Assassin’s Creed is currently one of the world most successful gaming franchises. Its first installment was one that took everyone completely by storm with its revolutionary concepts and graphics. Since then, the series has evolved a lot and had its share of highs and lows. However, the franchise changed in 2017 when it released Assassin’s Creed: Origins, a game that does not stay true to some of the series’ established ground rules.

It is logical to want to copy a game when it has shown tremendous success. Ubisoft came to that conclusion during the development of Origins. Games such as The Witcher III and Dark Souls III had had tremendous success, and so it came about that Ubisoft decided to ride their coat tails. The end result was an Assassin’s Creed game that didn’t quite go the way that most other games went, but it was still interesting.

One of the biggest changes this game makes to the established formula is definitely the combat. In previous titles, combat was pretty cool in the way that it was unique and recognizable. Yeah, sure, we all joke about the fact that if you just hold down the “block” button then you’re basically untouchable, but it makes for an interesting combat experience in a way. Emphasis on “in a way”.

Regardless, combat in Assassin’s Creed is still cool. With Origins, however, the game takes on a whole new system. Blocking is no longer an intentional God Mode: avoiding attacks is better. Oh, and by the way, there are different buttons for each. And headshots count. And your enemies are a lot tougher. And they have a HP bar which needs to be depleted instead of being killed more easily and satisfyingly by chaining attacks. I think you get the point. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying combat in this game is bad. It’s just the idea of actually changing it that bothers me a bit. Still, I’m the first to admit it’s pretty cool. As for the DLC, it’s just as cool as the main game. Although I haven’t played or watched it, I hear it epic.

The game is set in Ancient Egypt, by the way. I should probably have mentioned that at the beginning. You play as Bayek of Siwa, a medjay. What that’s supposed to mean is that you’re the protector of Egypt and its people. You’re basically a vigilante who goes around helping people by rescuing their family, getting drunk people where they should be and basically doing stuff that might sometimes seems dumb for a guy who is supposed to be doing hero work. Basically like Skyrim and The Witcher III. You have a pretty big map to explore with sand here, sand there, sand everywhere. You can also take a boat and sail on the Nile unnaturally fast for such a tony vessel, and you sometimes have certain naval combat levels that are actually pretty cool. It’s basically Black Flag with no guns.

The main story is pretty good, and has some pretty interesting concepts. Bayek seeks revenge against the Order, a group of people looking for some artifact and who also killed his son. Bayek and his wife Aya begin to slowly leave behind their wish for vengeance, and begin to fight for honor and the greater good instead. The story makes a pretty great origin story for the series, and definitely goes off of the same concept of changing the reason you fight for something that this series has been presenting in several titles. An example is Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, where Kenway was at first fighting for material gain, and began become nobler as the game went on. It’s something pretty good and that Ubisoft infers very well in its games, and so I hope they keep doing it in future titles.

In conclusion, Assassin’s Creed: Origins is a pretty interesting game. It is fun and it is awesome, and it combines Assassin’s Creed and Skyrim/Dark Souls/The Witcher III, which is fine with me. More than fine, actually. Although I’m certain I’m not the only person to think that moving away from traditional Assassin’s Creed ways, we all have to admit that by evolving in this way, this series will appeal to even more people and perhaps become better than ever before. I for one truly hope so.