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Assassin's Creed Origins


regemond
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Ta @regemond;)

 

Put in another 8 hours since my last post, 54 total.

 

Did a lot more exploring, this time uncovering the two areas to the North East. I really like how different the areas feel, I mean the desert areas are deserty, there's only so much you can do with Sand, but how the art/design teams have managed to blend water so naturally into a lot of the regions is really fantastic, it never feels like they've just plonked a lake in so it wouldn't be all desert, these places all feel real and lived in, Egyptians lived off the Nile and its tributaries and all the way up and down the length of the map you can see this in effect.

 

Anyway, these two new areas in the North East are really unique. They're a swamp-lands in the Nile Delta, and they feel SO much like the Swamp area in Witcher 3, even some of the ways the trees sway in the wind or bandit camps are setup just had my deju vu sensor going off. I messed about here for a while, going about my usual business of uncovering all the question marks, solved another couple of Papyrus puzzles all on my own (they're so damn satisfying!) and then carried on with the main story.


Did quite a lot of the story today, it locked me into it for the first time (it does warn you) so I had to carry on until I could escape and go back to exploring. But yeah, the story has been excellent,

Spoiler

 

you play as Aya and mess about with Cleopatra in Heraklion, there's an assassination attempt and you have to pursue her enemies. They get away, unsurprisingly, and then Cleo's Roman Ally (Pompey) has had a Sword put down his spine thanks to Caesar. 

 

So you go to Alexandria, sneak into the Pharoah's Royal Palace (with Cleo hidden in a Persian rug) and meet Caesar. The Pharaoh gets chased away and Cleo takes her thrown, then you have to explore Alexander the Great's tomb,  then all shit hits the fan and you're put right in the middle of Civil War between Pompey, Caesar and the Greeks (I think?). You have to clamber over a bunch of flaming shipwrecks to get to a Lighthouse, then you're back in control of Biyek and have to escape Alexandria with Caesar whilst everything is burning down around you, another great moment.

 

You track down 'The Scorpion' on a battlefield, but as you go to kill him Caesar and his men turn up, pull you off him and knock him out. In the next scene The Scorpion is shown standing side-by-side with Cleo and Caesar, yeah, they've fucked you over good and proper! Thought this was an excellent twist, I guess I should've saw it coming seeing how conniving Cleo is, but I have to say I didn't, and it has taken the story in an interesting direction. Biyek and his allies coming together, the first semblance of the Creed.

 

They sprinkle a couple of naval missions in there as well, nothing too long, similar to the Aya's one in the first act, but still, it's great to be in control of a huge ship again. Ramming, shooting arrows and catapulting enemy ships is as satisfying as ever.

 

 

Back to exploring after this, it's not really a spoiler but I'll leave it as a surprise nevertheless, let's just say there are

Spoiler

MASSIVE FUCKING ELEPHANTS

dotted around the map. You have to be an incredibly high level to fight them, and these fights, honestly, are fucking tough, like Souls-tough. There's one I did right at the end of my session where you fight two of these bastards at the same time and it was fucking nails, went into full on Souls fist-pump after defeating them, harder than Anubis in Trials of the Gods for sure! But yeah, these fights are amazing spectacles, by far one of the best things in the game to do, highly recommend seeking them out when y'all are a high enough level to do so.

 

Did a bit of adventuring in the Desert to the far South and found this really interesting Tomb with this crazy light puzzle, actually reminded me of some of the Breath of the Wild shrines, it was so elaborate, far more elaborate a puzzle than I'd seen so far, and took me about 30-45 minutes to piece everything together, really enjoyed it, fantastic finding little gems like this out in the wilderness.

 

So, I'm going to leave the story for a bit I think, I'm reasonably near the end I believe and I want to mop up every other area before continuing on, think I've got about 5 or 6 left to un-fog now so the end's in sight, I'm sad that I don't have much longer left :( I just adore being a part of this world, it is an incredible place to lose yourself in. I'll keep on playing the latest God Trials and I've got the first DLC pack to look forward to in January.

