Review: Assassin’s Creed Odyssey elevates the franchise to stunning new heights

DISCLAIMER: A review copy was provided by the publisher.

Platform: Xbox One, PlayStation 4 (reviewed), PC

Developer: Ubisoft

Publisher: Ubisoft

MSRP: $59.99 (Standard), $109.99 (Gold Edition), $119.99 (Ultimate Edition)

Release Date: Friday, October 5th, 2018 (Standard), Wednesday, October 3rd, 2018 (Gold and Ultimate Edition)

After Assassin’s Creed Origins, which was undoubtedly my favorite Assassin’s Creed game to date, I was worried when Odyssey was announced to release just a year after. The evolution the series went through with Origins was so massive, I worried that Odyssey would be a simple Greek re-skin. Turns out I was very, very wrong. While Odyssey does feel familiar to its predecessor, all of the game’s mechanics and systems were brilliantly polished to a glimmering sheen, and fantastic gameplay mechanics of older games like naval exploration and combat get re-introduced on a massive scale. And if there’s any word that can summarize the overall theme of Odyssey, it’s definitely ‘massive.’

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey lets players pick from Alexios or Kassandra as their protagonist, a first for the series. While Syndicate allowed players to hop between Jacob and Evie, the two sibling protagonists, your decision at the start of the game will carry you through to the end. Even though Ubisoft has confirmed that Kassandra is the Canon hero of Odyssey through a Reddit AMA, the choice either protagonist doesn’t ultimately change the outcome of the game. If there’s anything that’s superior when it comes to Kassandra over Alexios, however, it’s the voice acting. Melissanthi Mahut’s line delivery and charisma shine through with Kassandra, whether you’re choosing to be a complete asshole or a benevolent mercenary. Alexios, voice by Michael Antonakos, on the other hand, sounds like a cartoon caricature of Greek warrior most of the time.

Letting players choose their character at the start of the game is the precursor to a choice-filled game. Taking the RPG mechanics even further than Origins did, Odyssey now presents players will full dialogue trees with choices that carry consequences. All conversations have choices that can directly result in failure or in a severe alteration of plans. For example, one early quest had my character own up to a man’s death, which I could lie about or come clean. I didn’t choose to lie but I did skirt around the answer, which didn’t sit well with him and as a result, the bounty on my head went up.

However, there are also plenty of examples of non-meaningful choices in smaller less important conversations that simply give the illusion of choice but really say the same thing but in a slightly different way. And even in those cases, sometimes picking option 2 would literally say what was written in option 1. Dialogue trees can be a fantastic way to shape and mold your character in a way that’s unique to you, but on the flip-side, when they’re meaningless and offer barely any distinction between choices, they feel superfluous.

With that said though, the game does have a lot of forks in the road that do actually carry weight, some that carry through to the end of the game, and those choices often had me contemplating. I’m thankful that the game’s dialogue system didn’t employ a timer, because I often had to really think about what the best choice is.

The combat overhaul of Origins remains rather intact here but adds some extra flair to it, such as a new combat dodge mechanic, which allows you to side-step enemy attacks with a simple press of a button, or acrobatically leap away if you hold that button down. Alexios/Kassandra also have a slew of new active abilities that can be pulled off mid-combat, such as the Hero Strike, a fancy takedown that can consume a large chunk of the enemy’s health, the Shield Breaker which allows you to take and throw away an enemy’s shield, leaving them without protection, or the incredibly fun Rush Assassination which throws the spear of Leonidas at an enemy, and if killed, can then chain another assassination to a nearby enemy. These abilities enhance the already spiced up combat mechanics in a way that makes fighting enemies always enjoyable, whether you’re just starting out and learning the ropes, or you’re 40+ hours in. Oh, and make sure you don’t sleep on the Spartan Kick ability. It’s easily one of the game’s most useful skills, outside of looking absolutely badass every time you pull it off.

Feeding off of the fun combat system is new overhauled Phylakes system, which in Odyssey is renamed to Mercenaries. As you move through Greece, every action that’s deemed illegal might get noticed and thus will leave you with an increased bounty on your head. Eventually, a GTA-like bounty meter will gradually fill up which means more and tougher mercenaries will be after you. Unlike the Phylakes of Origins, which were fantastic combat challenges but over far too quickly since they were finite, Mercenaries are in fact infinite, always spawning newly named soldiers with various specializations. These Mercenaries are also split up into various tiers, starting from Tier 9 all the way to Tier 1. Taking an enemy down in a higher tier will then put you in that Merc’s place, which means you’re always working your way up. In a way, it works very similarly to Shadow of Mordor/War’s nemesis system, albeit on a much smaller and way less memorable scale.

Then there are conquests, large-scale battles that can be activated once a region’s power is low enough. They reminded me of small-scale Dynasty Warriors battles, though not nearly as over-the-top. You’re still relegated to your arsenal of weapons and abilities, but you have to constantly keep killing soldiers, generals, and mercenaries in order to drain the enemy’s conquest bar faster than yours does. Each conquest gives you the choice of either joining the attacking or defending side, which is more or less a difficulty selection. Attacking is always harder but rewards the player with extra rewards at the end, while defending is easier. Much like some of the game’s sidequests, conquests are never-ending, which means that every region across the giant map of Greece can be constantly conquered at your whim.

