DIVE INTO ANCIENT GREECE
(Spoilers. Obviously.)
I’ve played my fair share of Assassin’s Creed games so far, and almost always seeing it through to the end. Technically speaking, Origins’ map has its similarities to Odyssey, a vast open-world, puzzles, world quests sprinkled all across the map, and a ridiculously over-powered assassin (as seen before in every preceding game). Keeping in mind the core aspects of previous games, and trying to keep the original feeling of “a righteous assassin”, instead of a simple rehash of Origin’s tweaked to make it Greece.
Set post the Peloponnesian war, Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, as the name implies, Ubisoft takes you through an Odyssey, playing as a lone persona, with either Kassandra or Alexios as your persona. The game has content worth over 60 hours of murdering, helping, riding, sailing, and spoiler-warning: shoving an obsidian eye up a goat’s ass.
One of the Greatest Maps
Putting the plot aside for the moment, Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, has one of the greatest, open-world maps of all time. The map is the largest in the entire series (Valhalla included!), with a whopping 90+ square miles. Set in Ancient Greece, Odyssey we explore 7 different regions, with the restless waves of the Aegean Sea covering most of the map; Each of the regions contains multiple islands dotted all over, as well as a couple unnamed islands. The regions feature, large, lively cities, forts, ruins, and colossal statues to say the very least. Filled to the brim with jaw-dropping, and picturesque locations- from rocky hills and valleys, ethereal forests, and lively cities, with civilians and roosters willing to combat you in plain clothes and a broom, should you commit a crime.
The scenery aside, with an enormous map, you’re bound to encounter a couple glitches here and there. From unclimbable hills, textures that don’t match up, parts of the map that don’t render for a minute, or your horse crushing you as you make your descent off a mountain. Often enough, in parts of the world, you’re met with 0 wildlife, or even simply NPCs just passing through.
Characters
As I’ve mentioned before, you get to play as either Kassandra or Alexios, although it may be worth mentioning that Kassandra is the canon protagonist while Alexios is (massive spoiler alert) the canon antagonist. Choosing whichever character to experience your Odyssey with, has no effect on the story whatsoever with all the dialogues, and endings staying the same no matter the protagonist; However, playing as Alexios, while watching gameplay that of his sister, Kassandra, I prefer Kassandra’s voice acting and character design suiting the role of the antagonist much better. The animation during cutscenes is absolutely marvelous capturing their facial expressions wonderfully, no matter the situation, almost conveying their thoughts even if they aren’t the ones speaking.
The NPCs of Odyssey, haven’t been ignored in the slightest, especially your trusty sailing companion Barnabas, with his witty remarks, and a key character in the beginning of the story. Quite a few characters you come across, have their own story arcs (aftermaths, and some aren’t relevant to the story at all), known as the “Lost Tales of Greece”, a part of the free DLC. Having played through most of them, they aren’t really gold mines, but are still quite interesting to play, sometimes featuring challenging combat or sometimes boring old investigation quests.
Gameplay
You are free to play your character however you want, with multiple outcomes to major storylines depending on the choices, you make. Key dialogue choices, allow you to either lie, flirt, or tell the truth to someone as indicated by their icons- each of which can have an impact on the story. In addition to choices, you’re allowed to alternate between playing as a righteous assassin or one that’s deranged and psychopathic. Say I encounter a man in the wild asking me to rescue his wife from bandits, I can either accept and help reconciliate the lovers for free, force him to pay you, or commit serial homicide.
Be warned though, even if you’re out in the middle of nowhere and murder someone you have a chance to raise you bounty meter (indicating how high your bounty is), the further filled your bar the higher the bounty, and an increased amount of bounty hunters that could go after you. Personally speaking, bounty hunters aren’t really too hard to fight off, it could get out of hand if you’re in the middle of a city, where chickens, and the townspeople are likely to join in the battle against you. Bounty Hunters have specific loot, some dropping legendary gear- If you manage to simply just knock them out, instead of brutally murder them, you’ll be able to recruit them as crewmates for your ship (This can apply to almost anyone in the game, from soldiers to bounty hunters).
