Asassin’s Creed Odys ey

Tom: At one point Kassandra shoved an important quest item up a goat’s bottom to annoy an NPC. I was sold instantly. Ubisoft’s staggering, detailed rendition of Greece and its ancient islands was also quite nice to explore. Samuel: I thought Assassin’s Creed was the low point of modern blockbusters about four or so years ago: Oversimplified combat, platforming, and an iconstrewn map that won’t leave you alone. Icon overload is still a bit of a problem, but as of Origins, Assassin’s Creed has become a series that’s great at exploration—Greece is such a different location from Egypt that the experience of uncovering it feels totally different. It improves combat over Origins, too, and the addition of RPG-like choices (in a Dragon Age- y fashion), made it one of my favorite 2018 time sinks. I just wish Ubisoft didn’t sell experience boosters alongside it. Andy: Odyssey’s clever Exploration Mode is honestly a game-changer when it comes to navigation. Rather than point a big, flashing quest marker at where you have to go, the game gives you a geographical clue to where it is instead. North of this town, say, or west of this landmark. And while it’s usually easy to find the correct location, that little bit of extra legwork, forcing you to engage with your surroundings, goes a long way. You feel like you’re actually exploring, and experiencing, Greece and its islands, rather than just blindly going where the developer tells you to. And the sidequests are the best they’ve ever been in the series, making spending time in this historic world actually worthwhile. Steven: What’s really crazy is how much Odyssey has in store for players after the main story wraps up. Kassandra’s journey to reunite her family is often a great one, but the best parts all happen after, when you get to set out and hunt mythological creatures, uncover your true destiny, and dive headlong into the bizarre metanarrative that’s always been central to Assassin’s Creed. It feels like a whole second game bolted on at the end, and it’s the first time I’ve ever felt compelled to actually 100% one of these darn games.