Endings are some of my favorite parts of video games. I love closure and finality in regards to stories. It brings about a sense of accomplishment to me.
Sometimes they can even make you want to play the game you just beat even more, and explore all over again.
The Assassin?s Creed series has had some pretty great and, in my (possibly) unpopular opinion, memorable endings.
I remember most of all of the endings, save for Assassin?s Creed IV: Blag Flag, Syndicate, and Union. Of those, I only confused the endings of Brotherhood and Revelations, somehow.
They were all fantastic endings. I love a good cliff hanger. They leave so much up to the viewer and anything could happen afterwards. These endings sent my mind racing with possibility.
Assassin?s Creed Origins, not so much.
I want to preface all of this by saying;
I love this game. The game as a whole is wonderful. This is strictly about my thoughts on the ending itself.
While the story of Origins is the beginning of the creed as we know it, and how the idea of the ?Brotherhood? came to be, it?s ending doesn?t leave anything to the imagination.
The beginning of the end starts with Bayek and Aya standing on a beach with Aya preparing to set sail to Rome to kill Septimius and Caesar, and finally complete her (and Bayek?s) cycle of vengeance.
On the beach, Aya informs Bayek that they?re breaking up. That their love was lost the day their son, Khemu, died.
Oh, and that their love was never possible. Can?t forget that.
Bayek drops the eagle skull that was on his outfit onto the sand, stating that he is no longer a father or a lover, and that their creed was finished, and?he walks away.
Aya picks up the skull and it reveals the imprint of what we know as the Assassin?s Creed symbol.
You play as Aya for the final two fights, one of which consists of another forced sea battle. The final battle places you in Rome, where you slay Septimius, and then move on to lead the assassination on Caesar during a meeting.
There?s a small time skip, and we see Aya walking in on Cleopatra with her child. Aya subtly threatens the queen, letting her know that she make it around to her in time.
Aya leaves, and she has a brief monologue about being a ?hidden one?, and writes to Bayek to inform him that their cycle of vengeance has ended, and that she is founding a bureau (aka a ?brotherhood?) in Rome.
She tells him how Aya died when Khemu died, and that she is now known as Amunet.
And?that?s it.
We don?t even end the game in the real world, with Layla. The last we see of her is shortly after her camp is attacked, and Dee is supposedly killed, Dr. Miles finds her as she is coming out of the Animus, and asks her to join him, to which she eventually agrees.
There?s no insane, mind-blowing ending. There?s nothing left to wonder about.
Now, I?m going to go back through these scenes, and break down what?s wrong with all of this. Buckle up.
We?ll start with the beach scene, the incredibly forced break up.
The entire game, whenever we see Bayek and Aya, they were being generally wonderful to each other. Despite their situation, they showed genuine love towards one another.
For them to be at the end of their Journey, and Aya to suddenly want to end it? It doesn?t make sense.
I felt truly sorry for Bayek in this sequence. For all his fighting, he had lost everything, even the one thing we could have all sworn was safe and sacred.
Despite that feeling, however, Bayk didn?t put up much a fight. He seemed to plead for a second, stating ?let the gods decide.? You could hear it in his voice that he didn?t want to leave Aya. Abubakar Salim (the voice behind Bayek) portrayed that really well.
Bayek and Aya are by and large the best protagonists in the series thus gfar. But, after this scene, it really impacted my opinons of them, Aya more so than Bayek. If Ubisoft?s goal was to create a cold woman, I guess they succeeded.
The writing is what killed the relationship here. I don?t believe the couple should have split at the end?and that?s where I?ll leave that.
What I did like from the beach scene, however, was the reveal of the assassins symbol. I thought that was really clever. I don?t know anything about animals, and never did much research on eagles, even after the first game, but this revelation was cool and unexpected.
But it really was the only thing I really liked in all of this.
Next we begin a string of battles as Aya, the first of which is on a boat. Because?well, we had to be forced onto a boat again.
I?m probably in the minority here (again), but I hate being forced into vehicles and vehicle related battles in video games. It?s the very reason why I still haven?t played Assassin?s Creed IV: Black Flag. It?s why the first Mass Effect will never be the best in the series. It?s why Batman Arkham Knight is my least favorite Arkham game ?
Don?t force me into a damn vehicle. Let me be the hero and punch the baddies with my fists or whatever.
Fighting Septimius was about what you would expect from a final fight in an Assassin?s Creed game. It?s a bit too long even with timing your attacks perfectly to dodge his spinning chains, fill up your adrenaline gauge and brutally stab him a bunch. But that?s always been the problem with boss fights in the series.
After this, you sneak into a meeting where Caesar is, and trigger the final set of cutscenes.
Aya revealing herself as Amunet did nothing for me. I know when she said the name I was supposed to have an ?aha!? moment. But I didn?t.
What it did lead me to do was open up Google.
When was the last time you played Assassin?s Creed II? I played and beat it shortly after it came out at the end of 2009. That was it. Basically 9 years ago. Amunet was mentioned once, I believe. And by ?mentioned? I mean there?s a statue of her inside of an assassin?s den in Italy.
Amunet Statue in ACII
Unless you are a hardcore Assassin?s Creed lore buff, you most likely didn?t remember this either.
It was supposed to have impact. I still think it?s a neat reference, to bring it back like that. But it just didn?t hit me the way I?m sure Ubisoft intended it to.
Now, in Assassin?s Creed lore, we know that Amunet (Aya) goes on to eventually kill Cleopatra by way of an asp (a poisonous snake).
I felt that this should have been the final mission. Assassinating Cleo should have been something we got to take part in, not just hear about in the second game.
She screwed over Bayek and Aya once she had gotten her seat of power alongside Caesar, a part of the story that actually had me on the edge of my seat, texting my friends about how pissed I was at these people, wanting to slay Septimius and the lot right there. To not get the opportunity to take out Cleo felt wrong.
I was left feeling empty, honestly. And confused, after the game places you back in Bayek?s shoes in Memphis, and?there?s no credits. I honestly had to Google and see if I had really beaten the story. The second time during this ending that I had to resort to Google to check out something.
In the end, what we?re left with are a few reveals that?ultimately don?t change what we already learned from the games that came before it.
I loved the game as a whole, and I want to reiterate that here. I loved the world and Bayek and Aya (at least for a while). The side quests are great little short stories that tie into the story in a great way. But?that ending.
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