Assassin’s Creed Odyssey – Wikipedia

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is an action role-playing video game developed by Ubisoft Quebec and published by Ubisoft. It is the eleventh major installment in the Assassin’s Creed series and the successor to 2017’s Assassin’s Creed Origins. It was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch on October 5, 2018, with a Stadia version launching alongside the service in 2019. Like its predecessor, the game features a large open world, and adopts many elements from the role-playing genre, putting more emphasis on combat and exploration than stealth.

The plot is set in a fictional history of real-world events, and tells a mythological history of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta from 431 to 422 BC. Players control a male or female mercenary (Ancient Greek: μίσθιος misthios) who fights on both sides of the war as they attempt to find their family. While the game features a proto-Templar organization called the Cult of Kosmos, which plays a central role in the story, Odyssey is the first mainline Assassin’s Creed title not to focus on the conflict between the Assassins and Templars.^[c] As with previous games in the series, the narrative also includes sequences set during the 21st century, which follow Layla Hassan, the protagonist introduced in Assassin’s Creed Origins, as she searches for Atlantis and a powerful artifact it houses.

The game received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for its gameplay, graphics, story, characters, and world design, while being criticised for feeling too ambitious. It was also a favorable commercial success, selling over 10 million copies worldwide by March 2020. Ubisoft supported Odyssey extensively following its launch, releasing two paid expansions and a Discovery Tour, similar to the one released for Origins, consisting of a series of guided tours that allow players to explore the world of Ancient Greece for educational purposes. The game was followed in November 2020 by Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, which takes place in medieval England and Norway during the Viking expansion across Europe.

Gameplay[edit]

Similarly to Assassin’s Creed Origins, Odyssey places more emphasis on role-playing elements than previous games in the series. The game contains dialogue options, branching quests and multiple endings.^[3] The player is able to choose between siblings Alexios and Kassandra as to whom they use as the main character.^[4] The game features a notoriety system in which mercenaries chase after the player if they commit crimes like killing or stealing in the presence of others.^[5]

The player character is a Greek mercenary and descendant of the Spartan king Leonidas I. They inherit his broken spear, which is forged into a blade to become a weapon that grants the player special abilities in combat. The game uses a skill tree system that allows the player to unlock new abilities.^[6] The three skill trees are “hunter”, which focuses on ranged attacks through the use of a bow & arrow, “warrior”, which focuses on weapons-based combat (swords, spears, axes etc.), and “assassin”, which focuses on stealth and silent take-downs. This replaces the system used in Origins, which granted the player a series of passive abilities.

The hitbox combat system introduced in Origins returns and is expanded upon to grant the player access to different special skills when the ability bar fills up. These skills include calling a rain of arrows and a powerful kick to knock opponents off-balance,^[5] and are similar to the “Overpower” mechanic introduced in Origins that let the player use a powerful finishing move in combat. The game features a gear system in which each piece of armor the player wears has different statistics and provides a range of advantages.^[7] These can be equipped and upgraded individually. The “eagle vision” mode, which was used by the franchise to give the player the ability to scout an area by highlighting enemies and objects, has been replaced by a golden eagle named Ikaros as a companion,^[8] similar to Senu in Origins.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey features naval combat, first featured in Assassin’s Creed III, with the player having access to Hellenistic-era warships to explore the Aegean Sea. The conflict between Athens and Sparta is represented through a “War System” which enables players to take contracts from mercenaries and participate in different large-scale battles against hostile factions. The war system can change a faction’s influence over a region.^[7]

The player can develop romantic relationships with non-playable characters of both genders, regardless of their own character’s gender.^[9][10] Creative director Jonathan Dumont commented that “since the story is choice-driven, we never force players in romantic situations they might not be comfortable with (…) I think this allows everybody to build the relationships they want, which I feel respects everybody’s roleplay style and desires.”^[11]

Synopsis[edit]

Setting and characters[edit]

As with previous games in the series, Odyssey features a narrative set in the modern-day, which follows Layla Hassan, an Assassin and former Abstergo researcher who was introduced in Origins.^[12] The game’s historical plot is set in 431–422 BC, four centuries before the events of Assassin’s Creed Origins and the creation of the Hidden Ones (the forerunners to the Assassin Brotherhood). It recounts a secret mythological history set during the Peloponnesian War, which was fought between the city-states of Greece. The player takes on the role of a mercenary and is able to fight for the Delian League, led by Athens, or the Peloponnesian League, led by Sparta.^[13] The game’s main storyline has the player character attempting to restore their fractured family after they and their sibling were thrown off a cliff in their youth at the urging of the Pythia, also known as the Oracle of Delphi, and left for dead by their father, the Spartan general Nikolaos. Parallel quest lines deal with the extirpation of a malign cult spanning the Greek world, and the discovery of artifacts and monsters from Atlantean times.

