➤ Assassin's Creed Odyssey, the review 🎮

Assassin's Creed Odyssey it's a frighteningly vast game. The developers of Ubisoft quebec they started from the solid and widely renewed bases of Origins to package an incredibly rich experience, which improves the gameplay in some respects and makes certain mechanisms more coherent also linked to the combat system, now more based on special abilities. However, the novelties mainly concern the setting of ancient Greece, literally huge between the hinterland and islets, and the fascinating lore represented by the most representative historical figures who lived during the period of the Peloponnesian war. This results in varied and narratively stimulating subquests, the interesting introduction of the romance element, the return of the Black Flag-style naval sections and the addition of large-scale battles that closely resemble what was seen in For Honor. .

A "real" Assassin's Creed?

There is no doubt: after the conclusion of the Desmond Miles storyline, Ubisoft seemed to have completely lost the pulse of the situation, guilty neglecting the plot events set in our times and picking up the thread only with the last episode. Before going into the review of Assassin's Creed Odyssey, we would therefore like to answer some of the questions that fans of the franchise will certainly be asking themselves. Odyssey carries on the events of Layla Hassan? Yes, although not in a concrete way. Is this a "real" Assassin's Creed? It depends. The series has recently taken a different turn, more devoted toscouting and all 'adventure, however, going to materialize what was the original vision of Patrice Desilets, that is a wide and fascinating world, with many new situations to come across while walking around.

Last question: why set the game in a historical period in which the Assassins and Templars did not exist yet? The answer here is clear enough: to discover the secrets of the Pieces of Eden and of the First Civilization, closely linked to the Greek world. What honestly surprised us was finding ourselves in front of a product that was anything but sketchy from a narrative point of view: net of a direction not yet at the level of the best videogame productions, which unfortunately often manages bad sequences that would have benefited from times. and different ways, the story of Odyssey is not a simple expedient to justify the setting, but an engaging story, with visceral traits, full of human contradictions (do you know the fact that you can fight indifferently for Sparta or Athens?) and excellent characterizations.

History and characters

Assassin's Creed Odyssey is the first installment in the series that allows you to choose whether to face the adventure with a protagonist masculine or feminine. After opting for the canonical option, Kassandra, we have shaped her character through a series of even important choices, portraying her as an extraordinary but loyal fighter, fiercely homosexual, who does not shy away from emotions but on the contrary often lets herself be carried away and applies this philosophy even to the thankless profession of mercenary (" mysthios "). Hers is a disturbing past: born and raised in Sparta, as a young girl she survived by a miracle when her father threw her from a mountain, guilty of having tried to save her baby brother still in diapers from the condemnation of an oracle. Carrying with her an important family relic, the legendary spear of Leonidas, Kassandra managed to reach the Greek island of Kefalonia and was welcomed there by Marco, a sort of small entrepreneur who is very good at getting into trouble.

At the beginning of the game we get to know the protagonist and some surrounding characters (Marco himself, the little foundling Phoebe), becoming progressively involved in a chain of events that will lead us to leave aboard our own ship, the Adrestia, to complete the mission commissioned from us by a mysterious Greek tycoon. The matter soon takes on the contours of a family matter for Kassandra, but there is no need to reveal further details: net of some not exactly brilliant implications, especially towards the end of the main storyline, the plot of Assassin's Creed Odyssey we liked it: the authors have cleverly used the "lore", the Greek mythology and the revelations regarding the Isu to construct a story that flows in a coherent way, without sharp details but at the same time devoid of the flaws to which the series had accustomed us.

A better or worse narrative component than Assassin's Creed: Origins? The question is very subjective: the Bayek saga was based on revenge and sacrifice, supported by atmospheres that this new chapter is unable to replicate, perhaps also due to a less marked artistic personality. Of course, those who are anxious to get to the point immediately will have to deal with a structure that actually prevents them from going straight ahead, making it essential to complete some secondary quests in the perspective of parallel macro missions, each with its own conclusion. Assassin's Creed Odyssey requires over forty hours of play only to get to the end of the main storyline, it natively resorts to the self-leveling system of the enemies that Origins had introduced with an update (thus avoiding that some initial missions, faced later, prove too easy) and, in general, can keep you company for a month or more, depending on how much time you want to dedicate to it.

