Assassin’s Creed Origins has loot boxes, but fortunately players won’t be required to fork out for them using real-world cash. Instead, Ubisoft has taken the unorthodox approach by offering them to players free of charge, as unlocks that they’ll naturally acquire throughout the game. Revolutionary!
The game’s loot boxes will contain in-game items that will aid players on their journey throughout the game. Initially uncovered during its preview build, which we went hands-on with earlier this month, it was featured that these chests were Ubisoft’s way of forcing microtransactions into the game. However, it’s now been revealed that this won’t be the case, and that players can instead earn these loot chests by simply playing the game.
Loot chests can be obtained from a traveling vendor named Reda, who sells “Heka Chests” for 3000 Drachma, Origins’ in-game currency. It was assumed that Drachma would be purchasable with real-world cash, following in the footsteps of games such as Middle-earth: Shadow of War, Forza Motorsport 7 and the upcoming Star Wars Battlefront 2, but game director Ashraf Ismail confirmed to Eurogamer that this would not be the case.
“[Reda is] a very unique shop [vendor] in the world who sells Carbon Crystals, which are the rarest item needed for crafting,” Ismail said. “You can find this stuff in the world, but the idea is if you have the money you can just buy stuff for him.
“Heda also sells a mystery box which can contain any weapon, piece of gear or item in the game. It’s a way for people who hoard lots of money, if you min-max the economy system, to gamble the money and get really unique stuff.”
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Ismail then went on to explain why they introduced Heka Chests. “The reason we did that was because we saw, even two years ago, people playing the game in different ways,” he continued. “There are people who like to go into a military location, infiltrate them, steal the loot and equipment and hopefully find some unique or legendary gear.
“Then there was a smaller set of people who would focus almost entirely on the economy, buying and selling stuff to gain as much money as they can. And we felt like, okay, that’s a valid way to play the game — it’s a part of the RPG [aspect], so we’ll let them play the economy. So, it’s one way to be able to purchase or get some of the unique items in the game.”
With loot boxes being so prevalent in modern video games, it’s great to see Ubisoft opting to not attach real money to their system for Assassin’s Creed Origins. Hopefully more games follow suit in the near future.
