The UbiBlog shared new details today on the variety of post-launch content planned for the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Origins, which will include both recurring in-game events and major standalone DLC expansions. The content will be split, with some features being free for all players, and others being held behind a pay wall and accessible through the purchase of a Season Pass.
The Assassin’s Creed Origins Season Pass will be available as part of the Gold Edition of the retail game, and will also be purchasable separately at a later time, for a currently-undisclosed price. The Season Pass will gift players with a number of in-game goodies: at launch, pass-holders will receive a bonus 500 Helix Credits and the unique Calamity Blade weapon, and then in November they will receive the Roman Centurion pack and Horus pack, two items packs containing player outfits, mounts, shields, and weapons.
The Season Pass will also grant access to two planned DLC expansions to the game. The first is “The Hidden Ones”, which takes place years after the events of the main story and introduces an all-new conflict with an occupying Roman force for the protagonist to tangle with. The second expansion is “The Curse of the Pharaohs”, which will get a little more fantastical and pit Bayek against undead monsters and fabled creatures from Egyptian mythology in a “mystical realm”. Both expansions will raise the level cap and add new assassin skills for the player to use, and are expected to drop in Q1 2018 – Hidden Ones first in January, then Curse of the Pharaohs in March.
In addition to this paid content, a number of in-game events and features are planned which will be free to all players. Starting at launch, The Nomad’s Bazaar will offer new daily quests to the player to go track down a mystery item somewhere in the game world and be rewarded with whatever you find. There will also be a dedicated Photo Mode, a la Horizon Zero Dawn, to allow players more control over the artful screenshots they take of the Egyptian scenery.
Starting 15 days after launch, the Trial of the Gods will be a regularly occurring series of in-game events, in which players face off against the Egyptian gods themselves in massively-scaled boss battles that look like something out of God of War or Shadow of the Colossus. These events will occur as special occasions and will only be accessible for a limited time each, and will offer valuable rewards for successful completion.
Assassin’s Creed Origins will feature a horde mode, a first for the series, in the Gladiator Arena, which is scheduled for arrival in early 2018. In the Arena, players will be able to go up against endless waves of enemies, to test their combat skills and hopefully run up a competitive high score. Early 2018 is also when the game’s previously-announced Discovery Tour is expected to launch, which turns the stealthy Assassin’s Creed experience into more of an educational tour through an interactive digital museum of ancient Egypt.
Assassin’s Creed Origins is scheduled for release on October 27th, 2017, for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.