Assassin's Creed Odyssey - Review

The annual appointment with one of the most important Ubisoft sagas could not be missed. The umpteenth chapter of Assassin's Creed is finally here, this time in XNUMXth century BC Greece The Greece of the great city-states of Athens and Sparta, the Greece of the Peloponnesian wars, myths and legends such as the Odyssey. And it is from the work of Homer that the new game takes its name: Assassin's Creed Odyssey.

An Assassin's Creed without killers?

Who has followed all the previous chapters, especially Origins. knows that the Order of the Assassins was born during the XNUMXst century BC, about four hundred years after the events of Odyssey. So in this chapter, for the first time we will not hear about Assassins and Templars, although at the level of lore there will be important links with the "precursors", (or those who came before), the famous race that gave rise to the lineage of beings humans as well as the creators of Pieces of Eden.

More and more role playing

Since Origins, the saga has taken a turn towards the genre of Role playing game. Our heroes earn experience points and level up, unlock new weapons and armor. It is unthinkable, for example, to kill an enemy at level 20 without difficulty by being at level 8. This concept is also found in Assassin's Creed Odyssey which apparently looks like a Origins 2.0, there are actually a lot of differences.

Alexios and Kassandra of Sparta

This time we will take on the clothes of two Spartan (renegade) heroes: the brutal Alexios and his sister Kassandra. For the first time, we will be given the opportunity to choose which character to play as. However we will have to be careful, once we have chosen our ancestor, it will be what we will check for the whole story. There will be no possibility to change it during the adventure. An incentive to take a run with both characters.

The ability to choose

Speaking of choices, the real novelty of Assassin's Creed Odyssey consists precisely in the possibility of interacting during the dialogues choosing different answers, in full RPG style, leading, consequently, to change some events in our history. The possibility of being able to make choices in genetic memories of ancestors would seem a little sensible if not completely antithetical. Fortunately, a coherent justification has been found: the DNA samples inserted in the Animus are altered, so it is not possible to determine the effectiveness of some events that occurred in the lives of the two protagonists. Put simply the main plot it is already determined and has a predetermined ending, there will be, however, small variations based on our choices. For example, without spoiling too much, we will be able to choose whether or not to kill some characters, which at a later time could prove useful. A good way to make the gameplay of the game more like an action-RPG.

An immense open world

The game world it's really huge: we are facing the largest map of all the chapters of the saga (twice the size of Origins' one). Obviously a large map is interesting and not boring only if it is varied and full of things to do. From this point of view we will not be disappointed. The Greek peninsula was faithfully crafted, albeit, of course, on a smaller scale. The game environments they are very varied: from the mountains like Pernassus, to the lakes, the forests, the great Acropolis of Athens to the seas and islands of the archipelago, all full of life and with buildings made in a faithful way to the original ones (even if given the historical period quite far away in many cases much has been left to creative freedom).

There are a lot of side missions, which are necessary to earn experience points and many activities to do. The possibility of being able to sail the seas is back with our personal boat, complete with crew that will among other things be a fundamental element in our adventure. We will even be able to participate in first person to great battles for domination of the territory between Athenians and Spartans.

The combat system further improved

About the fighting: the combat system is the same as Assassin's Creed Origins with some improvements. First of all, the shield has been removed, this justification is consistent with the game plot, which, however, I do not want to spoil you. Greater importance was given to skill during fights, now assignable to certain keys. For example, a skill allows you to kick the opponent by breaking his defense. As in the previous chapter, the skills will be unlocked by leveling the character and can also be upgraded.

However, enemy AI remains a problem

Although from the last chapter the combat system is finally worthy, in general the game difficulty it is not very high, even if we select the most difficult mode it is not a problem to take down the enemies to our same level or a little higher. Too easy to play in stealth. Furthermore, unfortunately, the problem remains that the saga practically carries with it from its origins: the poor artificial intelligence of the enemies. In extreme cases, it will be enough to flee from combat to be chased even if we were in an episode of some Hanna-Barbera cartoons and attack the enemies one by one.

The expendables

Interesting is the introduction of the "mercenaries" which, apparently very reminiscent (probably the developers will have been inspired) by the "Nemesis System" of The Shadow of Mordor. It actually looks like a very simplified version of it: the mercenaries will hunt us around the game world until we eliminate them. Going on with the adventure these will become salways stronger and harder to defeat.

The Explore mode

Another novelty is thein exploration mode. Normally, in the previous chapters the destination of our killer was guided by a marker. This greatly simplified the goal search phase. Well, Ubisoft has decided to make the game more exciting by allowing you to play removing the position marker, or rather, we will have to look for the destination, also through the help of our personal eagle (already present in Origins). You know what? So it works better, the experience becomes more engaging. Obviously if we prefer the classic mode nobody forbids us to play that way.

Let's empower our hero!

In the course of our adventure we will be able to upgrade our arsenal and our armor buying items or simply finding them around or taking them from killed enemies, this was already happening in Origins. Now we can also customize every single object with some perk which will improve its characteristics.

An excellent technical sector

Technically Assassin's Creed Odyssey is identical to Origins, in fact, boasts the same graphic engine which, however, is better optimized. The color palette is brighter and makes the beautiful landscapes of the peninsula wonderful. Every now and then there are some graphic bugs but it is practically inevitable for such a vast title. For the rest, as already said, the realization of the world is more than good and it is very immersive.

The audio sector and the music are also excellent, complete with a reinterpretation of the main theme that accompanies the saga from the second chapter. Of excellent workmanship also dubbing in Spanish.

A well written story and charismatic characters

I won't go too far on the story and on the characters to avoid spoilers but on this lap I can feel more than satisfied. The main characters they are well characterized and charismatic, the narrative quality and freedom of action are excellently balanced and interesting things also happen in the history of the present, which from Assassin's Creed III was quite weak. Obviously the history of the past remains the protagonist, now we have to get used to it, the present it's just a side dish to the rich reach of Ancient Greece.

The adventure is one of the longest-running of the franchise and has good replay value. The dlc that will be released over the next year with the Season Pass have also already been announced.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey is the evolution of the previous chapters of the franchise, a journey that has begun now more than 10 years ago which has seen the nature of the brand's titles change several times. During these years there have been ups and downs, in this case we can be satisfied. Although, in fact, the title does not reach the apexes of the Ezio Auditore saga, it is the largest and most complex of the saga. Recommended for both longtime fans and those who are only now approaching the brand.