The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

I'd have to disagree with you a little bit Joey. For me, my initial intrigue with the series was due to the in depth story. I'm a sucker for the good vs. evil dynamic and all of the players involved in the behind the scenes war that is out of the public eye. I'm not a fan of scripted missions and accomplishing a goal by a very specific mean. I like the optionality of open architecture, but the story is what makes these games special to a lot of people. If you abandon that, then you're left with something that doesn't stand out in a sea of RPG fighting games. The Assassins vs. Templars backstory makes the whole series work.

Completely agree. As I said in the buildup to/beginning of Unity... If I want an RPG, I'll play and RPG. I still have about 50 hours of Fallout on my main character, probably, with all the DLC stuff. No reason to play and AC RPG. The story is why I love AC games. Period.

I guess I wasn't as clear in my writing related to the importance of story. I wasn't saying they should leave it as an after-thought or anything, but give more resources towards the gameplay. What comes to mind when they feel like they need to fill more game time with story progression is the mission where Ezio cuts a flower with his specialized murder tool to give to his bae on their date. That was one of the points where I felt as though the series was taking a turn in the wrong direction. Honestly, Revelation's story was very well-written and portrayed, but I disliked the game because the missions were the most linear we've ever seen in any AC game. The reason is because they just reskinned Brotherhood and focused MORE on story than many new gameplay mechanics. If I wanted story-heavy, I'd watch a movie or read a book.

Now if they pulled a Shadow of Mordor and gave us a 5 hour story with little sense of fulfillment, that would be pretty heartbreaking for an AC title.

I'd rather there be a looming Templar presence in the background and a well-developed storyline, but allow us to get distracted by randomized events and side activities. Let me get lost in the world and continue on the game when I'm ready.

The way I took it is that it's not that there's somehow "less story" it's that there's more systemic/emergent gameplay a la Dishonored and Metal Gear Solid V. Action-Reaction. Player does something, game genuinely reacts. That's not a hallmark of RPGs, and in fact most digital RPGs are downright TERRIBLE at replicating/expressing that feeling. Deus Ex, Dishonored, MGSV and to a good extent, the new Prey, are games that excel at it. It's the feeling of the world actually being a real place, where your actions actually matter and things don't feel "stiff" and "artificial." IE, you expect to be able to shoot out a window, the game lets you do it. You expect to be able to shoot your arrows through a campfire and for the arrow to actually light on fire and propagate fire to whatever it strikes on the other side, and it actually does.

That's what I believe they're going for.

As opposed to overly scripted, by the numbers, stiffer gameplay. We'll see when the game's in our hands, but that's my take on it. I think there's just a lot of DIFFICULTY in DESCRIBING what they're going for, without referring to other games, like Dishonored, like MGSV, like Deus Ex, which is why their PR regarding it is fucking terrible.

Leaker mentioned more modern stuff not like it's been these last few, but I'm still skeptical~

I have it on good authority the game will be mentioned at this year's E3. And by good authority I mean the Assassins Creed Facebook page.

Let's take a guess on how many times the word 'seamless' is going to be used.

47

i remember laughing my ass off when that video first hit the internet.

A bit of the trailer was leaked~
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S6bWQVStno
EDIT: Whoops, apparently this is fake.

Also a shirt with the name of the new Assassin:
http://i.imgur.com/f7JUU8H.jpg

This trailer has been exposed as a fake.

What about the shirt?

Shirt is almost assuredly real. Ashraf Ismail tweeted "Nice T-Shirt" xD He's such a troll.

Trailer

Gameplay

And some dev talk here:

From these videos, I love the world they created. Stunning as always. I really dislike the RPG direction they're taking though. "You won't be able to kill a target in one shot with the hidden blade. You can, once you fully dedicate yourself to that side of the skill tree."

I really don't like that. Whether I can kill someone in one hit should be based on my skill in stealthy approach, not my spending of research points. A hidden blade kill should always be a one hit kill if you have the element of surprise by staying anonymous up until the moment you strike.

