In its opening hours, Assassin's Creed Odyssey isn't afraid to show its hand: a full deck of adventure, combat, emotion, and brisk adventure that calls to the series' highest points.
When you’ve only played six hours of a game that could reach well beyond 50 hours, you don’t want to rush judgement. And let’s be honest, hyperbole is rarely a friend, especially if it only serves to bite you in the ass a few days down the line. Yet here we are. In the past month I’ve had about eight hours with Assassin’s Creed Odyssey–a large chunk of the opening section and a tiny sampling of the endgame–and if the quality and momentum maintains, it is on track to become the best Assassin’s Creed.
Claiming something as “the best” without seeing the entire picture isn’t a bold claim, I understand this. Though it may reek of a hot take, Odyssey faces harsh scrutiny from me. Assassin’s Creed is a series I hold very near and dear to my heart. Ubisoft’s first foray into historical bloodshed was the first game I ever bought for my PlayStation 3. I recognized the deep flaws and barebones execution of a game that held promise and ended on a deeply fascinating cliffhanger. I love Ezio and Edward Kenway like everyone else and scoffed at the fumbles of Assassin’s Creed III and Unity. Much like life, Assassin’s Creed has had many highs and lows but never left me too me jaded.
Odyssey bursts into the limelight with a battle between Leonidas’ Spartan army and the Persians. Grizzled and older than you might expect, Leonidas brutally demolishes several soldiers using only his trusty spear. It’s a brutal and bloody few minutes that sprinkles some gameplay basics in for those who have been away from the series for a few months if not years. After a particularly gruesome execution that involves a spear in the mouth, Odyssey doesn’t skip a beat and shifts into the present day storyline that continues from Origins. A minute or so of that and players are ushered into a sweeping view of Ancient Greece as an eagle soars across the breathtaking landscape before resting next to Alexios or Kassandra, the male or female protagonist players can choose to be.
This whirlwind of narrative introductions provides a tantalizing framework for longtime fans of the series. We know the Leonidas bits will play into the spear that Alexios and Kassandra possess and the present day tease gives hope that the future stuff isn’t (hopefully) relegated to background noise. And for those who want the meat of the game, it takes only ten minutes at most to get there. Once the major threads have been established, Odyssey kicks right into the crux of what is most engaging and new about this particular Assassin’s Creed game: choice.
Being able to choose between a male or female protagonist is an important decision Ubisoft has made in relinquishing some of its control over how players absorb the story. For the first time, the main character’s path isn’t set in stone. The family tragedies of Bayek and Ezio fueled the need for revenge and Edward’s pirate lifestyle meant we could gallivant across the open seas for whatever reason. But no matter which side missions a player chose to do, the path from point A to B was similar for most.
While Alexios and Kassandra will face all the same quests and choices, the act of being able to decide which one to play as is empowering. These characters have a base personality, a sort of blank canvas that players can then paint over as the game progresses. In the opening moments, two men attack your character and you can choose to kill them or let them go. This is not an agonizing choice but one that can have the slightest of ripples later on. Ubisoft isn’t claiming that “every choice matters” because let’s be honest, there is not enough development time or enough of a reason for a game this big to make even the smallest actions feel important until the very end. Those two men can die by my sword, decide to kill me later, or lay down their arms upon seeing me again.
The true power of being able to decide how to interact with the narrative means that players are given more agency than ever before. Previously, you could accept a quest from a person on the street or you could ignore the icon on the map indicating they would offer you a quest. Now, there are variations to involving yourself with another person’s plight. A short side quest tasked my Kassandra with retrieving a sacred item for a temple and payment would be received upon its return. The in-between of this quest gave way to typical Assassin’s Creed fare of investigating, being sneaky, and fighting. But when I returned to the woman with relic in hand I was given the option of saying I couldn’t find it, to ask for money for its safe return, or return it for no price. Because my Kassandra is mostly a goody two shoes, she gave the item back at no charge and got a piece of equipment in return.
For players versed in the myriad of choices many RPGs offer, that scenario may not sound like anything special. But for Assassin’s Creed, it is an invaluable step towards transforming the game into a more engaging and rewarding experience for players who wish to soak up these beautifully rendered versions of past human civilizations. Players can begin to shape Alexios or Kassandra into a particular ideal based on how they act in specific scenarios. In a time where Greeks’ lives were shaped by a belief in the Gods, players can have a bit of fun and proclaim their character to be a god. When an NPC states they asked for a sign from the gods, you can say their prayers have been answered or act less cocky.
The most important implementation of a dialog system and narrative options for Odyssey is that quests have more meaning. Last year, Origins took a note from The Witcher 3 by giving players multi-staged quests full of dialog and context. Synchronization points and loot locations would often include some note that provided a small bit of lore building for those willing to investigate. Despite being easy to miss, those touches added more flavor to Egypt at large. In Odyssey, players can now actively speak with a character to learn more about the world around them.
Previous Assassin’s Creeds or similar open world games would often give players a quest where a character needed something and you had to go get it. One of the most tedious of these were the ones where a person would say they were robbed and needed their money back. I always wanted to just give them gold out of my large pockets so I could cash in some experience points without having to waste time tracking down some random enemy to kill. Odyssey makes room for scenarios like this where a player isn’t forced down a singular path in one quest. Kassandra can yell at a woman for being too pushy when asking for her stolen goods to be returned. When demanded by Markos, our surrogate father figure, to collect debt from someone, Kassandra can choose to hear out the debtor or demand the money back with force.
