In fact, by stripping away typical features and tropes of the by now well-established open-world template, Breath of the Wild feels so much more rewarding. But while there’s no doubt one can see the influences of popular Ubisoft and Bethesda titles in the roots of Breath of the Wild’s design, this is far from a carbon copy. With Breath of the Wild, series producer Eiji Aonuma once likened Zelda’s transition to going from “Japanese food to Western-style food”. Origins is an exciting new direction for Assassin’s Creed, and we’re excited to see where it goes next. It ends up mashing together these elements, but with a big enough dose of classic Assassin’s Creed tropes to make it feel part of the iconic series. We love that Origins incorporates popular gameplay components of both Ubisoft and other popular open-world games.

The main protagonists, Bayek and Aya form an interesting duo, and the alternate history tale of the Creed’s formation contains enough twists and surprises to make it interesting until the end. The stories within its world are a cut above previous entries in the series, with writing that does well to explain the struggles of life in Ptolemaic Egypt. Origins’ environment lives and breathes thanks to well-animated NPCs and convincing dialogue. The blemishes that so often spoiled the illusion of realism in previous games have been polished away.

Assassin’s Creed games have always featured stunningly beautiful worlds, but things have really gone up a notch in Origins.

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