An incredibly full-bodied experience, in short, which nevertheless manages to never lapse into boredom thanks also to the solidity of a truly suggestive cast of supporting actors. We will find ourselves dealing with figures such as Hippocrates, Socrates, Pericles, Herodotus or Thales, to name just a few, but also with new and equally fascinating characters, with whom we can eventually decide to establish a relationship. There was great curiosity around the romance element of the new Assassin's Creed, but we can say that it is an appreciable feature, certainly welcome: triggered by specific dialogue choices, most of the love encounters take place behind strictly closed doors, but some sequences take some more liberties and manage to convey beautiful emotions.

Controls, weapons and items

That the backbone of Assassin's Creed Odyssey was the same as Origins became clear from the announcement of the game, but as mentioned this new episode introduces some important news also in terms of gameplay. THE commands are the completely renewed ones with which we have now become familiar, with the dorsal keys for light attack, activation of skills and parry (pressing them together at the right moment), the left trigger to use the bow and the right one to perform a heavy attack. The lack of coherence with respect to the silent kill, assigned to the Triangle key, appears less marked this time, also thanks to an enhancement of the maneuver itself (upgradeable together with other moves, including a more effective stealth kill that consumes an adrenaline bar).

On the front ofInventory in Assassin's Creed Odyssey a simplification has been made in relation to the bow, which is no longer divided into various categories but belongs to a single type: to shoot special or multiple arrows, the related skills must be unlocked. The rest was handled similarly to the previous episode, with a class distinction for each weaponry (swords, clubs, spears, axes, daggers) which is reflected in a very evident way when we take a tool to the blacksmith to improve its effectiveness. That said, the set of weapons and armor made for the occasion is splendid and rather varied: as the level progresses we will tend to find the same components only of better quality, but it is still a very wide selection. Small but important note: it is possible to equip a helmet (or a hood), thus taking advantage of extra protection, then choosing whether or not to view it in-game, thus leaving the face of the protagonist free.

Skills and combat system

In Assassin's Creed Odyssey the tree of ability has been completely revisited and now includes three different "paths": Hunter, Warrior and Assassin. Each of them allows you to unlock specific upgrades and powers. The class Warrior it includes for example the iconic Spartan kick (which proves to be tremendously useful in combination with the verticality of many scenarios: a well-aimed kick is enough to bring down an enemy, even a rather tough one, as long as he does not possess particular skills), a loaded shot, a "finisher" with a series of attacks in sequence, a front load and a momentary boost of the shots. The class Cacciatore revolves around the use of the bow and allows for precision shots, loaded ones, paralyzing or incendiary arrows, explosive arrows and, in general, the amount of damage done with each maneuver. Finally, the class murderess regulates the moves that we can use in stealth mode, the sound of footsteps, the perception of objects (even here the classic Eagle Eye is a distant memory) but above all the effectiveness of the small blades (no hidden blade, anyway ).

It is unlikely to proceed by focusing on a single category, but the game allows you to reset the skills unlocked at any time to distribute the experience points obtained during the campaign differently. Certainly you need a mix of skills to get by in various situations: assaulting an enemy base to eliminate its leader and steal its treasures often requires alternating approaches, even more so if the rank of the guards is higher than ours. It never happens to run out of arrows, this is true, but unlike Origins it is difficult to reach a degree of power such as to eliminate dozens of soldiers with long shots and go quietly to collect the valuables among the corpses. The balance makes the fights full-bodied and challenging: from this point of view the special abilities, which can be spent by consuming the indicators of the adrenaline bar, help but are not decisive. Dodging attacks at the last moment triggers a bullet time not beautiful to see but rather effective, during which it is possible to ring a series of blows to the enemy without it being able to react.

