Should I play AC: Origins or some other franchise?

The last AC game I played to any great extent was Brotherhood, which I loved. I played it on 360.

Last year I purchased a decent gaming laptop, and I bought Valhalla when it came out a while back. I've sunk nearly 80 hours in to it. As I'm looking at wrapping it up, I'm thinking about the next game. I really enjoy open world, "medium difficulty" combat (Not really button mashing but also a little less involved than like a Souls game...) and the specific assassination mechanic in AC games is kind of a hook for me...

So, in researching the AC games that I missed, there seems to be a lot of love for AC: Origins. I'm wondering if that should be my next game... Or is there another open-world game that is pretty and fun and worth 80 hours on PC? Would appreciate y'all's thoughts...

Origins is one of my favorite games ever. If the ancient Egyptian setting appeals to you, it's an astounding piece of virtual tourism. However, mechanically I would imagine it's several steps back from Valhalla (which I haven't gotten a chance to play yet), so if you're looking for more than just a fun setting I think you'd be better off taking a break from Assassin's Creed.

As for other open world games, if you haven't played Witcher 3 I'd recommend checking it out pronto. If you haven't played any of the Bethesda RPGs (Elder Scrolls/Fallout) or even if you've just played them on console, they're well worth a look on PC especially with the vast mod scene.

Odyssey is my personal favorite in the series, but the setting of Origins is just stellar. Can't really go wrong with either.

@thebooknerd: if you liked Valhalla then either Origins or Odyssey will serve you right. It’s just a matter of which setting you prefer - ancient Egypt or ancient Greece.

Of the "nu" Assassin's Creed entries, Origins is going to be the vastly superior choice here. Odyssey is extremely bloated, has horrid itemization and RPG mechanics, and largely wastes its setting and characters on a boring story and cookie-cutter fetch quests. Plus, it has by far the worst implementation of sailing in the series, and you'll have to do a lot of it.

Origins isn't perfect, and in general I dislike the direction the series has been going in, but it at least has a compelling main character and it wasn't as mindlessly "but the numbers go up" as Odyssey.

Other than that, maybe the Shadow of War/dor games? They aren't 80 hours long, but they do have that sort of medium-difficulty combat with open world climbing and lots of mindless collectibles thing going on.

@thebooknerd: Id go with a nice change of pace. Syndicate and Rouge are great. Unlike others, I played Oddessy before Origins. While it does get grindy It has way better combat that people overlook, horses, and beautiful landscapes far surpassing the drab pyramids. Plus most pick the wrong actor cause let's face it a ton of those commenting on the merits of oddessy on a game site are likely guys and picked the guy voice actor (assuming a lot as a joke) and like mass effect, the better voice actor was a woman. She and the animators have amazing timing and made the experience really fun to see how awkward this 20 something hardened barbarian girl was in oddessy. Origins is way more realistic and serious for my taste but yeah oddessy's ending is kinda...

Syndicate is loads of fun and you grapple around like spiderman.

should be cheap too. Tons of overlooked mechanics and 2 protagonists.

Rouge is fun for straight-up good ship and gameplay.

I absolutely love the new AC games, from Origins through Valhalla, though Odyssey is my favorite.

I highly recommend them, the worlds alone are just marvels to explore, and they are really fun to play as well. For context, I was pretty much in the same boat as you. The last AC game I played was 3 (skipped Revelations), didn't care for it upon completion, and didn't touch an Assassin's game until Alex's praise of Origins. I'm glad I jumped back in because Origins and Odyssey pretty much my Game of the Years in their respective years, and Valhalla would rank top 3 this year for sure.

Origins is fantastic, or the Witcher 3 as suggested elsewhere in this thread. Alternatively, maybe just wait for Cyberpunk next week?

Origins and Odyssey are both worth it imo. Especially if you enjoyed Valhalla. It's Playstation locked, but honestly in terms of "assassinating" Im finding Ghost of Tsushima to have far more satisfying assassin gameplay mixed with open world than recent assassin's creed. If you have access to it I'd recommend that as well.

Deus Ex may interest you also? Human Revolution and Mankind Divided have pretty fun first person sneaky assassination gameplay with all the cyber power ups you can get. And of course, cyberpunk 2077 should also be good along those lines but we don't know the full quality of that game yet.

If you like stealth assassination games with engaging combat consider checking out Dishonored 1 & 2.

They're amazing games.

The campaign has more of a mission-based structure to it, but the levels themselves are open-ended and let you tackle the objective in a number of different ways.

I highly recommend these games, and they should be fairly cheap at this point :D

After much debate I went and bought the Ezio collection on sale, having not played those games since Launch...

Honestly I've been blown away at how much better they are then any modern iteration of the series in many areas. Obviously the traversal mechanics arent nearly as smooth, but other then that it has just such a tight creative vision and narrative you can really tell it was made with a focus and passion by a few designers.

Yes, you should play AC: Origins.........it is my second favorite AC game. AC2 is the best IMO. Brotherhood is a close 3rd place.

Last year I played AC: Origins and the last AC game I played before that was Black Flag when it first came out and I loved AC: Origins it thought it was really good!, didn't do everything in the game but the remote control arrow is super fun to use.

I have to second the recommendations for Witcher 3, it was the clear inspiration for"new" AC games, and has much better writing as well. If you're okay with a slight graphical downgrade origins is my favorite assassin's Creed by far and is certainly more of what you'll have enjoyed with Valhalla except with a more compelling main character in Origins.

I mean, Assassin's Creed is basically "pick your favorite historical setting and go" these days, so if you have an interest in Ubisoft's interpretation of ancient Egypt, might as well I guess.

Lets not overlook the real GOTY of the series which is AC: Revelations obviously.

IT has the best climbing mechanics with the added hook blade that makes scaling large buildings fast and lets you latch onto sides if you fall off.

Has a really vibrant and vertical city to explore

Has the best Ezio as he is older and has shed most of that insufferable cocky playboy persona from AC2

and it also has some real fun ties back to AC1

At the time it also had superb multiplayer

Honestly.. nothing wrong can be said about it!

@thebooknerd dont know how well black flag holds up these days but that one was the best one before origins came out, and its been mentioned above but the witcher 3 and red dead are the ones that modern ac games have the most cin common with. red dead redemption 2 is still the one to beat

I absolutely loved Origins. Honestly though Valhalla is similar enough that you’d be good just playing that instead

Beyond the mentioned AC/Middle Earth games I'm not sure there's much out there that fits your desire for AC style assassination combat. But in so far as methocally killing camps of people goes I'd recommend:

Far Cry 3 onwards
Metal Gear Solid V/TPP
The rebooted Tomb Raider trilogy (More linear than most of these suggestions with more puzzles but the stealth assassination aspects are similar to AC)
Horizon Zero Dawn

If you haven't played them, the Arkham games may be to your liking