Thebes is pretty much in line with quite a lot of locations we’ve already visited in Assassin’s Creed Origins, but it’s a magnificent place nonetheless. Even outside of these afterlife areas, map design in The Curse of the Pharaohs is impressive.
Each of these maps is respectably large, and is full of bizarre, other-worldly sights to behold, strange looking beasts and monsters to fight against, and a variety of quests and activities to undertake. "Every place you visit has an instantly striking and memorable visual look that lends it incredible personality, and is filled with the same amount of immaculate and precise details that define ancient Egypt in Origins too."Īll of the afterlife areas greatly differ from each other and anything else that’s come before. From Aaru – a paradise full of bright, green reeds everywhere – to the Duat – a dreary and hostile purgatory – every place you visit has an instantly striking and memorable visual look that lends it incredible personality, and is filled with the same amount of immaculate and precise details that define ancient Egypt in Origins too. This refreshing change in direction helps the DLC in several ways. Some of the more unearthly locations you visit are absolutely splendid to behold, and exploring them becomes an instant joy, simply to discover what vistas lie ahead if nothing else (though make no mistake- there’s no shortage of side activities to indulge in either). Such praise can be also be made for The Curse of the Pharaohs, with which Ubisoft have gone for far more supernatural narrative elements involving ancient Egyptian mythology, rather than being tethered to some semblance of historical accuracy. Every inch, every nook and cranny of the world was filled with incredible details, and the immaculate world design encouraged exploration like no other Assassin’s Creed game ever has.
Origins’ biggest strength was that of its setting- ancient Egypt was rendered and recreated magnificently.
Bayek, of course, remains as interesting a character as he ever was, but there’s not much else to be said about the DLC’s story.īut that’s not where it shines the brightest anyway. Writing, too, is inconsistent- many times it feels spot on, but there are also some moments when it falls flat. However, much like Origins itself, storytelling often feels choppy and scattered. The rich history of ancient Egypt and Egyptian mythologies makes the setting and the events in the game inherently interesting, while the unique supernatural twist on things helps too. The narrative is a moderately interesting one. "CD Projekt RED did it a couple years back with The Witcher 3’s Blood and Wine DLC, and Ubisoft have done it now with The Curse of the Pharaohs." The Curse of the Pharaohs sees Bayek going up against four ancient pharaohs who have risen from their graves and are wreaking havoc everywhere, and to beat them, the assassin has to travel to different plains of the afterlife. Sure, it retains the core gameplay loop of Origins, and has the same strengths that the base game does, but it feels starkly different from anything else we’ve experienced in ancient Egypt yet. Unlike The Hidden Ones, which seemed more like an extension of the mechanics and ideas that were found in Origins itself, this new DLC feels like an entirely new chapter with a completely different tone and atmosphere. Very rarely do video game developers choose to put all their efforts and love into a DLC, so much so that one could even justify it being released as a separate title. CD Projekt RED did it a couple years back with The Witcher 3’s Blood and Wine DLC, and Ubisoft have done it now with The Curse of the Pharaohs. If Assassin’s Creed Origins was the perfect way to reinvigorate a franchise that was starting to stagnate and continually disappoint, then The Curse of the Pharaohs, its second piece of DLC, is the perfect way to bid farewell to Bayek, its leading man, who has been with us through this massive journey across ancient Egypt the entire time.