![]() ![]() ![]() It had to go in and introduce this economy into the game that devalues the experience as a whole and could potentially exploit those with impulsive tendencies. Making tons and tons of money off of selling an Assassin’s Creed game, one that had a lot of hype after its brief hiatus no less, is simply not enough for Ubisoft. Now Assassin’s Creed Origins is still pretty fun, but it sucks that is has to be fun in spite of its microtransactions. Oh, and they also sold a $59,000 pair of headphones. I’d like to take this time to remind you that all of this is in a game that not only costs $60 on top of it all but also offers a season pass and came in five different collector’s and deluxe editions including one that costed $800. Their subtle nature combined with the randomized loot drops not guaranteeing the item you want is especially predatory for those prone to gambling. You can buy the boxes with Drachmas earned in-game, but you could always mosey on to the shop to get more Drachmas. Now the boxes don’t hit you over the head by trying its hardest to get you to buy it, but it does insidiously lead you to the shop. But you’ll have to dig through a lot of boxes if you have a preferred weapon (I myself have been stuck with a pretty crappy Hunter Bow and am in need of a replacement). Now I opened up two boxes from the missions and got a legendary scepter and an epic Predator Bow, so their offers aren’t insignificant. But if you want more, you have to cough up 3,000 Drachmas per box. Once per day, you can acquire one Heka Chest by completing a mission. Oh yes, of course Origins has loot boxes! Each one offers a random weapon or shield. Even if the gameplay was truly balanced to allow you to have fun without the microtransactions, buying them essentially unbalances it. They, as Sterling put it, invented a problem and is selling us a solution. You could argue all you want about how the microtransactions are optional, but the fact that the resources are so slow to acquire makes it seem like they were designed that way to make the microtransactions as tempting as possible. The fact that these microtransactions in particular are called “Time Savers” in the store really hammers this home. As game critic Jim Sterling said in his video on Middle Earth: Shadow of War’s similar microtransactions, allowing you to skip stuff implies that the stuff isn’t worth playing. In selling these items, Ubisoft devalues your time spent in the game by putting a price on time saved. I remember a time where you could just press a button combination at the title screen to get more resources. This makes them especially tantalizing as nearly all of the main missions recommend you being at a certain level as enemies even five levels higher than you are way to strong for you to kill. As for the Ability Points, they’re only found by leveling up which takes a long time. The materials are found from animals and convoys running around the outskirts of towns or roads, both of which can be a pain to kill as animals are strong and convoys are on horseback. Drachmas are easily found in the game, but the shop essentially turns them into the vapid regular currencies featured in so many mobile games that aren’t really all that useful and just falsify a sense of progression while the Helix Credits are the premium currency that actually get stuff done. Not only that, but you can buy Drachmas used to buy and upgrade weapons in the game, materials used to upgrade armor, and Ability Points to invest in new skills. So the usual claims that the DLC are just cosmetic and don’t affect the game go right out the window. This means that instead of hunting for items from random drops in the game in order to get stronger, most of which are common with a few epic tier items here and there, you can just buy legendary ones. I managed to snag some weaponry in the main game with the same attributes, namely the weapons offered in the Gold Edition, and their poisoning effect makes them effective against opponents even a few levels higher than you. These weapons offer some of the strongest abilities in the game. The gear and pack shops offer powerful legendary weapons in addition to cosmetic DLC. Screenshot by Jack FennimoreAssassin’s Creed® Origins ![]()
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