Enemies and artificial intelligence

The days of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag are certainly far away, when the protagonist could accumulate kills after kills and leave behind a mountain of bodies: in Assassin's Creed Odyssey the vision is consolidated action RPG introduced with Origins, and therefore happens to have to flee when you find yourself surrounded by three or four high-level enemies. In addition, the funny practice of the "little train", with the opponents who were waiting for their turn to strike: in a condition of numerical inferiority we will almost never be able to complete a combo without another participant in the fight trying to hit us, however succeeding if the sequence cannot be canceled. How does artificial intelligence behave in this and other cases? The rules of the stealth genre are quite clear: making the perception and reactions of the guards realistic would mean transforming the experience into a frustrating trial & error, because once discovered we would have to give up the silent approach for good.

In the game, therefore, a simplistic middle ground is observed: being spotted creates a state of alarm that is also quite lasting, but it is possible to recover by running away and hiding away, after interrupting eye contact. All this considering a certain strategic dynamism, since the alerted enemies will begin to roam the camp in a group, dividing only after a while. The conquest of the outposts is a clearly repetitive practice in its dynamics, but it is fortunately interspersed with a large number of different events, which in some cases also include a clash with powerful bosses belonging to Greek mythology. Finally, there are the mercenaries: they roam the map like those of Origins, but are handled differently. These are valuable opponents, tough and often accompanied by ferocious beasts, who are hired on the basis of our actions: their intervention can actually break the eggs in our basket, especially when they arrive in the middle of a siege, but defeating them will allow us to obtain new items and increase our popularity as mysthios by moving up the category rankings.

Difficulty and method of exploration

Assassin's Creed Odyssey allows you at any time to set the difficulty on four levels (easy, normal, difficult and nightmare) and to change the exploration mode, making it guided as in the other episodes or free. We found the game quite challenging at the intermediate level, thanks to the aforementioned self-balancing system of the enemies and a couple of moments of the campaign that require a bit of grinding to be able to continue, but the system that regulates the depth of thescouting it represents an important novelty, which in many ways changes the consistency of the experience. During missions it is traditionally asked to find something or someone, to infiltrate a place and steal an object, to eliminate a target.

Well, with the new mode it will be essential to make the most of the dialogue system with multiple options to obtain the information we need and identify, for example, a limited area where to investigate. Once on the spot we will be able to recall the Icarus eagle in the same way as Senu, using the hovering to mark points of interest, enemies, treasures and so on. This kind of approach makes the game more realistic and inspired, but clearly a bit slower too. Moving on to the guided solution, the differences are remarkable: the targets appear immediately in the distance and you find yourself ringing the missions one after the other, a bit like in an assembly line. We therefore understand why the developers have clearly indicated, at the beginning of the campaign, that it is better to play by activating the exploration mode.

Missions and choices

How are the Assassin's Creed Odyssey missions, especially the secondary ones? We found the variety of situations sufficient to avoid the excessive repetitiveness that characterizes many of the past episodes of the series, there is a complete lack of stalking (fortunately!) But above all we have worked well on the narrative front to justify the assignments that Kassandra or Alexios accept. to carry out. Even in these situations, some come into play choices which will inevitably have consequences, and in this case it is advisable to take advantage of the quick save function to create points on which to eventually return if you want to experiment with other solutions.

The plot does not differ whether you opt for the male or female protagonist, the two simply swap roles, it is true, but the abundance of crossroads makes for the first time at least a second playthrough attractive, using a different character and making alternative decisions. to reveal the nine available endings. When a certain choice has consequences on the story, the dialogue linked to it is accompanied by an icon. However, to say what the specific weight of this feature is without making a new lap is difficult: we imagine that some situations are solved in a trivial way, but in other cases it is immediately clear how a concrete advantage could arise from a decision not taken, perhaps the obtaining a particular object or weapon. And yes, it eats your hands a little. From this point of view, the guys from Ubisoft Quebec have, however, used an often controversial approach, inserting choices whose meaning must be interpreted to avoid saying the exact opposite of what we would like.

