Well, it’s been a long, long time coming, but I’m finally caught up on the Assassin’s Creed series. My first Assassin’s Creed entry into the Backlog Barbecue came back in November of 2018. It took me almost a year to get through all ten entries (I never considered AC: Rogue as part of the main series of AC games, though it definitely has its place).
I have to admit, Origins almost ended up as a Rant-astic! entry instead of the BB. There were some points where I honestly didn’t think I could keep going. While I liked Bayek as a character, I think he barely eeks into the top five Assassins. Ezio will always be numero uno, mainly because we had three games to really see him grow, followed by Jacob and Evie Frye (whom I liked immediately) and probably Kassandra, though it’s a bit murky because she (or Alexios) are completely governed by the player’s choices. I think as far as pure character goes, I think Bayek was fine for the most part, though his motivations are pretty one-dimensional. It was an interesting arc to have Aya be the one that really pushes the founding of the Assassin Brotherhood.
The story did drag a bit, especially after Bayek believes, for like, the fourth time, that he found and killed his son’s murderer, only to realize there was yet another member of the Order that needed killin’. I rolled my eyes a few times. I was a little disappointed by the lack of an actual underlying mystery. Now, I haven’t been around the entire map yet, and there are a lot of areas left undiscovered, but I’m assuming that maybe there’s something more to the Ancients storyline? Early in the game, under one of the pyramids, Bayek discovers an Ancient recording, which alludes to all the usual Ancient shit that we’ve been drip-fed over the years, but that was the first and last time I came across any of that. Aside from the constellations, which correspond to a map room under the Sphinx, there was very little to discover. That kinda bummed be out, especially after it was so thick in Odyssey (I played that one first, remember.)
None of that though, was the reason I almost said “fuck this game.” The real reason was the combat. Holy crap, the combat in Origins sucks. It really sucks. That’s not an opinion, it’s fact. You know how I know it’s fact? Because they gave it a complete overhaul for Odyssey. I really did myself a disservice by playing Odyssey first. It spoiled me. I had no idea how shitty Origins’ combat was going to be by comparison. It was fucking awful.
Examples? You could block and parry, but only if the enemy isn’t attacking with a unblockable move. Literally every attack was unblockable. Bayek could dodge and counter-attack, but doing so would put you well out of reach for your sword. By the time you get close enough, the enemy has already recovered and once again has their own shield raised. Heaven forbid you’re trying to get to an archer that is shooting at you with their bow. They slowly walk backward as you try desperately to get within sword’s reach, but by the time you swing your sword, they’ve backed out of range again! Sigh… just typing this is getting me pissed off again. 99% of my combat techniques consisted of rushing toward the guy, dodging toward him so that I would come out of my maneuver behind the guy. I would then try to get off a few hits before he turned around. It worked well enough to get me through the game, but it was sloppy as shit and probably not at all how the developers intended.
You could bash with your shield, but I tried that for a while and had approximately zero success with it. Every single time, Bayek’s shield would swing outwards, connect with absolutely nothing, and I’d have a guy hacking into me because I was not even kind-of defending myself. He also had a shield charge, which worked well enough, but never once threw the guy back like it showed in the demo video. The guy would take a few steps back and fall, leaving himself open, but I never, ever got a one-hit kill from it by knocking a guy off a building or a ledge. I used this style of attack with great success in Odyssey, so I’m not blaming myself on this one, only Origins’ broken combat.
Just so I don’t come off as completely shitting on the game, one of the things I actually did like was the use of the bow. It was a really useful tool in this game. It had to be, because the melee was shit. I don’t really think i needed three types of bows, but I appreciated the option. This combat tool was horribly gimped in Odyssey, and even with a powerful bow and a bunch of the skills unlocked and buffed, I still never seemed to be able to string together a couple of stealth kills in that game. This is one instance where I would’ve been really bummed had I played Origins first.
I liked Aya’s character, but playing as her was fucking painful. Not only did they lock you into an “appropriate” level for her missions, but they gave her a really frustrating choice of weaponry. Two fucking daggers with the shortest reach in the game. Remember that thing I mentioned about the archers walking backward? Yeah. Luckily she had her bow as well, but when you’re fighting four guys at once, the last thing you want to have to do is pull out your bow and lower your field of view.
I’m finally done with the story, and it was a decent story, I enjoyed it. But with both Odyssey and Origins having much left to explore that I didn’t get to, I can’t see myself returning to Egypt to poke around. I might, but if it came down to it, I liked Odyssey’s combat way more, and Kassandra’s more fun to look at. Besides, I have a cyclops I still have to cut down.
