Five Small Problems That Need Fixing In Assassin’s Creed Origins

Considering the troubled launch some Assassin’s Creed titles have seen (especially Unity), the rollout of Origins has been relatively smooth. However, even without crippling technical issues, the game could still use a few minor tune-ups in other areas to make the experience more enjoyable.

After many hours exploring Egypt, we put together this list of little fixes that would go a long way. Are there bigger things we’d like to see addressed? Sure – especially the level-gating of story missions – but changes on that scale would effectively require a massive design overhaul. These five things are more practical in terms of what players could realistically see in upcoming patches.

The Objective Marker
Egypt has a lot of sand, and by extension, so does the map in Assassin’s Creed Origins. That’s not a problem by itself, but the decision to make the objective marker a gold and black diamond is. That color choice means that your quest goal frequently blends in with the sandy yellow background, making it difficult to use the map to get your bearings at a glance. Sure, you can move the map around until the marker goes off-screen and an indicator arrow appears, but the easier fix would just be to have the yellow mission marker pulsate, making it more conspicuous amid the other map icons and golden dunes.

Fix The Auto-Travel
While riding on a mount or vehicle, you can hold a button to turn on auto-navigation. This makes the game determine a route to your primary or secondary objective, then follow it automatically. The problem? The logic governing your routes is questionable at best. The feature seems to have about a 50-percent success rate when it comes to creating a sensible path. The other half of the time, you are likely to gallop right by your destination for some reason – assuming you’re lucky enough to have the game send you in the correct cardinal direction in the first place. This feature needs to either work better or be removed, because it’s too dodgy and unpredictable to be useful as-is.

Easier Tool Access
Have you spent your hard-earned ability points on sleep darts, poison darts, and firebombs? If so, you’ve probably realized that you can only conveniently use one of them, since the game only lets you equip a single type of tool at once. You can technically switch between them by going to the menu and manually swapping, but if the game lets you do that (even mid-combat), why not make them all easily accessible through quick-select? As it is, it feels like cool parts of your repertoire are arbitrarily being held hostage for no reason.

Add Berserk Darts
Speaking of cool darts, a certain variety is missing in Origins. Berserk darts, a fantastic tool in previous AC games like Syndicate and Black Flag, have been replaced by a less useful alternative that requires close range. This means that you are less likely to see the hilarious and satisfying chaos unfold as enemies turn on each other, relying instead on more practical options that can be used from a distance. In previous games, berserk darts were a fun way to throw a wrench in the enemy’s formations, and we’d love to do that more reliably in Origins.

Stone Circle Dialogue
The best part of hunting down the stone circles is the flashback conversations that occur between Bayek and his son. However, while those are happening, you are solving a puzzle that involves aligning a shape with stars in the night sky. What happens if you finish the puzzle before they are done talking? The conversation cuts out, and you don’t get to hear the rest of it. As you guide the shape near its correct place in the sky, it automatically pulls into place and ends the scene. Ubisoft should add a confirmation button to lock in your solution to ensure that players don’t accidentally miss the interesting dialogue.

For more Assassin’s Creed Origins, read our review and our list of spoiler-free tips.