Written by: Stefania, LAST UPDATED on June 26th, 2017
Translated by: Marco
Here we are, back again with another article dedicated to Assassin’s Creed Origins and this time it’s a recap article. In fact, with this article you will be able to check the information about the game that were released at E3 2017 and that we were able to report on our social media, all of them organized in several topics to allow for a nice reading experience.
Without further ado, let’s dive right into the information!
BAYEK AND THE EAGLE: Information about Bayek and his pet companion
The protagonist of Origins is Bayek, an Egyptian who is the last Medjay. A Medjay is a sort of local “sheriff”, tasked with protecting the community. According to Jean Guesdon, Bayek is a man of value that for some reason has to leave on a hunt for targets for a mysterious group
Players catch up with Bayek as he is unravelling a mystery. Some time ago an event happened in his village of Siwa. This event pushed Bayek to leave his home and the ensuing mystery will lead him to uncover the truth of Siwa and even the truth of Egypt’s power. The world is changing around him and he has to figure out who he is in this changing world.
Bayek isn’t a member of the Assassin Brotherhood because… he hasn’t founded it yet.
Bayek is older than the previous protagonists. The dev team wanted to tell the story of a man in his 30s who was already grown up but had to adapt himself to changes.
Bayek is a “determined man, with a more stoic personality than previous assassins,” but he’s not emotionless.
He is from Siwa Oasis in Egypt, the first place that Alexander the Great visited when he came 300 years before.
Bayek is NOT an ancestor of Altaïr
Personality-wise Bayek is highly reactive. When life is good, it is amazing. When life is bad, he will bring the sky down! He is compassionate and sympathises with the people of Egypt but he is very weary of newcomers. He holds to the traditions and beliefs of Egypt but also to the ghosts of the past. Bayek is essentially the embodiment of Ancient Egypt. And in a changing world, what does he need to do, or need to become to be a part of this new world? This is what players will discover in Assassin’s Creed Origins.
The name “Bayek” is a loose translation from the hieroglyphic for “vulture” or “falcon,” bik.
Bayek will have an eagle companion named Senu. When you have control of the eagle you can locate treasure chests, even if they are tucked away under water, mark enemies and see their paths, which is especially useful when infiltrating camps to map out your strategy, highlight ships and other vehicles and discover hidden passages.
Senu is a Bonelli’s Eagle, a species that is mostly found in hilly and mountainous habitats across Africa, Southern Europe and Middle East. In game Bayek can summon and command Senu to scout ahead of him. Surveilling the landscape this way allows players to tag enemies, locate crafting resources and navigate through the mysterious world of Ancient Egypt in a different and unique perspective. Senu represents the origin of the Eagle Vision.
Senu can be upgraded to distract and attack enemies.
The eagle is a very important addition because now the Eagle Vision is no longer a mode that presents enemy information in stark detail. Instead of muting all of the colors and highlighting enemies, the effect is far less noticeable.
Senu can fly through the whole world, there's no limitation in the distance between her and Bayek
Bayek can still climb tall structures to get a better view of his surroundings. However, Ismail explains that viewpoints are actually used to increase Senu’s detection capacity. The idea is that you’re sort of training your eagle when you go up there.
Senu will sometimes fly down to perch on Bayek's arm while he's standing still.
Senu, Bayek's eagle, will be the origin of the phrase "Eagle Vision."
Senu does not unfog the map. Only physically stepping into an area will unfog it
COMBAT & CONTROLS: Information about the combat system and the controls
Origins will feature boss fights against formidable warriors and strange creatures.
Origins requires more strategy than past games.
With the shield, Bayek can block attacks or briefly knock enemies off-balance with an unlockable parry move. It’s even possible to drop smoke bombs mid-combo
Bayek also has an adrenaline gauge at the bottom of the screen that builds up during combat; depending on your weapon, filling it will let you unleash either a devastating Overpower attack or a frenzy that briefly makes Bayek stronger, faster, and more resistant to damage.
Now enemies attack from all sides and all at once. Additionally, NPCs no longer wait for their ally to finish their attack before coming at you. Locking onto an enemy is very important now if you don’t want to attack the air. Also blocking with Bayek's shield is a must. You also have to pay attention to your positioning and your enemies and what weapons they have.
Contrarily to previous AC games, now the space / distance from the enemies will matter in combat as well as their number. For close combat players will now have to take into account their position in the fight, the length of their weapon, the speed of their weapon and the position of their enemies.
How the character’s overall level compares to the ones of enemies is a key factor in the experience. As a player, you now have to carefully consider and choose what are the abilities, gear and crafting decisions that define your Assassin.
