For the last four years, the team at Ubisoft Montreal behind Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag has been crafting a new beginning for the Assassin’s Creed franchise.

In Assassin’s Creed Origins, the action takes place in Ancient Egypt, the most mysterious place in history, during a crucial period that will shape civilization. Playing as Bayek, a protector of Egypt whose personal story will lead to the creation of the Assassin’s Brotherhood, players will plunge into a living, systemic open world, and discover the secrets behind the Great Pyramids, forgotten myths, the last pharaohs, and – engraved in long-lost hieroglyphics – the origin story of the Assassin’s Brotherhood.

Assassin’s Creed Origins is a brand-new vision for the franchise embracing Action-RPG elements where players level up, loot and choose their abilities to customize their very own skilled Assassin. They will experience a completely new combat system, allowing them to attack and defend multiple enemies at once and equip ultra-rare weapons against unique and powerful bosses.

A revamped narrative experience allows total freedom for players to choose and complete quests at their own pace, each telling an intense and emotional story full of colorful characters and meaningful objectives.

With an entire country to explore, from deserts to lush oases, from the Mediterranean Sea to the tombs of Giza, players will fight against dangerous factions and wild beasts as they explore this gigantic and unpredictable land.

Ubisoft announced that the Assassin’s Creed® Origins Photo Mode contest will run from December 7, 2017, at 6:00 am PST to January 10, 2018, at 8:59 am PST. Each week, the Assassin’s Creed Origins dev team will reveal a new theme at the official AC website and Twitter @assassinscreed and participants will need to submit their photo based on the week’s theme on the EasyPromos App portal. The Assassin’s Creed Origins dev team will judge the competition and choose five winners each week – one grand prize winner and four runner-up winners. This week’s theme is Wild Life, which will have players exploring the living, breathing world of Assassin’s Creed Origins.

Each runner-up winner will receive a season pass code, or if they already own the season pass, an official Assassin’s Creed shirt. Grand prize winners will receive the same prizes as the runner-up winners, and will also have their photography displayed at Ubisoft Montreal and will receive their own printed version from Cook & Becker, a high-quality online art dealership. For further information about the official rules, please visit here.

With more than 20 million pictures taken, the in-game Photo mode feature in Assassin’s Creed Origins provides players with a unique way to capture the beauty of their journey across Ancient Egypt and share their best memories with friends and the community. Photo mode also offers many options to create unique photos with 17 different filters and several parameters to play with, such as exposure, vignetting, color temperature, tint, saturation and noise.

Anyone can see creations from the community directly displayed and geolocalized in the in-game world map. For inspiration, players can also discover original concept art created by the dev team, popping up every day in the world map. The official website also offers a perfect way to browse through a gallery of pictures taken by the community. While the Assassin’s Creed Origins dev team will be judging the competition, players and non-players with a Ubisoft account can “Like” their favorite photos in the gallery on the official Photo mode website.

For discovering the top fan pictures selected by the Assassin’s Creed Origins development team so far, please visit here.

Key Features

• THE MYSTERIES OF ANCIENT EGYPT: Discover lost tombs, the Great Pyramids, mummies, and the gods.
• AN ORIGIN STORY Start at the beginning and uncover the origin story of the Assassin's Brotherhood.
• ALL-NEW COMBAT Experience new combat mechanics and use powerful weapons to take down epic enemies.
• MEANINGFUL QUESTS Play intense stories with impactful objectives at your own pace.
• EXPLORE A FULL COUNTRY In busy cities and down the Nile, you’ll never run out of things to do.

In the Deluxe Edition ($69.99), gamers will receive the base game, a printed version of the hand-drawn world map, the game’s official soundtrack and the Digital Deluxe Pack, including the Ambush at Sea naval mission, the Desert Cobra Pack and three bonus Ability points. The Gold Edition ($99.99) will include all of the Deluxe Edition Digital content plus the Season Pass. The Season Pass will give players access to all upcoming major expansions and equipment sets. Both Deluxe and Gold Editions will be also available on digital stores. A Gold Edition with a physical Steelbook ($109.99) is also available. For further details, please visit here.

Assassin's Creed Origins is currently available for the Xbox One, PS4 and PC.