I don't like the idea of starting my first assassination mission, flawlessly ghosting through the level, approaching the unaware target from behind, and planting my hidden blade in the back of his neck, only to have the target turn around, call for his guards, and laugh: "haha, you only took a third of my health with that non-upgraded blade!"

IMO that's really not what AC used to be about.

Man, I hope there's a satisfying lore friendly reason for Eagle Drone and body-seeking arrows...

To gerund. Remember, this game takes place like 1400 years before the first one. The Hidden Blade was only first used 200 years before this game. It likely didn't exist in a perfect form. My bet is that lore-wise, you will be playing as the Assassin that took the Hidden Blade to the next level and finally perfected it to the weapon we saw on Altair's person 1400 years later (not The Hidden Blade though - a mix of Stabguy and IanX04 took that to the next level).

What I STRONGLY dislike, and I made this very clear with Unity, is turning from Action-Adventure to RPG. If you're going to make an RPG, make an RPG... not this garbage Action-Adventure genre with no character customization (we all play the same dudes) nor meaningful decisions (the plot is the plot); and actually fill the map with hundreds of radiant quests rather than thousands of collectibles. If I want to play an RPG, I will play one that is an RPG from the ground up made by a company that knows what they are doing with the genre (Bethesda, for example).

I want to clarify a few things from my hastily written reply above.

I don't care if Ubisoft wants to make an open world RPG.
I don't care if Ubisoft wants to make an action-adventure game like the previous AC titles.
I just want Ubisoft to decide what it is they are making.

I don't like taking an action-adventure game and dropping more and more RPG elements into the game. It seems as if they want to make a true action-RPG, but that the only IP they have to sell is Assassin's Creed so they are dropping more and more of their action-RPG ideas and taking away from the game series they have. It's fine to give more and more tools to accomplish our goals as players (and to make the game feel more fresh year after year), as long as there are lore friendly reasons for the additions.

Get off my lawn.

another fun video of one person's take

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGkmYPr4VyI

My main concern was with the eagle fitting into the "real world" style they like to put themselves into. How will they explain how we can see what the eagle sees? It will be interesting if it's a form of the "Sixth Sense" (knowledge), a Piece of Eden, or if it's simply just a gameplay feature that leads to later versions of "Eagle Vision".

Going into the RPG elements, I definitely agree with you guys. I feel like AC probably shouldn't fall too deep into that territory. I don't care as much, as I feel very fulfilled when I have goals to reach for when it comes to skills and abilities. But AC doesn't need that nearly as much as other games. Maybe some aesthetic choices would be great. Health boosts and weapon loadouts are fine. Spending points to sit on a bench, though? Nah man (never forget).

I think more games should subtly implement a background progression system, where the more you use an ability, the better you get at it. Not talking about you as the player, but the character. For example, the more fights you win, the stronger you become (health, damage, etc). The more times you successfully use stealth, the easier it is to disappear within an environment (maybe allowing you to blend a little further from a crowd or bush instead of being directly in it).

That idea comes from Skyrim's leveling up system. My health and magic were always low because I depended on stealth an archery, which were both insanely high up. A full on RPG level mechanic isn't really necessary here. As long as the skills we can purchase make sense, unlike the ability to roll when you land, then it might be fine. I hope we get to see more about the skill tree soon.

Love Skyrim's "use it and get better at it" skill leveling.

My guess for the Eagle Drone? He's your buddy and you just "know" when something isn't right (like twins feeling eachother's pain across the globe). Graphically, you get Patrice's 1666 animal cams (sure, I guess Far Cry uses them too) to represent this. I don't think it will be a mystical Game of Thrones warg into the animals, but it could be. They seem to be really playing with mysticism and ancient traditions/superstitions/etc (fighting a huge basilisk, which simply doesn't exist on Earth). Anyway, my bet is that you are connected to the Eagle Drone in some way. Then your Eagle Drone dies. Then you commune with him anyway, leading to Eagle Vision within you and without the Eagle.