 

Some pics:

 

Spoiler

Assassin's Creed® Origins2017-11-15-16-47-1.jpgAssassin's Creed® Origins2017-11-15-16-55-15.jpgAssassin's Creed® Origins2017-11-15-17-22-4.jpg

 

Assassin's Creed® Origins2017-11-14-17-24-58.jpg

Assassin's Creed® Origins2017-11-14-17-27-0.jpg

Assassin's Creed® Origins2017-11-14-18-3-21.jpg

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Maybe Ancient Egyptian Lions are unreasonably tiny? @DANGERMAN :lol:

 

Put in another 11 hours since my last post, 65 total.

 

Spent almost all that time in the top North West of the map, uncovering all the areas here. I stupidly thought these areas wouldn't be that chock-full of stuff (as there was not many landmarks I could see from the fogged map) but once I got there and defogged the first 'Green Mountains' area I said to myself 'holy shit, I've still got a ton to do!' which is great, I really don't want this game to end.

 

So I did my usual thing, defogged the entirety of the Green Mountains. It's crazy how different this area feels, it doesn't feel Egyptian whatsoever, it has tons of lush rolling hills, olive groves, vegetation and waterfalls all over the place with lots of Roman/Greek Architecture, whilst exploring it honestly feels more like Greece or rural Italy than what I ever imagined Egypt would be like, some of the other regions have been like this too but this corner of the map is definitely the one that feels the most foreign. Honestly felt a bit God of War at times and I never expected to be saying that.

 

Moved onto Kyraenika after that which is where the next main quest is. Didn't carry on with that for awhile, went about doing every side-quest I could find and finished off all the Gladiator fights. I like the Gladiator fights, they are cool but doing all 5 waves + bosses all in one go is not recommended, got very samey after awhile, all the standard 'boss 1, boss 2, boss 3, boss fight' template with 3 waves of random enemies for the first 3 and then facing the boss on the last.

 

But yeah, finished them off and got them over with. After this I explored Cyrine which is just gorgeous, it's similar to Alexandria, very Roman in architecture but much smaller, which makes its ostentatious buildings and ornate temples all the more impressive, I just loved it, it felt so well designed and flowed really nicely. Did lots of side-quests in and around Cyrine, explored the coastal area to the North and ticked a load of locations off the list, also did a couple of main story missions in the region but there's not much to tell, they were more-or-less just normal kind of assassination missions without anything spectacular to them. 

 

So yeah, that's where I've left it, got 1 more area left to defog and 2 left to explore, think I'm quite near the end of the story as well, should have it finished next week.

 

A few more pics:

Assassin's Creed® Origins2017-11-17-17-16-9.jpg

Assassin's Creed® Origins2017-11-17-19-4-18.jpg

Assassin's Creed® Origins2017-11-18-17-22-59.jpg

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Finished it a few days back, took me 68 hours in total, uncovered the entirety of the map (and locations) and got 100% of achievements :D

 

The last two acts of the story are, unfortunately, rather disappointing. They just stumble over the finish line really, both are pretty poor and quite short, although I will say the very last assassination is incredibly cool and I think a lot of Historians will get a kick out of it.

 

But, by and large, I enjoyed the story a lot, it was a lot more free-form, didn't go too deep into exposition and just gave you some targets in certain areas of the map -to encourage exploration- then continues on in this vein until the final two where things turn more cinematic and linear -and quite a bit worse as a result. The mid-tier assassinations are far from ordinary affairs either, the first couple are what you expect but after that there's some pretty interesting scenarios you have to embroil yourself in in order to take them down that I really didn't expect. I think when most folks think of assassinations they think of the protagonist sneaking into some ornate villa and jumping on the target from the air, plunging his knife into him, but yeah without spoiling anything, quite a few of the mid-tier targets don't go at all like you expect them to.