Combat
Odyssey allows you to use your gear and weapons to play through one of the three different playstyles. First, the ‘Hunter’ Class, which centers around ranged combat, and using your bow + ranged abilities (a controllable arrow, multi-shot, and more) as your main source of damage. Two, the ‘Warrior’ Class, which centers around closed-ranged combat, using your weapons + warrior abilities (create a blade of flames, the iconic spartan kick, rushing through your enemies with your blades, and more). Three, the ‘Assassin’ Class, which centers around stealthy assassinations, close-quarter combat + your assassin abilities (engulfing your blade in a sheath of poison, a chain assassination, and more). Personally, I like to mix between the Warrior and Assassin class.
Your main focus of combat are the two weapons you can wield, split between 6 classes: Heavy Blunt, Heavy Bladed, Swords, Daggers, Spears, and Bows (Note: Bows, count as a seperate weapon so you have 3). Depending on your choice of weapon, you’re able to combat enemies in different ways, from the quick slashes of the daggers, to the skull-crushing slow movements of the heavy blunt weapons- You’re able to swap between the weapons in the midst of combat, easily enabling you to create your own “combos” of sorts mixed in with your “Assassin Abilities”, and send your opponents to kingdom come. Throughout my gameplay, my main weapon has always been a mix of daggers, and heavy weapons. After progressing through the story, and leveling up a bit, you unlock a certain “overpowering ability” for each class, which consumes three bars off your ability meter to deal massive damage over a period of time. If you go to the city, and find a blacksmith you’ll be able to engrave different weapons with perks (bonus class damage, increased weapon damage, or special abilities), and upgrade old gear to your current weapon.
In addition to land-based combat, you get to sail through the Aegean Sea, and combat any ships you come across, merchant or otherwise. Probably the best it’s ever been, even better than naval warfare in Rogue or Black Flag. The Andrestia, your ship, has different abilities, using either flaming arrows or flaming spears, the unburnt version of the two, and ramming damage which you do at the start of a battle to identify a ship’s weak-points and deal massive damage. Upgrading your ship, is a key aspect in Odyssey, if you’re looking to main in naval warfare, to increase your ship’s defense, and health, or your damage from your arsenal of weapons, remember, it drains your bank account! As I’ve mentioned before, you’re able to recruit different NPC you’ve encountered, to serve as lieutenants for your ship, from pirate captains, random soldiers, generals, and other characters you encounter from your storyline.
The Storyline
The main missions are long, and tedious sometimes requiring you to be at a certain level to even start them, often times you’re running around doing meaningless quests that have no relevance to the story such as delivery missions, hunting around easy prey, or just murdering bandits/soldiers. Often enough the storyline may take you through the entirety of the ancient Greek world, so make sure to unlock every teleport viewpoint you come across, or you’ll end up having to sail through the sea and galloping around on your horse just to be able to reach your quest.
The main storyline is to help get closure for your family, by searching through the Greek world for lost members of your family- but be warned depending on the choices you make, you may end up just murdering your entire family. You also hunt down the different members from the Cult of Kosmos, to find out the whereabouts of your long-lost sibling. Odyssey has a certain mythological aspects when it comes to it, allowing you to fight great beasts from the Greek Mythology- such as the Minotaur, Medusa, or even a Cyclops (Note: There’s a world quest to unlock where you can fight different animal versions of constellations).
Closure
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, will always be one of the greatest open-world roleplaying games I’ve ever played, packed with content, filled to the brim with scenic locations, thrilling but repetitive combat, and challenging enemies depending on your difficulty. It is hands-down, my favorite game in the entire series. However, while Odyssey does do the plot well, it misses the certain flair of the actual “Brotherhood”, considering it is set further back in time than, well, Assassin’s Creed Origins.
Do I recommend it? 100% Yes.