The game features a number of historical personages players can encounter and interact with, including Alkibiades, Archidamus II, Aristophanes, Aspasia, Brasidas, Euripides, Kleon, Democritus, Herodotos, Hippokrates, Pausanias, Perikles, Phidias, Plato, Polykleitos, Praxilla, Pythagoras, Sokrates, Sophokles, Thespis, and Xanthippe.^[14][15][16] It also includes historical and mythical Greek locations such as the Agora of Athens, Kephallonia, Ithaca, the Odeon of Athens, the Foloi oak forest, the statue of Zeus at Olympia, Naxos, Lesbos, ancient Athens, ancient Argolis, Pnyx,^[17] Phokis, Macedonia, and Mesara.^[18][19] Many famous creatures from Greek mythology, such as Medusa, the Cyclops, and the Minotaur, are featured in the game as bosses. Keeping in with the Assassin’s Creed franchise’s lore, where all supernatural elements are given a scientific explanation, these creatures are depicted here as experiments of the Isu, the same race that created humanity and most of the artifacts encountered throughout the series.

Plot[edit]

This section reflects the events of the game’s novelization, in which Kassandra is the canon protagonist.

In 480 BC, King Leonidas leads the Spartan army against a Persian charge during the Battle of Thermopylae. The encounter is won, but Leondias is informed by a captured enemy soldier that the Persian army has learned of the mountain path and will surround the Spartans by morning. Nevertheless, Leonidas resolves to hold off the Persian advance.

In 2018, Layla Hassan recovers Leonidas’ spear and extracts from it the DNA of his grandchildren, Kassandra and Alexios. With help from the Assassins, Layla relives Kassandra’s memories through the Animus to find the location of the Staff of Hermes.

Kassandra started as a Spartan child, raised by her parents Nikolaos and Myrrine. One day, both Kassandra and her younger sibling, Alexios, are thrown off Mount Taygetos in deference to an oracle’s prophecy, with Kassandra herself being dropped by Nikolaos. She survived the fall and fled to the island of Kephallonia, where she was raised by a merchant named Markos, performing odd jobs as a mercenary.

In 431 BC, at the onset of the Peloponnesian War, Kassandra is hired by a man named Elpenor to assassinate “The Wolf of Sparta”. Kassandra eventually discovers that the Wolf is Nikolaos and confronts him. Nikolaos expresses regret for his actions, but claims he only wanted the good of Sparta. Kassandra discovers that Nikolaos is actually her stepfather, and that Myrrine is in danger. Confronting Elpenor, he admits that he wants Nikolaos dead to drag out the war. He then offers another job to assassinate Myrrine, but Kassandra refuses and Elpenor flees. While travelling to Delphi to ask the Pythia for Myrrine’s whereabouts, Kassandra encounters Herodotos, who recognizes Leonidas’ spear. Upon meeting the Pythia, Kassandra is warned about the Cult of Kosmos. Kassandra investigates the Cult by assassinating Elpenor and using his disguise to infiltrate a Cult meeting. She learns that the Cult plans to take advantage of the war to seize control of Greece and that their enforcer, known as “Deimos”, is Alexios, who has been brainwashed to follow the Cult’s orders.

Kassandra journeys through Greece, clearing out Cult corruption from Sparta and Athens and befriending Greek figures such as Perikles and Aspasia. She is unable to prevents Perikles’ assassination by Alexios, but reunites with Myrrine and finds her true father, Pythagoras. Myrrine and Pythagoras explain that they conceived Kassandra and Alexios to preserve Leonidas’ bloodline, as his descendants have a connection with Precursor artifacts, such as Leonidas’ spear. Pythagoras tasks Kassandra with recovering Precursor artifacts to permanently seal the hidden Precursor city of Atlantis, to prevent its knowledge from being misused by the Cult. During her journey, Kassandra avenges Perikles’ death by assassinating his political rival, Kleon, and confronts Alexios, whom she can kill or persuade to abandon the Cult and rejoin the family.

