Hands-on review: Assassin’s Creed Odyssey takes the fight to ancient Greece

Ubisoft has pretty much visited every time period it could find with its Assassin's Creed series which started back in 2007. Now in its newest iteration, Ubisoft explores the time period of ancient Greece for Assassin's Creed Odyssey.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey starts in explosive fashion as you are pit in a middle of a war between the Athenians and the Spartans. The opening battle looks like the action sequences from the movie '300' and the gameplay is vicious and raw. Sadly though, the opening does not last very long but it gives players an idea on what they are in for.

The main story of Assassin's Creed Odyssey instead focuses on Alexios or Kassandra who are the descendants of the Spartan king Leonidas I. The player inherits the broken spear of his and this grants the main player with some special powers.

At the start of the game, you can choose to play as either Alexios or Kassandra. It does not matter too much who you choose because both characters follow a similar path anyway. However, it's good to know players are able to make a choice whether they want to play as either a male or female main character.

The story takes a lot of twists and turns concerning the main story for the protagonists. At first the main character is looking for their family members, but then the game opens up for more epic quests by the time you reach the 10 hour mark. It has one of the most interesting plots I've ever seen from an Assassin's Creed video game and I was interested in the story from the beginning until the end.

Visually, Assassin's Creed Odyssey is the prettiest game in the entire series. Assassin's Creed Origins looked great last year, but most of the environments were set in sandy deserts. Here, the environments are more beautiful as you can explore the high seas and visit many famous Greek landmarks.

Aside from a visual change, this year's game is much larger than the map that was featured in Assassin's Creed Origins. If you own a 4KTV, you must play this game on a PS4 Pro or Xbox One X (tested) console to marvel at how awesome the graphics can truly be. Sure the game still looks good in 1080p, but 4K is where the same truly shines.

Gameplay wise, Ubisoft isn't shy on adding lots and lots of main quests and side-quests for you to do in this game. It's by far the longest Assassin's Creed game I have ever played and most of the time I was hooked with the main story.

However, some players might dislike the fact that you will have to do a lot of levelling up and grinding if you want to be powerful enough to finish off the main game. Assassin's Creed Odyssey isn't a game where you can only play the main story missions as every side-quest is important too because they give you extra XP you may need to tackle the next mission.

I have to admit, levelling up was painstakingly long and it's a bit annoying that you cannot progress onto the story missions without doing lots of side-quests first. Not to mention most of the quests are spread out all over the large map so you are always forced to travel a long way to activate certain missions!

As you progress further into the game though, the game gets better since you will have unlocked most of the skills and abilities. Not to mention you will eventually find lots of great armour and weapons when you kill several big enemies during your playthrough.

That being said, the combat can feel a bit sluggish and slow compared to other action games such as Marvel's Spider-Man or even Nioh. If you plan on playing this game, it's advisable that you use stealth most of the time because being surrounded by lots of enemies will ultimately end in your demise.

Anyway, Assassin's Creed Odyssey is a fun new addition to the Assassin's Creed franchise thanks to an excellent storyline and awesome looking graphics. However, the game isn't perfect because you are forced to grind a lot and the combat system still needs to be improved.

Verdict: 8.0/10