Taking over two years of on-and-off playing, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was certainly an experience you’re likely to have strong feelings for one way or the other. Does Ubisoft’s exploration formula still work for you or are you here for some adventures in Ancient Greece? Well, I guess we’ll find out.

After a brief, but dramatic opening with Leonidas making his last stand at the Battle of Thermopylae, we fast forward and assume control of… well, Alexios or Kassandra depending on which protagonist you choose. Avatar of choice, from here on referred to as the Eagle Bearer, is purely a matter of preference. One backstory involving being a discarded child as well as missing parents later, and you end up embroiled in rather schizoid story taking you all over Ancient Greece during the Peloponnesian War as a Misthios aka mercenary for hire. Discover your bloodline’s legacy with the mythical spearhead in your possession, get involved in the ongoing war between Athens and Sparta and deal with the mysterious Cult of Kosmos that seems to be playing everyone from the shadows.

What I’m about to say isn’t really news to anyone who has kept up with Assassin’s Creed games, but I think Odyssey is the most stretched out, padded one so far. There’s maybe, and I’m being generous here, 15 hours of actual story that took me just over 100 hours to finish the base game. That is with zone completion, but if you don’t engage with the game in that aspect you’re left with an even worse situation where majority of regions have limited purpose since no story content happens therein. To their credit Ubisoft has worked to ameliorate this with the Lost Tales of Greece quest chains they added via free updates. Without those Odyssey has a smattering of regional story arcs that do provide bite-sized pieces of narrative so there’s some context as to why you’re clearing yet another enemy camp.

I’d say the way story is structured also doesn’t do overall narrative any favors. There are essentially three big STORY categories in the game: your personal journey, dealing with the Cult, and wartime Greece shenanigans. These are not equally present which becomes an ongoing issue if you want to pursue any single one at your leisure. I lost count how many times returning characters left me thinking “Who were you again?” since so much time had passed since I last saw them in an earlier leg of the journey. All these problems are sadly exasperated by game’s scale. Since Greece is structured is such a manner that you can go to most areas relatively early you could, theoretically, end up in a location where nothing narratively relevant is actually happening at that time. So you spend ten hours just clearing out some islands in sheer drudgery. Not that I’m bitter or anything.

So there’s one last saving grace to be had – characters. Are they any good? Fortunately, the Eagle Bearer has just the right balance of humor and drama while still demonstrating a dose of “you pick my gender, so I have to be as neutral as possible” vibe going on. I went with Alexios myself and fond it amusing how much of his dialog boils down to chaire, malakas and drachmae. Don’t make it a drinking game. Odyssey also sets you up with two characters to act as sources of Greek lore: wily captain Barnabas who largely serves as comedic relief, and Herodotos himself as the voice of reason. Like with every Assassin’s Creed title so far, you’ll run into many historical characters in minor and major roles. I just wish key characters got more attention which isn’t necessarily their problem so much as just how massive the game is. You’re looking at moments of narrative and even rarer cutscene badasssery to bring them to life. Alas, both can only do so much.

And yes, there’s also the maligned modern day storyline with Layla running historical simulators as she’s trying to locate ancient artifacts while being pursued by Templars. Ubisoft is still convincing itself people care about her. I think it amounts to an hour total or so. I did not like how it reveals the Eagle Bearer’s ultimate fate before the historical part had ended, though. At its core, game is about adventures in Ancient Greece with hints of “Gods” our protagonist doesn’t exactly comprehend.

But enough about the narrative as we delve into the game mechanics and all that stuff. Do I assume you’re familiar with the Assassin’s Creed reinvention that happened with Origins? Let’s just say Ubisoft loved Witcher 3 so much they decided to copy its homework. Add to this less and less relevant parkour and once instant assassinations being regulated by formulae, this leaves us with a rather by-the-numbers action RPG.

Such is the state of things with Odyssey. On the flip-side, Ubisoft’s famous open world where you’re chasing after ???s is still very much here with a newly added Exploration mode as default. Rather than game directly leading you to objectives it will now give you general directions and then you can use you trusty Ikaros to pinpoint when you’re nearby. Whether this is a welcome addition or annoyance you’ll immediately ignore and switch it to traditional Guided mode will depend entirely on you. I stuck with it and had no real problems as it slots neatly into large zones you’ll be going through. You can bet you’re looking at recycled enemy camps, tombs to scour for goodies, elite animal dens to clear, etc. repeated ad nauseam in every zone of which there are too many. That’s simply the core of what Assassin’s Creed is so if you can’t stand it you know it’s time to check out as nothing else will alter that package. I believe working through each zone as you access it is how you stay on the level curve. Rather, you’ll out-level the game’s intended progression and then scaling kicks in. I finished the game at level 65, but 50 is the intended “hardest” zone level so you’re probably good enough at that if you’re wondering whether you should do EVERYTHING or not.

Combat-wise we’re in familiar territory once again with the exception of trading outright blocking for a very generous parry. Three damage outputs: Warrior, Hunter, and Assassin, with accompanying ability trees to match. Big upset this time around is the expanded gear system. You now get five armor slots from helmet to boots to mix and match with joys of RNG loot drops cranked up. Imagine all the fun that comes with this like armor sets, engravings you can put onto weapons/armor, etc. This is still not a case of picking your class or anything. Eagle Bearer is very much a fighter who can stealth around, but I’ve found the bow playstyle to be a pipe dream. With unlockable equipment loadouts, which you’ll have to manually switch between, name of the game is dedicated gear. Word of the wise: you want setups that boosts your warrior and assassination damage respectively. It’s amusing your ability choices matter less than sheer percentile damage bonus equipment provides. Good idea to have the healing ability for clutch moments, though.

