CHENNAI: Assassins Creed Odyssey is finally out — it’s the new Assassins Creed game that features the period of war between Athens and Sparta. While it’s great that the series is moving towards a more role-playing environment, it is very tempting to nitpick. Now that Odyssey is out, apart from the price difference — here’s aplenty reasons why you should play Assassins’ Creed Origins over Odyssey now.
We’ve already seen enough European History: We’ve loved the game for showing us the lesser-heard stories. Altair’s exploits in Syria, to Ezio Auditore in Roma have been brilliant exploratory, templar-bashing adventures. Origins on the other hand, took us to the reign of Ptolemy in Egypt, and showed us more of the glorified civilization in Africa (although the game expanded to other places as it progressed).
Do we really need more character customisation?: Bayek the Medjay was an extremely likeable lead character in Origins. He had a well-fleshed out backstory (with the typical tragic horror past), and there was a pseudo-linear storyline going forward — Bayek had a goal that stuck to his personality and his past. In Odyssey however, with RPG being the name of the game, we get to choose a gender for our lead character. While this is a progressive and appreciable move, the available character modifications (such as relationships with NPCs) comes at the cost of player story depth. The War System and Naval combat options make the game a little more impersonal.
Historic realism does a leap of faith: we’ve always seen that AC maintains a degree of historical accuracy — if not absolute. In the sense, we’ve rode on camels in the desert instead of Pegasus. But they have monsters in Odyssey.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy every Assassins Creed Game of Ubisoft (barring Syndicate, and the fact that Odyssey has microtransactions). This comparison is just for some giggles. It is great news for AC fans that another big name game in the series has released in quick succession. The shift from a small-time stealth adventure focusing on history to a giant detailed RPG that has controllable eagles and personalised skill-modification is a great leap. Who wouldn’t want to see more of this wondrous open world?