For fans of The Witcher 3: Assassin's Creed Origins. (Off-Topic)

by cheapLEY , Tuesday, November 14, 2017, 20:20 (2363 days ago)

I wasn't going to create yet another OT thread, but I know lots of folks around here liked The Witcher 3.

I don't want to oversell it, but The Witcher 3 feels like a very obvious inspiration for Assassin's Creed Origins. It's not quite at the same level, I don't think, but it's close.

The biggest thing about The Witcher 3 that really drew me and made me fall in love with it was the world and its design. It felt like I was really in (inside?) the world, like it was a real place. Assassin's Creed Origins comes the closest to that level of detail of any game I've played since The Witcher 3. It's freaking huge (which honestly, maybe, isn't the selling point that it used to be, but it's still pretty genuinely cool). But unlike most massive, open world games, it feels like a real place, and things just sort of make sense in their placement. I'd honestly place it just under The Witcher 3, as it's just not quite at that level, but it's dang close.

It also just feels like it cribs from The Witcher 3's quest design. It's not really anything specific (other than the obvious light investigation mechanics), but it just feels sort of like The Witcher in some way I can't quite put my finger on.

Just for general information, I'm a light fan of Assassin's Creed. AC II ranks very highly as one of my favorite games, but I stopped pretty shortly into Revelations, skipped III entirely, and barely finished Black Flag. Didn't touch Unity or Syndicate.

Origins simultaneously feels like just more Assassin's Creed but also a pretty big revitalization of the series. It's much more of an RPG than previous games in the series, I think.

They've abandoned the high/low profile triggers and just gone with more straight forward controls. You just hit the jump button to jump onto a climbable object (which is basically anything and everything) and then climb pretty much as always.

Combat feels miles better than it ever has in any AC game. It's not the sort of Arkham style parry fest of the past, and is much more like a very, very (very!) light Dark Souls style. Dodging, with different weapons having different feels and movesets. It's not anywhere near that deep, but it's still fun and engaging.

The story is sort of a generic revenge quest, which is fine, I guess. But I like the player character more than any other Assassin's Creed protagonist. He's actually friendly and warm, and I like that. He is interested in helping people and solving problems in a genuine way.

As I said, I really don't want to oversell it. It's sort of still just Assassin's Creed, but it's very good. Maybe it's also just been long enough since I've played one of those games that I'm more accepting of playing another one right now. In any case, I think it's worth checking out.