Assassin's Creed Odyssey Review

"Spartan Kick!"

Campaign

Assassin's Creed Odyssey is the latest entry in this long running series with this release throwing you into the shoes of a mercenary. You're able to play as either a male or female while working across the lands of Greece. Both of these children are descendants of Leonidas and that plays into the general plot. There are interesting connections littered throughout the narrative with some fun surprises. Odyssey is also very similar to "Origins" in terms of design and structure.

Here you're working with either side of this war and that element of choice is a key part of the overall experience. Your decisions do heavily matter and many interactions will be dictated by past actions. There's a spiraling story with some twists that weren't honestly too surprising and a deeper narrative than ever before. This builds further into the more realized RPG elements of the game. There are a wealth of characters and activities to experience as you work across the large world. There are of course the main quests, but many side ones to work through as well.
You can take out camps, forts or even engage in a hunt if you'd like for the plethora of local wildlife. You can even end up in romantic situations with various folks and I've done a few. You may come across mystical creatures and will definitely engage in large scale battles. These are epic fights where sides of 150 can battle against one another. You attempt to eliminate leaders while also tackling various enemies, great loot can be won in these. On top of that there's a whole mercenary system that's a mix of GTA's police system with Shadow of War's Nemesis structure.

Gameplay

Going back to the mention of "Origins", Odyssey plays basically the same with minor tweaks. You use the Eagle as a scout and whistle to gather your noble steed. The horses are unique and each offer something different. On land you move around using stealth or direct conflict to battle and level up. There's armor to use that offers varying levels of strength and a wealth of abilities to unlock.

The map is large in scale, with a lot of water based areas being present. Fans of the sailing experience will really enjoy this entry with just a ton of things to do out in the sea. Battle other ships, improve your vessel and assign lieutenants from the folks you meet to help in battle. At the start you're able select the difficulty of gameplay and how guided you'd like it to be.

The world is gorgeous featuring a variety of locations, I did however find it to be less colorful in comparison to what Origins provides. The visual are still stunning with detailed cities, lively citizens and incredible art such as sculptures to take in. On Xbox One X it's particularly great with an excellent draw distance to enhance the sense of scale. I did notice some performance dips, but never during combative sequences.

Aside from the other mentioned features, there's a time when a twist comes into play. At this point you get a new sort of mercenary system to work through which was a lot of fun, but I won't spoil that aspect. There's mostly just a ton of side activities whether you're on land or at sea. Battle within fortresses, collect hidden treasures or interact with local folks. Finish feats to gain access to Engravings on your equipment and that further improves your efficiency.

The Conclusion

Assassin's Creed Odyssey is an excellent next step for the franchise expanding upon the strong mechanics from Origins. It's a really enjoyable time providing an intense narrative where your decisions do matter. The world is expansive, there are many quests to tackle and just too many things to do. It's really an expansion upon the formula with new mechanics that work well into the existing design while enhancing it further.

For those that like sailing there are many options to do so and the world really leans into that aspect of gameplay. The visuals were great, a tad brownish-grey at times yet still a gorgeous selection of environments to take in. The combat felt visceral and it felt fierce as you executed foes, the large scale battles were also very neat despite being overwhelming at times.

Read our Assassin's Creed Origins Review
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Assassin's Creed Odyssey Review on Xbox One X
Review Code Provided by Ubisoft

Rating Overall: 8.8