 

Like Black Flag though, the story plays second fiddle to Egypt itself. In the same way Hyrule in BotW was this living breathing world, this character unto itself if you like, Egypt feels much the same, it doesn't reach the same levels of interactivity or playfulness in its design as Hyrule but it feels even more alive in some ways, it feels so natural and so incredibly real. There's countless moments where just walking or running about the game just took my breath away, the first time I saw the huge Lake at the forefront of Alexandria and let out an audible 'wow', the first time I saw a sandstorm naturally roll in from the desert and engulf an entire town, when I experienced the town that had made its entire living on Natron -a key ingredient in mummifications- and going to see vats of coloured dyes where they died animal skins for clothing. 

 

The attention to deal in this game is truly staggering, AC games have always been pretty decent at this, but they have never nailed the feel of an entire country, an entire era and an entire feel before. So much of the country is in turmoil and you'll butt up against Greek architecture, Roman conquerors and Egyptian towns all coexisting in the same ecosystem. The glitz, glamour and blood lust of Rome, the opulence of Greece and the earthy lived-in Egypt all together in this big melting pot of history, just being able to explore a place like this in such a time is so incredibly exciting.

 

A brief word on the side quests, collectibles and outposts. The side quests don't really deviate from the standard Ubisoft-norm really, if you've played Watch Dogs 2 or other recent Ubi games you'll probably know what to expect, only about 5 out of the 100+ I completed are actually memorable at all, which is saying something really, but I do like the investigation mechanic, it just, unfortunately gets overused, as does the Outposts. There are just far too many outposts near the end of the game, they litter entire regions with them and you just get a bit bored taking them out time after time after time, there is a certain charm to it for people like me that love clearing out every region in the game, but I can't see a lot of folks will stomach that level of repetition for long. 

 

Believe it or not, collectibles are completely gone. Everything needed to get all the achievements/trophies in the game, everything needed to get 100% locations cleared and everything is all done via discovering and clearing the question marks on the map, these can turn into Leopard/Hippo/Crocodile Lairs, Outposts, Tombs, Animal Battles, Papyrus Puzzles, Meditation areas, Cities/towns/villages and star alignment statues. Certain treasure chests are needed to tick some locations off the list, sure, but you no longer need to go out and find 450 chests, and neither is there any floating collectibles of any kind present in the game, everything is fully believable within this world.

 

So yeah, I can't recommend it enough really. I said the same for Black Flag back in 2013, but for folks who don't like the traditional city AC model, who played one years ago and got turned off, this one is for you! It's just a phenomenal game and the world of Egypt itself is as compelling as The Witcher 3's and BotW's. Definitely worth a try.

 

Last couple of pics:
 

Spoiler

 

Assassin's Creed® Origins2017-11-20-15-31-15.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Assassin's Creed® Origins2017-11-20-17-3-20.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

Still plugging away at this - I've managed more than 50 hours now, and still loving it.

 

Yesterday's effort was all about advancing the story. I've took down 7/10 Phylakes, got the whole map uncovered, synchronised all view points and finished the stone circles quest (including the next steps that lead you somewhere interesting), so thought it was about time to get on with the tale.

 

A couple of tombs really intrigued me though - they've brought a new layer into the fiction of the title and I'm really confused/interested to see where it goes next!

 

Anyway, the second set of assassinations are finally finished, and I've now got access to the Arena Battles, so I've done the first set of them.

 

Even after 50 hours, this game is still managing to impress me - I've made my way from vibrant, tree-filled swamps, to lush cities built on rivers, through barren deserts and even scaled sandstone cliffs, and the graphics are never anything less than beautiful. The gameplay is so addictive too - there's something really satisfying about setting a marker on the map and making your way there, taking in the sights, clearing treasures and clearing outposts.

 

I currently have 1 main mission and 14 side missions in my to-do list, so I'm going to back to them tonight, see if I can whittle the number down a bit and make it look a bit less daunting.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Why can't I stop playing this game? Seriously, I can't tell if it's 90% filler and I'm genuinely enjoying the experience, or if it's actually such a fantastic game that I just don't want it to end.

 

I'm STILL hammering away at side missions - at last count I had 14 side missions and a main mission. I still haven't done that main quests and have been working through the side ones. I was at 18 at one point, and one of them led into a little bit of a side-story with 3 extra quests, so we'll call it 21. I've whittled it down to 4 side quests, with all Phylakes taken down, so now I'm...

