'Assassin's Creed Origins' Brings Stealth and Open-World RPG Action to Ancient Egypt

Assassin’s Creed Origins has been announced as the next entry in the Assassin’s Creed series for Xbox One X, Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

The announcement came during Microsoft‘s press briefing at E3, where they featured footage of protagonist Bayek in the setting of ancient Egypt, revamped play mechanics, and the game’s 4K capabilities while running on the Xbox One X.

The story depicts the Egyptian sheriff Bayek’s struggle against corruptible forces, which ultimately leads into the formation of the Assassin Brotherhood featured in the rest of the series.

The game mostly focuses in the cities of Memphis and Alexandria, which lack towers to peer over and get the lay of the land like in former installments. This is where new mechanics comes into play in the form of hawk detection. Bayek’s hawk is able to fly over locations and tag enemies so players can keep track of potential danger when sneaking around assassinating folks. When you get down to combat, the weapon-based mechanics have been revamped for more mobility, allowing users to switch between different types of attacks for better combos and fluidity when facing multiple opponents.

Origins is still stealthy at its heart, as gameplay footage showed a lot of sneaking around and long-distance bow and arrow action, however action-RPG elements have also been added to the game for the first time in the way of loot drops, customization and leveling up.

According to developer Ubisoft’s blog, cities, small villages, and the terrain can be traversed seamlessly, instead of being locked in a given location like former entries to the series. They also boost how much the game’s world will feel alive, with NPCs having their own day and night cycles, bodies of water that can be sailed or swam, and imminent danger from wildlife and bandits.

Check out the gameplay trailer above and sound off in the comments with your thoughts. Origins Will release on October 27.