That's another thing, the basilisk. I was a little turned off at that shot, but then I thought it might be a dream or hallucination similar to Connor's animal spirit scene. If it's an actual giant serpent that he actually fights, I'm gonna be really surprised.

You never heard of the Titanboa?

Yeah I imagine the huge snake is something from a dream/vision sequence. I'll be pretty disappointed if they casually include that as a real world enemy.

I liked Skyrim's skill progression because it just makes sense. Practice makes perfect, applied as directly as a video game allows. That could work in AC. I do think that should be limited to stuff on a gradient (run speed, sword damage, detection, climbing speed, sneak speed, etc) and be less limiting of step by step unlocks of tiers.

Like bench blending, there are some things that I think should always be available from the start since they're humanly possible. Since it's AC we're talking about, I still stand by the idea that a hidden blade one hit kill should be in that category, provided you completed a perfect stealthg approach. Just balance that by making it more difficult to complete that approach (making stealth more of a challenge). I'm okay with the more superhuman abilities (eagle vision) or additional gear besides your standard kit (throwing daggers, armor, etc) being behind unlocks though.

Now that I've come down off my high horse... I DO think that the simple reveals so far do show a lot of interesting things. As long as like in other AC titles you can still unlock all skills with a single character, I don't mind.

I think an open world action-RPG of ancient Egypt could be cool. Since there is so much symbology, mysticism and praying to different Gods involved in the time period, it actually makes perfect sense as a location for an Assassin's Creed game. It makes perfect sense as an Origin story as well... man and the Last of the Isu walking side by side; Isu responsible for these miraculous abilities and beasts; pyramids obviously serving as great temples and source of great symbolism and power.

This could be a very good game and I'm willing to give it a chance. I thought AC lost it's identity with Black Flag, and I still hold that, storywise and use for developing the overarching story, it's among the worst in the series. Ancient Egypt should work orders of magnitude better than that one... so long as the gameplay matches the story they are trying to tell.

The #1 issue I have with the introduction of more and more RPG elements into the game is NOT because I don't want another RPG. It's because it doesn't make any sense in the framework of the story. You are playing as an ancestor in events that already occurred. How is it possible that your abilities are different each time you live this ancestor's stories? Unless they get rid of that (core) mechanic and story-telling device, full character customization doesn't work with the canon of Assassin's Creed.

BTW, if you haven't seen this yet, here's 33 + 42 minutes of alpha gameplay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPGtJgrDa0E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8HUCvLsXV8

i love the thing of having to spend time crafting new hidden blades if you want them to be insta-kills. and just in general it gives the more overt attack options more of a reason to exist, since there are obvious scenarios where total stealth would be impossible depending on what you've leveled and upgraded.

Love the eagle psychic link thing, very much approve of making the connection with eagles more explicit and not just symbolism. I knew they were going to do this immediately after i saw the similar mechanic introduced in far cry primal.

giant snake is cool. Am I the only one who hates when cool weird things are dream sequences? we already had a giant squid in ac2 that was much bigger than a real life one would be anyways.

watched a few combat videos and the degree to which players seem to be able to spam that dodge button is weird. I mean, it seems like it has very limited invincibility frames but i hope there's a longer cooldown or stamina bar in the final game, cause it both kind of looks goofy and also seems easily abusable.

the rpgish aspects of assassins creed are something ive realized were a big part of what i liked about it, progression applied to this particular context and theme.

i feel like the climbing on objects looks less potentially frustrating even in complicated environments. lots of good quick transitions that look snappy and controllable as far as i can tell from watching. seems like there are some hitches with the more freeform rocky terrain, return of the classic "palms on invisible wall" thingie. hopefully that gets a little smoother, would be a shame for mountainous places to be a slog to navigate compared to more habitated spots, considering they're the big new type of environment.

