Assassin's Creed Odyssey Review, Gameplay and Speedrunning Tips, Appeal

Assassin's Creed Odyssey continues a gradual reinvention of one of gaming's most iconic series.  

This shift for Ubisoft's juggernaut began the year prior with Assassin's Creed Origins, offering bold new features to the tried-and-true formula. It was aimed at breathing life into the historical epics the series has expertly commandeered in the gaming space. 

But Odyssey isn't just a nudge toward historical action RPG like Origins was—it throws the player off the cliff. These changes are aimed at player agency, letting each player tell their own story right from the start by permitting the selection of one of two heroes to play as, and it extends through dialogue choices, with meaningful consequences embedded in those choices and multiple game endings.

Assassin's Creed has always offered a grand scope while attempting to aptly balance historical setting, storytelling and gameplay. While one of these points drags behind the other in Odyssey, there is enough new in the epic that unfolds to affirm its status as the best game in the series to date. 

Graphics and Gameplay

Odyssey is a tonal shift from Origins, swapping out the bright hues of the desert and pyramids for the muddier, bulky-feeling world even farther back on the timeline (400 years) than its predecessor. 

As always with this series, Odyssey is downright stunning and immersive. This is art in video game form, as the massive playground spans vast oceans and colorful islands, where waves unfurl foam on to beaches. Lands feature dense cities and rocky plains bloodied from war in addition to snow-capped mountains. 

Uber-detailed environments will have players simply wandering the massive cities taking in the details. No two locations feel the same, and it helps that these are the best character models and cutscenes in the series to date. If there is a major complaint, it's that the lip-synching once again has a hard time keeping up with the audio at times. 

But it's a small gripe in the grand scheme of things from a visual perspective. Whether going from horseback to a massive overhead view via a bird's eye perspective or slamming through the ocean's waves, Odyssey at points can almost be distracting from a visual sense. This applies to the great musical score as well, which can give off Witcher vibes in towns and becomes impressively grandiose out in the middle of the ocean.

It's the gameplay that is the hinted point dragging behind the other two foundational blocks of the series. 

Make no mistake, Odyssey is another fun addition in this sense, but when the other two points are so superb, the third sticks out. Longtime fans of the series aren't going to be surprised by the combat. Like its time period, it is barbaric and final, violent and bloody. Skilled hands will win engagements through a smart on-the-fly thought process consisting of devastating counters, ranged arrow attacks and adrenaline-meter usage. 

Combat feels consequential and weighty—players are going to know when they make a mistake. The variety of weapons and unlockable skills again thrusts control of the experience into a player's hand, and all of it seems balanced and worthwhile depending on one's taste. 

Traversal sputters again, though. Climbing still feels like a player has to cross their fingers and hope for the best at times, and sometimes the on-screen character doesn't want to let go of whatever they're hanging from—which is typical for the series. It doesn't figure to be a make-or-break deal for veterans of the series or newcomers alike given what the rest of the game offers, but it once again sticks out. 

Luckily for those hoping Odyssey is a hit, it's the underlying systems and choices baked into the gameplay leading the series' change of direction and masking its slight deficiencies—this is another enjoyable entry from a playability slant.

Story, Features and the Rest

Alexios or Kassandra? 

So goes the first major decision players must make. Picking one or the other to play as throughout a journey that could easily provide 100 hours of entertainment (assuming it's at least as big as Origins) isn't an easy obstacle. The two are brother and sister and forever interlinked as the Peloponnesian War unfolds between Athens and Sparta. 

The choices don't get easier from there. Dialogue options can lead to branching quests and major decisions have big consequences that can impact the ending of the game. Without diving into spoilers, one early major choice will have a notable effect on a city in the world throughout the game. There is also a romance system, for those interested in such diversions. 

As always seems to be the case with games in this series, the story itself is vague and entirely eclipsed by historical setting.

Like Origins before it, there is another widespread conspiracy across a historical plot of land that sweeps up the player's character, who has to eventually ride the waves to a conclusion. It has good structure and pacing and while players will want to get to the bottom of it, the nature of an assassin game is simply mowing through forgettable masked or hooded targets and being done with it.

While the characters still have their own personalities and quirks, this isn't a linear game, and it's fun to feel like the outcome of a war is at a player's fingertips while dealing with mischievous devices moving in the background behind the scenes. That feeling doesn't relinquish, but the story itself and the characters have all been done before. 

Odyssey is brilliant in the way it helps a player fail to notice they won't be remembering the names of targets they're mowing down or that many of the side quests, like investigating an area before hunting someone, is much of the same as the prior entry in the series.

Ubisoft does this with Exploration Mode, which removes every marker from the map and leaves the discovery up to the player. Want to complete a quest in this mode? Lean on the clues provided from conversations and the lay of the land because no marker is going to pop up to save the day.

Exploration Mode is a great option for players who want an additional layer of immersion and to better appreciate the fine details this work of art offers, as opposed to just blowing through everything on a cluttered map to the point where it starts to feel like a second job. 

Where Origins felt like it was taking successful open-world systems from other Ubisoft titles and implementing them, Odyssey feels like the developers finally had some breathing room to add their own things atop this foundation. 

The RPG-esque numbered system implemented in Origins returns. Players level up, and the weapons they choose have attack values and dole out numerical damage on the screen. For the purists, seeing these numbers might seem a bit cartoony and detract from the ultra-realistic historical setting. For most, it's a fun twist for the franchise that adds a layer of strategy.

The discoverable weapons and armor again have a Destiny-like rarity system, scratching the collector's itch and otherwise just being useful for menu navigation. As players level up, three branching skill trees (Hunter, Warrior, Assassin) offer different playstyles, and unlike the trees from Origins that all blended into one another, they feel more separate. 

