I was playing Assassin's Creed: Origins the other day, and I realized something:
As I climbed around the vast temple I was exploring, searching its nooks and crannies for treasure,
I was taken aback by the sheer volume of highly-detailed assets, artwork,
gameplay and weather systems, animation sets, and even the variable audio systems.
Now, I'm sure it's no surprise to you that video games are a complicated affair.
But the absolute plethora of complicated things going on here is astounding,
and it astounded me in that moment.
Let's break it down so I can make my point.
Now, in this instance I have Bayek running from one end of the room to the other.
While doing this, he steps on sand and rock.
Now, the game has a system that recognizes what material you step on
and plays the corresponding step sound
so that when you're running on sand it doesn't sound like a wood floor,
and when you're on rock it doesn't sound like carpet.
It's a fairly common system and one that, in 2018, is considered to be basic,
but nonetheless it is impressive--
not just in this game, but in all games that implement it.
Let's continue on to another.
In Origins, almost everything can be climbed;
everything from cliff sides to ships to mastabas to pyramids can be climbed.
Now this isn't like Breath of the Wild, where you just see Link shimmying up a crevasse.
Here, Bayek actually moves his hands to reach for the appropriate ledge, hole, crack, or branch.
He shifts his weight realistically so that your heart pounds
when he goes for a big leap and barely makes it.
This requires an unholy amount of code and scripting to make every moment feel natural.
In previous AC games you could only climb select buildings-- hell, even just select SIDES of those buildings.
However, in Origins you can climb anything in the entire map--
which, as it just so happens, spans an entire country.
This means that the system must be dynamic, intelligently responding to each and every situation
regardless of the countless stimuli that may be influencing it in a particular moment.
This is a task so daunting and complicated that
literally no other game or even series has approached the
efficiency and reliability of the Assassin's Creed free running system.
Other games have free running and parkour mechanics, sure.
But they all rely on what they call "anchor points,"
or points where (sic) the game's engine can use to tie animations together
to mimic a dynamic system like the one built into Origins.
This is no simple task and it is a challenge that, as of early 2018,
no other game developer has even come close to overcoming.
There is no other way of putting it:
Assassin's Creed's free running system is downright incredible.
But there's more.
Everywhere you go in this temple or game is accurately drenched in
actual hieroglyphics taken from real ancient Egyptian tombs, temples, and papyri.
Even (in) the game's promotional materials, hieroglyphs actually have a translation.
They didn't need to do this; indeed, most people who see this
simply think it's a collection of Egyptian-y symbols and quickly forget about it.
But no, Ubisoft Montreal actually went to the trouble of combining a collection of symbols
that translate into a message that references the Assassin's Creed's... well, Creed.
And there are many other small details that make the world in this game seem real,
such as the fact that NPCs all have their own routines and schedules that they operate by.
If you throw a bloodied body into the Nile it'll attract crocodiles
and the blood will spread throughout the water.
There are realistic mirages as you ride through the desert.
If you drop a sword on sand it will sink.
Depending on where in the Nile you are swimming
the water will have varying degrees of murkiness.
Grass, wheat, flowers, and bushes realistically press down when stepped on,
and after an intense fight or jump Bayek will limp in pain,
and even when you catch on fire other villagers and NPCs will help put you out.
I could go on, but I think I've made my point.
There are so many little details in Origins and every single AC game that it's frankly ridiculous.
What's even more impressive is just how effortlessly these systems work together.
Now, not many people even process how much is happening on screen at a given moment.
But, to steal a line from Apple, "Technology is at its best when it's invisible."
And for me, there's no denying that Ubisoft is the (veritable) Houdini of gaming.
Okay, I know that parallelism was a bit of a stretch,
(laughing) but the Houdini line just sounded so cool I kept it, I'm sorry-- okay, moving on. Regardless.
Every release, they improve each system and make a new, exciting world to explore.
After all, to me, at its core Assassin's Creed is about exploring and experiencing
worlds from the past in a way that literally no other artistic medium would allow.
Most other games that are set in the past try to provide a snippet of that world
and allow you to peek inside to get an idea of what it was like.
But Ubisoft, they just say "screw it" and recreate the entire country. It really is phenomenal.
Now, because I can already foresee the pedantic comment mentioning it, I'll address it now:
many people have been frustrated by Ubisoft because of their tendency to rush out the product,
as we saw with Assassin's Creed: Unity and even Watchdogs, which I think is fair.
They most certainly have made mistakes, which frankly would be expected
from a company with thousands of employees and countless projects going on in a given fiscal year.
However, we can't let a couple mistakes taint the incredible work that goes on in Ubisoft Studios.
When you break down what they are achieving with each and every release,
even just on a purely technological level, it is remarkable.
Now what amazes me about all of this is not how incredibly Ubisoft Studios consistently performs,
but how few people give them their due credit.
Especially after Origins-- which, after all, is what spurred on the creation of this video.
It's my personal belief that if any other studio released a game that did what AC does every entry,
it would instantly be nominated for Game of the Year and would be heralded
as one of the greatest releases the industry had seen in years.
I can point to Horizon Zero Dawn to make this point, but we'll address that in just a moment.
Going back to Origins, the game dropped on October 27th
and by mid-November not a single gaming publication was talking about it on their front page.
I know this because I actually used the Wayback Machine
to see what these websites were talking about on their home pages
and sure enough, almost nothing on Origins.
Instead they were going on and on about Super Mario Odyssey,
a game which launched on the same day and offered significantly less to do.
Now, I understand the quality of the game is not directly proportional to the quantity of material therein.
However, Super Mario Odyssey is just not as impressive
when compared to Origins, Horizon Zero Dawn, or even Persona 5.
Freaking Super Mario Odyssey was nominated
for Game of the Year at the Game Awards and Origins was passed over.
Now, I know that all of this is subjective.
Personally, I was wildly impressed by Origins and have been impressed
by every Assassin's Creed game that's been released in the last five years.
I know not everyone feels the same and that it's possible Odyssey simply connected with more people.
Same with Horizon Zero Dawn. It tried to do many of the things
that Assassin's Creed has been doing or at least attempting to do for years:
give the player a vast open world, a dedicated protagonist,
a fast-paced combat system, cinematic cutscenes,
and graphics that make all other games look like alpha builds.
And to be fair, it succeeded. Horizon Zero Dawn was certainly one of the best games of 2017,
but at least it was recognized and the development team behind it
was publicly rewarded and lauded for their work.
And I guess this brings me to my main point, which is that I can't help but feel as though
the entire gaming community takes Ubisoft, and more specifically Assassin's Creed, for granted.
We expect massive open worlds that work flawlessly
and we don't want to give them the shout-out that they deserve
when they achieve what was previously impossible.
Technologically speaking these games are remarkable,
constantly pushing the boundary and redefining WHAT is possible.
You may not enjoy AC games and you may prefer Super Mario Odyssey,
but you have to admit that what they achieve year after year, release after release, is wildly impressive.
And we should, at the very least, give the talented artists
and developers behind these games the credit that they deserve.