Assassin's Creed Odyssey - that ought to do it

I've been consiously abstaining from collecting and expressing my thoughts in writting when it comes to videogames and the videogame industry for...wow, it's been five years. Holy shit. That is a very long time in videogame terms.

Allow me to put this timeframe into perspective.

When I posted my last review, Batman: Origins was new and cost 59.99 (if memory serves). You can get that for like 5 dollars now, and its sequel for about 20.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag was still fresh. There have been 5 major installments and 3 spinoffs in the franchise since then.

In World of Warcraft, you still had stuff to do in the land of pandas. Now we're 3 expansions later.

Xbox One and PS4 were just about to be released. Now they're nearing the end of their cycle and rumours about PS5 are plentiful (and as it turns out, I was kinda right on the money about which of the two would prevail)

Wii U was a year old or so. Now it's obsolete and replaced by Switch.

Tomb Raider had just been rebooted. Now we're in the third installment of that reboot.

I owned a gaming PC, an Xbox 360, a Gameboy Color and an original Gameboy. Now I own a gaming PC, an Xbox 360, an original Xbox, a PS3, a PS2, a Wii, a Vita, a 3DS, a 2DS, a Gameboy Advance, a Gameboy Colour and the original Gameboy that started it all.

I owned roughly 500 games across platforms. Now I'm at 1618. I'm a couple of Humble Bundles away from being the next Anno game.

So yeah. That's a long time to be in retirement. And what could possibly bring me out of it, with so much to catch up on?

Read the title.

This both is and isn't a review. I won't be making reviews as I used to, trying to rush through games while at the same time going into depth just so I can give you my opinions while the game is still new and you may or may not need my nudging (or warning) to buy (or avoid) a game.

Ain't nobody got time for that.

Instead, I will -from time to time, and only when I feel like it, to be honest- share my thoughts about games regardless of release date. This means you may see me talking in depth ("reviewing", if you will) a game that's 3 years old. Just cause I felt like talking about it.

Anyway, onwards to Odyssey.

I feel like I've made this prologue too long, and there's more to come before we dig deeper, so here's your one-line opinion if you do not want to read further.

This game is amazing, and quite probably the very best game in the franchise yet.

Now, for whoever is left:

That doesn't mean it's the best Assassin's Creed game, necessarily. It's a little confusing to be honest.

If you're expecting me to dwell on the graphics, stop expecting, I won't. They're great. Done.

I will however dwell in the sound. Both voiceovers are great, with the female Kassandra being the better one, but Alexios is no joke either. Both actors are actually Greek (and it felt like most NPCs were as well), so they have the accents spot on. Also, the game's main theme, "Legend of the Eagle Bearer" is simply amazing, and surpassed Austin Wintory's "It's Business, Mr. Frye" from Syndicate as the franchise's single most recognisable score in my book ("Ezio's Family" permeates the whole series from AC2 onwards, so it doesn't count).

Odyssey walks further inwards in the path Black Flag tentatively explored, Rogue repeated and Origins boldly embraced, in making a huge open world (rather than restricting the player in a sandbox of a city and setpieces as all other franchise entries did). But not only is this world bigger than all previous games, it feels more alive too. Granted, a large part of it is water, but that is home to amazing naval battles and underwater ruins/shipwrecks exploration (whereas the overall smaller, but bigger in landmass Origins had large expanses of mostly empty desert that served no purpose other than to create a sense of scale).

The geography of Greece is, for the most part, there. Scaled down significantly compared to the real geography of Greece, and large parts omitted (northernmost areas and the less recognisable islands), that I'll give you. But I caught myself recognising where I was without being told or by the minimap, simply due to having been there in real life. Which, in my eyes, is fucking amazing. This is the first time I play an AC game set in an area I know well, so I don't know if previous entries were as accurate, but still. 

Now, let's get to the good stuff.

