I have always been a huge fan of the Assassin’s Creed franchise. I love all the historical locations and Ubisoft always populate their worlds with a massive amount of content. I was, however, a little sceptical going into Odyssey as in screenshots leading up to release it looked almost identical to last year’s effort AC Origins. With the promise of dialogue options and a refined combat system though, I went in optimistic. After all, Origins was probably my game in the entire series.
GRAPHICS
In most instances the graphics in Odyssey are superb. The lighting is gorgeous and is most impressive when reflecting off wooden objects in the world. The ocean plays a big part in Odyssey and it has been given some love too. Unfortunately though there are random areas where textures just seem to have gone missing. Small areas of water that are a single shade, low res wall and ground textures appear at times as well. Thankfully they are few and far between and likely just due to bugs that can occur in such a large, expansive open world.
GAMEPLAY
You would be forgiven for thinking that Odyssey would basically copy and paste the gameplay that got so many plaudits in Origins last year. Origins was a big step forward for the franchise and even those I personally chose in both games to revert to legacy controls the game feels a lot better than it had done in the likes of Syndicate. To their credit though, Ubisoft went over and above to iterate on the gameplay and the result is the most fun gameplay loop in any Assassin’s Creed game.
Naval combat takes more of a front seat this year after it’s low key integration in Origins. I had feared pre-release that the emphasis on it would be too heavy, but looking back I think most agree they struck the balance just right. At times I even found myself enjoying some of the naval battles, although the upcoming pirate game Skull and Bones can still get in the bin as far as I am concerned.
I do have a few issues with it. For one, in an attempt to make it more accessible they have all but turned it in to a superhero game. You now don’t take any fall damage and can acquire power-ups such as the one to teleport behind an enemy within a certain radius and assassinate them. While this leads to some really fun and addictive gameplay I do at times yearn for the more simple, grounded entries in the series.
I also came across more glitches than anyone else I spoke to that played the game. For years I have heard people talk about AC games being buggy but very rarely have I actually encountered anything. With Odyssey though I had enemies unable to detect me, randomly bursting into flames and a common bug where the game would drop to about one frame every 5 seconds. In many games this would have been a deal breaker for me, but patches improved stability a lot and the good heavily outweighed the bad.
STORY
For the first time Assassin’s Creed has a narrative in place that allows you to choose a male or female character. Personally I chose Kassandra and found her a strong lead character throughout with great voice acting. The introduction of dialogue choices was another first for the series and while at first they felt tacked on and unnecessary, over time they showed surprising depth.
Characters in the world sometimes give you instructions on who to speak with to advance stories and when you go to the marker you will have to relay the correct information or the mission fails. It forces you to think more about the story and the people you are interacting with. I did find that this in part led to a less focused story though, one that despite the aforementioned strong acting performances and decent plot just didn’t quite hit the mark.
VALUE
As a value proposition Assassin’s Creed Odyssey delivers more bang for your buck than any AC game yet, which is really saying something. The campaign took me around 55 hours to complete and that is just the tip of the iceberg. I still have about a third of the map I haven’t even visited yet and the map is absolutely crawling with things to do. If you feel inclined there is also an abundance of DLC that can be picked up on sale as well.
VERDICT
Overall, despite the story falling short of a few other entries in the series and me not being totally sold on the supernatural aspect of the gameplay; this is the most fun I think I have ever had with an Assassin’s Creed game. Brotherhood, IV and Syndicate were my favourites in terms of setting and story, but the new deeper RPG elements Ubisoft have introduced the last two years absolutely transform the game and make it hard to put down.
-VDZE
A review copy was provided by the publisher. Game reviewed on PS4 Pro.
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