But those were impressive new systems of the series already in place. Returning with a twist is the bounty system. A version of the Phylakes system from Origins, players who steal or commit murder in the open will become hunted by various named mercenaries, and it's great to have access to the mercenaries screen, which offers context to the enforcers trying to collect the price on a player's head. 

The return to the open sea has led to some innovation in the RPG realm as well. Outside of upgrading their vessels for combat, players can now staff their ships with characters found throughout the world.

Want to spare the unconscious guard? Click a button and recruit him or her to your ship, where he can serve and provide stat bonuses. It is impressive to finish a memorable side quest and recruit characters to permanently join the crew on the ship, where they will help with boarding other ships—otherwise, they would have just been forgotten.

Then there are conquests. Players can choose to side with Sparta or Athens throughout the story. Working as an independent mercenary of their own, a player's actions will affect a nation's defense of an area. Work this defense down enough by burning war supplies and weakening troops and the leader of that area becomes vulnerable. 

Once that happens, a conquest battle can begin where 150 characters on screen engage in a war with the last one standing emerging the winner. These aren't just impressive from a technical standpoint, as they offer something to players normally only reserved for cutscenes. While the AI typically fights in clusters, players have free reign to attack whoever they want, and slinking through the chaos while hunting captains and other mercenaries is a thrill. 

Finally, there is another mercenary-like system that players unlock that goes too far into the spoiler realm. Just know it's even bigger, provides incredible context and fleshes out the story in a most-necessary way. 

For those curious, this installment follows the same lead as Origins and doesn't do much with the formerly convoluted present storyline. Layla Hassan's angle is still there in the background, but it's easy to forget it even exists. 

Overall, this is a gargantuan game from a size standpoint. The map is enormous, doesn't feature much in the way of load screens and everything is accessible via ship. 

It all comes together in the name of player agency. While dialogue options don't always feel like they have differing impacts on the game, players will know when they have reached a crossroads and there is no point of return. Otherwise, Odyssey does an impressive job of fleshing out the team's idea of where the series should go in interesting ways while letting the player tackle the world in any way they desire. 

Speedrunning Tips and Appeal

Those looking for a massive speedrunning challenge need look no further. 

Taking a jaunt through ancient Greece is hard enough without trying to do it as quickly as possible, juggling RPG mechanics and intense traversal along the way. 

Those who want to pursue such an idea will have to lean on some classic speedrunning staples, starting with the most basic of all—skippable cutscenes. It's a breeze to fly through all of the dialogue, too. 

It should go without saying, but navigating the massive world is hard enough without turning off all markers, meaning Exploration Mode is a no-go. Players looking to make or break records would be wise to also remember it is critical to grab at least one vertical synchronization spot in each area of the map, as these unlock the ability to fast travel from the map interface.

It would be run-ruining to travel by sea to a new area and unlock fast travel only to realize just how long it would take to backtrack because they forgot to find the perch in the prior area. 

On the ground, traveling by horse is always preferable. And while Odyssey offers the option to have the horse autorun on the road to an objective, it's probably going to be faster to cut straight to it when possible. 

The combat approach to a speedrun is rather basic as well—kill everything that moves. The Warrior tree is going to be a speedrunner's best friend...with one glaring exception. 

That is Athena's Sight, a base skill from Origins now tucked into the Assassin skill tree. It scans the environment for nearby loot and enemies and marks them, which will prove useful while dashing through the land and trying to identify where to go within certain areas. 

Otherwise, Warrior will make a player's character a brute-force powerhouse who can stand toe-to-toe with anything. A stealth approach takes too much time on a run and sitting back with bows as a Hunter is dealing in inefficiency if players start missing shots.

Navigating fortresses is something where stealth will take too much time during a speedrun. As a result, a player who chooses to invest ability points into a stealth role would struggle when confronted in battle compared to the Warrior build because their skills perform better from the shadows or at range.

These same ideas translate to naval battles and conquests. At sea, directly charging into enemies and then boarding will yield the quickest results. During the massive 150-character brawls, seeking out generals and captains to take down right away will pick up the pace. 

Players will hit grind walls if they are tackling enough in the way of experience-earning activities as they go. The level system means enemies three or four levels higher than the player's character will dole out one-hit kills, so grinding out levels on the side is something speedrunners will need to figure out. 

If that all sounds like a good time, it is fair to suggest this one has plenty of speedrunning appeal. It's going to be a hit on services like Twitch either way, so adding a competitive element to it will only give it further legs within the community. When it comes to speedruns, much of the joy stems from viewing how the best break down a game piece by piece then put it back together in the most efficient way possible. 

Here, there are more systems and depth than in most games ever created, literally—and it all has one gorgeous historical backdrop as a set piece. 

Conclusion

Assassin's Creed Odyssey attempts to do too much to qualify as a masterpiece—one game can't possibly master all three areas of an experience on such an epic scale. 

But two of three makes for one of the most enjoyable experiences in modern gaming history. Odyssey is challenging and expansive in its options for players to imprint themselves on an unrivaled historical recreation—which steals the show. 

This isn't anything new. Black Flag was all about the pirate life. Syndicate was all about London. Origins was about Egypt and a dramatic shift for the series—if players were ready for the series to shift.

The transformation seems complete with Odyssey, and while it doesn't do a whole lot new or innovative per se, it presents everything together in an irresistible package with a setting players won't soon forget. 

It's the best in series by a long shot. Looters, role players, history buffs, stealth and combat fans and video gamers in general will find something they can enjoy in Odyssey, the strongest rebuff yet to the idea single-player games are some dinosaur on the way out in the face of endless multiplayer offerings. 

While providing a romp through history, Odyssey shows single-player games done right are far from being history.