Ubisoft gave fans a teaser of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey at its E3 2018 press conference and revealed how the game will revolutionise the series with new features and mechanics, bringing back a gamer favourite: naval battles.
With a focus on ship combat, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey will be in some ways similar to Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, but will be set in Ancient Greece, with the players being forced to navigate the sea in a warship and battle with whatever may be lurking in the water.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey players have the option to select either a male or female character and can choose to use their branching dialogue choices to romance characters within the game, a major change for the game known to be violent.
Here’s everything you need to know about Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey.
Ubisoft gave fans a teaser of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey at its E3 2018 press conference
What is Assassin’s Creed?
Developed by French video game publisher Ubisoft, the Assassin’s Creed franchise focuses on the struggle of the Assassins who have battled against the Templars, whose mission is to promote peace through the control of humanity.
With a mixture of historical figures and historical fiction, the game takes inspiration from Vladimir Bartol’s novel Alamut and as the series has been developed, has built on another iconic game franchise, Prince of Persia.
The Assassin’s Creed series has produced games based on a number of different historical periods including the Italian Renaissance, the French Revolution, Imperial China, the Sikh Empire and now the Peloponnesian War in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.
After its first release in 2007, Assassin’s Creed has become one of the highest-selling video game franchises of all time, selling over 100 million copies by 2016 and has been expanded to film, comics and novels.
Jonathan Dumont, Creative Director at Ubisoft reveals Assassin’s Creed Odyssey during E3
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is the latest release in the world-renowned series by Ubisoft. Set in Ancient Greece, the company revealed that players would be able to dive underwater, discover ruins and battle sharks.
With the option of playing the game with a male or female character named Alexios or Kassandra, branching dialogue can be used to alter the story which allows players to pursue romance options.
The main character is a Spartan warrior in exile who has fled Sparta and become a mercenary in the war with Athens.
The Assassin character will have eight special power slots, four that are associated with their melee weapon and four for their bow which they can use as they travel on naval ships around the Greek islands. Creative Director of the game Jonathan Dumont said that it ‘is pushing our franchise into full RPG.’
He went on to describe how Odyssey will make the player think ‘Are you proposing order or actually freedom? We really like that, because the Greeks actually were asking those questions, because all their mythology is based on order and chaos.’
Dumont mentioned that there would be no difference between playing as a male or female
Dumont also mentioned that there would be no difference between playing as a male or female character. ‘The stories are similar. You don’t have many changes. The acting is a little different because the actors give it their own sauce. It’s much more a vehicle for how you want to roleplay with these characters.’
Odyssey is also expected to pick up from where Assassin’s Creed Origins left off and will return to Layla Hassan’s story. ‘Layla’s quest to find First Civ artifacts and First Civilization information leads her to discover one day a lost book, the lost book of Herodotus, the first historian.
‘And that book refers to a Spartan mercenary that would have been in contact with First Civilization artifacts. Hell, he might have even wielded one,’ Dumont said.
In addition to this, because Layla used a modified animus to experience memories of people she is not related to in Origins, in the new game, as Dumont said, there are ‘two possible matches for DNA’ for the person whose life she is trying to experience – why gamers can choose between a male of female to control.
The player will act as the child of Leonidas and according to the lore of the series, this character is thought to have First Civilization DNA and this means that the main weapon is a spear, rather than a hidden blade.
As most of the game is set on water, Odyssey is the biggest one yet for the Assassin’s Creed series and even allows players to speak with Hippocrates and Socrates, the latter philosopher’s name spelled ‘Sokrates’ in the game.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey trailer
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey release date
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey will be released on October 5, 2018 on PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One.