Assassin's Creed Origins: PS4 Review

Assassin's Creed Origins: PS4 Review

Platform: PS4
Developed by Ubisoft

The tenth Assassin's Creed game to emerge blinking into the light is the first to take a break from the annual publishing release schedule - and it's actually quite an enjoyable one.

Set in ancient Egypt and placing you in the role of Bayek, the game's protagonist and the people's protector as change sweeps into Egypt. But as ever with Assassin's, there's more going on behind the scenes than you could realise.

Eminently playable (though still with the quirks of glitches that always blight these games), Assassin's Creed Origins is a stealth game that benefits from a greatly wider open world that's full of side quests, characters and moments that impress.

Mixing in elements of Destiny's weapons, Far Cry's progression system and previous Assassin's games, Assassin's Creed Origins manages to take all these all too familiar elements and processes them into their own beast.

With an engaging more personal story at its helm too, Assassin's Creed Origins involves you from the beginning as opposed to other iterations of the game which felt simply like they've placed you in a world and forced you to get on with it.

Weapons increase as your experience in the game does, which helps greatly, and the desire to progress is aided by the fact side quests are more entertaining than a necessary grind. It also helps that you can gain XP by smart use of the skills upgrade - upgrading more practical double points ability first rather than cooler ones actually pays off long term.

Graphically, the game looks great - even if occasionally riding your camel into walls is a real possibility and having half of it stick into the wall while the other half runs becomes a bit of a norm. The open world looks impressive and when you're raiding tombs (yes, there is that) the light flickering within and depth gives it a sizzle that looks good.

With a streamlined story and a massive world to explore, Assassin's Creed Origins actually gives you more the more time you spend within. It pays off immensely and reminds you why the games in the franchise work when everything gels.

Ultimately, a year off may have paid dividends for Assassin's Creed Origins - it's one of the best without a shadow of a doubt.