I recently upped my thoughts on AC Origins in vid-form. I only realized at the very end, after uploading, that I didn't end up talking about Combat at all even though it's one of the things I intended to touch upon. Sucks. I'll have to make another one talking just about fighting, but I guess it kind of slipped my mind among all the other cool stuff I saw. If people don't want to watch, here's a transcript;

***

After around a week of not being able to make and upload anything, I am finally back. I’m supposed to talk about my thoughts on AC Origins, but I should probably start this off with a lengthy intro explaining my-

[DEFICIO EGYPTICA, STEALTH KILLS CUTS]

I didn’t expect being as impressed with AC Origins as I am. It feels like they’re taking AC in a new direction, a better fit for the kind of experience Ashraf and his teams wanted to make. My thoughts on this won’t follow any particular order or reason, I’ll just talk about observations I made and how I feel about Origins as the thoughts arrive in my head.

First, the HUD is a big deal. No more Minimap, no more Eagle Vision. We’ve got a Horizon-style compass at the top of the screen, and Senu, Bayek’s pet Eagle. Senu is this game’s variant of both a Minimap and special vision-mode at the same time. This mechanical unification is strong because it makes the game tighter and easier to balance. I’ll talk about that later.

Senu works on a hot and cold system, which is interesting. She can also mark or tag guards and animals for Bayek, from the sky, but Bayek can do this himself as well, which we see when he points his bow at two high-level guards.

While she’s, on a surface level, similar to the Drone from Watch_Dogs or the Owl from Far Cry, differences exist that make her feel distinct. Also, both Watch_Dogs 2 and Far Cry Primal use their bird and drone mechanics as a supplement to the existing NetHack and Hunter Vision modes, and to the minimaps that these games have by default. Assassin’s Creed Origins’ Senu is a replacement and unification of these systems, which dramatically changes her usefulness and lets devs focus on building the game with only one major knowledge-gathering system in place, rather than having to balance between two. To say that another way, it’s easier to design and balance a game around only one knowledge-gathering mechanic that you know the player will either use or won’t use, than it is to balance a game around two or three. Now Senu is our only knowledge-gathering mechanic. This removes the problem of being overpowered by flipping between maps, visions, and drones, and it removes the problem of having incomplete knowledge if you only use one of them without flipping between them. I’m satisfied with this change and I find it very smart. Senu also provides an intense “Plan and Execute” flavor to the Stealth gameplay, which reminds me more of Metal Gear Solid V than it reminds me of any Assassin’s Creed that came before.

Whether you’re in a Restricted Area is visible by seeing if the compass at the top of the screen turns red, which is a cool way of communicating this without a minimap. You also get the “you are in a Restricted Area” message, which is good in case players don’t notice the top of the screen.

One of the things they’ve changed is that climbing is a lot faster now, and it also does not require explicitly-visible handholds. Bayek can climb just about anything that he’s pointed towards, which means the level of freedom we’re given as far as movement has never been greater. This means that our environment itself will only provide challenges that correspond with the enemies that populate it, which can be a good and bad thing. They have mentioned, however, that the Secret Locations or Tombs from the classic AC games are returning, and that when you walk into one, I quote, “You KNOW you’re in a tomb, everything’s different.” With a parkour system in place that lets you climb anything you can see, I should certainly hope they’re doing something creative with the tombs, but it’s worth noting that even with the ability to climb whatever we want, Bayek is not superhuman. He still has to make his jumps and leaps the way other Assassins do, so it’s likely still possible to screw up and fall down in the middle of a long parkour-chain.

