MeinMMO editor Nikolas Hernes is not a big fan of open-world games. The large worlds have many aspects that bother him while gaming – but a game by Ubisoft throws him into an existential crisis.
Open-world games and I usually have a pretty toxic relationship. On paper, everything sounds wonderful: a beautiful big world to explore, many side quests and activities. But that’s also the problem. After a short time, it feels like work to walk through every single point on the map. The worlds are big and full of stuff, but also inflated and often soulless.
Ubisoft established such an open-world system with Far Cry and Assassin’s Creed, and a year ago I criticized that and praised the great world of Yakuza.
But now I have to backtrack a bit. Of all things, a Ubisoft open-world game currently excites me in the evenings, even though it does everything wrong on paper that a game can do wrong for me: Assassin’s Creed Origins.
A new beginning and an origin story
Assassin’s Creed Origins already tells the origin story of the Assassins according to its name, but at the same time, it was also a gameplay reboot for the series. A larger open world was created and the combat borrowed some mechanics from the Souls titles.
Although I was quite put off by Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, I still grabbed Origins in a sale on the PS5 a few weeks ago. Somehow I wanted to take a look at the first new Assassin’s Creed – I had little experience with Egypt as a setting, apart from individual desert levels.
Origins starts directly without much exposition; you are straight into the fight with the main character Bayek and then land in the town of Siwa. Here you learn all the gameplay basics and the kickoff of the story. It’s a somewhat simple but effective revenge story that sends Bayek on a journey through all of Egypt. For me as a fan of Assassin’s Creed 2 and 3, that’s motivation enough.
When you are then released into the ever-growing world, you see a map full of activities, side missions, or collectibles. Actually, that should deter me, but Origins works anyway, with mechanics that should annoy me – like how?
Like the seasons of a series
The main story of Origins sends me to various cities and regions. As Medjai, a kind of elite troop of the Pharaoh, I am the protector of Egypt. This fits with the many side quests that can be done in the cities. They have not tired me so far because they (with a few exceptions) were self-contained. This means: The quests were not several kilometers apart and did not artificially keep me waiting.
Overall, the game feels like a good series with several seasons. The side quests are like completed episodes that are often well-written. The characters feel authentic and the little stories also utilize the setting well. At first, I thought Bayek would be a rather mute protagonist, but he sometimes has a bite without it being his only character trait. This makes him fit quite well into the series.
The quests also take you around the areas and allow you to pick up collectibles along the way.
This should actually annoy me, but on the one hand, the fast travel towers give me a nice view of the game world, and on the other hand, you feel like Indiana Jones when exploring the inside of a pyramid for treasure with a torch. The whole mythology is also a big motivator for me to explore the world.
The main and side quests and the many activities intertwine, so I never felt like I was just ticking off a list – although on paper, you do.
Overall, the journey through Egypt feels like a vacation. You discover beautiful places and dangerous animals and meet many people with different problems and personalities. But you are not just there to relax; you also fight a lot, and that unfortunately does not excite me as much.
The typical problem of Assassin’s Creed
As mentioned before, the series from Origins onward relied on a combat system that can be easily compared to the Souls titles. You have shields, a dodge move, and light and heavy attacks with the shoulder buttons. There are also gadgets like bows and arrows and various bombs and arrows.
For me, stealth is usually the most effective, especially with bows. They are incredibly powerful and generally more effective than direct combat. This also reminds me most of the previous parts of the series, especially if you want to experiment with gadgets. However, I found the bow the strongest. I didn’t like the other gadgets as much.
The direct combat unfortunately leaves much to be desired. The attacks feel squishy and never as responsive as in Dark Souls, for example. Often, it was even the best option to use the bow in close combat. However, the combat was never annoying because you mostly have the same or a higher level than the opponents.
Admittedly, the combat in the previous parts was never the exciting part, but the power fantasy of being an assassin. At least that still works well in Origins.
You shouldn’t expect a particularly intelligent enemy AI. The power fantasy actually helps with that because you feel like the only smart man in Egypt.
In combat, it also helps if you explore a lot since you can improve yourself with materials, for example, to increase your health or your attack. The skill tree is a double-edged sword: There are very cool abilities, but also some that you should have had from the start, like the ability to fast-forward time.
Despite these problems, the combat system doesn’t bother me. Even though gameplay is usually more important to me, I find the open world so fascinating that I can overlook some weaknesses, especially since they are not annoying on normal difficulty.
Am I now the big open-world fan? I don’t think so. In Assassin’s Creed Origins, a lot comes together that makes the world appealing to me, especially Bayek as the protagonist and Egypt as the setting. Besides, despite some changes, Origins still reminds me of the good old Assassin’s Creed feeling. It just fits here, even though I have criticisms.
Valhalla, for example, unfortunately didn’t work for me, and I think it really depends from case to case. But feel free to write your favorite open-world games in the comments – maybe I’ll find some representatives of the genre that can excite me. A world that is currently exciting a lot of players is in Crimson Desert: After 100 hours in Pywel, it’s clear: Upcoming open worlds must learn from Crimson Desert
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