Assassin's Creed Origins (2017)

So, I finally finished the DLC in the Season Pass. I think it's a testament to the DLCs' quality that I was able to play & enjoy them after being so thoroughly burnt out by the grind of the main storyline. "The Hidden Ones" actually tried to make the story seem tied to the Assassins. And "Curse of the Pharaohs" had a ton of cool, new content -- close to what the Witcher 3 DLCs offered.

I'll play the next AC... Odyssey looks good. But I'll play it after a decent break of playing other games.

I got this game with my AC Origins edition xbox one and thus was motivated to play it immediately. Despite owning most AC games, the only one that I had beaten prior to this game was Bloodlines for the psp. I started on Hard difficulty and completed everything the game had to offer (99% according to Uplay), including the chariot racing, arena and god battles. I did lower the difficulty to Easy for the gods and elephants; they did not need to be any more difficult!

Abilities:

I first went into the seer tree for fast waiting, increased sale prices and buying crafting materials. I figured these things would come in handy and increase in relative value over time. I then went into the warrior tree and got most things there; I particularly liked parry and shield charge. The only warrior skills that I did NOT get were: hijack (I never saw the need), overpower xp boost (don’t see the point of investing xp points into occasionally getting more xp points; probably would not even break even anyway) and auto loot (manual looting is good enough).

I then went into the hunter tree and was far more picky. I got Bow Bearer and Eagle Harass followed by improving the predator, light and hunter bows. I then went for Headshot xp, Hunter’s Instinct, Bow Fury and Chain Assassination (which is what I wanted). It took more points to go that route than to continue on after the improved bows, but I felt that I would never use the slow mo while falling from Elite Ranger.

Then I went into the seer tree for Sleep Dart, Flesh Decay, Berserk, Fire Bomb, Pyromaniac, and Smoke Screen (+ passive damage). I put all points after that into the Warrior capstone for melee damage boost, which ended up at 22 points (so +22% melee damage). There were quite a few interesting abilities which I did not get because I did not think I would actually use them; like chariots, animal taming and poison darts.

Equipment:

I spent most of the game using whatever gear I found. I preferred straight swords and predator bows. Early on I found a sweet legendary mace with heal on it, so that was my main weapon for quite some time. I also used curved swords and axes at times, as well as hunting and light bows. Never really tried spear and sceptre and did not like dual swords and warrior bows (both due to lack of range). I kept copies of legendary gear and I spent gold to upgrade them to my current level only a couple of times (mainly for the predator bow). At max level I made sure to upgrade everything to full.

My current equipment is:

Primary melee: Hepzefa’s Sword, a straight sword with fire damage.

Secondary melee: Copper Mace, the same heal on hit mace that I found early on and kept for the entire game. Used when I need some healing.

Primary bow: Smoke and Mirrors flaming predator bow.

Secondary bow: Bow of Wadjet, a poisoned light bow.

Shield: Tomb Protector. I like this shield because it has both melee and ranged protection, making it very balanced. Sleep on block is ok. I also have a few other max level legendary shields with more focus on either melee or ranged defense.

Outfit: Isu Armor. For most of the game I wore the Sekhmet costume.

Mount: Pharoh’s horse, from winning the chariot races.

My gameplay focused on stealth assassination as much as possible. I often used the predator bow for silent headshots (and ballista emplacements when possible). I made sure to hide all bodies though sometime I played around with flesh decay. I only resorted to open melee combat when I was discovered. Open ranged combat was my absolute last resort and I generally only used it against horse archers.

I absolutely loved this game for its beautifully detailed world and characters, excellent stealth (the npc AI in this game is the most realistic I have ever seen with regard to stealth), Dark Souls like combat, Diablo like loot, and Red Dead Redemption like mounted movment/combat. I especially appreciated the lack of inane collectibles and boring sidequests; literally every thing in this game was well thought out and enjoyable. I also instantly fell in love with the naval combat. In retrospect having played Syndicate, Rogue and Black Flag after this game, I can see that Origins is an evolution from those games taking the best parts and changing those that were not so good. I also feel less cheated out of the amazing naval combat (in Origins), because Black Flag and Rogue had it extensively.

There was not much that I did not like about this game. The inability to replay missions is at the top of that short list. I really do not see why this was not included since the earlier games allow. Hell even Bloodlines on the psp had it. I wanted to play the naval missions again. New game+ was not a part of the game when I beat it. While it is a good feature, it is not an adequate replacement for directly replaying missions. Other than that my main dislike is the microtransactions. I would never buy that crap but it does bother me that it exists and I have to see it; especially the sheer amount of them that can take several minutes to browse through.

I did not buy the expansions and have not yet played discovery mode (which was not in the game when I beat it).

Holy moly! I have been playing for probably 60-80 hours and I JUST got a haircut and my hidden Blade. If you have ever played this you know how weird that it.

I was unlocking the map and doing all the collectables and side quests, but still, I had no idea the blade was even IN this game and it is so funny I could have had it this whole time!