With war averted and the Cult eliminated, Kassandra heads for the Cult’s meeting place under the Temple of Delphi to destroy a pyramid-shaped artifact the Cult was using to influence Greek politics. Touching it, she receives visions of future conflicts, before destroying it. Aspasia arrives and reveals that she was the original leader of the Cult. She thanks Kassandra for destroying the pyramid, as it had become a corrupting influence. Kassandra can kill or spare Aspasia. After defeating beings that appears as monstrous creatures from Greek legend and collecting the artifacts needed to seal Atlantis, Kassandra activates a recording from the Precursor Aletheia, who pleads with Kassandra and Layla that Precursor technology must be destroyed for humanity to reach its potential. Pythagoras passes the Staff of Hermes on to Kassandra, dying in the process.

In the present, Layla and fellow Assassins Victoria Bibeau, Kiyoshi Takakura, and Alannah Ryan use the data from the Animus to find and activate Atlantis. As they analyze the data within, Layla encounters Kassandra, kept alive by the Staff. Kassandra warns Layla that the world needs balance between the Assassin and Templar Order ideals; either side prevailing over the other will result in the world’s doom. Kassandra also explains that Layla is the prophesied one who will bring balance and gives her the Staff, before dying.

Legacy of the First Blade[edit]

The first story expansion for the game, released across three episodes from December 2018 to March 2019, follows Kassandra as she faces an earlier version of the Order of the Ancients, the same organization featured in Assassin’s Creed Origins, who are forerunners of the Templar Order. It also explores Odyssey‘s connection to the rest of the franchise and the origins of the Assassins’ signature weapon, the Hidden Blade. The three episodes are titled Hunted, Shadow Heritage, and Bloodline.

The Fate of Atlantis[edit]

The second story expansion, also released across three episodes from April to July 2019, focuses on Greek mythology, and follows Kassandra’s quest to learn how unlock the full power of the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus and her hidden sixth sense. The three episodes are titled Fields of Elysium, Torment of Hades, and Judgement of Atlantis.

In Fields of Elysium, Kassandra explores the Greek afterlife in the paradise of Elysium, where she meets Persephone, Adonis, Hermes, and Hecate, members of the Isu race known to humans as gods. Hermes helps Kassandra learn more about the Staff as a rebellion against Persephone’s rule forms under Adonis’ leadership. Meanwhile, Hecate plots an uprising to usurp Persephone. Kassandra and Hermes confront Hecate and Persephone. After an argument, Persephone leaves to deal with Adonis’s rebellion. Kassandra joins the battle, confronting Persephone and requesting that she open the gateway to Hades, where Kassandra can learn more about the Staff. Persephone kills Hermes for his disobedience, and it is revealed that the key to Hades, an Atlantis artifact, has been concealed in the collar of Persephone’s dog, Ros. Persephone opens the gateway to the Underworld and tosses Kassandra, Ros, and the artifact inside. Ros becomes Cerberus, guardian of the Underworld.

In Torment of Hades, Kassandra defeats Cerberus before being confronted by Hades, who is displeased at the death of his guardian. Rifts between Tartaros and the Underworld open, releasing souls confined to Tartaros back into the Underworld. Kassandra is tasked with finding a guardian for each of the four gateways to the Underworld. After recruiting Perseus, Achilles, Agamemnon, and Heracles as guardians and helping Charon mitigate the chaos caused by the rifts, Kassandra confronts Hades and requests that he help them learn more about the Staff. Hades refuses, having actually intended them to be the guardian of a fifth gate. Kassandra fights and defeats Hades, before Poseidon appears through a portal and escorts Kassandra to Atlantis.

