Origin doesn’t have loot boxes, but you can still spend money.
With more and more big games adding microtransactions in unexpected places, we thought it was important to break down exactly what’s available for purchase with real money in Assassin’s Creed Origins.
In the grand scheme of things, Origins’ microtransactions are pretty harmless, with no randomization or loot boxes. Instead, you can buy Helix Credits to spend on specific cosmetics for you or your mount, legendary weapons, and “Time Saver” items and map markers.
Those Time Savers include in-game money, as well as crafting materials for upgrading and skill points for unlocking new abilities. You can also pay $2 each to automatically reveal the locations of the certain secrets, including Ancient Tombs, Hermit Locations, and Stone Circles, however there’s no map for the trickier Papyrus Puzzles.
The key thing is that, apart from purely cosmetic items, there’s nothing here that simply playing the game won’t already get you. The legendary items, which each cost $2.50, have specific perks and abilities attached to them, but they aren’t wildly different from weapons you might randomly stumble across.
Additionally, they always start at the level your character is when you purchase them, meaning they often aren’t a huge jump in power from whatever you might already have, and will become obsolete without upgrades.
Are the Microtransactions Worth It?
As Alanah mentions in her Origins review, the game doesn’t feel balanced around purchases in any way, so you can play confident that you don’t need to be spending money.
The Time Saver label for things like the materials, money, skill points, and map markers pretty clearly targets them toward people looking to spend $2-3 to get through Origins quicker. But in my eyes leveling up, finding better loot, and exploring the map for secrets is the game, and paying to cut that out seems sort of pointless.
The cosmetics are also up to personal preference. Would you spend $5 to ride around Egypt on a unicorn? If so, you are in luck. If not, you’ll still find mounts and outfits (albeit, less flashy ones) through playing the game normally.
We’re going to continue keeping a close eye on the microtransaction models of big games going forward, especially as Assassin’s Creed Origins planned DLC starts releasing.
Tom Marks is an Associate Editor focusing on PC gaming at IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.