3/5 ★ – villeneuveist's review of Assassin's Creed: Origins.

65/100 - Prepare yourselves for this incoherent and excessively long read. Ah. I didn't know what to expect, really. At first, I wanted to play Odyssey, but then I thought it would be more fitting to start with the soft-reboot: Origins. Luckily, I got it off a discounted price. So, here we are. In the end, I'm at least glad that Origins established how to approach these grindy, massive, quest based RPG games. Without doubt, this will make Odyssey much, much easier for me. Let's talk gameplay. I loved stealth in this, truly. I tried to play as an assassin rather than a bloodthirsty warrior as much as I can, and the stealth mechanics in this definitely support that way of play. However, the negative reason for me to play stealthily is the fact that I found the combat gameplay to be extremely infuriating: I think parry mechanics are terribly unrefined, especially having come off from masterpieces like God of War and etc. The indicators for each weapon class are uneven in terms of when I should press the circle button when the enemy shines red, so I struggled a lot timing my parry. In addition to parry mechanics, I found some weapon classes (like the slower Heavy Blunts class) to be flat out useless. You can't consistently hit enemies with slower weapons because they have already hit you before you can even finish the animation. Let's talk a little about the story, and most importantly, the presentation. The story is just... fine. It's there. Bayek of Siwa is a really likeable fella (and an extremely well voice acting, probably my favourite thing about this game) and it was at times engaging (especially towards the end). Nevertheless, the overarching story was exteremely underwhelming to me, from its twists (Oh boy) to the emotional (lol) bits that make me feel nothing. Without its obvious historical elements like Cleopatra and Caesar, this story can still fit into a different setting. Look, this is supposed to be the catalyst that sparks the Assassins! Oh, I guess how this is how it all started. And the presentation. Oh boy. Listen, I don't ever wanna play another game where two or three lifeless NPCs just stand and talk. At some points, I walk with an NPC for a good minute or two, and then it cut to another of these in-game dialogue scenes. There were other times when an actuallu created cutscene would cut to an in-game dialogue (with the same characters on screen!) You see what I mean? Very, very frustrating. It encapsulates my problem with Ubisoft, really. All these menitoned in this passage practically ruined my experience with side quests as well, which I really loved simply because I love playing mini stories from games' worlds. Hearing that Odyssey has a different approach to these dialogue scenes really made me stay hopeful. Before I wrap it up, can I just say what a marvel the sountrack is? The composer blends together different elements like folk, epic, mystic and even techno at some points! Just a great companion while you're riding a horse at night in Egypt. So yeah, sorry for the rant. this was nothing but an annoying experience for me as one can tell that this game could have flourished if the developers had polished and worked more on unfinished, obsolete aspects. Still, I'm glad I played this.