Assassin's Creed Origins: The Hidden Ones (PlayStation 4) Review

Assassin's Creed Origins is a great game and it appears the developer is well aware of this; so much so that it has taken pretty much everything from the base and just replicated it here, with some slight changes. As DLC, this can occasionally work, especially if fans didn't quite get enough of what they were enjoying during that main adventure. However, with something as huge as Assassin's Creed Origins, it's unlikely many players will be scrambling for more of the same.

Sadly, that's all this has to offer. The area of Sinai is utterly forgettable - almost indistinguishable to the zones of the main game, with more deserts, more rivers, and more mountains… so many mountains... Speaking of forgettable, the story follows suit.

There are some high points, such as the monstrous fortress of Walls of the Ruler and, in particular, a series of quests where someone has hired assassins to hunt down Bayek is especially enjoyable, repurposing the Phylakes from the original and all building to a great conclusion. However, outside of the odd standout, the side-quests are considerably less interesting and the main story of the early days of the Brotherhood fails to grip the audience.

That main story is three hours or so in duration, but there's plenty more to do outside of that, at least. Tons of side-quests are stuffed in to keep players going for hour after hour of play. There are more Papyrus to puzzle out, more camps to slaughter, and more animals to butcher. Since most will likely have hit the level cap within the base outing, this expansion also adds an extra five levels to accrue experience for these activities.

The game may be getting a little large with this extra expansion, unfortunately, with loading times really getting out of hand; these are at their absolute worst when it comes to sections after an FMV. Also, age-old Ubisoft issues seem to rear their ugly heads much more here than in the vanilla version, with graphical glitches seemingly occurring more and more often, and even the occasional full crash.