The Assassin’s Creed franchise’s emphasis on telling a modern-day story alongside its historical tales has never been favored. However, the modern-day missions became particularly divisive after Desmond Miles’ death in Assassin’s Creed III. Interestingly, Origins brings the character’s story back into the fold, due to the actions of Layla Hassan. It won’t be the last we see of Layla either, as she’s set to return in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.
During an interview with GameSpot, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s Creative Director, Jonathan Dumont, said content set in the present will act as a continuation of that in Origins.

[Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s modern-day story] is definitely a continuation of Layla’s story, and it will evolve the story quite a bit. You’ll get some character development in there. She’s going to change and take an adventure that goes to places that you don’t expect, which is an interesting way of looking at it. Layla was introduced in Origins, but now we’re digging into what she’s looking for. I don’t want to talk too much about it because when it comes to the present-day, some people like it, some don’t. You know how it is. But the way we do it is if you want to dive a little bit more into it, you can still explore, and we have optional dialogue choices you can pick to ask more questions about what’s going on. Or you can choose to ...