's marketing department and Chief Creative Officer Serge Hascoët had tried to minimize the role of female assassins in a number of Assassin's Creed games. Players who finished Origins saw Aya act as a fellow founder of the Brotherhood, and her playable segments were limited to naval sequences and a few others.

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• 7. After Launch

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  On the 23rd of January 2018, the first story expansion, The Hidden Ones, took Bayek to the Sinai Peninsula. Set five years after the main story, it follows him and Amunet as they expand the Hidden Ones and fight Roman occupation. Tahira, who leads the local bureau, calls him for help. The rebel leader Gamilat is an ally, but Bayek eventually kills him after learning he planted his own men among villagers to create martyrs. After the Roman general Rufio is assassinated, Bayek and Amunet write the first tenet of the Creed, which forbids harming innocent lives.

  The Curse of the Pharaohs was scheduled for the 6th of March but slipped to the 13th. Set in Thebes, it turns toward Egyptian mythology as Bayek faces undead spirits of past pharaohs, including Nefertiti, Akhenaten and Ramesses II. The trail ends at the tomb of Tutankhamun, where the High Priestess Isidora had used a Piece of Eden to unleash the curse in revenge for her mother's murder by tomb robbers. Bayek kills her and entrusts the artifact to the thief Sutekh.

  Free updates arrived too. In December 2017, a mission called "Here Comes a New Challenger" added a gladiatorial arena in Cyrene, a difficulty mode named Nightmare and enemy scaling. A series called Trials of the Gods let players fight bosses inspired by Egyptian deities. New Game Plus came in February 2018. In April, PC players received an Animus Control Panel for adjusting speed, health and the number of tame animals. In June 2022, a patch raised the framerate to 60fps on Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5. Ubisoft also partnered with Square Enix, makers of Final Fantasy XV, on crossover items.

  The most unusual addition was Discovery Tour, released in February 2018. It offers 75 guided tours lasting from five to 25 minutes each, covering landmarks and the daily life of ancient Egyptians. The tours draw on research from universities and institutions such as the British Museum. Combat is removed, so teachers can show the mode directly to schoolchildren. The team gathered feedback from educators and designed the controls to be easy to use. Damals magazine wrote that the mode turned an entertainment product into an interactive learning aid. In 2018, the Pointe-à-Callière Museum in Montreal used images and video from it in an exhibition on the "Queens of Egypt".

  A free standalone version appeared in May 2020, and Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Valhalla later received similar modes. The Egypt version also drew sharp criticism for deliberate historical revisionism and inaccuracy. Critics pointed to its depiction of an education system open to both sexes, when females were typically excluded in reality.

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• 8. Reception And Sales

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  Metacritic summarized the critical response as "generally favorable". Louise Blain of GamesRadar praised a varied map in which every region felt unique. Alanah Pearce of IGN agreed and spoke of a "delightful sense of discovery" as players came across locations naturally. Chris Carter of Destructoid wrote that "at no point did Origins feel inauthentic". Alessandro Fillari of GameSpot called Egypt "vibrant and lush" but found some regions too sparse. Christopher Livingston of PC Gamer said recommended levels gave the game the feel of an online multiplayer role-playing game and created "a feeling of artificial difficulty".

  Reviewers split over the new combat. Pearce called it "tense" and welcomed the removal of forced stealth missions. Suriel Vasquez of Game Informer found it more active and involving. Christian Donlan of Eurogamer considered it a clear improvement, though he felt that "everywhere you look in Origins you'll find things that you have done in other games". Pearce and Fillari both complained that the lock-on system worked poorly.

  Pacing drew the harshest comments. Stephanie Chan of VentureBeat found some campaign missions anticlimactic and compared the side quests to running errands. Andy Kelly of PC Gamer wrote that the game was "guilty of a particularly egregious example of padding". In his 28 hours with it, at least eight went to side activities. Bayek himself won praise, with Donlan calling him "charming" and Polygon's Colin Campbell describing him as "kind" and "devout".

  Egyptologists were more generous. Chris Naunton of Southampton University used the game in a television series called Playing in the Past to teach the history of ancient Egypt. He and other Egyptologists called its portrayal "the best visualization of Ancient Egypt... amazing".

  In November 2017, Ubisoft announced that sales in the first 10 days were double those of Syndicate. Digital downloads made up 35 percent of sales, compared with just 12 percent for Syndicate. Origins was the best-selling retail game in the United Kingdom in its first week, beating Super Mario Odyssey and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, which launched the same day. In the United States, it ranked second in October 2017 behind Middle-earth: Shadow of War, and third in November behind Call of Duty: WWII and Star Wars Battlefront II. Over the lifespan of the eighth generation of consoles, it sold more than 10 million copies.

  Nominations followed from E3 2017's Game Critics Awards through the 14th British Academy Games Awards, where Salim's performance was a category. Ubisoft's next step was Assassin's Creed Odyssey, developed by Ubisoft Quebec and released on the 5th of October 2018. It moved the series to Ancient Greece during the Peloponnesian War.

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