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Insect portrait attempts in ASSASSIN ’S CREED ORIGINS ’ Discovery Tour.
Something that I did not expect to have a strong opinion about in Assassin’s Creed Origins’ Discovery Tour mode was the representation of mosquitos. Mosquitos are complicated lifeforms to find interesting because they are so closely related to the transmission of disease, including malaria, yellow fever, Zika, and West Nile virus. Although they can be biologically curious, they’re not (as far as I have found) in any way lovable, and they are also an active threat to so many people around the world.
Mosquitos came up because, when I loaded in to Assassin’s Creed Origins to poke around in the edutainment Discovery Tour mode, I found myself near water. I decided to examine the local wildlife and, as well as a couple of crocodiles, I could see a cloud of insects. From a distance they were small smudges above the water, so I decided to get closer and see how much detail the game world would offer me.
But here’s the interesting thing: Mosquitos don’t resolve into anything more detailed. They stay as smears no matter how close you get. I’m used to games doing that because often it’s too big an ask for developers to render the world in minute detail when only a fraction of the playerbase will notice it. You put just enough detail so the scene looks right from the distance and perspective. It’s why I’m used to birdsong without birds in forests, for example.
But Assassin’s Creed Origins takes pride in so many other little details that the mosquito decision stuck out. To take another insect as a
Assassin’s Creed Origins takes pride in so many other little details
comparison, bees do stand up to close scrutiny. They’re not entirely right— my screenshots look like there’s been a small explosion in a model bee factory rather than depicting purposeful insects—but they have detailed bodies and wings and legs.
bee in a bonnet
I’ve been thinking about why this is the case, and I assume it’s a matter of prioritizing creatures the player is likely to look at. The bees I saw populated an apiary you could visit. Maybe that apiary has a plot function, or maybe it’s just another venue a player can head to, but either way it’s a space dedicated to the function of bees in relation to people.
Mosquitos offer none of that human value. In fact, they have been described as possibly the deadliest creature on the face of the planet, and bring the exact opposite of joy and productivity. In conjunction with Origins’ photo mode (which is what I’ve largely been using the Discover Tour to tinker with), the choice to have smudges instead of insects kept coming back into my mind.
Composing an image in the game’s photo mode involves choices—some are made by me, the player, but others long ago by complete strangers. In Origins I can choose which direction to face and whether to zoom in and crop out details. I might mess with the color options or fiddle with the depth of field slider.
By opening this box of tricks I can really build an image around a detailed flamingo or a waterlily or a cat, but—via whatever decisionmaking process it was—mosquitos have been pre-vetoed as candidates for detailed close-ups. That’s not to say the smudges can’t be put to use aesthetically. They just also represent a choice, either conscious or unconscious, over what was worth detailing and what wasn’t.