Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is all about player choices and kicking people

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was officially announced at E3 2018, though we kinda knew it was coming, what with all the leaks and teasers.

But now we have a proper trailer plus a gameplay video, straight out of Ubisoft’s press conference. The game doesn’t look half bad, and if it continues to build on the great progress Assassin’s Creed Origins made, we’re in for a great entry in the series.

Let’s get the obvious news out of the way – Assassin’s Creed Odyssey takes place in Ancient Greece, during the Peloponnesian war between Sparta and Athens.

We are now at the earliest point in history the series has ever visited, at a time when the connection to the first civilization is the strongest it has ever been. After all, Ancient Greeks worshiped the first civilization as gods – Minerva and Juno are Athena and Hera respectively.

For the first time ever in an Assassin Creed game, we get to choose between two characters – Alexios or Kassandra. Yes, we could switch between characters in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, but here we’ll play your chosen character throughout the entire game.

Kassandra (I mean, I guess you could choose Alexios, but why would you?) is a mercenary searching for a missing family member, and the people responsible for them being missing.

According to the trailer, she’s Spartan, but she doesn’t seem to be particularly patriotic. Throughout the game, we will be able to choose to help both the Spartans or the Athenians.

You’ll fight in battles together with hundreds of soldiers on each side. Could that mean Odyssey is more action-orient than previous games? We know it takes place before Origins, so there aren’t any assassin’s around yet.

Giving the player a choice seems to be a big part of Odyssey. Not only can we choose how to tackle different quests, we also have dialogue choices and romance options. In fact, Ubisoft has already confirmed we’ll be able to romance whoever we wish, regardless of gender.

We’ll also be able to choose different weapons, gear, and skills – similarly to Origins. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey has completed the transition into a full-blown action RPG.

The most important piece of gear in your arsenal is the Spear of Leonides. It was Leonides’s actual spear (who is, by the way, your grandfather) but it is also a Piece of Eden.

This is another first for the series. We did wield Pieces of Eden before, but now we have one with us for the entirety of the game. Upgrading it will unlock new abilities in addition to the ones you unlock as you level up yourself.

You can even customize your ship, which serves as your home base as you travel between the isles of Greece. You’ll be able to recruit new crew from all the places you visit, either by completing quests to finding them in the world. You can even try and recruit mercenaries who are hunting you down if you like their stats.

The devs have promised we’ll still have all the iconic gameplay of climbing buildings and silently stabbing people. There’s even a modern-day story arch.

If everything we hear about the game is true, then Assassin’s Creed Odyssey definitely takes the series in the right direction. Going full action RPG is the right move for AC, in my opinion, since it was the best part of Assassin’s Creed Origins.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey will be out October 5 on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.