I’ve held off on talking about major new additions to Odyssey. Well, some are new and returning in expanded glory. Adrestia is your ship’s name and she’ll be your mobile headquarters with all the accompanying upgrades. Be ready to spend a ton of resources gained from gathering/salvaging on top of recruiting crew members and acquiring cosmetics. Surprisingly so fleshed out I wish naval combat played a larger role given there’s a mere handful of critical missions involving your ship. Next we have the aforementioned Cult of Kosmos which gives you a spider web of targets to steadily go after throughout the entire game. The catch? You need to gather clues from lower ranking targets to find out the higher ranking ones… or not. See, this is one of those organic systems where you can just stumble across the target, whack them and game registers that as valid assassination. And lastly, there are the Mercenaries which both function as game keeping tabs on your criminal activity through the Bounty system and steadily providing generated goons to go after. Fact that Eagle Bearer is a Misthios as well means clearing them out raises your rank bringing benefits like store discounts and resource bonuses. There are also dialog options now with dubious added value beyond the typical “tell me more about X” that should perhaps be better left in the realm of RPGs.

As is customary here we delve into DLC for the game since it’s a pretty chunky pair. It should be noted they originally released in episodic format which can lead to awkward pauses playing them now.

Legacy of the First Blade starts as village aflame draws the Eagle Bearer’s attention and you soon come across a hooded figure brandishing a certain forearm-mounted blade. It’s Darius, a refuge from Persia with political baggage following him and a daughter/son accompanying him in exile. You end up helping them and, well, your bloodline has to continue somehow. Structurally, we’re looking at smaller offering similar to the base game while retreading already familiar regions and locations. Order comes across as Cult-lite, and all three episodes recycling the same format doesn’t help. What DOES matter, however, is the fact this DLC is intent on telling a story it wants to tell regardless of where you are in the main story so you get some inconsistencies. Some damn emotional moments go a long way, but Legacy could’ve benefited form more in-between bits and less moralizing over murder. They could have also done without the blatant Assassin’s Creed Origins reference at the end.

Second DLC, and a far beefier one, is The Fate of Atlantis. This is the one I’m conflicted on. Not because it’s bad, but because of how it’s framed in modern day. This is Isu lore getting pumped into your veins. You have a setup where Layla uses clues leftover by the Eagle Bearer to gain access to repository of Atlantis, and to fully unlock the power of a particular artifact you’re then going into an in-universe simulation of Elysium, Hades and Atlantis itself. There’s a distinct impression character you’ve spent dozens of hours playing as is merely an avatar for the snarky “true” protagonist as her story takes over at points What we’re actually getting are three moderately sized zones with individual regions all bringing points of interests to discover as well as fantasy aesthetics. Stories themselves I wouldn’t exactly classify as the best, though. Writers really like the idea of conflicting agendas and giving you the illusion of choice broken up by DLC’s episodic nature. What I didn’t expect, especially after seeing more added verticality only for half-assed implementation with what are effectively teleporters, was how much giving enemies some powers can alter the way you approach combat. Stunting your adrenaline bar suddenly means you’re dodging telegraphed areas of effect and prioritizing targets. New way to modify select existing abilities can also change how you play… provided it’s something you were already using. The Fate of Atlantis drags its feet until actually getting to the good stuff in the finale as it portrays the decline of Isu civilization and one pivotal moment, but I’d say new additions are worth it.

Lastly we get to the production which is fairly worthwhile considering the scale of the game. You could say Origins’ few deserts were substituted by seas, but while those did wonders for atmospheric immersion here you’re intended to sail in order to reach other content, well, islands. No matter how you cut it Odyssey’s game world is [too] MASSIVE and visuals are on an impressive level keeping that in mind. Perhaps more distinct visual landmarks would have helped since aside from some biomes contrasts this Ancient Greece tends to blend together. Lots of implausibly big statues and small seaside villages. Oddly enough, it’s the soundtrack I found lacking as it is mostly relegated to background. Two standouts: banger main theme and another rendition track of Ezio's Family from all the way back in AC2 which does the emotional heavy lifting parts used throughout the entire game. Soundtrack has surprising amount of depth to it and most of it works on the atmospheric end since you’ll be doing so much exploring and combat interchangeably.

Final Thoughts and Rating?

Expanding in most already established ways, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is an overburdened action romp playing its hand at stealth. Step into the shoes of the Eagle Bearer of your choice as you delve through familial history while trying to free the region of the influence of shadowy Cult of Kosmos. Game presents an impressive rendition of Ancient Greece during the Peloponnesian War with customary menial tasks to go through in order to clear out regions, this time with more quests. Ship gameplay is back in significant fashion, and the Cult itself + Mercenaries system add a lot of carrot to chase after. You’re still looking at a relatively short STORY stretched out beyond 100+ hours with all the content included. Narrative could’ve been a lot better since much gets lost in the shuffle of game’s sheer scale.

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