Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is an interesting game. While it looks like a natural and obvious evolution of Assassin’s Creed Origins, which came out last year, in a lot of ways, it also seems so far removed from Assassin’s Creed mechanically and contextually that many fans are wondering why Ubisoft didn’t just spin it off as its own IP instead.
To try and allay some of those concerns, creative director Jonathan Dumont did an AMA on Reddit, where he revealed the game’s place in the series’ lore: it will be about how the pieces of Eden came into the men’s hands, and the game will include lots of references to other Assassin’s Creed games. The fantastical abilities are also not mandatory, with Dumont saying that players can simply choose to play the game grounded if they want. Speaking of those abilities, respeccing will always be available, but not every ability may be unlockable.
That apart, the game will have no usable shields, it will have fleshed out sailing mechanics, but they won’t be a focus, it will have a bigger map than Origins (though half of that is the sea), more content than Origins, dynamic weather, and seven different biomes. The game will also have, for the most part, deliberately placed loot, instead of random drops.
All of which sounds great, yes- but, again, I do find myself wondering if this game needed to be Assassin’s Creed at all. It could have been a new IP- on the other hand, I imagine Assassin’s Creed being slapped on the box means more sales, so there is that, too.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey comes out on PS4, Xbox One, and PC on October 5 2018.