The true spectacle of Odyssey is Greece itself. Sure, the map’s massive size at first glance is impressive, even if a bit overwhelming, but it’s not until you actually start visiting those places that the sense of awe strikes you with just how gorgeous and realized each and every location is. Virtual tourism is no stranger to this series but Greece has to be the most ambitious and fully realized open-world Ubisoft has crafted to date. Even the smaller islands that dot the right half of the screen feel large when exploring them, and of course littered with content that can definitely last you hours if you decide to do a deep dive into each one.

Odyssey’s campaign is split up into the main character’s own story which revolves around family drama with twists and turns around seemingly every corner, side-quests which help flesh out the world around you with plenty of memorable characters to come across, and Ubisoft’s now signature staple, a large roster of characters to assassinate. Originating in the Assassin’s Creed series, this mechanic eventually spilled into their other games, such as Far Cry and even the latest Ghost Recon Wildlands, but the mechanic remains largely fun and satisfying to pull off here as well. The Cult of Kosmos is an enigmatic group of individuals who, unlike in previous games, remain shrouded in mystery. In order to know who to assassinate, players must find clues about each one to uncover who each person is behind the mask. The members of the cult are littered around Greece, giving extra incentive for players to hunt them down and earn additional rewards.

Since we’re on the subject of traveling around Greece, naval exploration and combat makes a return in a big way. Players will get access to a ship relatively early on, which enables them to explore to their heart’s content, plundering merchant ships for valuable materials, sinking enemy bandits, or taking on Athens or Sparta’s army in full-scale naval combat. Much of the mechanics remain the same, with either a long-range bow attack that deals less damage or a much more devastating short-range spear attack. Upgrades to your ship allow you to increase the frequency of shots or even add destructive fire attacks to your arsenal. You can also opt to board an enemy ship first before sending it to the depths of the ocean, which more often than not, yields better rewards.

But what would a ship be without a decent crew by your side? Odyssey’s new recruiting mechanic seems to be inspired by Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker/Phantom Pain and its focus on recruiting soldiers to Mother Base. However, instead of the now-iconic and always comical looking Fulton Recovery System, players have the option of taking down their opponents non-lethally, which then adds the ability to recruit nearly any enemy you come across, even the Mercenaries, who are always worth recruiting over killing. It’s an addictive system that adds another layer of challenge, and also where the Spartan Kick comes extremely handy. Sure, it can certainly kill plenty of soldiers by propelling them off of a mountain, but careful players can also utilize its non-lethal property to take them down and then recruit them as lieutenants onboard their ship. Even cooler, these units actually appear on your ship and will help you when boarding an enemy ship to plunder them for spoils and thin their crew.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is an overwhelmingly impressive game, but it doesn’t come without a few missteps. First and foremost, I’m not sure how wide-spread this issue is since the game isn’t officially out yet, but loading into conversations often takes 10-15 seconds. That’s even counting non-critical side quest conversation responses that often end faster than it took to load them. This is on a PS4 Pro mind you, and I tested it both on my internal and external hard drives with the same results. I hope this is something that can be patched relatively soon, as it’s not only a huge immersion-breaker but a momentum-breaker as well.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is an overwhelmingly impressive game, but it doesn’t come without a few missteps. First and foremost, I’m not sure how wide-spread this issue is since the game isn’t officially out yet, but loading into conversations often takes 10-15 seconds. That’s even counting non-critical side quest conversation responses that often end faster than it took to load them. This is on a PS4 Pro mind you, and I tested it both on my internal and external hard drives with the same results. I hope this is something that can be patched relatively soon, as it’s not only a huge immersion-breaker but a momentum-breaker as well.

There are also various smaller bugs such as a dialogue line not being spoken (play with subtitles folks) or characters/animals getting stuck in their paper doll animation. In the grand scheme of things, they don’t ruin or even blemish the overall experience, which is stellar on all accounts, but they’re worth pointing out so you know them going in. Movement and parkour still don’t feel totally natural. Often I’ll have a set route in mind but my character will instead leap off into a direction I didn’t want them to, or climb to a different spot than I intended. Sometimes they’ll stop climbing completely even though there is nothing halting their progress. And to double check this, I would try to re-climb the same structure confirming that it was indeed a climbable surface.

The Verdict:

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey has exceeded my expectations on nearly every level. Various mechanics and systems introduced in Origins are reworked or upgraded, and new mechanics are a welcome addition that further flesh out the experience. Greece feels alive whether it’s through its fantastic and fully realized design or its inhabitants. The game’s big focus on decision-making is a welcome one, especially since many carry through to the game’s multiple endings. If you’ve slept on Assassin’s Creed for a while due to oversaturation, and somehow missed out on the fantastic re-invention of the series with Origins, then Odyssey’s refinement makes it an absolute must-play.