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

Downs

5. Combat Is Unrefined And You Will Die, A Lot

For as much as Ubi have prioritised a "hit box-governed" combat model a la Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Nioh etc., through most likely not having enough time to perfect it, Origins' execution feels spotty, to say the least.

Attacks and general movement have a sense of awkward speed to them that makes enemy attacks very hard to read or take the time to analyse. They want you to have these "intense" one on one or group encounters where all combatants are waiting for their time to strike, factoring in the arc of a blade, parries, dodges and which weapons are being used, but the reality is A.I. that rushes you every time, with a mess of unreliable lock-on and movement nigh-on ruining what should be otherwise enjoyable encounters.

As mentioned earlier the actual connections of metal and flesh are impactful and satisfying, but in the moment the control of Bayek falls very short - especially when there are so many examples of how to do this sort of thing right.