Assassin's Creed: Origins, as I said in my review, is a big game within a huge world. Some of the best moments, however, are the little things that happen along the way. Below I've collected some video clips (I recommend turning your sound on) of cool kills, stealth goofs, horse disasters, heroic NPCs, and an odd glitch that turns my character into a flying breakdancer.
Bandit burnout
As I've said a few times, my favorite skill in AC:O is the predator bow skill, which allows me to fire an arrow and then steer it midair in slow motion. The slo-mo also lets me see stuff I may have missed, as in the bandit fight below. As I fire my second arrow, the bandit lobs a firebomb at me. When the bomb explodes, it lights my arrow on fire, giving my missile just enough extra damage to kill the dude. Exactly as I planned (not really)!
You had one job
I'm not sure who hired this guy as a guard. Yes, he's only level one, but you'd think he could manage to hit the haystack he knows I'm hiding in. He misses so badly I even turn the camera to see if he's shooting at something else. Come on, man. I know finding a needle in a haystack is hard, but depositing one should be easy.
Granted, this is Assassin's Creed: Origins. Maybe, until this moment in history, no one had ever hidden in a haystack before. Perhaps I personally gave birth to the tradition that would last centuries. At any rate, I finally get tired of pretending to hide, summon my eagle to go all bird all over his face, then put him out of his supervisor's misery.
Shortcuts
When I find a new quest, I'm pretty keen to get on with it, and in a sprawling game like Origins that means making a beeline for the nearest road. Due to my impatience, I sometimes have to cut through someone's heavily guarded fortress. Below, I figured I could just jump my horse down into the fort and gallop through before anyone could stop me. And that's exactly what happened, though it was a bit more of a big floppy flaming mess than I'd planned.
Happy landings
Speaking of stealth, there are several occasions where you have to rescue someone and then carry them out of danger over your shoulders. I was in the midst of one such rescue (playing as another character) when I came to a ledge. I figured maybe there was some way to jump off while still carefully carrying my passenger.
Whoops! Sorry I dumped your already-injured ass on the hard bricks before diving gracefully and safely into the soft pile of hay right next to where your aching, bruised, broken body landed. I'm a skilled assassin, by the way.
Breakin' 2: Assassin Boogaloo
I didn't experience much in the way of glitches in Assassin's Creed: Origins. Sometimes an NPC's AI would misfire, or a rampaging animal might get stuck behind some scenery, but I never saw anything major like people without faces. I didn't even fall through the map, which I think I've done in just about every AC game I've ever played.
However, after I climbed the tower in the video below and pulled out a torch to see if I could light the top of it, I began to breakdance. And I couldn't stop. And then I ascended to heaven. (I cured this ailment by fast-traveling.)
Not every hero wears a snake costume
Occasionally I took a break from righting the wrongs of ancient Egypt to act like a real dickweed. While testing the flammability of various parts of the world, I set a small pile of hay on fire. While some Greek dude wailed and ran around uselessly, as if he'd never seen all his possessions engulfed in flames before, I noticed a woman come sprinting in from across the street and put the fire out like a real hero. Maybe she should be the one saving Egypt.
Don't let me interrupt
I'm not really receptive to monologues, and when they don't happen in cutscenes I'll take any chance I can to wander away. Below, I notice an archer practicing his aim, and perplexed by his habit of taking a single arrow off the rack at a time, I walk over for a closer look. I'll say this: the dude doesn't let anyone or anything interrupt his practice.
What's my name?
AC:O has a nice feature, in that you can set your horse to ride to a waypoint automatically. You can see it below, as I'm taking a passenger home during a side-mission, and my horse is auto-following the road. Your mount will even move to avoid other horses. Sort of. While steering himself around a slower horse, my mount makes, I feel, a bigger swerve than necessary in order to completely deck some unfortunate citizen.
It's nice timing, too, as it seems like Bayek has become frustrated at being called 'bodyguard' and decided to take it out on this one particular citizen.
Poised for the kill
Invading a fort where everyone is a few levels higher than you can be a tension-filled experience. It's critical to remain hidden and wait for the perfect moment to strike. Stalking one guard, I place myself in his eventual path, then wait. Then wait. Then...
Ah, man. Work with me, wouldja?
