10 Ways Assassin's Creed Origins Has Saved The Franchise

7. No Follower Missions, Quality-Tested Design & More Variety

Another part of designing a game with the time to self-reflect and analyse which features fans love, hate and want changed, we finally - for the first time EVER - get an Assassin's Creed with no "follow the target" missions whatsoever.

Atop that, there's a really conscious effort to give players the most mission variety from quest to quest. Within a few hours' play you'll do any and all of the following: high value target-killing, chariot races, tomb-clearing/puzzle solving, ship combat, animal hunting, bandit camp-raids, solving murders and more.

Best of all, missions tend to have a good handful of 'steps' to them, so although you've taken a single side-quest, as the story unfurls you could be going from piecing together evidence to fighting one defensive suspect, chasing down another on horseback and finishing off a group of foes in a fortified space.

It's this blend of gameplay styles that immediately means there's far more to ACO than any other entry, and allows for freeform experimentation as far as pursuing targets and completing your goals goes.