After the release of Assassin’s Creed: Origins, the developers of the game Ubisoft made it clear to gamers that changes were coming. If earlier the series was attributed to the genre of stealth action, where the hero acted secretly, now the creators of the franchise have turned towards role-playing games, the so-called RPG. The release of Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey marked the definitive change in genre, which led to many changes.
Assassin’s Creed has changed so much that even fans have to re-learn the game. After 20 hours at Odyssey, I’m ready to tell you everything there is to know before buying.
Plot
The story of Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey will take players to ancient Greece, namely during the Peloponnesian War. Athens and Sparta finally fell out and now poke each other with arrows, swords and spears. Unexpectedly, in the center is an apolitical mercenary who chooses only the most advantageous side.
The Assassin’s Creed series became famous not only for its interesting gameplay, but also for its setting, which always covered specific time periods. Fans of the series have already managed to personally meet Leonardo da Vinci, Napoleon, George Washington and even Anastasia Romanova, daughter of Nicholas II. Odyssey also features iconic personalities like Herodotus, Socrates, Pericles and others. I’m not sure if the game is suitable as a textbook on ancient history, but you will learn about the key personalities.
The main character
You can watch the history of Odyssey from two sides. At the beginning of the game you will be asked to choose the main character – Cassandra or Alexius. Spoiler alert: Unfortunately, this doesn’t affect anything. Even in dialogues, the surrounding characters speak without mentioning gender, except for a couple of cases. So the story is the same.
By the way, the dialogues in Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey are well written. I highly recommend playing with the original voice acting to get the most of the atmosphere. During a conversation, the player is allowed to choose an answer or action towards the interlocutor.
This is where one of the main elements of the role-playing game lies – role-playing. On your adventure, you can be judicious, gentle, or greedy and rude. You should also remember that some decisions will affect the game world. A seemingly insignificant action can turn into a disaster for the whole island. So good deeds are not always beneficial.
Since the box with the game has a rating of 18+, it was not without romance. The hero or heroine will meet characters with whom you can start a fleeting relationship. In addition, it does not matter what gender they are, and Cassandra can drag both an archer and an archer into bed.
This freedom of action is new to the series. The protagonist uses the Animus device to read the genetic code of his ancestors and sneak into their memories. In fact, the main character has always been a modern person who simply watched the life of his very distant relative.
The problem is that the device only allowed monitoring events without changing the decisions of the ancestor. In Assassin’s Creed: Origins, the canon has changed, and Leila became the main character. She modified the “Animus” and now can not only watch the memories, but also act at its discretion. Genius, in a word.
A whole new world
The Odyssey plot will cover the territory of Ancient Greece, including Arcadia, Boeotia, Macedonia, as well as the islands of Skyros, Anafi and Lesvos. Looking ahead, I will say that the game world is very large and in my 20 hours I did not have time to explore half of it.
The fact is that the regions of ancient Greece are clearly divided on the map and differ not only in types and buildings, but also in the required level of the character. Since this is an RPG, the main character will have to raise his level, along with which his strength grows. Some zones require a 5th level, but there may be a zone for a 30th nearby. That is, you will not be able to explore everything at once, and you will have to go to other territories in search of better equipment.
Activity
It’s good that Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey has a lot to do. The developers made a huge territory and generously placed points of interest on it with challenges for the player.
The most interesting part of Odyssey will be completing the main and side adventures. By completing the first, you will follow the storyline, which was written by the writers of Ubisoft. I note that it turned out to be good, and you will find sharp turns, as well as interesting characters. Side quests tell shorter stories that affect the character or the game world. They are also written well and can even captivate with their story.
But among the side adventures, there is a special kind that is generated by the game. Such quests can be summed up in one word – boredom. They are devoid of an interesting plot and are created only for the sake of stretching the gameplay. In addition, they will constantly appear on the map, no matter how much you pass them. Among them there are tasks that are limited in time. For their completion, the player is given a special currency that cannot be received for perpetual orders.