Players can now transition seamlessly between unique ranged and melee weapons as they attack and defend against multiple enemies at once.
There will be several enemy types, each with their own weapon loadout which will define the way they fight
The Gladiator Arena combat system will have waves of enemies going against Bayek, all ending with a boss fight. The Gladiator Arena will be introduced to the player through the main story, after that it's going be optional for the players.
In the Gladiator Arena players will have to use a specific gear loadout designed for the arena
Playing the Gladiator Arena battles will unlock new outfits and weapons.
There will be status effects like "knocked out to the ground", "stunned", "broken off shield"
There will be bosses hunting for Bayek around the world and other bosses hiding in forts, for example.
Players will cater their playstyle to what they like based on how they will level up on the game's skill tree.
When players block incoming fire from archers, Bayek can yank the arrows from his shield and they’re added to his own quiver.
Holding the heavy attack button will "charge up" a special attack. Players will be able to move and sprint while in the "charged" state, so that they can unleash it on unsuspecting enemies and, possibly, one-hit kill them. The sword's "charged" move is a heavy backhanded strike, the spear's is a running thrust, and the long axe's is a devastating 360-spin move.
Controls have been revamped. The right shoulder button lets you execute light attacks, while the trigger is your heavy strike. Face buttons let you dodge and parry, while the left shoulder button lets you lock onto enemies. However, as game director Ashraf Ismail explained, there will be multiple controller layouts.
Whether you're on a felucca [a small boat] or a horse or on ground, the controls are the same.
Now your character automatically moves at top speed when the analog stick is held in any direction
There will be finisher animations in #ACOrigins too, but they will only be performed on the last enemy in the group (or minibosses)
About the combat, Ashraf Ismail explained that it’s really based on skill and the abilities that the players have unlocked. There are abilities that allow you to actually combo after you launch your overpowered attack. So you can kill multiple targets when your damage is increased, although there is some level of skill required, it’s not a canned animation.
A damage meter above the heads of enemies highlights predicted damage of each shot, which changes as you dial in headshots or aim for other weak points.
The red tinge on the edge of the screen indicates an off-screen enemy.
For people who really miss the controls layout from past games (legacy controls), there will be some options to change the default
GAMEPLAY : Information about gameplay aspects (combat excluded)
You can break open the cages of captive lions or hyenas to create a deadly distraction.
Bayek can now climb on any building or rock in the world.
Bayek can use torches to light his way through dark places but he also can throw them to light certain materials on fire. Fire is also a distraction and will attract guards who will try to put it out. Major fires will make people flee.
If the player kills animals in the water, like crocodiles or hippos, their blood will attract other predators.
There will be online features in the game, but the game will be primarily a single player experience.
It will be possible to toggle the hood on and off after the community asked for it game after game, but it will not be by pressing a button on a controller. Players will have to toggle it from the game menus.
The minimap has been removed from the game. Players will have to play the game and explore to world and then will actually be able to put icons on the map.
The game will feature "vehicles" like camels but also like chariots
Assassin’s Creed Origins embraces a brand new RPG direction where players level up, loot, and choose their abilities to shape and customize their very own skilled Assassin as they grow in power and expertise while exploring Ancient Egypt.
Players will be able to choose from a huge list of outfits, shields, melee weapons and bows. They will also be able to customize what mount/vehicle they have, such as horses, camels and chariots.
As of now Bayek cannot pet cats, but he will be able to pet Senu, his eagle. For cat lovers, though, there will be a village in the game where cats will be naturally attracted to Bayek as he walks by. In that village Bayek will have three or four cats following him and running through his feet to get his attention.
Free-leaping off of dangerous ledges is back
Players will be able to change their mount in the Inventory menu, and to own several different ones.
Horses can take fall damage and die, but it's not permadeath. Players can call them back in a few minutes by holding Down on the D-pad.
Players can still hijack horses or horse-assassinate enemies.
Players can cross shallow water while on horseback, but if they go into deep water, the horse will buck them off and swim back to shore. Wild horses will swim to escape predators as well
Carrying dead guards will be back
Players will be able to sell old weapons or dismantle them for crafting ingredients
Bayek reacts to smoke bombs by covering his face and taking minor damage if he breathes it in too long
Bayek is not the only playable character, but Ubisoft Montreal didn’t provide any additional details on this element.
The whistle to attract enemies is still present.
Bayek’s maximum level is 40, but players don’t stop earning ability points once they reach level cap. The additional points can be used to completely unlock the graph.
In the Gladiator Arena you can decide either to spare the life of the final boss or not. There’s no gameplay consequence to letting the boss live or die, but Ubisoft Montreal wanted to give players the choice of deciding if their Bayek is a man of mercy or an agent of rage.
