When Ubisoft announced that a new Assassin’s Creed game would be released in 2017, I took no notice; I was too poor to afford a new or used console of any kind. I was trapped in Xbox hell, playing the same games in cycles.

When the chance for a refurb PS4 came, I jumped on it. It was the year of Covid and I needed to keep busy.

There were two things I didn’t know:

The controllers for PS4 are notorious for having the thumbstick on either or both sides jam and make it impossible to play. In the case of Assassin’s Creed Origins, the right stick controls the camera. Mine got stuck always looking up or spinning in a circle, which drove me nuts with recon, fighting, swimming, even riding a horse.

So I fought the stick but to be honest, almost all sticks have had this problem from the Xbox up. I invested in a new one and continued.

The second thing I did not know was that there are hundreds of complaints about the game. Early on there were some bugs, and playing on the “Normal” difficulty setting was frustrating players.

Grinding

If you don’t know, this game doesn’t force you to “grind”; but it is designed to engage you in side quests that are telling more of Bayek’s story, and the story is very good. A man haunted by the death of his son, he seeks revenge and finds along the way that he can no longer tolerate the horrible things common people must deal with under Pharaoh Ptolemy who is fighting his sister CleopatraVII for sole control of Lower Egypt. Yes, that Cleopatra.

The first part has him returning to his home town after a year’s absence, with long hair and beard. He meets a friend who has been trying to keep the peace, but Bayek is a Medjay and those were kind of like the police back then. As he begins getting his bearings, short tasks get the player familiar with the controls, inventory, crafting upgrades to his armor and assigning ability points to gain new skills.

Ubisoft has long since patched up bugs, and gameplay is ripping good fun. One of my favorite Original Playstation games, Legacy of Kaine: Soul Reaver played very like this game engine does, as I was immediately reminded. Nostalgia has its benefits, even to a casual gamer. I loved Soul Reaver, so I wasn’t exactly a fish out of water.

Grinding doesn’t sound like much fun. Some players don’t mind a bit of it, but say this game wants too much out of them. Some never finished it out of frustration. I found the side quests fun, exciting and a very good way to occupy my time during the last couple of weeks, when my health went on a little trip. By which I mean deep depression and bouts of anxiety. This game was medicine. No triggers from the outside world can touch me when I’m in full game mode.

Besides, you’re not going to be able to stay in an area where XP levels 1-5 can survive, and going ahead will put you in battle with enemies two levels or more above you; you have to stay long enough to level up, make some loot, upgrade your weapons and abilities. Because not being ready means Desynchronization over and over again.

Framework

Bayek cannot die; he lived long ago. What we’re doing is reliving his memories through a modern rogue scientist, Layla Hassan. She has developed a technology called an Animus and lies down on a table, reliving Bayek’s memories gained by a DNA sample. In as much as she is only seeing his life, any mistake you make that gets Bayek killed can’t really happen. What results is “desynchronization” and the scene resets because he did not really die at that time. There’s never a “Game Over” screen.

That said, you can cause a desync to a frustrating degree if you choose poorly. I used a balanced approach, and went heavy on melee skills and weapons at first to get out of trouble faster but then started in on Seer and Hunter as I got more crafting materials and ability points.

Still, the first thing you need is to activate fast travel points as soon as you can. If you find yourself in too deep, press the control for the map. Any fast travel points you’ve synced with Senu, Bayek’s eagle, can be used to get out of trouble quickly and then you can spend time leveling up and then you go back and kick ass.

Weapons

There are three classes of weapons: regular, rare and legendary. Each type of weapon, predator bows, hunting bows, and warrior bows can be found in the three classes. The same goes for swords, maces or scepters and spears and long-handled blades and blunts.

The difference in classes are that regular weapons have one attribute, rare weapons have two attributes and legendary weapons have three attributes. A regular sword may have a critical hit rate, a rare sword may have a critical hit rate plus bleeding on hit, but a legendary sword may have a critical hit rate, adrenaline on hit, and poison on hit. As soon as I was able, I made every weapon I equipped legendary, including the shields and my horse. This earns you the trophy “I am a Legend” although I admit I didnt know that. I never tried for trophies because I had enough to keep me busy.

In the end, I stuck with the Barbed Longbow, a precision bow which is like a sniper weapon, the Ultima Blade (sword), the Tempest Blade (sword), The Shark Fin (long-handled blade) and the Ziedrich Shield.

Cursed Weapons

This is a completely different category of weapon; they’re rare and I don’t recommend using them. As soon as you equip one, before you even move Bayek, you’ll see that his health bar is down to one third capacity. There is nothing good about having less health before starting a fight. Cursed weapons supposedly deal more damage, but I couldn’t see it, and Bayek’s speed in his attacks dropped off. They’re not worth it. Sell them to the blacksmith.

Final Fantasy Crossover!

At one point in the game you have to solve a puzzle. Once you do, a character from Final Fantasy XV comes and gives you the Ultima Blade, the Ziedrich Shield along with a cross between a chocobo and a camel. All legendary and all cool.

