Assassin’s Creed Origins: 10 Things Ubisoft Must Learn From Other Open-World Games

9. Side-Quests - The Witcher III

Side-Quests were never a massive part of the Assassin's Creed franchise, but slowly grew more prevalent as the games went on. And yet, the trouble was that none of the side-quests had any character. It was either 'kill this guy', 'tail this guy' or 'pickpocket this guy', resulting in the mission becoming more of a checklist, rather than an engaging part of the game.

The Witcher III stands as an exemplar in how to do side-quest correctly. Every player heralds the Bloody Baron's quest as the shining glory of the game and whilst it's good, the smaller quests are where the game shines. The small pieces of character building and the small attention to details that make the quests worthwhile. It really goes to show just how simple injections of character can make quests sing.

Unity tried this, but instead of building character through meaningful dialogue, they just flashed up some blanket mission statement and some trite dialogue about how Paris is screwed. Memorable characters are what makes side-quests worthwhile not unique combinations of the usual 'murder/follow/talk' objectives.

Every single quest should be worthwhile and memorable. The lesson to be learnt is that there should be no filler.

Filler does not equal content.