2017 was a year of fighting between gods in the game world. In that year, many masterpieces such as "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild", "Super Mario: Odyssey", "Tea Cup Head", "Memories of Eddie Fenci", and so on, the light of "Assassin's Creed: Origin" which appeared in the same year was covered up a lot of the light of the game that was of great breakthrough for the Assassin's Creed series.

This year marks the 15th anniversary of the Assassin's Creed series, and the latest work of the series, "Assassin's Creed: Fantasy", has also been released recently. It seems that the series is still full of vitality now.

But five years ago, if Assassin's Creed: Origins did not appear in a major change, then it would probably be a big question whether the series can maintain its current vitality and vitality.

So, how did Assassin's Creed: Origins make this series break through the bottlenecks of the past through various innovations and changes? What inspiration does this have for game developers in our country?

Assassin's Creed series that once fell into a bottleneck

The complete popularity of Assassin's Creed is mainly because of the second generation released in 2009. This game has made more expansion and innovation based on the first generation. It received many praises from the media and players at that time. Even today, many players believe that this game is the best work in the series.

Perhaps because the second generation is too successful, Ubisoft continues this model and has launched a number of sequels and metaphors in the following years with extremely high assembly line operation. Although these works have some minor innovations, overall, they are still the second generation's gameplay.

For example, in Assassin's Creed: The Heroes, a hook rope is added to allow players to travel between buildings faster, while in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, a gameplay of recruiting teammates for training is added, and in Assassin's Creed: Black Flag, a highly praised naval battle is added.

But these are not separated from the set of rules set by the second generation. Even the strange stickiness and weird sense of blow during melee battles have been passed down. The unique and ancestral gameplay of clearing the strongholds and opening boxes everywhere has continued to this gameplay, the last work of the gameplay of "Assassin's Creed: The Hero".

Ubisoft actually received various feedback through questionnaires and other forms. For example, after "Dark Souls" was released in 2011, many players have complained about why there is no similar combat experience in the Assassin's Creed series and the Elder Scrolls series.

The decline in sales of "Assassin's Creed: The Hero" released in 2015 also shows to a certain extent that the past model has been continued for too many years and has made many players feel bored.

Assassin's Creed: The Heroes' sales were relatively low in the first week, with final sales of about 6 millionThe set may be the lowest sales in terms of the series of orthodox works, so rare that Ubisoft did not launch a new series in 2016, but spent more time polishing the development of "Assassin's Creed: Origin". From 2009 to 2015, a new series of works will appear almost every year, and sometimes even two will appear in a year. For example, in 2012, it launched "Assassin's Creed 3" and the extrapolation of the work "Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation".

It is also worth noting that "Assassin's Creed: Origin" was actually in early development from 2014 to 2016. From this time, Ubisoft did not realize that this series needed huge changes after the sales of "Assassin's Creed: The Heroes". Perhaps he realized the urgency of change before and after "Assassin's Creed: The Revolution" released in 2014.

This is a very critical step, because if Ubisoft had not started thinking about how to make major changes as early as 2014, then if the sequel that appeared after "Assassin's Creed: The Heroes" was still a conservative work that silently adhered to the old rules, the Assassin's Creed series might soon fall into the abyss.

How to use all rivers for your own use

As a series that has been developing for many years, the problem faced by Assassin's Creed: Origins was how to maintain the original characteristics of the series to make huge changes, and this change must be recognized by most players. It must attract both old players and new players as much as possible. To put it more exaggeratedly, this is a arduous "historical mission" for members of the development team.

Judging from the performance of the game, the developers played a lot of games such as the Dark Souls series and "The Witcher 3" that were popular at that time, and then fully absorbed and referenced it, and finally delivered a good answer.

First of all, the game's worldview is integrated with mythical colors, which makes the game's atmosphere and cultural characteristics more mysterious and strange.

The previous works of the Assassin's Creed series were mainly realist themes. Often, only elements such as the artifacts that appear in the game's ending and the pioneer civilization that occasionally explains during the game will have supernatural realism. These colors are just an embellishment.

