Ubisoft revealed pretty much everything about Assassin's Creed Odyssey at its E3 2018 press conference. The studio dedicated a huge chunk of its show to Odyssey's ancient Greek setting, both of its main characters, romance, its RPG systems, and perhaps most importantly, its release date.
Here's everything we know about Assassin's Creed Odyssey.
What is Assassin's Creed Odyssey's release date?
Assassin's Creed Odyssey is out on October 5th, 2018. We're unsure whether this means the series is going back to yearly entries, but Ubisoft Quebec has been working on it for three years, since development of Assassin's Creed Syndicate ended.
What is Assassin's Creed Odyssey's setting?
Ancient Greece. The game is set in 431 BC, the furthest back a game in the series has been set so far. It takes place during the Peloponnesian War between Sparta and Athens. Ubisoft describes it as a founding period for art, science and politics, and calls it the birth of Western Civilisation. Socrates is your buddy. He will set you side quests, and you can even argue with him about philosophy.
The world is composed of islands and a large mainland, a big change from Origins, which was mostly settlements linked by deserts. Want to see the world map in full? Check it out below:
Who is the main character in Assassin's Creed Odyssey?
You have a pick of two: Alexios, a man, and Kassandra, a woman. Whoever you pick, their story plays out similarly. It's described by Ubisoft Quebec as an epic Greek tragedy. You play the descendant of Leonidas, and after defying a prophecy of the Delphi oracle, you bring shame to your family. You're thrown off a mountain as you're cast out, but you survive. The story picks up 17 years later.
In the modern day world, Layla continues her story from Origins, so it's a proper sequel in that respect.
Here's the Assassin's Creed gameplay trailer
Ubisoft dropped a meaty gameplay walkthrough at its E3 2018 conference, which spotlights how many of the different elements of the game will work.
Will there be more RPG elements?
Ubisoft is calling this a full RPG. What that means is, you get to shape the story and your character with dialogue choices. You can romance characters in the game, with no restrictions on who you can woo. You can piss people off in conversations, start fights, be nice or sarcastic. During our first hands-on with the game, we got to see this in action, and it's pretty convincing in terms of cause and effect, but that's just in one small area of the game. We're promised some dialogue choices will have a powerful effect on the larger story.
On top of that, the weapons value system from Origins now applies to armour as well. So you'll constantly be looking for better breastplates and leg armour to stop you from taking damage during battle.
You've also got a suite of new abilities you can unlock in this game, and you can upgrade them up to two more times for further effect. Lighting your sword on fire, will set enemies aflame, or you can upgrade your leap of faith so you can land and stun enemies in your radius, like in the Batman games. You can only use four melee abilities and four stealth abilities at a time, and you have to map your choices to your controller or keyboard.
The best one is probably Spartan kick, which lets you boot soldiers off of cliffs, or knock them back in a duel. There's also an instant stealth kill move where you throw your spear at a soldier. These build on Origins' new combat system, and offer more ways to play.
How does romance work in Assassin's Creed Odyssey?
As mentioned above, you can romance anyone in Assassin's Creed Odyssey, whether you're playing as Alexios or Kassandra. "Yeah. You do whatever you want. If you're interested in this character, you're interested in this character, and that's it," explains creative director Jonathan Dumont to me.
In the E3 demo, you're free to romance both Thaletas and Kyra, who lead Spartan and rebel armies respectively on the island of Mykonos. You can also give gifts to certain characters. This isn't a Mass Effect-style romance situation of a continued relationship, though—they'll be more self-contained affairs.
Naval combat returns in Assassin's Creed Odyssey
With plenty of islands to explore in Greece, you'll need a ship in Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Naval combat returns once again in this entry, and you'll be able to recruit crew, customise your ship, board other ships, and cleave enemy vessels in half. Here's what it looks like:
