As if this month wasn’t already fraught enough with AAA gaming experiences between Star Wars: Battlefront II‘s multiplayer beta, South Park: The Fractured but Whole, Forza Motorsport 7, Middle-Earth: Shadow of War and Super Mario Odyssey, Ubisoft has kindly reminded us that another mammoth title lies in wait: Assassin’s Creed: Origins.
The half-helpful, half-infuriating heads-up comes in the form of a new cinematic trailer, “Birth of the Brotherhood”, which both recaps the core tenants of the action RPG franchise’s first Ancient Egyptian outing and teases major set-pieces ahead for players preparing to sink their teeth into its epoch-spanning main campaign…
Takeaways:
- While just about anyone who’s followed Origins‘ marketing campaign to date will doubtless know as much, we open with steeled protagonist Bayek re-affirming his role as a Medjay, bound to protect Egypt and its supposed “true pharoah” against oncoming threats.
- Said threats look set to hit the dying Ancient nation with fierce rapidity too, as we’re soon privy to shots of fiery chaos besieging its otherwise gorgeous sand-soaked landscape. Worse still are the hints of all-out war for Bayek to brave, the final scenes seemingly depicting entire legions of Egyptian soldiers marching into battle (for reasons as yet unknown).
- As if this harrowing vision of a country “on the brink of collapse” wasn’t enough to give the first ever Assassin cause for concern, glimpses of cloaked figures discussing surely unlawful machinations in a shady cavern could well indicate the debut of the Templar Order here to boot.
- Luckily, though, at least we now know for certain Bayek won’t end up alone on his perilous odyssey to save the world of pharaohs and pyramids, since he’ll apparently conceive the Order as a means to fulfil the Medjays’ untapped potential if his spirited voiceover is any indication.
It’s a truth universally acknowledged by this point that Ubisoft’s marketing team have honed the art of Creed-promoting cinematic trailers to near-perfection, especially after a decade in the business, but whether the final product proves as well-rounded isn’t quite such a known quantity.
For every Game of the Year-nominated masterpiece like Brotherhood or Black Flag which the franchise has produced since its 2007 inception, there’s been a stopgap cash-in like Revelations or Unity forcing fans to question their love for the globe-trotting, time-travelling saga anew, only for the following year’s edition to often restore the faith.
Origins‘ fate lies with the gods – otherwise known as critics – and their worshippers – otherwise known as Creed fans – at this stage, but whatever happens, keep it D-pad Joy for all the news and views on Bayek’s whirlwind adventure in the run-up to its October 27th debut on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.