The plot is on par with the Ezio storyline. I know this is a pretty bold claim, but hey, it's true. It's a personal and grand tale, with twists and turns, that resonates with the modern world through the jarring occasional fast forward to present times courtesy of the game's true protagonist, Layla Hassan. But most importantly it's the journey of a character from zero to hero (or, more specifically, demigod) in the tumultuous time of the Peloponnesian war, surrounded by historic figures that shaped the world we live in. It finds a way to give the sense of historic scale demanded by the backdrop (Greece is already home to ancient, ruined civilisations during the era the game is set, and that's not counting the fictional Isu), and it also finds a way to incorporate and appropriate classical mythical elements of the setting into its own lore. It also explores in more depth the supernatural abilities of Assassins (even if they don't exist by this name yet) and their gripe with Templars (as above; here the Cult of Kosmos). But enough about this: this is old hat for AC games. What makes this one any different?

I'm so fucking glad you asked.

Remember when I said that, in my opinion, this is the best game in the franchise, but not necessarily the best Assassin's Creed game? This goes way beyond Assassins not existing in the game's lore yet, and it goes to three core changes.

Exploration Mode is the way the game is meant to be played. It does away with map points and objectives for the most part, and forces you to rely on sets of hints to narrow down objectives and targets. As a delicious parallel effect, it leads you down a plethora of genuinely enjoyable (or, at least, interesting) side questlines. This makes the game effectively much bigger than you'd think in terms of both length and enjoyment; I'm 88 hours in, at 2870 total kills, all parts of the main story done, several optional questlines completed, and still sitting at 96% completion rate with a plethora of things left to still do and map areas left to explore in greater depth. And more story DLC is still to come. Yikes.

Gameplay is closer to an RPG than you'd think for the franchise. In addition to weapons having different stats and perks, this time around same goes for all of your gear pieces. This, in conjunction with a pretty decent set of unlockable and upgradable skills and level-capped perks allows you to play the game in the way you want and find your own prefered playstyle balance between the three archetypes of Warrior, Assassin or Hunter. Oh, and you can redistribute these ability points at any time simply by spending coin, so don't worry too much about spending these in futile abilities just to try them out and see which ones work for you. I highly recommend the Shield Break, the Rush Assassination, the Predator Shot and obviously the Spartan Kick because that one is simply so much fun.

This means the game, peppered with (mostly) optional NPC Mercenaries (tiered ranks of bounty hunter to hunt down or be hunted by, depending on your actions, slightly reminiscent of the procedurally generated orc lieutenants in Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War), exploration-based objectives and large-scale land and naval battles between the two warring sides of Athens and Sparta is to be approached and experienced on your whim.

The Story: Obviously I do not want to spoil this. But I will say this much: this time around, there are dialogue options and both these and your story choices overall can have far-reaching consequences beyond an immediate quest reward. Right off the bat, you get to choose if you want to play as Alexios or Kassandra, the two prodigal siblings. Of course that one simply swaps one character for the other, and the story remains completely the same, merely inversed, unlike the constant back and forth of Jacob and Evie Frye in Syndicate.

Oh, and what a story this is. 

I got one of the "best" endings with the choices I made, and there were two times (two, count 'em) that I genuinely teared up while playing. But I also chuckled. I laughed. I "romanced" characters (sadly romances are not as deep as, say, Bioware games). And Alexios (or Kassandra) eventually became probably my favourite character in the whole series of -Jesus!- 16 different lead characters of the franchise. Granted, this is a list that includes the mostly wooden Altair, the stereotypical Bayek and by-the-numbers Arno, but also includes Ezio, the Kenways and the Fryes.

In short, this is actually closer to the Witcher than Assassin's Creed. That is a good thing for the franchise and just the shot in the arm it needed.

Buy it.

December 15th Update: And when you've finished the main stories, done as many sidequests as you want, explored to your heart's content and collected all the legendary secrets and gear, buy the Season Pass for it. Episode 1 - Hunted is already out and is awesome (albeit short) and starts connecting the dots between Odyseey and the AC Universe as we've learned of it in previous games. With another 2 episodes to come, as well as an Atlantis-themed storyline to come, it's totally worth it.