For example, in "Assassin's Creed: The Great Revolution" and "Assassin's Creed: The Heroes", the protagonist can use guns to conduct long-range attacks, and the hooks added to the latter have certain scientific basis. In both works, you can meet some famous real-life figures, such as Marx, Dickens, Churchill and other famous celebrities.

If "Assassin's Creed: The Hero" is the ultimate realist direction of this series, then "Assassin's Creed: Origin" is the first step in its opposite direction and exploring and developing in the direction of mythology.

The entire Assassin's Creed: Origins can be said to be a textbook of ancient Egyptian mythology, showingVarious phenomena of worship of gods by the people in the late Ptolemaic dynasty in ancient Egypt. For example, the worship of the crocodile god Sobek in the Fayum area popular in the game. From the perspective of modern people, crocodile is just a cruel animal, but the people in Fayum in the game are very devout about Sobek's worship and really believe that there is such a god.

And there is indeed a mysterious force in the game, but perhaps because this is the first time the series has undergone such a huge transformation, so when explaining these mysterious forces, an ambiguous and unexplained attitude was adopted, which makes the game rare to have a magical realism flavor of Borges.

Of course, perhaps the producers studied Egyptian mythology in depth and believed that the magical realism expression method was the most in line with the situation at that time.

For example, there is a magical prophet character in the game. Bayek first encountered him because of the wife of a high priest in the game, and performed a fetal maintenance ceremony with the prophet. The high priest begged Bayek to help investigate the culprit of the abortion. When Bayek went to find the prophet, the latter said that he had foresaw his arrival and that he was the savior. Bayek drank a soup given by the prophet and entered a dream and killed a divine snake. Later, he also saw his dead son Kamu in the dream. When he woke up, the prophet said that he had been helped by Bayek, and now the child in the high priest's wife's belly has finally been saved.

After, in another side mission, "Dream of Ashes", Bayek and the Prophet meditate together to perform a mysterious ritual. After meditating, Bayek woke up and was surprised to find that the Prophet disappeared from the island without a trace.

These tasks inevitably remind people of the indescribable stories in ancient legends of various countries. There are many similar stories in ancient Chinese classics such as "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" and "Sanyan Erpai", and various oral stories circulating among the people also have similar elements.

As for magical realism, it is a literary genre that flourished in Latin America around the 1950s. It is not a product of the literary group, but a common tendency in literary creation, mainly manifested in the field of novels and originated in Latin America.

Writers of this genre insist on putting reality into an illusory environment and atmosphere, giving objective and detailed descriptions, so that reality is covered with a bizarre and magical cloak. They not only adhere to the principles of reflecting the real life of society in their works, but also use European and American modern techniques in their creative methods to insert many magical and weird fantasies, making the entire picture present a style that seems real but not real, seems fake but not fake, is virtual and real, and is difficult to distinguish between real and fake. This creative method that integrates reality and illusion is called "magic realism."

Marquez, a famous writer of magical realism, his most famous work is "Hundred Years of Solitude"

From this perspective, it is difficult to distinguish the true or false in this workThe incident does have a magical realism mystery. For example, this prophet looks like a liar who dances with a great god, but the dream Bayek experienced in the game is so real. As for whether the child in the high priest's wife's belly was saved because Bayek killed the serpent, this is also a difficult question to explain clearly.

This actually has important inspiration for domestic developers. In recent years, a large number of games launched in China are too eager to show various gods and divine powers, which makes the game lack a sense of mystery. The appearance and doing things are actually the same as those of mortals. Only in the early years of the character Jiujianxian in "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" was somewhat similar to that of this prophet in "Assassin's Creed: Origin". They are all invisible and go without a trace, and doing things is also crazy and absurd. However, in recent years, such characters are not very visible in domestic games.

As for domestic developers who want to explore and create a magical sense of realism in the game, even with the reference object "Assassin's Creed: Origin", it is probably not easy to make a difference in this regard. This requires a lot of cultural research on ancient legends and stories from China and even countries around the world.

