Assassin's Creed Origins Review: 6 Ups & 5 Downs

Ups

6. Literally Ubisoft's Version Of The Witcher III

Speaking of going back to the drawing board, Origins' development started back in 2014 with the Black Flag team taking their turn - though clearly The Witcher III became a MAJOR influence.

Everything from the base setup of "guardian mercenary force watching over the people"-style protagonist to the very way your tiled inventory collates items is beat for beat Wild Hunt. You'll investigate side quests by interacting with evidence prompts before revealing the big picture, have missions regularly see some sort of "plot twist" or moral ambiguity you couldn't have seen coming, and even Bayek's stature as an Egyptian Medjay makes him the nearest thing to a real-world Witcher Ubisoft could find.

All of these things work in the game's favour providing your can accept just how much the design is aping CD Projekt RED's 2015 masterpiece, but it is almost parodic noting that the devs have gone, "What works? Oh, that? Okay then."