A Throat Full of Sand

Next week will mark ten years since the first Assassin's Creed came out. Successor to Prince of Persia, this game developed by Ubisoft Montreal captivated a generation of kids by combining several elements: from highly arcade gameplay that let you climb everywhere, a stealth mode worthy of Metal Gear, and enormous worlds to explore, to a historical setup of Templar conspiracies in the middle of the Crusades.

But the years catch up with everyone. The saga has bet on keeping its core elements throughout all its installments --ten so far, plus seven spin-offs-- while changing the historical context and the variety of conspiracies.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Fallout 4, and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End raised the bar for the new generation of video games.

The creators of Assassin's Creed Origins tried to add some of these elements to refresh the experience. They added a leveling and experience system for the character to bring it closer to an RPG, an inventory for crafting items, and a skill tree. However, these elements aren't integrated into the game and can be ignored without much change to the experience. That's not great.

Nevertheless, some interesting features worth highlighting include the choice of ancient Egypt as the setting, which allows you to relive that extinct world thanks to top-tier graphics, as well as the ability to use the point of view of the eagle that accompanies the character to get an aerial view of the terrain and plan your actions. Like a drone, but old school.

Overall, Assassin's Creed Origins feels like a transitional game, one that tries to incorporate new elements without letting go of the same formula that made the franchise successful. Only this time, it's not enough to be among the best of this generation.

This article was originally published in Pagina/12 on November 9, 2017.