Perhaps because the original body of "Assassin's Creed: Origin" received positive reviews in mythical color, so in the second DLC of the game, "The Curse of the Pharaoh", the production team further strengthened the mythical color. After obtaining the artifact, the villain in the game summoned the undead to harm the world, and the four pharaohs also appeared. These undead worlds broke through the previous realistic scene style of the series and had a strong fantasy style, which was intoxicating.

"The Curse of Pharaoh" received great praise after its release, perhaps inspiring the later "Assassin's Creed: Odyssey". In the second DLC of the work, the protagonist will meet Greek gods such as Zeus and Poseidon, and can also see various scenes in the mythical style.

To put it more exaggeratedly, the introduction of mythical style has given the Assassin's Creed series a wing of fantasy, freeing from the various constraints of previous realistic themes, allowing this series to show epic boss battles and magical fantasy scenes similar to those in "The Witcher 3" and "Dark Souls" or "The Elder Scrolls 5".

Secondly, this game has undergone tremendous changes in the combat system.

In "Assassin's Creed: Origin", the combat system has also undergone earth-shaking changes. The weapons that the protagonist can use include various cold weapons such as swords, guns, spears and axes, as well as various long-range bows and arrows. They can also hold shields to defend and throw flame bottles, and there are also dodging actions. If the perfect dodge can also trigger slow motion time, once you learn advanced skills, you can obtain mysterious power and fight back on the powerful boss.

The game also introduces an experience value and level system. You can gain a lot of experience by doing main tasks and side tasks. You can also gain a certain experience value by brushing strongholds and discovering new places.You can get a skill point by upgrading to one level. The skill tree in the game is divided into three categories, namely warrior, hunter, and prophet.

In addition, the weapons and shields in the game are divided into several levels, namely blue equipment, purple equipment, and golden equipment. Among them, golden equipment is the highest level of legend, and players can increase the level of these equipment from the blacksmith merchants. Of course, the cost of each upgrade will be higher in the later stage.

As for clothing, they are all suits and are extremely limited in quantity, and there is no clothing parts that can be equipped separately.

The experience brought by the transformation of this entire combat system is richer. After combining skill trees, various weapons and equipment, and even equipment levels, players can find their own gameplay. They can be a stealth assassin, or fight against the enemy head-on, or take into account the two gameplays. There are also different choices for stealth gameplay. For example, the bows and arrows in the game are divided into four categories, one of which is a predator bow, which is similar to a sniper rifle. When using this kind of bow and arrow, the game will enter the first-person perspective. If the player gets such a golden-level bow and arrow and aims at the key parts of the enemy in the distance, it can cause a lot of damage, which can achieve twice the result with half the effort.

The previous works of the Assassin's Creed series were mainly focused on stealth gameplay. Head-on confrontation often benefits little, or the battle is extremely boring and monotonous. Even if the melee gameplay is increased in "Assassin's Creed 3" and the nickname "Berserker Creed", the melee experience is also very repetitive.

Assassin's Creed: Origins finally solved a major problem of boring melee combat. Although it inevitably attracted some old players to complain about losing the original characteristics of Assassin's Creed, in fact, this can attract more players. In addition, the game does not give up stealth gameplay, but the player will completely choose whether to stealth or not.

Fundamentally, this gameplay absorbs the elements from many popular games at that time, but has been simplified. For example, the equipment is hierarchical and each equipment has different attributes, which can be clearly seen to be borrowed from the Diablo series. However, the equipment in "Assassin's Creed: Origin" has only three levels, and the attribute complexity of the equipment is far less than that of the Diablo series. For example, in "Assassin's Creed: Origin", you can use the shield-holding duo to deal with enemies. This is very similar to the experience of Black Souls, but fundamentally, this game is a level-crunching gameplay, so even if you don't use this Black Soul gameplay, you can simply rely on experience to make money to increase the levels of characters and equipment, and most of the time you can play the game unparalleled.