In such a massive game as Odyssey, these smaller details truly breathe life into the world. No longer do players feel like a genetic memory thrust into the inner workings of the Animus. This is a real world where your actions shape a number of different consequences. Characters will reference choices you’ve made, even if it’s just in passing. And none of it feels too on the nose. As mercenaries, Alexios and Kassandra both feel like natural vessels for storytelling. They are presented as characters who really don’t owe anyone favors and can blaze their own trail, it’s just up to the player to put them on that path.
The opening hours show how much fun the narrative team is having with this treasure trove of options. Snippets of Alexios’ and Kassandra’s past are given, showing a hero with a tragic backstory that is contrasted with a breezy pace during the opening chapters. Players are given multiple ways to react and interact with the narrative so the game doesn’t feel bogged down by melodrama or mishandled with too much goofiness.
Before players set sail from the starting island of Kephallonia, they have an opportunity to say goodbye to Markos. For the past few hours, Markos sent Kassandra on a wild goose chase for money and a bit of payback towards a local thug named the Cyclops. Markos’ jovial attitude contrasted with the fact that Kassandra was the one putting her life on the line but we are shown that Markos was an important figure in Kassandra’s past. As a goodbye, players can hug Markos, shake his hand, or be a bit cold. I chose to give him a hug, a sweet moment that gave both characters more emotional weight and therefore had me further invested in how his role and that choice would play out later in the story.
Ubisoft has also thrown a strange wrench into the cog of their open world golden boy. During my preview I was told to play the game in Exploration Mode, as it’s the way the game is “meant to be played.” This mode strips out the glaring waypoints that explicitly tell players where they need to go. Exploration Mode helps that concept of pushing players towards their own personal odyssey and not feel forced into a specific path. It’s less intrusive and not even much of a hindrance. Upon taking a quest, players can ask the quest giver for more information which will include a general description or hint towards where the objective may be. The map will also provide a few nudges in the right direction.
During my time at the Assassin’s Creed Odyssey preview event I had the opportunity to speak with Narrative Director Mel MacCoubrey about this new approach to weaving a personal story into the series. The diversifying of quests, tone, and keeping the different threads of Assassin’s Creed lore together are a challenge but it’s one the team is on the right path to tackle. And, of course, we speak to romance options because those have to be weird to write, right?
Check out the full interview below.
The lack of hand-holding in Odyssey is welcome because it leaves the player feeling more accomplished by acting on their own intuition and natural curiosity. Systems are still in place to dampen the immersion of Exploration Mode–such as using your eagle to pinpoint points of interest–but I found the option valuable enough to leave it on during most of my demo period.
This brimming sense of adventure especially became more palpable when sea travel is open. A brief glimpse of the game map shows how daunting it is, especially with open blue ocean to tackle. The handful of naval battles I engaged in were fun but basic and that’s only because I was just being introduced to the systems. As players go through Greece, they can recruit named enemies by taking them down non-lethally. These recruits have passive abilities that can add bonus damage to your ships weapons or buff it in other ways. For the first time in quite awhile, it may not pay to instantly kill a difficult enemy when undertaking a mission.
While the joy of my preview was focused around the incredible direction the narrative is taking, I remained impressed with the refined combat system carried over from Origins. The skill tree allows players to give more attention to the type of combat they want to engage in but there are some skills that feel required. A large portion of enemies have shields and the skill to break past this guard is a must. Parrying is vital to survival as it replaces a traditional shield block. But what is really neat is how players can equip and customize gear that will further enhance the three specific skill trees as they play. It’s a system that is deep enough to reward players who take the time to invest in it but will be efficient enough for those who just want to bludgeon baddies with sharp objects.
One vast improvement from Origins is the Mercenaries system which acts similar to a wanted level in Grand Theft Auto. Those who kill people in open combat, steal (and yes, you can’t go around spamming the loot button now), or act untoward will become hunted down by a mercenary. Each new wanted level adds a mercenary that stalk around the region you are currently in. Near the end of my time with Odyssey I stubbornly refused to pay off my bounty, which can be done from the map screen or other locations in the game. And rather than hunt down and kill the NPC that removes the bounty, I decided to rough it out. After a point I had four mercenaries walking around town hunting me down. One had a bear who joined in the fight, the other was several levels above me. It was a tense bloodbath and I died multiple times but still enjoyed myself, laughing and screaming in surprise at the sudden appearance of imminent death.
Ubisoft is putting in the effort to make Assassin’s Creed Odyssey the most expansive game in the series. That work is very obvious from the opening portion of the game and is reflected in the broadening of scope and refinement of detail. Even the recently announced Season Pass proves that the studio is going above and beyond to deliver on this game. As we head into 2019 and a season without a new Assassin’s Creed, it’s hard not to view Odyssey as a test of what the series is capable of and how it can be molded. Like Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed has flirted with many genres inside of its stealth and action roots. Hell, Assassin’s Creed Revelations had tower defense gampelay in it! But now that player choice and role playing have been embraced by the development team, it’s time for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey to carve out its own identity and, hopefully, become the zenith of this long-running series.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey releases on October 5 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
