Among the flashy signs and game demos, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was high on my list of things to try. People flocked to the Ubisoft booth making the wait a long one, but worth the time in the end. For the new or old followers of the role-playing Assassin’s Creed games, this one should come as a fun experience in the long line of stories.
This time around, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey offers multiple ways to play. There is more RPG then in previous games. Along with this, the game offers the a story mode (a favorite of mine), naval combat, and a skills and abilities section. At the beginning of the demo we were all tasked with choosing with path we wanted to take (the three above) and which character, either Kassandra or Alexios. From here everyone began their journey.
Set about 400 years before the events of Assassin’s Creed Origins, a fictional history of the Peloponnesian War is told. Here, the city-states of Greece had to choose their side and fight for Athens, Delian League or the Peloponnesian League lead by the Spartans. Kassandra and Alexios in this journey are both mercenaries related to Leonidas.
Once I got to choose my specific journey, the Socrates option, I found that I was equipped with a bow and arrow set as well as a small dagger. My mission was to go to a rebel and free him and bring him back to Socrates. This sounds straightforward, but the in-game options allow the player to decide if the rebel gets to live or die by your hand and choices.
Navigating the map was a little difficult. Specifically running around the cities was easy, but checking the map was difficult. I always seemed to end up extremely far from where I needed to be even though I could see where I needed to go right in front of me. A skill I could have potentially found useful is the ability to use my hawk to pinpoint my person of interest. Sadly, the hawk was the hardest thing to fly and use. Constant spiraling and camera rotating had me ready to just leave everything and trek along on my own.
When encountering enemies, I was able to rip shields away, try to shoot from a distance and use the enemies’ weapons against them. Since this was just a demo, I was unable to upgrade my weapons and abilities (which use a skill tree) but I was hoping to discover some of the overkill attacks. Long term players of Assassin’s Creed will find this just as close to playing the other games as they could possibly get. The ability to climb walls and roofs is still all there for use.
Overall, I learned that some abilities are easier to use than others, such as the hawk, but I also think this game will give players enough choice in how they play too. This avoids any pacing issues and allows players to participate in the game play that they choose. I’m more excited to get Assassin’s Creed Odyssey than I was for previous games.
