Assassin's Creed Origins

Assassin's Creed Origins marked a fundamental transformation of Ubisoft's long-running series from an action-platformer with stealth elements into a full-fledged action RPG with an elaborate leveling, gear, and skill tree system. The story returns to ancient Egypt at the twilight of Ptolemaic rule and for the first time tells the so-called origin of the Assassin Brotherhood through the medjay Bayek of Siwa and his wife Aya, whose personal quest for revenge gradually grows into the founding of the secret Order of the Hidden Ones.

The open world reconstructs Egypt with unprecedented care, from the Library of Alexandria through the pyramids of Giza to the Nile Delta, and the developers also added a free educational mode, Discovery Tour, allowing players to walk through historical locations without combat or enemies, accompanied by expert commentary from ancient Egypt specialists. The environment changes significantly by region: the green farmland along the Nile stands in sharp contrast to the empty desert, where mirages and sandstorms appear.

The combat system abandoned the earlier simple blocking-and-countering in favor of a more complex system based on dodging, various weapon types with specific speed and damage, and enemy levels the player must avoid if underleveled for them. Weapons and bows also now come in several rarity tiers with their own bonuses, bringing the game closer to looter-game logic for the first time in the series. A new ranged ability via the eagle Senu allows scouting terrain and marking enemies from above, which became a permanent fixture of subsequent series entries. Optional arena fights, chariot races, and the hunt for exceptionally powerful enemies then offered post-completion content, as did expansions devoted to the pharaohs and the fate of Bayek's family. Assassin's Creed Origins is generally regarded as a successful relaunch of the brand after a year-long break and a template for the series' subsequent RPG-focused entries.