Assassin's Creed Origins recreates Ancient Egypt's most famous landmark "almost 100%"
With history as its playground, Assassin's Creed has always revelled in the perfect recreations of time periods long lost. From the spires of the Italian Renaissance to the grim gargoyles of Notre Dame, Ubi loves its true slices of history and Assassin's Creed Origins is no different. Ancient Egypt positively hums with history and creative director Ashraf Ismail is proud that Egypt's most famous landmarks across the Giza Plateau have been recreated block by sandy block for Bayek to explore.
"The pyramids took a long time. The Giza plateau had lots of iteration," he tells us at Gamescom. "We needed to nail the balance. Making sure that we actually respected the architecture. 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 and why would we be interested in going to the great pyramid."
Lore wise, that might be something to do with his explanation of the Assassin's Creed Origins giant snake but it'll be fascinating to see what's hiding inside these tombs. Let's hope it's not just scarab beetles - case in point, you have to follow these pesky critters to find secret rooms... "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 that whole area of Giza with the Sphinx, the great pyramids, the smaller pyramids," Ismail confirms. "It took a lot of time to get right". I'm already counting down to Animus time. Two months and counting....
Looking for more Ancient Egyptian action? Here's 25 minutes of Assassin's Creed Origins looking incredible, and posing as many questions as it answers
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Louise Blain is a journalist and broadcaster specialising in gaming, technology, and entertainment. She is the presenter of BBC Radio 3’s monthly Sound of Gaming show and has a weekly consumer tech slot on BBC Radio Scotland. She can also be found on BBC Radio 4, BBC Five Live, Netflix UK's YouTube Channel, and on The Evolution of Horror podcast. As well as her work on GamesRadar, Louise writes for NME, T3, and TechRadar. When she’s not working, you can probably find her watching horror movies or playing an Assassin’s Creed game and getting distracted by Photo Mode.