I have to talk about Stealth since it’s kind of my thing. I know people are worried about the RPG System that Origins has embraced, but I’m not as worried. Going No Upgrades on this game will actually be easier than Syndicate, because Main Missions will now scale to your level. In instances or special areas where that’s not the case, like the two High Level Guards Bayek notices, it provides an organic reason to Ghost through a short section of the level instead of just going full Reaper on everyone. And for the first time that I’ve seen since The Last of Us, this player-decision is made with regard to gameplay, not with regard to narrative. There’s a difference between Dishonored having you abstain from killing for the sake of a lighter ending, and AC Origins having you abstain from killing because at this point it would be too dangerous to try. The reason I mentioned The Last of Us is because in certain sections of that game it’s much safer to just sneak by enemies instead of trying to kill them, especially on Survivor or Grounded difficulties. And I haven’t seen that kind of impetus for Ghosting very much in games.

So the RPG elements don’t seem to impede Stealth and player progression through the Main Quest path, which is perfectly fine by me, because players pursuing Side Content are going to be the players who are willing to grow. level up and get better weapons anyway. It’s only if you want to explore and go out into the world that you’ll need to upgrade yourself, which also how Black Flag worked, and not something I had issues with. The feeling of progression Origins will give players is something I look forward to.

Now as far as raw Stealth is concerned, they showed that it does indeed exist, and that a few things are different. We still have Assassinations, Ledge Assassinations, and Air Assassinations. Now, though, Double Assassinate has been removed in favor of Chain Assassinate, which is Bayek’s equivalent. While this is ripped straight out of Far Cry, it seems to work well here. If I had to guess why, it’d be for two reasons. First, it makes a Rogue have to go into an encounter with two Guards much more intelligently, maybe distracting them and getting them into position for the Chainkill. Second, it’s so that this doesn’t happen. [GUARDS JUST SLIDING INTO PLACE FOR THE PLAYER] Yeah, you know what I mean. Let’s see that in slow-motion. Yikes. This is something a few AC players complained about, but with the old Double Assassination system there was simply no way around it. Enemies would just slide into position for you. With Chain Assassinate, this is something both players and devs just don’t need to worry about. Stab one guy, throw a weapon at the other guy. Fluid and easy. Chain Assassinate also lets you Double Kill targets that aren’t right next to each other, which is strategically powerful.

One of the things not shown is whether we can distract enemies with a ranged action, like the Bricks and Bottles in The Last of Us, Rocks in Far Cry and Horizon, Magazines in Metal Gear, or any number of items in the Splinter Cells. My ideal method of implementing this would be through Bayek’s arrows, by shooting them into walls around guards. Arrows are plentiful, you always have them, and it’s a way to consolidate two mechanics into one (ranged attacks and AI Distractions). This type of “one mechanic can do many different things” is a hallmark of systemic, emergent games like the Dishonoreds, like the Deus Exes, like MGSV, and something I’ve been begging for Assassin’s Creed to become for a very long time. Origins, to its credit, seems to be genuinely wanting to be a systemic/emergent game, even with its intense RPG elements. That makes me happy.

Speaking of Bayek’s arrows, he’ll always have his Bow with him, and the player will always be able to engage in Ranged Stealth or Ranged Combat. Ashraf Ismail, Game* Director of Origins mentioned that if you really wanted to, you could conceivably play this game as a Third-Person Shooter, which I’m sure will appeal to a huge number of players into that style of play, or people who are just huge nerds for bows and arrows.

We see Bayek loot a Bow off of a slain enemy in the five minute gameplay reveal, and before that we see him Loot some Metal and re-loot his Arrows back from a guard that he killed with a headshot. One of the coolest things I’ve noticed about Looting in AC Origins is that it’s now instant for everything other than Chests, which are also crazy fast. No more holding down the button and having your Assassin waste entire minutes or hours of your cumulative playtime.

Walk up to something, blinggg, done. No bullshit. I love it.

This is especially relevant in a game that’s going to feature lots of looting a wide variety of weapons, resources, and crafting materials. In a game where Loot is such a central part of the intended experience, having it be lightning-fast is much appreciated and borderline necessary. The animation and sound effect for looting things is also super satisfying on a primal level, and that’s something I’m also really grateful for. I freaking love that blinggg~!