In addition to completing the storyline and side quests in Odyssey, you can do the usual business of a mercenary – murder. Each region has fortresses in which bandits or warriors sit. They guard chests with valuable items as well as strategic supplies. Key military persons can also hide there, who also need to be killed.
Every region in which there is a war has a certain level of military strength. By destroying strategic reserves and killing key persons, the player lowers this rating. When the strength of the army drops to zero, points of a large-scale battle between the army of Athens and Sparta will appear on the map, and the player can choose one of the sides.
But the murders of the commanders and the plunder will not go unnoticed, and mercenaries will be sent out for the heroine or hero. These guys are not ordinary soldiers and prefer to wear strong armor and sharp swords and spears. So it will be difficult to fight them, but once you win, you will receive their special weapon or armor. In addition, mercenaries can be tracked in order to strike first.
To battle
You will fight a lot, and it’s good that Ubisoft has worked on the combat system. If earlier the player relied more on covert passage, then in Odyssey, open battles will occur more often. First, in order to kill an enemy with one blow from the back, you need to reach his level or higher. Secondly, the enemies have become much more attentive. There are still a lot of warriors in the fortresses, so it will be useful to remove some of them quietly.
Of the standard attacks, the character has fast, but weak, as well as strong and slow. Each type is suitable for different opponents and you need to look at the situation. In battle, the player can also use special skills of the character. For example, one of the first abilities allows you to hit the enemy with a blow a la “This is Sparta!” or spill poison on the blades, dealing more damage.
The player can upgrade the branch of “Hunter”, “Warrior” and “Assassin”, which give different abilities. New techniques are bought for points, which are given after each increase in the character’s level. The player can also improve weapons and armor, or find more powerful equipment in the chests and corpses of enemies.
Stop fighting
When you get tired of doing errands and killing, you can start exploring the world. Each region has ancient crypts in which unique items await the player. First you need to find them, and then figure out how to get to the right place. Of course, Odyssey cannot be compared to Tomb Raider, but the local tombs look interesting and atmospheric.
All aboard
The developers decided not to be limited to a huge land area, and gave the player the ability to walk on the waves. In Odyssey, the hero receives a ship, as well as a team that will help him on distant sea voyages.
The ship can be pumped using resources, improving speed, crew capacity, damage and armor. Also on the ship you can call assistants who still need to be recruited. Special characters give bonuses to the ship, such as additional armor or harpoon damage. This will come in handy during naval battles with pirates and warships.
The battles take place in two stages. First, you throw arrows and spears at the enemy ship, destroying the ship itself. When the enemy’s armor bar disappears, the second phase begins – boarding. Here you personally jump on the enemy’s ship, kill the team and captains, and then take their gold and resources.
It’s time to play
Now you know about the plot, main mechanics and activities in Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey. It remains only to choose a platform to start the game. You can plunge into the adventures of Odyssey on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, as well as personal computers from October 5, 2018. Also remember that the game is paid and for an open world filled with adventures, the developers will ask for 1,899 hryvnia for the console version and 845 hryvnia if you decide to play on a computer.
For your convenience, I’ll leave the system requirements for the PC:
Minimum system requirements:
Operating system: Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit);
Processor: AMD FX 6300 3.8 GHz, Intel Core i5 2400 3.1 GHz, Ryzen 3 – 1200;
Video card: AMD Radeon R9 285 (2 GB) or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660;
RAM: 8 GB;
Hard drive: 46 GB.
Recommended system requirements:
Operating system: Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit);
Processor: AMD FX-8350 4.0 GHz, Intel Core i7-3770 3.5 GHz, Ryzen 5 – 1400;
Video card: AMD Radeon R9 290X (4 GB) or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (4 GB);
RAM: 8 GB;
Hard drive: 46 GB.
Recommended requirements for 4K resolution:
Operating system: Windows 10 (64-bit);
Processor: AMD Ryzen 1700X 3.8 GHz, Intel Core i7 7700 4.2 GHz;
Video card: AMD Vega 64, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (8 GB);
RAM: 8 GB;
Hard drive: 46 GB.
