Assassin's Creed: Origins is just weeks away, so naturally Ubisoft has gotten themselves into as many different publications as possible. Game Director Ashraf Ismail, who has been a prominent figurehead for the game since E3 2017, spoke with GamesMaster magazine about the emphasis on making sure the game wasn't lazily packed with filler content.
He said:
"[…] not only is Egypt a place you want to explore because it’s a world of unique locations but by taking the time to go there you’re going to find something that has value for you, whether that’s lore or gameplay. We’re staying far away from what we call ‘floating collectibles’. We want things in the world to have meaning.
When we did all this research on Egypt we found all these really kooky, unique people. Real people, real events that are much smaller than the grand stage – the Cleopatra/Caesar stuff – and we asked ourselves ‘how can we provide these experiences, these stories to players?’ and quest structure was the most obvious choice. For example, there was a scribe in the north of Egypt who was obsessed with beer. He wrote papyrus after papyrus about the value and effect of beer throughout his life. And his views changed as time went on. This is a character you meet in the game and experience his unique perspective."
What's incredible about Origins is how much work has gone into making sure that the pyramids in the game are 100% representative of their real-life counterparts. Ismail described the process as needing "lots of iteration" over "a long time."
"The architecture is respected almost 100%. All the chambers, all the corridors are the exact same ones. Same angles! We’ve added our own hidden chambers that have not been found yet and it’s where we infuse our lore. We put a lot of effort to make sure that first it worked with gameplay, but it was also what is very respectful of what is known and what is there in the whole area of Giza with the Sphinx, the Great Pyramid, the smaller pyramids. It took a lot of time to get it right."
A lot of Assassin's Creed: Origins content has come out over the last couple of days. Here's a rundown if you're interested:
Assassin's Creed: Origins releases on Xbox One, PS4, and PC on October 27th, 2017.
[GamesMaster magazine Issue #322 via WCCFTech]
