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The Beautiful Absurdity of Assassin’s Creed Origins: The Curse of the Pharaohs

Assassin’s Creed Origins‘ latest DLC, The Curse of the Pharaohs, takes Bayek to yet another new area of Egypt: the ancient capital of Thebes, where something is seriously wrong.

Through Bayek’s journey, he’s faced all kinds of perils, but nothing like what lies ahead in The Curse of the Pharaohs. Supernatural from start to finish, it’s packed with undead mummies to kill, restless Pharaohs to put back to rest, and some fantastical realms of the netherworld to wander through. These are for sure the highlight of the DLC — dreamlike worlds where ships sail through fields of wheat; where giant flowers the size of buildings bloom; and giant scorpions ready to attack roam. It doesn’t matter that it feels out of place compared to the rest of the game; it’s all just a marvel to take in.

If you’re wanting historical realism, then The Curse of the Pharaohs isn’t the best content that Assassin’s Creed Origins can offer you — there’s the new Discovery Mode for that — but as far as visual spectacle goes, then this latest DLC is a cut above the rest. Every time Assassin’s Creed Origins gets a new update, I swear it looks even better than it did before, and The Curse of the Pharaohs is no exception. Realistic character models and locations that look like intricate paintings, it’s an awe-inspiring canvas that’s been injected with a new level of surrealism — and it works so well.

This is certainly a case of where pictures speak louder than words, so take a look at the screenshots below. All images are of in-game footage taken on an Xbox One X using Assassin’s Creed Origins‘ built-in photo mode. I just can’t get enough.

To see images larger, click on them. To see full-size 4K images, right click and save to your PC.


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Editor in chief // Kim's been into video games since playing Dizzy on her brother's Commodore 64 as a nipper. She'll give just about anything a go, but she's got a particular soft spot for indie adventures. If she's not gaming, she'll be building Lego, reading a thriller, watching something spooky or... asleep. She does love to sleep.