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

3. Impactful Ranged & Melee Combat

Combat control is one of the biggest issues with the game (which I'll get to in the Downs) but the actual impact of weapons and arrows is remarkably satisfying.

Mostly down to the weighty and bass-fuelled sound design, if you cut a wide arc through the air with some hefty blade or spear and it catches a handful of enemies, the requisite controller vibration, squelchy sound effects and multiple health bars all depleting at once is a mighty fine feeling indeed.

This extends to ranged combat where nailing a headshot (with a powered-up bow otherwise it won't work... urgh) jolts a target's head back as you're rewarding with an XP pop and a massive golden set of numbers denoting how much damage was done.

It's very easy to look at these things as essentially the satisfaction of pulling the level on a gambling machine or pushing the buttons to operate the claw down the arcade i.e. the meat of the thing is still lacking, but Ubisoft at least nailed the payoff component of combat pretty damn well.