Assassin’s Creed Origins arrived in 2017 after Ubisoft took an unprecedented year off from its annual release cycle, and the extra development time showed. The franchise had been in trouble, with Unity’s disastrous technical launch in 2014 and Syndicate’s tepid reception in 2015 signaling that the formula was exhausted. Origins didn’t just change the setting to ancient Egypt. It fundamentally rebuilt the gameplay from an action-adventure framework into an action RPG, a transformation that would define the series going forward.

Community reception was broadly positive, with players praising the world, the protagonist, and the ambition of the overhaul. Criticism centered on the side effects of the RPG transition, particularly level gating and the grinding it demands. But the consensus treats Origins as a successful reinvention: a game that found new life for a franchise many had written off.

Ancient Egypt and Bayek’s Personal War

The recreation of ancient Egypt is Origins’ most impressive achievement. The map spans the Nile Delta, the deserts of the Faiyum, the streets of Alexandria, and the pyramids of Giza with a scale and detail that remains striking years later. Underwater temples, hidden tombs, bustling marketplaces, and vast stretches of open desert create a world that feels genuinely alive and historically grounded. Ubisoft Montreal worked with historians and Egyptologists during development, and the care shows in the architecture, the religious iconography, and the daily rhythms of the population. The Discovery Tour mode, which strips out combat and lets players explore Egypt as a historical education tool, speaks to the confidence the team had in their world-building.

Bayek of Siwa is one of the franchise’s best protagonists. A Medjay, a protector of the people in a role that the Ptolemaic rulers have rendered obsolete, Bayek is driven by the murder of his young son to pursue the shadowy Order of the Ancients across Egypt. What makes him compelling is his warmth. Bayek interacts with children, mourns the dead, jokes with allies, and carries visible grief without becoming dour. His relationship with his wife Aya provides an emotional throughline that grounds the larger conspiracy plot. Their shared loss and diverging paths create tension that feels personal rather than manufactured.

The combat overhaul brought the series into the modern era. Origins replaced the counter-kill system that had defined every previous entry with a hitbox-based combat model featuring light and heavy attacks, dodging, parrying, and shield mechanics. Weapons are categorized by type, swords, scepters, heavy blades, bows, and each handles differently. The combat has weight and consequence, with positioning, timing, and weapon selection all mattering in ways they never did before. Boss fights against the Phylakes, roaming bounty hunters who pursue Bayek across Egypt, provide some of the game’s most tense encounters.

The narrative arc traces the founding of the Assassin Brotherhood, giving the story a mythological significance within the franchise’s lore. Watching Bayek and Aya’s personal revenge quest organically evolve into the formation of a creed and an organization adds resonance to a story that could have been a simple revenge plot. The game earns its title by the time the credits roll.

Level Gates, Grinding, and the RPG Trade-Off

Level gating is Origins’ most divisive design choice. Each region of Egypt has a recommended level range, and enemies significantly above your level can kill you in one or two hits. This means the main story frequently locks behind level requirements, forcing you to complete side quests and activities to gain enough experience to continue. The side quests themselves are generally well-written and worth doing, but making them mandatory rather than optional disrupts the narrative’s pacing. Players who are invested in the main story often report frustration at being told, in effect, that they need to go do busywork before the next chapter will let them proceed.

The RPG mechanics also undermine the fantasy of being a lethal assassin. In previous games, a hidden blade to the throat killed any target. In Origins, attempting to assassinate an enemy several levels above you with the hidden blade may not kill them, triggering combat and an alarm instead. This is mechanically consistent with the RPG systems but thematically jarring in a game about an assassin. Stealth becomes less viable as an approach in higher-level areas, which feels like the game’s systems working against its own identity.

Map size is a double-edged sword. Egypt is gorgeous and enormous, but it can also feel exhausting. The sheer number of question marks, camps, animal lairs, and synchronization points spread across the map creates a checklist feeling that the franchise had been criticized for long before Origins. Players who enjoy systematic exploration will find hundreds of hours of content. Those who prefer focused, curated experiences may find the world overwhelming and the meaningful content diluted by quantity.

Side quest quality is uneven despite being generally above the franchise average. The best side quests tell self-contained stories that illuminate life in Ptolemaic Egypt, from fishing villages to royal courts. The worst are fetch quests dressed up with a cutscene. The gap between the best and worst is significant, and the mandatory nature of leveling means you’ll encounter both.

The Reinvention That Reset the Clock

Origins represents a pivot point for the entire franchise. Everything that came after, Odyssey’s expansion into full RPG territory and Valhalla’s massive scope, traces directly back to the systems Origins established. Whether that pivot was for the better depends on what you valued in Assassin’s Creed. Players who loved the tightly designed stealth-action of the Ezio trilogy see Origins as the beginning of the end. Those who had grown bored with the formula see it as a necessary evolution. Both perspectives have merit.

Should You Play Assassin’s Creed Origins?

Origins is the right entry point for players interested in the modern era of Assassin’s Creed. If you want a massive, beautiful open world set in one of history’s most fascinating civilizations, with combat that has actual depth and a protagonist worth caring about, Origins delivers. It’s also a natural starting point if you’ve never played an Assassin’s Creed game, as the story is self-contained and the RPG mechanics will feel familiar to anyone who has played an action RPG.

Skip it if you want a tightly paced experience that respects your time. The level gating means grinding is not optional, and the map’s size can turn exploration into a chore. If the idea of a hidden blade assassination failing because you’re three levels too low sounds like a dealbreaker, it will bother you throughout. And if you specifically loved the stealth-first identity of the older games, Origins’ RPG transformation moves the franchise in a direction you may not want it to go.

The Verdict on Assassin’s Creed Origins

Assassin’s Creed Origins is a bold reinvention that succeeded in its primary goal: making the franchise feel fresh again. Ancient Egypt is a stunning setting, Bayek is a protagonist worthy of the franchise’s best, and the combat overhaul gave the gameplay a mechanical identity it had lacked for years. Level gating and mandatory grinding are real problems that disrupt the story’s momentum, and the sheer scale of the world can overwhelm as often as it impresses. But Origins proved that Assassin’s Creed could evolve, and the version of the franchise it created, for all its trade-offs, was worth the risk.