 

Spoiler

an Egyptian ninja!

 

IMG-20171218-WA0005.jpeg

 

The last Phylakes was such an exhilarating fight too - I chased him down on a main road after he'd basically dry-raped me several times before I hit level 40. I was putting in a decent effort, using close, fast weapons to whittle down his energy and bolstering my own health with a shotgun bow that gave me health with every hit I landed. I managed to take him down to about 1/3 life when his attacks seemed to change slightly. He got faster, angrier, generally became more of a pest.

 

Unfortunately, because it was on a main road a nice little convoy of bad guys decided they wanted in on the fight too, so I was dodging around those guys on horses, trying to avoid the Phylakes' hits AND still trying to whittle down his health to boot. I was literally on my last bar of health, with him 1/2 way into his last bar when I got an adrenaline attack. Which still needed a chain attack added on to finish him off for good.

 

Jesus christ, it was more than a little bit ridiculous.

 

It's not even that big of a departure of the Assassin's Creed blueprint, it just finally feels like the game they set out to make back in 2007. If it had a decent naval battle engine (a la Black Flag) I'd call it as my favourite in the series. As it stands it's either joint top or just a touch below BF.

 

Goal now is to try and finish off the last few side quests then hammer through the story, with the aim to finish the game off by Christmas. Honestly, 2 months well spent on this thing!

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All side missions done and dusted now (except one, which I picked up after I continued the main story).

 

It just kicked up a notch, brought a new, big character into the mix, had a couple of huge fights, and downed an elephant. I also finally caught up with...

 

Spoiler

the guy who killed Bayek's son. So we had an old-school arena fight. Where he had a Rygar style ball and chain weapon. Luckily he didn't do too much damage so he was taken down quick smart.

 

Had a load of fun with it last night though, there really is a massive difference between the effort put into main quests and side quests (as you'd expect), but the story really flowed last night. It felt like it was just flowing one into another without any kind of awkward connections between them (ok, there were cut-scenes that took you from place to place, but it still felt natural). I'm definitely heading to the end of the story now though - can see some kind of big kick-off happening soon, and it seems to be pushing me on at a really high pace.

 

One thing I will say is that the pacing was absolutely fantastic with these quests too. It gave me control of Aya for a while and really slowed it down, let her and Bayek have a little fun together (in a mission, not in the kinky way) before ramping it up beautifully. This is an incredibly well-crafted game. Major points to UbiSoft on that score.

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Put the last couple of hours in and finished this off last night. Unlike @Blakey I quite enjoyed the cinematic nature of the last couple of missions, they really...

 

Spoiler

leaned into the sci-fi/supernatural side of the mythology, with a fight involving the apple of Eden (referred to as 'the orb' here). 

 

I especially liked all the little reveals just before and just after these mission too - things like...

 

Spoiler

where the logo came from. And the fact that initiates cut their finger off basically as a tribute/mark of respect to Bayek.

 

Like Blakey though, I absolutely loved the final assassination. I honestly didn't think they'd take on that iconic moment. I really could echo his thoughts on the game as a whole. It's just so cohesive and well put together.

 

The main characters I thought were fantastic. Bayek actually had depth to his personality, could go from being relaxed and friendly to instantly defensive and full of rage when his son was brought into conversation. And the way he softened for/doted on Aya every time he saw her was really well done too. There was a lot of believable love in his characterisation. Completely at odds with previous protagonists, such as Connor in the third mainline installment. 

 

Aya was well done too - she never broke from her devotion to Cleopatra and Egypt, even when Bayek was around. It gave her a determined quality that made her fantastic to watch. And made her relationship with Bayek seem like his love was a little bit unrequited - which I think was the point after they lost their son. I think she blamed Bayek and needed to put her attention into something else, which seemed to become a minor obsession for her. Until sexy time was involved - then she was all up in his space. And he was up in hers, so to speak...

