Here's 25 minutes of Assassin's Creed Origins looking incredible, and posing as many questions as it answers

Assassin's Creed Origins' continue to look amazing and here's 25 minutes of new Gamescom footage showing off missions and that incredible world. 

The video shows Bayek visiting Memphis and getting involved in all sorts of missions, investigations and fights while dashing across rooftops and taking in the sights. And what sights - it looks lovely, with an almost lavish level of detail and draw distances that literally go on for miles. 

There's quite a lot to take in there though so let's breakdown and go through the most important things to notice and question. 

Look. At. That. View. 

About 15m10s in Bayek climbs a building and casually glances out across Egypt. There's so much of it, and there's no loss of detail or fogging as the view stretches off. We've heard how this game will be much more of a seamless experiences so, in theory, you should be able to ride out to those little buildings waaaay off in the distance. 

What's an Animus Pulse when it's at home? 

This is some interesting phrasing. Usually Assassin's Creed would have called it Eagle Vision or something similar. However, we do know there's big future part to the game that isn't being talked about just yet. The fact that this is so blatantly recalling the present/future implies the game is moving back to a more clearly defined 'you're playing a memory from a chair' set up.  

Investigations are back

That Animus Pulse is used by Bayek to search out a number of clues about a poisoned cow and, later, a fire. Much like Syndicate's murders this sees you gathering clues to recreate what happened and then watching it play out. It looks like this will a big part of the game and likely a major mechanic. 

So that's how Synchronization works this time

While Synchronization is back in Origins, its function has changed this time. It's no longer about unlocking the map - that's what Senu, your eagle, does. Here we can see what you actually get, which is to unlock a fast travel point, update the map with location specific objectives and to increase both Senu's perception and your XP. 

Who's Aya, the Lizard and what are The Order? 

There's a lot of new names popping in this gameplay. Firstly Aya: she's clearly an old flame of Bayek's from the past, and the two still obviously have feeling for each other. She also looks every inch the assassin, even though they don't technically exist yet, although the two clearly have similar goals and ideas. Part of that seem to involve the mysterious Order - a group mentioned repeatedly in much the same way as the Templars usually are, making me wonder if it's the first incarnation of the group that will eventually become the assassins' mortal enemy. There's also a character called the Lizard. There's previously been an enemy mentioned called the Crocodile, so either the Order like cool nicknames or these are just codes to refer to as yet unknown villains. 

What is going with this hippo? 

When Bayek and Aya first meet it's in front of this hippo for... some reason. Is it dead? Asleep? Or do all the cool kids use the dead animal as a hang out?