Assassin's Creed Odyssey

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, and twentieth overall, in the Assassin's Creed series and the successor to 2017's Assassin's Creed Origins . Set in the year 431 BCE, the plot tells a fictional history of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. Players control a male or female mercenary who fights for both sides as they attempt to unite their family and uncover a malign cult.

The game was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and (in Japan only) for Nintendo Switch on October 5, 2018. It was praised for its open world, visuals, combat, story, and characters, while receiving criticism for some reliance on grinding, microtransactions, and the sheer scale of the game that some reviewers found to be too demanding.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey places more emphasis on role-playing elements than previous games in the series. The game contains dialogue options, branching quests, and multiple endings.^[2] The player is able to choose the gender of the main character, adopting the role of Alexios or Kassandra.^[3] The player can also develop romantic relationships with non-playable characters of both genders, regardless of which one they choose.^{[4] [1]} The game features a notoriety system in which mercenaries chase after the player if they commit crimes like killing or stealing.^[5]

The player character, Alexios or Kassandra, is a mercenary (misthios, or "hireling"), and a 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 improves player character's archery, "warrior", which puts emphasis on combat, and "assassin", which focuses on stealth. 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 four 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 also 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.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey also features naval combat again, 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 videogame includes characters based on Ancient Greeks of Western tradition as Darius, Herodotus, Sophocles, Pericles, Aspasia, the Oracle of Delphi and Plato.^[8] It also includes Hippocrates and Euripides.^[9]

The game is set in 431 BCE, four hundred years before the events of Assassin's Creed Origins. It recounts the secret fictional history of the Peloponnesian War, which was fought between the city-states of ancient Greece. The player takes on the role of a mercenary and is able to fight for both Athens and the Delian League or the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta.^[10] 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 and left for dead by their father by command of the Spartan oracle. Parallel quest lines deal with the extirpation of a malign cult spanning the entire Greek world, and the discovery of artifacts and monsters from Atlantean times. As with previous games in the series, Odyssey features a narrative set in the modern day and follows Layla Hassan, who was first introduced in Assassin's Creed Origins .^[11]

Note: The player can select either Kassandra or Alexios as the main character. The sibling becomes the antagonist referred to as Deimos.

As a child, Kassandra was presented with the broken Spear of Leonidas, an Isu weapon, as an heirloom by her mother. Because of her prestigious lineage, great hopes were placed upon her to live up to the strength and valour of Leonidas. Her step-father, Nikolaos, would often train her in hopes that she would follow in his footsteps. At some point, the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi gave a prophecy in which Kassandra's younger brother, Alexios (who was a new-born at the time), would lead to the fall of Sparta in the future. In order to prevent this, Alexios was to be sacrificed at Mount Taygetos, despite Myrrine's plea for Nikolaos to stop it. As a priest was about to drop Alexios, Kassandra attempted to stop the sacrifice, but instead pushed the priest and Alexios to their apparent death. Kassandra was condemned as a traitor to Sparta, leading her step-father to execute her by dropping her off the mountains, though it was obvious he was remorseful in doing it.

Kassandra, however, survived the fall, and escaped to the beach with the spear. Refusing to be found by the Spartans, Kassandra fled out to the open seas, with an eagle following her. A storm later turned Kassandra's boat overboard and she woke up on the beaches of Kephallonia. There, she was greeted by Markos, who took her under his wing and tasked her to do errands for him.

Over the years, Kassandra's skills as a warrior developed and she became a mercenary, working with Markos and the little orphan girl Phoibe, but in doing so they also gained the ire of the local warlord, the Cyclops, who runs Kephallonia with an iron fist. Kassandra learns that Markos had borrowed money from the Cyclops and bought a vineyard with it. She is angered by this due to the fact that Markos owed her money. When she confronted him about it, he set her on a few missions in order to get her own debt back. Kassandra would steal the Cyclops' Obsidian Eye from his home so they can eventually sell it to gain some money. Kassandra also got wind of a group of foreigners who arrived with the Cyclops so she went and killed them all but one. The one man is revealed to be Elpenor. Though he seems unaffected about his men's massacre, he offers Kassandra a deal. She is to collect the Shroud of Penelope from some thieves. Kassandra does this but when she returns Elpenor tells her that she can keep the shroud and pays her a great amount: Kassandra quickly worked out that it was all test for her as he offered her more money if she killed a Spartan General, called The Wolf of Sparta, stationed at Megaris. Kassandra agrees to the deal but has no boat to reach Megaris. She discovers that the Cyclops is vulnerable and confronts him while he is torturing a ship captain, Barnabas. Kassandra mocks the Cyclops and then reveals that she has his eye, he demanded it back but she instead stuck it up a goat's rectum and released it. Obviously angered by this the Cyclops attacks Kassandra but she manages to slay him and his men, then frees Barnabas. Grateful for this, he offers her place on his ship, the Adrestia, as it's Commander. Kassandra agrees and plans to leave, she says her farewells to Phoibe and Markos. On their way to Megaris, Barnabas asked why they were going there to which Kassandra answered that there was a price on the head on the Wolf of Sparta: Barnabas then reveals to Kassandra that the Wolf of Sparta is in fact her step-father, Nikolaos.