 

Having finished it, I think I can say this has just about overtaken BF as my favourite. The fact that there's two playable characters, the depth to the upgrade tree, the amount of missions (both main and side), the tombs - which were fantastic, the crafting, which was an evolution of the  system I loved in Far Cry 4, it's all just so good. That's not to mention the little things like upgrading Senu to make spotting targets a little easier, and the outposts that instantly let you know how tough they are with a quick look at the number of spears in the logo on the compass. And clearing those outposts out was so much fun too - scan the whole area for enemies, see how many there are, find the brazier and set a trap. Go take down and commanders/captains, then clean up the treasure. Rinse and repeat. Just. So. Satisfying!

 

I really can't wait to see where the next one takes the series, but I really can't see it impressing me as much as ancient Egypt - a period in history I used to love learning about and even now is one of my favourite areas to walk around when I go to the museum.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I got this for Chrimbo and finally got a chance to play it over the last few nights. Absolutely love it. Easily one of the best open worlds out there - i've probably spent about an hour of my playtime just walking around and sight seeing. It takes a lot in gaming these days to impress me graphically, but when you first leave the starting town, and cross over the dune to see  Alexandria across the lake, it was a real WOW moment. The feeling of exploration is also fantastic, and as previously stated, Bayek is an affable chap. 

 

Hat's off to Ubisoft, they've made Assasins Creed exciting again.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've been chipping away at this over the last few nights. I spend most of my time just ambling about and exploring. Decided to wonder over to Giza and explore the pyramids (love the tomb bits). Also managed to infiltrate a heavily guarded fort and complete an objective without getting caught which was pretty satisfying (even though most of that was accomplished by luring guards to a well and pulling them down).

Still stand by my statement that this is one of the best Open Worlds out there. The whole place feels alive - just standing there watching as men on horseback race across the horizon as birds take flight from a lake still amaze. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
11 minutes ago, Nag said:

Speaking of missions, just how many side quests are in this bloody game? They just keep popping up... I have 34 missions in my log as of now, crazy.

 

My total quest count at the end was something like 120 but that includes all the main quests.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
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  • 1 month later...

This was a hard game to get in to after God of War. It has a similar button layout but everything felt so floaty and impresice after the ditrect combat of GoW. And I HATED the mouse style menu control.

 

But, it didn't take long to acclimatise, the opening mission is quite poor but once you get above ground and discover what this game is shit gets better.

 

I'm in to it right now, like balls deep. Just hit Level 11, got re-united with Aya who is hot and just happy to bumble about doing the millions of things this game wants you to do.

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  • 2 weeks later...

45 hours later...

 

Im done with the main quest and I think with the game. I enjoyed most of my time with it, I did get a little bored here and there but that may have been my fault for binge playing. Although the gameplay loop can get repetitive. Yet that’s also what hooks me in...

 

I like Byek, he’s cool as fuck. And Aya is super badass, I liked their relationship, it was well done I thought.

 

There’s still a decent amount left to do but I feel content with what I’ve played. That’s new to me, I normally bum these games to death but this is fucking huge and 45 hours is enough when one has so many games to play.

 

I respect the team for trying something different though. Looks like Odyssey will be different again - keep it moving.

 

 

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  • 7 months later...

I've started this, I'm probably 7 or so hours in. I'm in the 2nd area, I've got a mission to meet up with my wife, I should probably go and do that but I've been syncing towers and doing a few side missions. I'm not sure what level I am, I've just been letting the levelling up happen and adding skill points in bulk. The next thing I'm buying is the one to control the predator arrows 

 

Byak is more smiley than I was expecting, he's less brooding than I was expecting, I suppose there's plenty of time for that to happen. I'm enjoying it, my only issue really is that it can be a bit of a trek to get around 

 

I somehow failed a mission I didn't even know I was on. There's been a couple of times where I've started a mission but the game hasn't pointed me in the right direction until I've gone and reselected it. Like, there was one where I had to find a book for an old man, I ended up following him back to his house where he went to bed because the next step of the quest didn't appear on my hud. It might be less a bug or even broken design, and just be that you can pick up a bunch and do them as and when you're near them 

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