Something else I noticed is that Bayek can Poison corpses, Ashraf mentioned that enemies who investigate the dead body will be poisoned as well. I believe the Skill is called Flesh Decay and it’s part of the Seer area of the skill screen. The skill screen itself is basically split into the standard RPG classes of Rogue, Ranger, Warrior and Mage, but since this is AC, they’re all subclasses under the broad Assassin class that Bayek firmly occupies. Hunter corresponds to Rogue and Ranger, Warrior corresponds to Warrior, and Seer is basically Mage. Real magic doesn’t exist, but you get what I mean, the Seer tree is about elements, poisons, fire, the environment, etcetera.

So yeah, honestly, I’m pretty excited for AC Origins. I can’t wait to play it, make content for it as well because I think a lot can be done with it. I’m curious to talk about its systems, to think about what it did right and wrong. And, as always, I’m still hoping that I can eventually name a video “Assassin’s Creed Something, Present Day Mission 1 - Stealth Reaper” or “Present Day Mission 1 - Ghost”. We still wait for the day. In the meantime, I’ll finally be able to make more vids now that I’m fully set up.

I watched it this morning, great video. The points you make about the RPG-mechanics influencing stealth and loot actually made me change my mind a bit on the RPG-direction. I said earlier that I didn't appreciate it, but right now I'm not so critical of it anymore. The mechanics you outline make sense in this game.

More vids with some interesting things to think about and discuss.

First, the same demo as the other videos, but not the mission - the environment. (30 min)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUcywIDOZ3A

Not able to stealth kill enemies higher than your hidden blade level? blech.
So it seems we'll have to find weapons of higher level, or craft them to be better, in order to fight some enemies. ugh.
THIS is the type of RPG elements I DON'T like coming to this series.

Then again, "Nothing is true. Everything is permitted." ... so ... we'll see.

Also, no 100% sync? What's the lore-reason to take this out? The whole point of assassins creed memory sequences is to live exactly like your ancestors in order to gather information to help you today. At least it was. Now it's "Abstergo Entertainment made a new historical landscape for you to play in, you faceless nameless consumer/employee you."

Finally, it seems pretty fucking stupid to have a viewpoint with a mountain next to it that is taller. How are you supposed to see around the mountain? ha

Nighttime gameplay and more side things. (15 min)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WauNAVudo3s

It's still really bright at night, which is cool. I like that, in a fort area, enemies are not simply fewer at night, but that they are literally sleeping and if you fuck up they can all be on you in an instant.

Using the Creed to justify new gameplay won't work EVERY time. If they made AC into an RTS, we'd all call bullsh*t on the series!

I'm personally glad that 100% sync may be taken out. Realistically, it makes sense to have it, but it stressed me out with every mission. I don't want to have to worry about the side objectives when I could be taking on the mission in my own style. Let me deal with this mission how I want! But still, no harm in including optional objectives for bonus rewards.

Ain't that the truth!

To me, it's a minor thing. When it was introduced in ACB, it was perfect, to me. One single thing you could do to mimic Ezio.

I'm not talking "Kill all three grenadiers with weapons you steal from scouts while in a blend group on top of a ship mast" ridiculous objectives for no reason.

"Kill the target from a sitting position" with lots of benches around still left TONS of freedom to approach things while still accomplishing 100% sync.

I'm not overly sad to see it go now that I think about it. AC Lore-wise, we don't need to 100% sync with our ancestors to unlock later memories to get the pertinent information. The tech is better now. Okay, there. It's now Lore Friendly to leave them out.

Literally only members of THB could realistically fulfill that Full Sync xD

Yeah, I'm not too sad to see Full Syncs go. Makes the game a lot more organic and favors emergent gameplay. We can now set our own objectives on the fly via Senu and her ability to place custom markers a la MGSV. You can tap out the route you plan to use while looking from above, and pursue it, which is super neat and one of MGSV's greatest additions to plan-and-execute in Stealth gameplay.

