After 8 hours I feel like I can readily say that I just don't like it. I appreciate they effort they made in opening up the world and trying to revamp the combat but the combat is my main issue with the game: I hate it.
Fighting lots of enemies feels awful so stealth is more of a focus, which is fine. However, I feel like the stealth toolkit has been butchered too - I just feel weak as hell. Basically it all seems to come down to "how many predator bow arrows do you have?" As this is the main way of thinning out enemy camps. In previous AC games you felt like a hunter - like a proper, lethal assassin. Here though? I feel pretty pathetic.
If you do get spotted though, hoooo boy the melee feels awkward. Not as flashy as Shadow of War and not as deep or skill based as Dark Souls, it occupies the same, awkward middle ground as The Witcher 3's combat. Trouble is, I think TW3 did combat better. Once you mixed signs and bombs into the core swordplay you felt like taking on lots of enemies was very easily doable but, on harder difficulties, you needed to use all your tools.
Here though, I feel like I'm wrestling with a dreadful lock-on system and very imprecise controls. I never thought I'd say this but... I'd way prefer Syndicate's combat system back, even if it was a bit on the easy side. Shadow of War did combat well too. The captains were nasty enough that, combined with hordes of weaker enemies it felt dangerous, but the BRILLIANT skill system made you feel seriously powerful.
That's another issue I have with Origins: the skill system feels awful. Nothing really entices me in the skill tree. I think a good skill tree should make a player think "holy fuck-knuckles I need that, and that, and that, and... I NEED IT ALL!". Trouble is, Origins doesn't make me feel that way. I look at the skills and think "meh, that could be sort of useful, I guess." Compare this to Shadow of War, where I would spend ages trying to decide between lethal perfect counters, the ability to teleport to a distant target and gut them, the ability to freeze enemies in place and then shatter their brains or the ability to ride a bloody dragon.
In Horizon Zero Dawn I wanted to level up as there were loads of useful skills I wanted. Here though, I feel like I'm choosing between fairly dull, unimpressive upgrades. Tie that into a loot system which feels incredibly tacked on and it just ends up feeling like an action RPG which really didn't need to be. Again, Shadow of War did it much better - loot felt worthwhile and the array of gearsets meant you could really customise your gear based around your play style.
It's not a bad game, I just feel so little motivation to play it which is a shame because I love the setting and the world they've created. Bayek is a decent enough character too. It's just a pity that, to me anyway, the gameplay just isn't enough fun to make me want to play it for god knows how many hours. It looks facking stunning on Xbox One X though.
