The Assassin's Creed franchise has gone through some serious changes back in 2017, with the release of Assassin's Creed: Origins. Fans of the series were in agreement about the fact that these alterations were much-needed After all, the tried and tested AC formula was getting a little stale after eight main entries with eerily similar gameplay mechanics and mission sequences.
Ubisoft's pivot turned out to be a huge success. Fully-fleshed RPG elements revamped combat mechanics and beautifully realized open worlds became landmark characteristics of the series. After Origins, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey and Valhalla continued the trend. In many ways, these titles improved upon the formula. On the other hand, though, Origins remains the best "new" Assassin's Creed game in a few very important areas.
Updated on July 20, 2023 by Jake Fillery: After the Assassin’s Creed franchise closed the curtain on Ezio Auditore and Desmond’s story, the series seemed directionless, and many fans got off the hype train in awaiting something new and special. Luckily for them, Assassin’s Creed: Origins was something special, and it evolved the series in a way that could paint the future for the direction of the franchise, for better or worse. There’s much to love about Assassin’s Creed: Origins and fans have expressed their keen interest in the characters, world, and story. It has been six years since Assassin’s Creed: Origins and the franchise has stumbled with Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey and Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, begging the question of what made Assassin’s Creed: Origins better than its sequels, and can the series come back to form with Assassin’s Creed: Mirage?
17 Grounded Tale
There was a simplicity to Assassin’s Creed: Origins that deserved to be admired. Players were entering a bold new world, with brand new characters that they had no attachment to just yet. It was a far cry from the characters and DNA of what players knew, but luckily, a grounded story was told that helped to anchor players to these new characters in emotional ways. Whereas with the sequels, the games went too big, and far too mythical, lacking the personal story progression that provided character growth.
Assassin’s Creed: Origins allowed the franchise to go back before what they knew, and this era from 48 BC allowed more creative freedom when it came to storytelling. Despite the complex elements involving the decade-long franchise lore, there was beauty in simplicity surrounding the story of Bayek, a vengeful father seeking out the murderer of his sons, whilst founding the Assassin’s Brotherhood that fans know and love today.
16 Strong Franchise Ties
Assassin’s Creed: Origins was unapologetic with its connections to the series. Everything was clear from the beginning. The hood, the eagle, the hidden blade. Everything was there, showing fans who might have left the series behind that Assassin’s Creed was still there, it has just evolved. These strong franchise ties allowed comfort in familiarity, and players wouldn’t be confused as to if they are an Assassin or just some random person with a hidden blade.
The very fact that Assassin’s Creed: Origins shows the foundation of the Assassin’s Brotherhood, and the reasons for their weaponry, makes for a pleasurable experience. However, the sequels seem to lack much-needed ties to the Assassins, and it’s hard to look at the sequels to Assassin’s Creed: Origins and see them as Assassin’s Creed games, and instead, just as historical open-world games with a branded title for easy recognition on the market.
15 Lack Of Nonsense
Although the Assassin’s Creed series has featured some more magical and mythical elements of the past, such as characters like Juno, and even the pieces of ancient technology like the Apple of Eden, there’s something weirdly jarring when players see Norse mythology characters like Loki, and characters being able to freely roam Valhalla, or fight the likes of Hades.
The sequels for Assassin’s Creed: Origins become more bizarre, and the emphasis on fun, makes the game not-so-fun. It makes players wish for a simpler time when the story was going somewhere, and not so disconnected from its lore and mythology that it just makes for a confusing experience that prefers recognizable character names and jokes, over its character motivation. Assassin’s Creed: Origins did a great job of allowing Egyptian mythology to leak into the world without being so overbearing.
14 A Love Story
Within Assassin’s Creed: Origins, there is a beautiful yet tragic love story between the two central characters, Bayak and Aya. These two characters are entwined throughout the story, and their chemistry is electric, which is why seeing them in pain, or saying goodbye, is an ending that nobody wants, but it is what the story needs.
