Assassin's Creed Odyssey - Game Review

By
Reanna Quitzon
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Assassin's Creed Odyssey

Once again, you can dive into the historic open-world wonder created by Ubisoft. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is the 11th main installment made by Ubisoft and is by far the oldest on the timeline of the Assassin’s Creed franchise.

The world of this game delivers you smack into the middle of Peloponnesian war between Athens and Sparta, and, while it is fun to take sides between bloodthirsty, honorable Spartans and intellectual, ready-for-battle Athenians, you are still recognized as an outsider, or, as the game so loves to remind you every now and then, a misthios, which means mercenary in ancient Greek, but between the world buildup, the astounding graphics, and the storyline, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey fared better than the previous Assassin’s Creed games.

World

If you’ve found yourself overwhelmed with the world of Assassin’s Creed, then Odyssey will definitely overwhelm you just with the small details you’re given at the beginning of the game. The map covers the ancient Greek world along with Spartan and Athenian waters.

You’re later left to explore different locations like caves, cities, and islands, among others. However, if you’re not aware yet of the magnitude of this open world, players say it is yet the largest world in any action game they’ve ever encountered. The game starts in Kephallonia, a small, poor island that booms with natural locales and contains the massive statue of Zeus, which is, yes, a synchronization point.

Your exploration of the world will take you to ancient caves and deep seas to meet wild mythical creatures and gather invaluable collectibles. So, even if you want to finish your way through the main campaign through fast traveling, you still have to spend a lot of time exploring the world.

You will get to see tons of statues and weaponry, which are all displayed in colorful palettes, as opposed to the pale Greek statues we see today. The visuals are quite impressive, so when you spend dozens of hours wandering around the vibrant world of Odyssey, playing any other game will pale in comparison with the gaming experience of this installment.

Story

Contrary to the traditional Assassin-Templar drama each Assassin’s Creed game features, Odyssey developers divert from this storyline into something light and pleasing. Your protagonist, whom you’ll get to choose at the beginning of the game, will be living as a mercenary on Kephallonia, struggling to earn a living amongst thieves, but mostly you’re going to explore the stories of different people living on the island, which later develops into side missions, and move around to get collectibles that will be of massive help later in armor and ship upgrades.

The story is mainly composed of several storylines, but the most important one is the familial conflict. Your protagonist will try to reach for their father/mother to know their identity and where they live. The answer plays a huge role later in the game; however, there’s no way around the length of the story as the intro alone, which comes before the credits, takes 3 hours, so prepare for a very long odyssey to actually finish the main campaign. This hugely reflects how Assassin’s Creed took a page of Witcher 3’s book of making a lengthy, worthwhile story for the gamers to enjoy.

https://revyou.com/uploads/thumbnail-960/159412372661091JXaYJ3PDL._SL1500_.webp Assassin's Creed Odyssey - Game Review

https://revyou.com/uploads/thumbnail-960/159412372661291PpLzycwVL._SL1500_.webp Assassin's Creed Odyssey - Game Review

https://revyou.com/uploads/thumbnail-960/159412372661391r2Npva41L._SL1500_.webp Assassin's Creed Odyssey - Game Review

Characters

Odyssey will offer you the option of choosing between two characters: Kassandra and Alexios. This is quite different than the other Assassin’s Creed games; it actually was a nice addition, since many players didn’t like the grating sound of Alexios and preferred Kassandra’s expressive face.

Moreover, we see how Ubisoft excelled in this endeavor as almost all characters show a great deal of confusion, anger, and happiness, and you can see other characters react to these emotional displays. Other games show this facial expression complexity, but Odyssey was extremely impressive on that account.

In Odyssey, you’ll get a set of options in almost all conversations, which, while it may not always affect the ending, will determine whether you are a good-hearted mercenary or a ruthless killing machine. Of course, some other options can be more rewarding.

For example, if two characters want each other dead for a certain reward, you can trick them both and take both rewards through your choices. In any case, you should consider your choices wisely as some of them can affect the ending.

Fighting System

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey offers you the choice to be stealthy, like all its predecessors, but you are also offered the chance to excel at archery and warrior abilities. In the game, every time you level up, you will have a chance to get a new ability from the three ability sets, warrior, archery, and assassin abilities, which will typically affect your fighting skills.

In the game, you will encounter mythical beasts, enemies far larger and stronger than you, maybe two levels above you, so these abilities could be a great asset to your main character. Deadly headshots, poisoned arrows, and stealthy critical strikes are all great, but nothing compares to the infamous Spartan kick, which can kill almost anyone when you kick them from a high place. The Spartan kick works well in battlefields and when boarding ships.

You get to choose from an assortment of weapons like daggers, swords, maces, and spears, and they all differ in strength, speed, and damage. Weapons can also be common, rare, and legendary, which are favorably the best and could be upgraded with the right collectibles if you have them. These same rules apply to the vast collection of armor you’ll find, and it could be upgraded as well.

Ship Mechanics

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey takes the boarding system mechanics to a whole new level. Although boarding and naval wars were pretty fun in Assassin’s Creed Black Flag, Odyssey gives them better appeal, with the feature of hiring people to give your ship new features according to their abilities.

Unlike Black Flag and Rogue, ship’s movement and ramming motion are more flexible; however, you replace cannons and Puckle guns with arrows and spears. You could participate in naval wars in Odyssey, but they mostly link to your mercenary work and the Peloponnesian war, which you cannot really affect no matter which side you’re on.

Side Missions

At some point in the progress of the main story, players will find themselves inclined to do other side quests to level up and do a certain main quest. However, these tasks are not as arduous as you might think. While it can take a very long time to finish all the side quests, you will be enchanted with the different stories and the notable historical characters you see.

Some side quests are admittedly boring, as characters will treat you as their errand boy and tell you to do this and that, but other side quests are pretty interesting and will compel you to pursue the ending.

You can notice as well the Witcher 3’s influence, which makes players more interested in discovering the world rather than just wrapping up the main campaign. There are also side quests that relate to your mercenary work and the war. In all cases, side quests will further your world exploration.

All in all, Odyssey is yet the biggest, most impressive Assassin’s Creed game, and it takes after the merits of some games like the ranking system in Shadow of Mordor and the interesting quests of Witcher 3.

However, a lot of people find the repetitiveness and the longevity of the story boring, especially that you can’t just do the main campaign and get it over with. However, all that effort put in creating this massive world and these mini-stories should be experienced and enjoyed to the last minute, even if it takes dozens of hours to finish such an epic game.