PlayStation 4 Trophies

To get fifty-one Assassin's Creed Odyssey Trophies you have to complete the game's campaign, but that's not all. The incredible richness of the scenario obviously pushed the developers to hide achievements a little everywhere: they are obtained by completing specific groups of missions, defeating bosses, closing the arc of a certain character, upgrading weapons and ship to the maximum, making engravings on their instruments to further improve their effectiveness, but also becoming formidable sought after.

Technical realization

Assassin's Creed Odyssey boasts a literally huge setting, as mentioned, and the developers have done a great job of characterization to differentiate, where possible, cities and islands from each other. There are places that remain impressed, others that reveal themselves by pure chance during a horse race or a navigation sequence: the pleasure of discovery, which made Origins' approach so fascinating, has remained intact and indeed is emphasized in this new episode. Of course, there are some assets that repeat themselves, in particular the temples to climb to make the inevitable synchronization, which is essential to be able to make rapid travels; but in general the scenario appears varied, inspired, convincing and fairly populated. We are far from the Paris of Assassin's Creed: Unity, which had some neighborhoods literally full of crowds, but the density of the inhabitants is believable based on the context and appears very similar to that of Origins. About the chapter set in ancient Egypt, one can only say in terms of atmospheres e Artistic direction Assassin's Creed Odyssey does an equally good job, but nevertheless there are ride sequences in the woods or in the mountains that, enjoyed on a large screen at 4K e in HDR, boast an extraordinary visual impact, to be immortalized on the fly thanks to the photo mode. The pure quality of the rendering is not amazing, in some moments there are quite evident problems of pop-up of the textures and shadows, as well as there are wobbles of the frame rate, some quite big glitches (which we trust will be fixed already on day one) and a bit too long loading at game over.

The cutscenes, however, run smoothly, unlike the aforementioned Origins (which filled them with effects, it must be said), and in general the consistency of the engine is surprising, if we consider the dimensions of the map, which can be visited in its entirety without time wait. On some aspects, compromises have inevitably been made: the reflections on the sea water (splendid) are real, those in the puddles sometimes not (do you remember the windows of the first Watch Dogs?), And the rain was rendered in an "old fashioned way" gen ", without the support of adequate effects to mark the impact on the ground. Some animations of the NPCs appear a little out of place (see the frenzied race of those who are guiding us towards a goal) and emphasize the lack of a flawless finish, as well as the horse's interactions and its ability to move appear dated.

Nothing to say about the main characters: Kassandra is a tall and menacing Amazon, well characterized also in the scars, while Alexios is a protagonist more in line with the tradition of the brand. There Assassin's Creed Odyssey soundtrack is excellent, with music that takes up the classic themes of the series and many unpublished songs linked to the atmosphere of the Greek setting, but it is necessary to emphasize in particular the extraordinary dubbing in Spanish: about twenty hours of dialogue is not a walk in the park, but the quality of the interpretations makes it pleasant to listen to them in full and we really appreciate the fact that Ubisoft has once again wanted to invest in localization. Beyond a few small flaws (see the different pronunciation of the names by two interlocutors), there are really intense moments that our actors have been able to render perfectly: hats off to those who have taken care of the adaptation with so much passion. .

Comment

Tested version PlayStation 4 Price 67,90 € Resources4Gaming.com

8.8

Readers (255)

8.3

Your vote

In our review we found Assassin's Creed Odyssey a huge game, which improves the experience of the Ubisoft series in several respects and introduces convincing mechanics, able to further emphasize the sense of discovery, the adventure component, the relationships between the characters and their choices. We had approached with perplexity to this title and we were extremely surprised, finding ourselves at the end of the day in front of an overall better product than Origins. The Bayek saga boasts a more engaging narrative component, a better rendering of the atmospheres and a greater artistic personality, but Odyssey has on its side a vast and fascinating map, a "lore" full of excellent supporting actors, secondary quests better for narration and variety, the return of the sections at sea, the introduction of large-scale battles, the system of choices and consequences, the romance element and various optimizations in terms of gameplay and fighting. An excellent Assassin's Creed episode without the Assassins? Incredible but true.