Instead of Full Syncs I can see myself scouting out Weapon Chests and stuff, and being like, "Okay, so there are weapon chests here. I want to Ghost to these and loot them without being seen because I can't oneshot these guys with my H.Blade right now."

Oof... what could that mean for modern day story? That sounds like the AC Liberation treatment.

I haven't followed every E3 video or other reveals, have they mentioned anything about the modern day in AC Origins?

They never have for the other games. I don't expect them to now.

They'll probably wait until the release to actually give us any modern day details. It would be cool if we were actually a Desmond-like character that implemented Bayek's skills.

Ashraf Ismail confirmed in an interview recently that;

1. There are no Helix Rifts / Time Anomalies in Origins.

and we already know that;

2. Bayek is only one of two playable characters.
3. There is an ability titled Animus Pulse in-game.
4. The Animus Construct (loading room) is back (in black~!)

This to me HEAVILY implies playable Present Day.

Some people on the AC subreddit believe Otso Berg might be a playable character, as he is a Black Cross and has a lot of high-tech gadgets, like a Drone that would be Present Day's equivalent of Senu. The Animus Loading symbol is also similar to the Abstergo logo/triangle.

That could certainly be why Hunter's Instinct isn't linked to anything in the demo despite saying there are linked abilities to it. Maybe there are more abilities that tie to the present day that are missing.

I recently saw an interview where Ash himself said we get multiple save slots. I just thought this was a nice piece of info...I wanted to participate.

wait some people don't like the "need to upgrade blade to get guaranteed stealth kills" thing? i always felt like the problem with progression in previous games was that your default tools were always perfectly sufficient if you played well enough, so you were really only unlocking bonus fluff abilities for the most part.

I'm sure an un-upgraded run will still be possible in this game, but isn't it more interesting that the game is pushing back at you for ignoring its systems?

the idea of pre-mission upgrading actually factoring into the playstyles available to me is exactly what I expected and didnt really get from the first ac.

EDIT: btw the same rumors that correctly predicted this game said that there would be a second protagonist in modern day. that combined with the movie being all bout that split story makes me think it's pretty likely.

A LOT of people really hate the idea of Assassin's Creed turning into an RPG because of the inherent inconsistency / RNG-ish nature of the genre, and how when you make a game too dependent on Numbers, player success and failure can feel more at the mercy of arbitrary numerical values than actual decision-making.

This is me explaining their point of view.

I'm pretty excited for AC Origins, I will play the game normally the first time, but VERY MUCH do a No Upgrades/No Leveling Run the second time, and the progression mechanics / RPG mechanics in the game will not stop me from doing so; they seem the good kind of RPG mechanics, that hold the promise of unlocking deeper and more meaningful options / approaches to gameplay, rather than the awful ones that arbitrarily limit you and excise player-decisions in favor of "yeah your numbers just ain't good 'nuff, grind moar."

This is me being hype for AC Origins because it looks like it knows exactly what it's doing.

I definitively do NOT share the dread and worry that Origins' overall direction will make it unpalatable to Assassin's Creed fans, everything I've seen so far seems like it'll validate me and empower me to play that stealthy rogue I like to be and have always liked to be.

I'm glad you brought up the idea of, "Isn't it more exciting when the game actually pushes back at you for ignoring its systems?" because that's something that I found pretty hilarious about Unity and Syndicate. Unity is supposedly the "hardest" game in the franchise and playing it with No Upgrades actually, I shit you not, makes it EASIER in a number ways. Unbelievable xD

what, RNG like it being a dice roll if your assassination goes off or not? why is anyone worried about that when it obviously doesn't work that way and no one ever said it would?