The same cannot be said for the sequels to Assassin’s Creed: Origins, in which Valhalla and Odyssey see romance as options and side quests, a reward for playing the game. The romance options in these Assassin’s Creed: Origins sequels lack importance in the story, which is a shame, considering that love has always been a central theme in the Assassin’s Creed games. The lack of relationships that impact the story, and are reserved as nothing more than optional missions, leaves much to be desired.
13 The Main Story
The overarching narrative of all Assassin's Creed games is nothing new. The everlasting battle between the Assassin Brotherhood and the Templar Order across the ages has become so convoluted and complex that many players admit they don't know what's going on anymore and newcomers feel intimidated by it.
Enter Origins and the story of the establishment of the Hidden Ones, the precursor organization to the Assassin Brotherhood. The plot revolving around Bayek and Aya's revenge story turning more and more political as the main questline progressed was simple, which is exactly what made it so good. The plots of the later entries weren't nearly as polished and captivating, with Odyssey's multitude of plotholes, and the uninspired conquest story that Valhalla focuses on.
12 It Isn't As Bloated
The general trend in the gaming industry is to upscale most aspects of new games. Bigger maps, more things to do, more side quests, more collectibles. While it may seem like it's a good idea, open-world games have become so large that completing some of them feels like work. This is exactly the case with Odyssey and Valhalla.
AC: Origins pioneered the formula that is also implemented in the later titles, but its scale was much more bearable. The smaller number of question marks and things to do on the map allows for more organic exploration and completion of all the objectives.
11 Map Size
To piggyback on the earlier point, a lot of the "bloatedness" that the newest Assassin's Creed games suffer from is related to the size of their open worlds. The sheer amount of landmass present in Odyssey makes traversing the game without fast travel a nuisance. Players who don't want to break their immersion and choose to brave Ancient Greece on foot, horseback, and by ship only, succumb to many in-game hours spent solely on commuting from point A to point B.
In Origins, the map was much more scalable. Granted, some of the desert environments were dull and repetitive, but at least traveling on horseback from one end of the world to the other felt doable.
10 Side Content
Much of the side content in Assassin's Creed: Origins does not differ much from what players may encounter in Odyssey or Valhalla, but there are certain exceptions. Sequences such as exploring the Ancient Tombs in search of mystical tablets that provide insights into the First Civilization, or the tear-jerking Stone Circle quests where players get to relive Bayek's memories with his late son truly stand out as some of the most creative and engaging moments in the series.
Odyssey has done away with many of these concepts, opting to include more bosses, collectibles, and "collectathon"-type side quests instead. Tomb exploration and puzzle-based retrospections made a comeback in Valhalla, but they never quite recaptured the magic these moments had in Origins, primarily due to the lack of a worthy narrative-based reason for including them in the first place.
9 The Length Of The Game
The "length" of an Assassin's Creed game in the post-2017 context should also take into account at least some of the side quests and other content. After all, players need to get through them to be of a high enough level to handle the main quests.
All in all, getting through the main plot of Origins takes around 30 hours for most players. It is a near-optimal length, leaving players with the time to get to side content they may have missed out on. Odyssey's main story clocks in at 45 hours and Valhalla's whopping 60-70 hours just to get to the end credits. While some gamers may consider it better value for their money, it is important to note that such main quest lengths are achieved by adding a lot of filler content and missions that are intended to artificially prolong the game.
8 The Main Character
Assassin's Creed has had some great protagonists featured in these games across the years. Ezio Auditore and the Fry Twins are just two of the best examples. On the other hand, there were some quite lackluster characters, as well, like Arno from Unity or AC III's Connor. Bayek of Siwa belongs in the first category.
With a strong, emotional backstory, a sense of humor, witty dialogue (and a badass spouse), the Last Medjay of Egipt makes for a very compelling and entertaining character to play as. Especially when compared to a funny, but uninspired Kassandra (AC: Odyssey) and the somewhat brutish Eivor (Valhalla).