A Late Review: Assassin's Creed: Odyssey
As the title suggests, this review is a little late the 2018 Ubisoft release of Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey. But, better late than never, and with no wait on the DLC releases of The Legacy of the First Blade or The Fate Of Atlantis, I’m sure there are some new takes to be found somewhere in here. So, with that said, let’s dive into Ancient Greece. And spoiler warning from here on out.
Exploring Odyssey was a big shift for me in the series. I was already late in getting into the AC series, not picking up Assassin’s Creed || until last year, and then jumping straight to Odyssey. A huge mechanical shift, and I think from looking at it now I feel the same about it in a lot of ways to how I felt about Breath of the Wild and its divergence from the series staples. Not bad, but in a lot of ways it also didn’t feel like the series it was coming from. That’s not a bad thing, just a tonal observation.
If the banner didn’t give it away, I went through this adventure with the powerful bi warrior, Kassandra. And overall, I had a blast traveling through Greece with her and Ikaros. The world was beautiful and immersive, and there was never more than a minute went by before I ran into something to do (though some of those timed quests were less than welcome sights near the end of the game).
But I also played Odyssey while going through a weird phase in my life. I was starting to have a mental breakdown when I began, and after a brief hiatus, recovering from that breakdown. And there were parts of Kassandra’s journey that certainly were interesting to deal with. I don’t know that I can say it was therapy, but sailing Greece, finding Kassandra’s family, and then delving into the inevitable lose of some of that family was an interesting way to look at the cycle of highs and lows of life.
In particularly losing Phoibe. I came back to the game around the time I had this quest, and losing Phoibe certainly wasn’t amazing. I remember just waiting for her to wake up. I mean, if there was one thing the game had told me so far is that kids were basically unkillable. While Elysium and the Underworld would later prove me very wrong, Phoibe’s death did this much sooner and it certainly didn’t feel great losing a character I cared so much about.
But there were heartwarming moments too. I foolishly played the base endgame content before starting the DLC, saying goodbye to Herodotus and having the last hurrah meal with my friends before then setting out to help Darius and Natakas find peace. With all other content behind me, I dove into a plot I completely saw coming and foolishly let Natakas and Kassandra have their few years of peace. And it seemed fitting that, after losing her family, Kassandra in my story then plunged into the trials as the Keeper, only to see some of those long lost friends again.
This game certainly isn’t perfect. While the tool tips are nice, there are a number of mechanics that aren’t as clearly explained through gameplay tutorials that I had no idea I could use until well into the game. Despite picking up the taming pets skill, I could not figure out how to knock out a bear until well into the late game, and it was only on a tool tip late in the game I found out I found out I could jump off my horse. Obviously, these aren’t game breaking mechanics, but with how important knockout mechanics were in Elysium, it seemed like some of those could have been clearer.
And perhaps this is the writer in me, but Aspasia’s reveal as the Ghost of the Cult was too easy. The game established very early on that the male and female characters wore different masks, and the Ghost was always female because of that. Between that and the “controls Athenian politics” hint, it was an easy guess since we met no other Athenian women with a hand in politics. The “is a woman” hint was unnecessary and only confirmation in the story that she was the villain way before the actual reveal. I could make a comment about how more female characters should then have been introduced, either as wives for people who would scream accuracy, or as artists. If playwrights and philosophers can be in the main cast of characters, I fail to see why a few female writers and artists couldn’t as well since the game gives those roles to other women as well. Even a priestess. Anything besides Anthousa or Myrrinne, who were both weak red herrings since they weren’t anywhere close to Athens.
However, if there was one thing this game did poorly, I have to say it’s difficulty scaling. Now, to be fair, I played this game on easy. My computer is slow and having to time combat perfectly isn’t something it can handle. Also, I just play games on easy because it’s more fun for me. Take that as you will, but there was still a point, particularly in the Fate of Atlantis DLC, where enemies just became damage sponges. The fight with Hades is egregious about this. My first attempt at the fight, with gear one level behind, and it was like I was doing nothing. Like, yes, he’s an Isu, but there’s realism and there’s fun game design. The health padding failed at the later and it very quickly pulled me out of the story.
And while I did take the last few paragraphs to go at the games flaws, those are really it. A bad red herring, some health sponges, and unclear tutorials on none mandatory mechanics. For the 150 hours I put into this game, that’s a small list. I don’t know that I would put in another 150 to complete every location left in Greece, but I know that I enjoyed my visit and it certainly did something to help me, even if that something was leave me more confused about how I felt than when I started. Seems very much like Kassandra’s conversations with Sokrates.
With that said, let me give some recommendations. My first thoughts are if you like the Witcher series, in particularly the third, you’ll like this game. In that same vein, the Elder Scrolls series or Breath of the Wild are both big open world games that also translate into liking this game. If you like stories about finding family, or about historical fantasy, you should definitely pick this game up. Exploring Greece in the game definitely made me consider planning a visit more than once in the future, though I also loved the sci-fy parts of the story, even if I’m almost completely lost on the Isu storyline in the series.
However, if you’re feeling the open world slog, you may want to skip this game. Or, do what I did in late game and just put your horse on autopath while you work on something else while you travel across distances you really could just fast travel from. If, like me, your computer can’t handle or you don’t enjoy the “perfect dodge” system, this game relies heavily on it in its combat. There are ways to remove its necessity, like with the lower difficulty, but if this is a deterrent in combat, you may wanna pass.
And if you’d like more reviews on games way after they’ve released, let me know. You can leave in in the comments, or reach out to me on one of my socials with suggestions.