(I know why. (I should stop phrasing exasperation as a question lol))

Yeah, I guess what they dislike is, "If I sneak up on someone I should have the god-given right to do an instant takedown no matter what, regardless of circumstances or the game's top-down design philosophy," which makes sense because that's how most Stealth games work, and that's a good way for Stealth games to work. The takedown is your Reward for demonstrating skill with the game's mechanics, and it not working in the expected way can to some people feel like being "cheated" somehow.

The thing is, it doesn't bother me that Origins will fail my Assassination attempts for being underpowered or unprepared to scratch out high-level guards because there are ways to play around it, there are ways to predict it, there are ways to "tame" the system and evolve my Bayek in the specific way that I want to play, until late-game, I DO get to that godlike Rogue level of stabbing fools in dark alleys. Until that point, I'll have to adapt and play more consciously -- and that's pretty exciting to me.

Re: Giant Serpent

Been doing some more digging. In ancient Egyptian mythology, the Duat is the underworld or the realm of the dead. It is the home of the god Osiris, Anubis, Thoth, Horus, Hathor, and Ma'at, and many grotesque spirits controlled by them. Ma'at may or may not show up in some of those hieroglyphics, depending on how the glyphs break. We still haven't solved them. Ra, the sun god, also travels through the Duat every night and battles the serpent monster Apep.

So there you have it. A mythological right of passage for Bayek to cross off in the same way that Connor flies as an Eagle and Arno runs through a crumbling building.

Read the source for more info. Sounds like an awesome right of passage for Bayek to traverse in game, really.

source: http://anthropology.msu.edu/anp455-fs14/2014/10/28/duat/

Re: Bayek

The essence of the given name Bayek stands for ambition, independence, strength, reliability, determination and professionalism.

Seems Assassiny.

source: http://www.meaningslike.com/name-stands-for/bayek

Being that Assassin's Creed Revelations was my last game that I've played in the series, I wonder if it's worth going back into. Really thinking of getting AC4, Rogue and maybe Origins. The theme and era makes me want it but the lack of story from the previous games makes me sad.

You might as well. It's enough of a break, I feel. If you were into the Present Day at all, you should rush through AC3 just for the Present Day Missions, since that was probably the best Present Day in the entire franchise by virtue of it having legit, proper missions where Desmond does parkour, social stealth, and combat while chasing down two targets/goals.

AC4 was a great game if you're ok with being a straight up pirate (not as many Assassin styles to really call it an AC game). I heard great things about Rogue, though. From a walkthrough I saw, it actually seems pretty fun.

AC Rogue is pretty simple: if you like Black Flag, you'll like Rogue. It's pretty much the same gameplay with some tweaks here and there and changing the tropical environment to a much colder atmosphere. That said, I loved Black Flag, and I loved Rogue just as much.

Rogue is my favorite game in the series. There, I said it.

I need to play it again as I rushed through it, but I'm pretty sure it's my favorite. It's similar enough to Black Flag to get all those gameplay features everyone loves. And in light of ACIII and AC:Forsaken it has a great story.

It shows the Templar side of things and doesn't (for lack of better term) whitewash the struggle into "assassins good, templars bad." You get a similar connection to the main bad guys as AC:III (still the best game for making you understand the "villains" and why they must go).

It really is a shame that it's an afterthought since Unity came out at the same time. I wish there was a PS4 remastered version, because I would play it again on the new console but I'm not likely to set up the 360 any time soon.

Also, it's a short game (only 6 sequences, I think) so has easy replayability if I set up the 360. And it also has fun collectibles (e.g., AC1 Templar robes).

EDIT:
I won't derail this topic further. Here are the Rogue reviews I wrote right after playing the game:
http://thehiddenblade.com/rogue-spoiler-free-gameplay-review
http://thehiddenblade.com/rogue-spoilers-story-review-and-overall-rating

Rogue is definitely underrated - I think most people forget it even exists, as it came out for last gen at the same time that Unity came out for current gen.