The Right Tool For The Right Job

I switched out swords at times because in boss fights, one hit can take a huge amount of health from your bar. While the Ultima Blade is definitely the best in the game, the Tempest Blade gives you a bit of health every time you hit an enemy. It can prove the difference in a boss fight, which toward the end are serious. Especially if you’ve added the Curse of the Pharaohs, downloadable from the Playstation Store. Well worth it to get both DLC add-on or expansion packs. Seeing new places and fighting new enemies? Yes, please.

Stuff

Along the way, Bayek gets new outfits and the coolest is the Spaniard’s armor once you’ve fought as a replacement in a gladiatorial battle. It’s badass.

The cool never stops coming. During Bayek’s journey, he reunites with his wife Aya, also a Medjay. She’s awesome.

A Labor of Love

The Ubisoft developers put a lot of hours, study and work in on this game, and it shows. While not to scale, the world ingame is absolutely huge. I was amazed at how historically genuine the locations were. The first time I saw the Giza pyramids, I thought, back then, this is how they may really have looked. Long since plundered, they were still magnificent. More time had passed from their construction to Cleopatra’s time than from Cleopatra’s time to now, but this team knew that and yet retained and demonstrated the knowledge that even then, ancient religions and established cultures respected the old ways and tried to stop robbery and desecration. The detail in every featured landmark, I have to say, is special.

Ancient Egypt today is not well respected. Not only do people enrich themselves by digging up mummies; that’s terrible enough.

People believe that pyramids were built by extraterrestrial creatures, but not one of them can give a good reason to believe anything except that Ancient Egypt was built over ages by the people who lived there. They were brilliant and driven. Cleopatra was actually a wise ruler, but is given the image of a sex freak, a reflection of how Westerners have always viewed women. Ancient Egypt at the time of the pyramid building was lush, not desertified. The archaeological evidence proves this. They respected the dead, at least royalty, they brewed beer, baked delicious breads, cooked meat. They had medical practices that we find revolting but that were actually effective. They shaved their heads and women wore wigs because of lice; most were fastidious in upper classes, and even so, that hasn’t stopped developers from having fun with ancient aliens going back in time to change history. Duke Nukem did it in Time to Kill, and traveled back to the Old West, Medieval Germany and Ancient Rome. When fans were promised a new Duke Nukem game and didn’t get it, Croteam put a Serious Sam port from PC to the original Xbox and added new content. Where did that game begin?

The Temple of Hatshepsut.

It’s a cool level, but the game is strictly cartoonish and an arcade-based FPS.

The base game you get is itself worth every penny and every hour you can spend on it. There are epic fights like “The Battle of the Nile”, where Aya is trying to get to Rome to stop Cleopatra from allying with Caesar. You control the ship’s speed and direction and it’s all there, even the drum for the galley slaves. I took way too much damage and kept desynchronizing, but finally learned to take out the smaller ships first, then take on the Roman dreadnought. It fired volleys in threes and as long as I held R1 to keep those on deck with shields raised, I took no damage. I did ram a smaller ship or two but learned never to let the dreadnought get near me, nor I, it. You ram it, you take damage. I covered, took the volleys, then quickly aimed catapults and after a while sank her. When you get that cut scene, it’s a really cool moment.

Small Issues

All games have contact or boundary glitches. Developers hate those because they check for them and have beta testers check for them. It can’t be avoided in any game, but this one is big, yet I found very few problems with it. A surprise is that if you get too close to the map’s edge, a black wall springs up like a grid you can’t go beyond. Because that part of the world is unknown to Bayek, it can’t be seen except in the distance. But you can’t approach it.

Very early, I was chased by Ptolemy’s soldiers. I ran for cover because there are bushes and grass you can hide in. But there was no grass and I found myself halfway underground. As the soldiers ran past, they couldn’t see me but I could kill them by repeating shots with my bow to their feet. They knew I was close, but not where. When they were dead, I couldn’t move. I couldn’t get away. Turning the camera revealed that I was inside the base of some large rocks, and the glitch was made worse by not being able to use the world map. I had to eject the disc and restart. The odds of it happening to anyone else is near zero.

Gallery of Geek

Here’s a few images, the difference of which is striking. We love surprises in long games, and we especially love rewards.

Expansions

The Hidden Ones and Curse of the Pharaohs DLC

These are downloadable content (expansions) for the base game. I wasn’t really overwhelmed with “The Hidden Ones” but it was good enough for me. The real payoff comes in “Curse”, in which Aya messages Bayek that someone has summoned the dead to the living world. To the Ancient Egyptians such a thing would be a horror; unspeakable and unthinkable. But in COTP, someone does it. Enter: Bayek of Siwa, no longer a Medjay but a Hidden One, the name of the order which will precede all assassins in AC games. As soon as he gets off the ship at Thebes, he witnesses an apparition of Nefertiti beating someone down. Bayek defeats her but knows now that the message wasn’t a joke; something terrible is happening.