According to Eurogamer, the #ACOrigins' map legend features "even an activity type named 'Juno events'”
Horses, camels, and even chariots can be purchased from stables and summoned at any time with a whistle
If the player is interested in moving his / her mount on autopilot, he / she can command it to follow the road and then nudge it when you reach a fork
Stables are just one of four types of shops. Players will be able to visit blacksmiths for a continually updated selection of weapons and shields, weavers for new outfits, and bazaars for rare loot and mystery crates (which can be earned through daily quests).
Fishermen will sometimes steer their feluccas out to the player if he/she is stuck swimming in the middle of the lake, and they'll then sit quietly at the bow while you commandeer their boats.
There will be interiors in the game.
There will be no companion app for the game.
QUESTS: Information about the new quest approach
Guesdon explains that Origins is moving from a pure action-adventure to an action-adventure-RPG. The game moves away from a mission structure to quests with a suggested level on them. Players will need to be careful because even quests a few levels ahead of you can be deadly.
Players will take a free-form approach to discovering their objectives, and they will be able to pursue them more or less at their leisure. For example, you can wander away from one quest mid-mission, tackle another one, and then return to where you have left off.
If the players are in a quest and see another "quest character" passing by, they can interact with him and directly jump in his quest.
Game will have its main assassination missions which players will be able to tackle with a stealth playstyle.
Players can now make their choice amongst a large variety of meaningful main and side quests that they can approach when and how they want.
There will not be missions where players jump in other time periods (like the Time Anomalies missions from previous games).
There are apparently 5 groups of quests: “All", "The Hunt", "Medjay", "Events”, "Completed".
STORY AND SETTING: Information about the story, the Brotherhood and the setting
The story of the game is not just an "origins story". It will allow to witness key moments of the franchise and the reasons why "decisions were made".
We’ll see how the brotherhood was established and how everything got its start, such as the feather ritual and the Creed.
There will be a story behind the Assassins wearing a hood.
There will be a story about Eagle Vision and why it's called like that.
The story of the game will show where the Hidden Blade comes from.
The action takes place in Ancient Egypt, inviting players to explore the most mysterious place in history, during a crucial period that will shape the world and give rise to the Assassin’s Brotherhood. In terms of the exact date, the action starts in 49BCE.
“We’ve explored the stories of many Assassins and some Templars, however players have never experienced how the Brotherhood came to be. That’s the story we want to tell to our players now: Who were the first mentors of the Assassins and how did their rules and values influence the whole Creed? The story of the Brotherhood spans millennia but we’ve never explored the reasons and events behind its creation. Such an important story in the franchise needed an ambitious setting, a place and a time shaped by gods and men, marked by tradition but also stepping into modernity.”
“It’s been our dream to explore Ancient Egypt for a while now. This is the birthplace of modern civilization and it was home to a society and culture that still triggers fantasies and mysticism today. We also knew that Ancient Egypt was one of the most desired settings requested by players and franchise fans and we are so happy we’re able to bring that to life through Assassin’s Creed Origins.”
“We chose this particular time period because it offers the most amount of mystery and discovery that we can get from Ancient Egypt. In this land of Gods, pyramids and mummies, Ancient Egypt triggers fantasies and mystery that we aim to deliver on in the most epic way possible.”
As with all Assassin’s Creed games, historical characters are a big part of what brings the world to life. The action takes place during Cleopatra’s reign. There are many prominent historical characters to interact with.
According to series lore, Cleopatra actually met her end at the hand of an assassin, Amunet, who brought the infamous snake. The Origins team isn’t saying if they’ll show that event but creative director Jean Guesdon says that they won’t contradict anything that’s been established in previous lore.
UPGRADES & SKILLS: Information about upgrades, skills, crafting
Upgrading your equipment and levelling up are essential. For instance, you’ll need to upgrade your hidden blades to instant kill enemies that are at higher levels than you. Ismail explains that players will have many ways to gains XP, crafting material, equipment and gear.
There’s a full crafting system for players to create better versions of their equipment, such as the Hidden Blade. So if players want to improve their stealth abilities, they will need to focus their Ability points on stealth skills, such as air assassination, but also to upgrade their hidden blade through crafting so they deal more stealth damage. If your targeted enemy is of a higher level than you and you did not improve your hidden blade enough, then you won’t be able to perform an assassination that would kill him in one shot.
Players can improve breastplate, bracers, stabilisers, pouches and hidden blade. Each element has its own stat boost. The breastplate reduces the damage you take from enemy attacks, bracers increase Bayek’s melee damage, and stabilizers make him more effective with bows.