Upon reaching Megaris, they discover that they are cut off by an Athenian blockade. They destroy the ships and continue to the beach. Upon reaching the beach they notice a battle is taking place between the Spartans and Athenians. Led by Nikolaos, and his adopted son Stentor, the Spartans are victorious. Kassandra arrives after the battle but is stopped from seeing Nikolaos by Stentor, who asked why she was there. Kassandra offers to help the Spartans take down the Athenians in Megaris, in exchange for a meeting with the Wolf. After slaying the Athenian Leader, Kassandra returns to Stentor and takes part in the battle for Megaris. With Kassandra on their side, the Spartans win the fight and take Megaris for themselves. Shortly after the victory, Nikolaos sends a message to Kassandra and Stentor, whising to speak with Kassandra alone. While angered by this, Stentor accepts and allows Kassandra to meet Nikolaos. Nikolaos talks to Kassandra and quickly works out who Kassandra truly is. She confronts Nikolaos about what he did, and revealed to him the price on his head. Consequently, Kassandra has the choice to either spare or kill him. Either way leads to Kassandra discovering that Nikolaos is not her bilogical father and tells her to find her mother, Myrrine. He then warns her about snakes in the grass. Kassandra is taken aback by this discovery and takes Nikolaos' Helmet and Sword. If Kassandra kills Nikolaos, then Stentor arrives and confronts her, leading to a fight between them where Kassandra is forced to kill him. Upon returning to the Adrestia, she tells Barnabas about her discovery to what he then states that they should meet with the Oracle to discover where her mother is. Kassandra is hesitant to meet her due to the fact that she is the reason why her family was destroyed.

Kassandra goes to see Elpenor and produces Nikolaos' helmet. Elpenor is impressed and states that he has more targets for her to kill, revealing to Kassandra that he plans to kill the rest of her family. She refuses to be used like this and Elpenor orders his men to kill her, but they fail and are killed as consequence. Unfortunately Elpenor manages to escape, so Kassandra meets with Barnabas who introduces her to Herodotus who recognises the Spear on her back. After, she meets with the Oracle, who reveals that she knows who Kassandra is and mentions the Cult of Kosmos. Upon meeting again with Herodotus, they work out that the Oracle is being controlled by the Cult and has been like that for a long time, meaning that the Cult was behind the destruction of Kassandra's family. Kassandra confronts the Oracle in her own home who reveals information about the Cult and that Elpenor is one of the cultists. Kassandra also discovers that the cultists are based under the Temple of Apollo. Kassandra tracks down Elpenor and kills him to which he reveals that the Cult wanted her dead and that he had convinced them not to kill her as he wanted to use her for their own plans. He dies soon after. Kassandra discovers a cult uniform and a small triangle of Isu origin. She meets Herodotus at the Temple and enters with her disguise on, where she finds out that the Cult has eyes and ears everywhere in Greece. After being drawn towards the centre piece in the Cult room by a strange force, she places the small Isu triangle into the Pyramid, completing it. The Cult is then interrupted when Deimos enters the room with the head of Elpenor, revealing that he knows one of them is a traitor. He has various cultists then touch the central piece and, upon getting Kassandra to touch it, he witnesses her memories and she is shocked to discover that Deimos is her thought to be dead brother, Alexios. Deimos kills the next Cult member covering for Kassandra, in which she steals back the small piece of tech that she put in. Upon leaving the Temple, she is shocked to the core, where she meets Herodotus, and reveals to him the Cult's plan to find and kill her mother and birth father as well as the revelation that Deimos is Alexios.

In the modern era, Layla Hassan, discovered through the writings of Herodotus of Kassandra's exploits with the Isu artifacts, she tracked down the burial site of the Spear of Leonidas, and used it to relive the memories of Kassandra. She awoke later on from the Animus disoriented, and is advised by her friend Doctor Victoria Bibeau to take it easy. She contacted her other teammates Kiyoshi Takakura and Alannah Ryan before she returned to the Animus.

Note : This is the plot when the game is played as Kassandra, the game can also be played as Alexios in which case the character Deimos will be Kassandra

Prior to the game's official 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 officially announced Assassin's Creed Odyssey and its appearance at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2018 shortly thereafter.^[12] A day before the Ubisoft E3 press conference, screenshots of the game leaked by the gaming website Gematsu.^{[13] [14]} The game is set to be released on October 5, 2018 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Some pre-orders of the game will be released on October 2, 2018.^[10]

A Nintendo Switch version was announced during the Japanese September 2018 Nintendo Direct. Similar to Capcom's release of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard for the console, Assassin's Creed Odyssey is a cloud-based title on the Nintendo Switch. The Nintendo Switch version will launch on the same day as the other platforms, but this is only confirmed for Japan.^[15]

The game's season pass will include two DLC episodes as well as a remastered edition of Assassin's Creed III .^[16]

The following editions have been announced:^{[17] [18]}

Assassin's Creed Odyssey received "universal acclaim" for the Microsoft Windows version and "generally favorable" reviews for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions, according to review aggregator Metacritic.^{[19] [21] [20]}

Electronic Gaming Monthly 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."^[22]

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."^[26] GamesRadar+ gave it 5 out of 5 stars, praising the characters, opening world 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."^[23]

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