You can be higher than level 50 by now, but you can’t be lower. I don’t think that’s a good idea. Hit “Atlas” on the world map, go back to Lower Egypt and grind out some more XP. It’s worth it. Before leaving Lower Egypt for example, you should have handily defeated the Phylakes. Those are bounty hunters out for you. You should also have completed every event at both arenas including making it past level 20 in the horde mode. Then proceed to The Hidden Ones and complete that story. By then you’re level 51 or 52, and leveling up takes a lot longer, but you can handle most of the mayhem if you don’t let yourself get mobbed. You’re no longer fighting Greeks loyal to Ptolemy; 8 years have passed since Caesar was assassinated but Cleopatra had done the damage by then. Now Roman forts dot the map and legionaries are aware of you and will do their best to stop you.

There’s only one way to take a Roman fort unassisted: find a high perch, snipe the soldiers and set a trap on the brazier so they can’t call reinforcements. Use your longbow for distant targets, your warrior bow for the ones who rush you and a sword when they’re too close. I prefer the Shark Fin because it sets enemies on fire, but if there’s clay pots or straw or tall grass, you’ll desync fast because you’ll burn too.

The bosses in this DLC are pharoahs risen by a cursed object. Their sleep disturbed, they need Bayek to send them back. These fights are mean. You can’t let them touch you. Start off with a power attack, run in circles dodging their charges while shooting arrows at them. Fire bombs work well after your arrows run out and by then another couple of power attacks should finish them off. I used the Shark Fin for the power attack because it does a shitload of damage.

After defeating Akhenaten you visit a sunny Duat, the land of the afterlife. That’s too cool because there are missions and quests and cool enemies.

After Tutankhamun’s battle you enter a darker Duat.

Bestiary

In the first part of AC Origins, there are a number of animals that can desync Bayek. Leopards, lions, hyenas, crocodiles and hippos. Even vultures are difficult on early XP levels. But the ones I feared the most were cobras. You’ll never see them the first time before they strike. If you don’t have enough XP or your breastplate developed, two strikes desync Bayek. Later you’ll spot them when they hiss, and the warrior bow or fire bombs work best. Beware: they’re never alone.

It was when I got to COTP that I saw something I really, really really hate. I won’t tell you what else is in the Duat, but this is nightmare shit.

Called Ba, these are vultures with the heads of women. The first time I saw them I was sure they were owls but I got a closer look.

They exist in the myths of many lands. In some, they have the head and body of a woman but the wings and claws of carrion or predator birds. Most have the head of a woman and the full body of a bird. They’re called harpyx, harpies.

Well they’re here in The Valley of the Kings and in the duat and I hate them. They fly about, mumbling what sounds like part laughter and part speech. Hell. That’s creepy. Give me a sphinx, a hydra, a gorgon even; but those creepy-ass harpies are nightmare fuel. So of course I found the high scaffolding in the Valley and shot as many as I could. I had the flock thinned considerably, and by the way, if you only wound one, they will attack you. I’m like, Ew, no, get the fuck away from me!

A Drop of the Good Stuff

Bayek can interact very little with NPCs. Consider that most are civilians. Do not kill civilians. Even if accidental, you’ll get the warning “Medjay are supposed to protect the innocent”. From what I’ve read, you do it too many times and you’ll desync, and according to one player, that desync caused all of his fast travel points to vanish. It’s possible I guess, because to open a fast travel point Bayek has to climb it and synchronize it with Senu. But my guess is he pressed up while on the map, which cycles all the icons or locations visible or hidden. He claimed though to reload the game, and couldn’t get it working properly. If so, bravo to Ubisoft’s team for enforcing the law against mass murder.

Bayek can, however, find a woman sitting in the grass, and kneel down, and she will smile, look him lovingly in the eye then look down as if blushing.

There are cats, too. And they love Bayek. They’ll meow and stand beside his legs. Here’s the cool part. If you can get Bayek to kneel facing the cat, he will occasionally give it a stroke on the head. Freaking awesome, such attention to the little things.

I Am Not Hardcore

I played this entire game on the “Easy” difficulty setting because I’m a lightweight and not ashamed of it. Neither should anyone else be; I still had my hands full and was challenged plenty every step of the way. I can’t even imagine boss fights on Normal or nightmare mode.

I took all but a few side quests, found the stone circles, tried to get the tablets, solved papyrus puzzles, and two hundred forty hours in, I can honestly say I’m awed, I’m glad I played, and I got through a bad spell because this game is engaging, beautiful and fun.

It is not the best game I’ve ever played. It isn’t my favorite game, but it’s at least in the top three. But I’ll give it a perfect score because it’s beautiful, technically awesome, has great voice acting (John Delancey even steps in for a moment) and is well researched and a wonder to see.

Next up: I’ve ordered AC Odyssey and will load it up as soon as I get it. I can’t wait!