Finally, the regional expansion of this work makes the story more grand and epic.

The series before this work was mostly limited to one city and one place. For example, "Assassin's Creed: The Revolution" took place in Paris, while "Assassin's Creed: The Heroes" was in London, and "Assassin's Creed: The Brotherhood" was in Rome. Of course, some works are not limited to them.A city, such as New York and Boston appearing in Assassin's Creed 3, will not exceed three cities in these games.

But "Assassin's Creed: Origin" shows almost all the ancient Egypt. In the essence, we can see the charm of the famous historical name Alexander in that era, as well as Fayum, Memphis, Cyrenega and other areas. In DLC, you can go to the Sinai Peninsula and Thebes region. The entire game's region has expanded many times compared to previous works, and the corresponding cultural and style of each region and even the current political status are also much deeper than before.

The historical city of Alexander

This is actually a way to learn "The Witcher 3". The success of "The Witcher 3" has an important relationship with the vast regions and various cultural and political displays in this fantasy world. The complex struggles between the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans in "Assassin's Creed: Origin" also reminds people of the invasion and enslavement of the great powers on their neighbors in "The Witcher 3".

The innovation of "Assassin's Creed: Origin" has achieved great success in both reputation and sales. Most media have given positive reviews of more than 8 points in terms of reputation, and their sales exceeded 10 million, ranking among the top in the entire series. It also swept away the decline in sales of the previous work "Assassin's Creed: The Heroes". It is no exaggeration to say that "Assassin's Creed: Origin" has turned the tide.

What is the future?

Recently, Ubisoft announced the latest work of the Assassin's Creed series "Assassin's Creed: Fantasy", but the work is just a small-scale work, and it returns to the traditional gameplay of the series in the past, that is, there is no level or a large number of RPG elements. Moreover, the work was originally a DLC project of "Assassin's Creed: Valhalla", but it evolved into a separate small-scale work.

As for the future transformation of this series, the recently announced Assassin's Creed: Infinity, Ubisoft's Marc-Alexis Côté recently stated: "Assassin's Creed: Infinity is not a game in itself, it will be the only entrance for our fans to enter the Assassin's Creed series. Infinity will become a hub that connects all our different experiences with players in a meaningful way."

Marc-Alexis Côté said: "Assassin's Creed: Infinity" is equivalent to a platform, a "hub". The new series of works after "Assassin's Creed: Fantasy" will be gathered here regardless of type, scale, paid or free. Players can still purchase the new Assassin's Creed separately as before, but after starting the game, the first thing they will see is "infinite".

In addition, Ubisoft recently stated that although the upcoming "ReD" in Assassin's Creed Infinite is still a long-process open world RPG game, "The Witch of the Code" (HEXE)》 is not an open world RPG game, but it does not further explain the type of the game and the length of the game.

From Ubisoft's official statement, the new works in this later series may be selected from the traditional mode of the second generation and the new mode of the mythological trilogy created by Assassin's Creed: Origins to produce it, or a new mode may be created on this basis.

Conclusion

Assassin's Creed: Origins is not a work that leads the changing trend of the times like "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild", but a product that absorbs a lot of successful game experience and uses it for itself. For the classic elements in successful games, how to simplify, choose, and how to better imitate the classic elements in successful games. If you integrate and absorb them on the basis of taking care of your own inherent player group, there are many things worth discussing. "Assassin's Creed: Origins" does a pretty good job in this regard.

And this is more inspiring to domestic developers. After all, we must admit a cruel reality. No game company in China can achieve the level of innovation as Nintendo as the one that is, but practices like Ubisoft are just referenced by ordinary game companies. After all, in addition to tigers, lions, leopards, there are also animals such as cattle, sheep, and deer, and they also have their own way of survival.

In addition, for domestic developers, how to bravely use some innovative methods to break through the bottleneck when a series is stuck, this is also an important topic of thinking. "Assassin's Creed: Origin" gives some answers to this question, which is worth our deep consideration.