When you level up, you receive points to invest in new abilities. Ismail explains that instead of a straight tree, Origins features a graph’s structure with multiple routes to skills, allowing for more flexibility.
Levelling up not only makes your Assassin stronger, it also grants Ability points that can be spent to obtain a specific capacity, such as more precise aiming with their bow or being able to poison dead bodies.
The skill graph is broken up into three main disciplines: Warrior, Hunter and Seer. The Warrior path lets you unlock new combos and moves. The Hunter path focuses on stealth. The Seer path allows you to use the world to your advantage, granting you abilities to tame animals or poison enemies.
There’s one upgrade on the skill graph that lets the player poison corpses. Do this and other guards who check out the corpse will become infected. One of the developers told the source that it's possible to toss a poisoned body onto the back of a horse and then scare the horse into running into a crowd of enemies.
There is an unlockable skill that allows players to sleep dart animals, walk up to them while they're asleep, and tame them so that they follow you around.
About the new skill tree, Ismail explained that a lot of them are fans of Final Fantasy X, and they wanted that graph system.
Ismail explained that players can get to whatever ability they want quite quickly. Obviously there is a cost to the abilities but the dev team wanted it to be not too much of an investment if you decided you wanted that ability.
OUTFITS: Information about the outfits and their characteristics
About the outfits, the dev team noticed that sometimes players put on an outfit they liked but then changed it because they wanted to boost some stats, so they completely removed the stat element.
Among the outfits available, there’s a golden Anubis outfit with a golden mask to complete the jackal-headed god’s look. Another was inspired by mummies.
Costumes have multiple color and material variants, as well as special visual effects such as small clouds of sand.
The list of weapons includes regular swords, sickle swords, dual blades, heavy clubs, heavy blades, scepters, and spears, and Bayek can also fight bare-handed. You can unlock quick-swap slots that let you switch between two melee weapons or bows.
Overall, players will be able to use over 150+ weapons, ranging in rarity from “Common” to “Legendary”.
Some weapons also have specific attributes, such as a bigger chance to deal critical damage or bleed properties. This also applies to the shield that Bayek always carries with him and that he can use for blocking enemy attacks as well as to bash opponents.
There will be different types of bows: the warrior bow fires five arrows at once in a shotgun-like spread pattern; the light bow rapidly shoots five arrows in quick succession with no need to draw back the string; the predator bow, which comes with a super-accurate first-person viewfinder, fires instantly and carries an unlockable ability that lets Bayek control its arrows in flight. Players will learn that bows have a strong value in melee combat.
Arrows can also be lit on fire if you’re near a blaze and used for igniting the red pots of oil stockpiled throughout the world or small enemy boats (occupants will attempt to swim to other boats and continue the fight).
There are eight categories of melee weapons and four categories of ranged weapons
There is no concept of durability of the weapons in the game
Each weapon type has its specific combo sets.
The speed and weight of the weapon has a major impact on the frequency and recovery times of the strikes. For instance a heavy blunt mace will deal more damage per strike than a khopesh sword, but each strike will be slower and will affect the balance of the hero more, potentially opening more counter- attack opportunities for the enemies.
There will be sleep darts in the game.
Bayek can carry an unlimited number of weapons, even if they’re not immediately accessible, and players don’t need to worry about weight or limited inventory space.
Common items can have a single damage attribute, but additional effects are added with increased rarity. Legendary items can add special effects, such as the ability to poison enemies or set them on fire.
WORLD AND EXPLORATION: Information about the game world and the exploration
About the game world, Guesdon explains that they took the size of Black Flag's Caribbean, but on the ground, so a there will be lot of locations to explore.
The game world will not be a big city, it will be a whole country, with "many cities, many villages, many exotic landscapes".
The "time of day" will be systemic and the team made sure that "every single moment in the time of day is like a painting".
The game offers diverse locations: deserts, oases, pyramids but also big cities. The region, for example, includes Alexandria, with its “opulent, massive architecture for Cleopatra's palace and the lighthouse” says art director Raphael Lacoste, and Memphis, which is more representative of the Old Kingdom with its more minimalistic architecture with temples and mud-brick houses.
The developers identified and re-created different biomes that give a unique flavor to each region. The Nile Delta for instance is lush and full of birds and water animals like hippos and crocodiles, while the region of Giza is really dry, with the omnipresence of orange sand and more chances to cross the path of snakes or hyenas. It’s true also for urban areas: Siwa’s marketplace boasts a totally different atmosphere from the ones of Memphis or Alexandria with their tall buildings.
The game also has 20 tombs and ruins to explore, some are based on real locations. The tombs have some light puzzles and traps in them, but are more about exploration and stumbling upon secrets and treasures.
