Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Review

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Review

Released on October 5^th, 2018 Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is the latest installment in the AC franchise. The game takes the player back to Ancient Greece and the Peloponnesian War which pit Athens against Sparta. In a first for the franchise, players can choose either a male or female mercenary—Alexios or Kassandra, who are siblings. This choice does not affect the story line and just allows for slight customization for the player. Your job as a mercenary is to reap the benefits of war while investigating the Cult of Kosmos, a secret society hellbent on controlling all of Greece.

Odyssey introduces open world exploration and a choice/consequence mechanism, moving the series toward an Open World RPG genre. The map is huge, even for Assassin's Creed and allows for your character to sail from island to island, fighting pirates or pillaging merchant ships along the way. After about 20 hours of game play, I had uncovered about 1/4 of the map. As with all Assassin's Creed games, the focus is on figuring out who is trying to kill you and takeover the world, in this case the powerful Cult of Kosmos. The cult is comprised of dozens and dozens of rich, power-hungry members that you must hunt down to uncover more clues.

There are a lot of really interesting aspects to Assassin's Creed Odyssey and the character development will ensure you remember your character for a long time to come (We miss you though, Ezio). Venturing through Ancient Greece is beautiful and captivating, and the story is incredibly interesting--et tu, papa? If you break the law, you'll end up with a bounty and mercenaries will attempt to chase you down. Kill or be killed.

As with most AC titles, you have a beloved mount but now you also have a ship. Both of these are customizable with skins, and the ship is able to be upgraded. While most of these customizations are bought or earned in game, there are quite a few options that require real world purchases. There are also "time savers" available for purchase but not enough to include this as a "pay to win" title. Ultimately, you can easily enjoy the game without feeling like you have to spend more money or that you'll fall behind your friends if they throw money at the game.

Pros

• Graphics
• Open world exploration
• Naval combat and ship customization
• Combat system improved
• A lengthy game
• Choices have consequences

Cons

• Minor bugs and glitches
• Occasional texture loss
• Convoluted story

Conclusion: Assassin’s Creed Odyssey takes the series in a new, incredible direction that is worth playing. The strides that Odyssey takes with choices and naval combat are much greater than the issues with the game. You must learn who to help and to trust, the wrong decisions will have consequences. In the end, there were bugs and glitches; some causing an untimely demise. However, they were few, far in between, and patched within a few days for the most part. There certainly weren't enough glitches that it hurt the immersion...they mostly just created some laughs. Overall, Assassin's Creed Odyssey earns an 8 out of 10 and I'd definitely recommend it.

What are your thoughts on the changes to the Assassin’s Creed franchise? Comment down below.