In The Judgement of Atlantis, Poseidon agrees to help Kassandra unlock the Staff’s potental, as he is worried about tensions between the Isu and humans in Atlantis. He appoints Kassandra as Dikastes, his second-in-command. Kassandra is responsible for enforcing Poseidon’s laws and keeping order, while also passing judgment on Atlantis. As Kassandra explores Atlantis, she learns that the Isu regularly disobey Poseidon’s laws and commit crimes against humanity; the most egregious of which is “Project Olympos”—a genetic engineering program led by the Isu Juno and her husband Aita—which experiments on abducted human subjects, combining them with Isu artifacts to create hybrid beasts. After discovering the Project Olympos headquarters, Kassandra returns to Poseidon to pass judgment on Atlantis, but is interrupted by Juno and Aita, who unveil their final creation: the Hekatonchires. Kassandra defeats the beast, returns to Poseidon, and declares Atlantis beyond saving. Using the artifacts recovered from Ros and the Hekatonchires, along with the fully activated Staff, Poseidon and Kassandra destroy Atlantis. Kassandra wakes up back in the mortal world and is told by Aletheia that the memories experienced were Aletheia’s memories during her time as Dikastes.

In the present, Layla experiences these trials by order of Aletheia, so she could become the Staff’s new keeper. After the rebellion in Elysium, she is pulled out by Victoria, who fears what this is doing to her. As the two argue, an Abstergo strike team arrives, and Layla kills all but one, ordering them to tell their boss Otso Berg that he lost. After helping Hades, Layla is again forced out by Victoria, who tries to take the Staff away. Layla retakes the Staff, accidentally killing Victoria, which angers Aletheia. Layla convinces her to give her another chance. After Atlantis’ destruction, Layla is warned of an approaching Berg, who seeks the Staff for the Templars. Layla fights and defeats Berg, crippling him. She then restores communication with the other Assassins and informs Alannah about the recent events.

Release[edit]

Prior to the game’s appearance at E3 2018, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was leaked in May 2018 after the French site Jeuxvideo received a keychain containing the name Assassin’s Creed Odyssey on it. Ubisoft announced Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and its appearance at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2018 shortly thereafter.^[20] A day before the Ubisoft E3 press conference, screenshots of the game were leaked by the gaming website Gematsu.^[21][22] The game was released on October 5, 2018 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.^[13] A Nintendo Switch version was announced during the Japanese September 2018 Nintendo Direct. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is a cloud-based title on the Nintendo Switch, which launched on the same day as the other platforms, but in Japan only.^[23]

The game’s season pass includes two DLC stories spread across six episodes as well as remastered editions of Assassin’s Creed III and Assassin’s Creed Liberation.^[24] The two DLCs are Legacy of the First Blade^[25] and The Fate of Atlantis.^[26]

A story creator mode which allows players to create and share custom-made quests was released in June 2019. Discovery Tour: Ancient Greece, an educational mode that lets the player choose between free roaming the world of Ancient Greece to learn more about its history and daily life or embarking on guided tours curated by historians, was released in late 2019.^[27]

Several special editions of Odyssey including bonus in-game content and addittional items have been released.^[28][29]

On August 24, 2021, a patch was released for Xbox Series X and Series S and PlayStation 5 to allow the game to run up to 60 frames per second on the consoles.^[30]

Reception[edit]

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey received “generally favorable” from critics according to review aggregator Metacritic.^[31][33][32]

EGMNow gave the game an 8.5/10, writing “Assassin’s Creed Odyssey lives up to its namesake. By fully investing in becoming an action RPG, Odyssey‘s characters, combat, story, and scope are beyond anything the series has accomplished so far. Its ambitions might get the better of it sometimes, like in how it divides its story moments or in how the leveling system can get out of hand, but the overall experience is, simply put, epic.”^[34]

IGN praised the “world building, environment and engaging gameplay” and summed up its 9.2/10 review with “Assassin’s Creed Odyssey‘s open-world adventure through ancient Greece is a gorgeous thrill, and the best the series has ever been.”^[38] GamesRadar+ gave it 5 out of 5 stars, praising the characters, open world setting and engrossing story, saying that it “perfects everything Origins did and enhances them in ways you never thought an Assassin’s Creed game could. Odyssey has it all.”^[37]

In April 2020, Game Informer ranked the game as the third best in the Assassin’s Creed series to date.^[40]

Sales[edit]

Within the first two days on sale in Japan, the PlayStation 4 version of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey sold 45,166 copies.^[41] In the US the first week of sales were pacing better than any other title of the series on the current generation of consoles.^[42] Ubisoft said that digital sales of the game were 45% of all sales, which was up by 10 percentage points over the previous year’s Assassin’s Creed Origins.^[43] More than 10 million units of the game had been sold by March 2020.^[44]

Accolades[edit]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Official website