The biggest draw of Assassin’s Creed Origins seems to be its open world, and it seems like Ubisoft agrees with that assertion. We recently held an interview with the game director Ashraf Ismail, and we asked him what he felt was going to be the defining factor of the upcoming title, to which Ismail said that the open world setting of ancient Egypt, which is probably the best the series has ever done, is going to be a massive draw for all those who play the game.
“I think the world of ancient Egypt itself is the most magnificent world we’ve ever built,” Ismail told GamingBolt. “I really hope I say that without any arrogance, I said that out of pride for our engineers, our artists. This was a big undertaking for us to be able to build this world. I’m not just talking about the physical aspect of it, I’m also talking about the lore aspect, how do we engrave the mysticism of the world, the mystery that is naturally embodied within when we think of ancient Egypt. How do we integrate that into the world and have it be meaningful to players, meaningful to the birth of the brotherhood.”
“We’ve worked very hard, that’s why we’ve taken three and a half years,” Ismail continued. “Egypt itself, I think it’s magnificent, beautiful, it looks amazing in 4K. It’s an homage to our talented developers. But it’s also the stories, all the quests, all the characters you meet. There’s some really wonderful moments. I hope people get lost in the world, are in awe of what they discover. We’ve filled the world with secrets and discoveries, and magical little moments. We took a lot of pride building this world, it’s taken us three years to build this world. I hope it will blow everyone out of the water, and that they’ll be lost in this world, in awe and grandeur.”
From everything we’ve seen of Origins so far, it definitely does seem like the game’s open world has a much more different flavour and context to it than what we’ve become used to seeing in the Assassin’s Creed series. It also looks like the game will only benefit from going so far back in the timeline of the series’ mythos – the farthest back it has ever gone, actually – and it should be interesting to see how the formation of the Assassin’s Brotherhood connects with the setting of ancient Egypt.
We’ll be posting our full interview with Ashraf Ismail on the site soon enough, so stay tuned to GamingBolt for more updates on the game. Assassins Creed Origins launches in October for the PS4, Xbox One and PC.