Guesdon said that in Origins, the puzzles you find inside explorable sites are different from the ones that players may remember from earlier entries such as Assassin’s Creed II but that their goal is similarly focused on finding a suitable path through an area. Players must negotiate moving paths, counterbalances and other hazards.
According to a report by Eurogamer, "toggling up the game's map legend brings a pleasing array of icon types to explore - mention of War Elephants, tombs, "Pharaonic Destruction" locations, and even an activity type named "Juno events", which will likely dole out story relating to the wider Assassin's Creed universe."
The game also have a rich wildlife: hippos, camels, birds, hyenas, lions, and so on.
“The NPCs are living a life in this world which includes working, sleeping, socializing, eating, peeing, and so on,” explains game director Ashraf Ismail. “All of this is based on their day/night cycle, and as you learn more about the world and the specific characters you meet, you can play with where to meet them, assassinate, attack, steal, infiltrate, and so on.”
Synchronizing viewpoints unlocks them as fast-travel spots and marks potential quests and other points of interest as question marks.
Assassin’s Creed Origins seamlessly integrates underwater exploration with the rest of its world. You can freely dive wrecks and underwater ruins in search of loot and use Bayek’s Animus Pulse ability, a wave that highlights loot items and other points of interest with briefly flickering sparks.
You can fast-forward through the day by making Bayek meditate until nightfall. “More often, you have guards who sleep at night,” says Ismail. “But the counter to this is that you also have more bandits active at night.” The game is a complex simulation with tons of characters running through routines day and night. At any moment, you can hold down R3 and fast forward time, which lets you take advantage of how that moves characters through their routines. Here is a video showing the transition:
There will be "stargazing puzzles":
In order to properly render this incredible setting and do it justice, the developers needed to develop new tools and technologies and create an exotic and lively playground that players will spend hours exploring.
A brand new color-grading feature was created and it brings much more finesse in how we display colors, so they can create very specific and unique color ambiances for example, a sunset on the White Desert does not look the same as one on the Lake Moëris. They also used satellite images of Egypt to fine-tune the colors for the ground and the vegetation and make them as realistic as possible.
Water is built upon physical based rendering, for a more realistic and varied look as particles and time of day hugely affect the look of waters across Egypt.
Depending on where you dive the water can be very muddy or crystal clear, which also provides players with useful information.
The developers created a brand new Artificial Intelligence framework from the ground up. Thanks to that new approach, most NPCS now have their own agenda and full day cycles that players can leverage to decide when and how they should act.
The developers had to work very closely with historians and Egyptian experts to help them fill in the gaps of Egyptian life not easily found in history books. For some elements, this lack of reference also challenged them to create and illustrate parts of Ancient Egypt rather than re-create known history as they did with past games. For this they heavily relied on the work done by the Art team to really capture the look and overall feel of what Ancient Egypt would have been like at the time.
Bandits ambush and steal, Ptolemaic soldiers collect taxes and protect their military locations, priests manage their temples, farmers farm, lions hunt, gazelles roam and sleep etc. Most NPCs are ever persistent and will live their life even if the player is kilometers away. Through the Eagle Senu, players are able to see these events from very far away to determine where the action is and where they want to go next. These changes create a world that is constantly moving, living and dynamic.
The Library of Alexandria will be in the game.
MISCELLANEA: Everything that for now doesn’t fit other categories
The composer for the music of the game will be Sarah Shachner, who already composed part of the soundtrack of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and Assassin’s Creed Unity.
Alain Mercieca will be the Lead Writer on #ACOrigins but because the game has a quest driven structure, there is actually a joint team of writers which during the development of the game was made up of up to 13 people.
Multiple saves will be back with #ACOrigins!
Creative director Jean Guesdon said they started working on Assassin’s Creed Origins right after Black Flag, in early 2014. He told his team to forget about Assassin’s Creed for a minute, and just come up with ideas that excited them. “It helped us get some inspiration to materialize where we wanted to go and what we wanted to push,” Guesdon explained.
About the consequences that the studio’s bold decision might have on the franchise moving forward, Ismail said that “Yes, there are potential impacts.” “We wanted to refresh the franchise and reinvent the gameplay, and that’s what we focused on from the beginning. I’m thrilled that we are actually modernizing AC and bringing something epic and new. What it means for outside of us? I don’t think about it. It just needs to be epic for us,” Ismail explained.
The PC version of the game is not a port and is going to be shipping on the same day as all other platforms
And that’s it for this article! These are all the pieces of information we were able to gather during and right after E3 about Assassin’s Creed Origins!
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