Assassin's Creed Odyssey

Set during the Peloponnesian War, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey follows Alexios or Kassandra, a Spartan mercenary travelling across ancient Greece to uncover their past. Dialogue choices, faction conflicts, stealth, ability-driven combat, equipment builds, and command of the ship Adrestia shape how the journey unfolds across the islands and mainland.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is set in 431 BCE, when Athens and Sparta are fighting for influence across the Greek world. The player chooses Alexios or Kassandra, an outcast Spartan mercenary known as a misthios, and travels from Kephallonia into a much wider landscape of islands, settlements, battlefields, and ancient sites. The story follows the character’s search for answers about their family and past while placing them among historical figures, local communities, and the competing interests of the war. Encounters draw on Greek myth as well as the political conflict, but the central activity remains travelling, taking contracts, navigating relationships, and surviving danger. The chosen protagonist stays fixed for the campaign, while conversations and decisions give the player ways to shape particular relationships and outcomes.

Exploration moves between main missions, character-focused side quests, forts, caves, ruins, and settlements spread across land and sea. Ikaros, the eagle companion, can survey locations from above and mark people or points of interest before the character approaches. The player can climb to viewpoints, reveal more of the map, and use fast travel after synchronising them. At enemy camps and forts, scouting helps identify guards, captains, treasure, and supplies; then the player can choose to slip through unseen, remove isolated enemies, or begin an open fight. Dialogue presents explicit responses, and quests may change based on whom the protagonist supports or how they handle a problem. These choices are connected to the role of a travelling mercenary: a request may lead to negotiation, combat, or a decision about which side of the local conflict benefits from the outcome.

Land combat combines light and heavy attacks, dodging, parrying, ranged weapons, and special abilities unlocked through progression. The Spear of Leonidas anchors many of those abilities, while an adrenaline meter fills through successful fighting and is spent to trigger stronger moves. The available skills are divided among Hunter, Warrior, and Assassin approaches, supporting bow attacks, direct melee, or stealth damage. Abilities such as Sparta Kick can create distance or knock an enemy away, while others help break shields, restore health, or strike from stealth. The player equips selected abilities to action wheels and decides when their adrenaline is better spent on one powerful attack or several smaller tools. Enemies have different levels and equipment, so scouting and selecting a suitable approach can matter as much as pressing attacks quickly; a stealth takedown may remove one guard before a camp-wide alarm turns the encounter into a larger fight.

Weapons and armor form a build system alongside the ability trees. Loot arrives in several rarities, and gear carries damage, armor, and special bonuses that can reinforce Hunter, Warrior, or Assassin damage. At a blacksmith, the player can upgrade a valued item to a higher level and add engravings that improve particular attributes or effects. This gives a reason to compare found equipment rather than simply replace everything with the newest drop: a weapon’s bonus may fit the current skill choices, while armor may support a different balance of damage and defense. Ability points unlock and improve active moves and passive skills, and the game lets players reset those points for a drachmae cost to experiment with another arrangement. Weapons, equipment, abilities, and engraved bonuses therefore work together, and the character can be tuned toward stealth, ranged attacks, or direct combat as the campaign progresses.

The war between Athens and Sparta is represented through regional control and Conquest Battles. Each region has a leading faction and a measure of its power; actions such as defeating soldiers, destroying war supplies, stealing a nation’s treasure, or killing its leader can weaken that control. Once the region is vulnerable, a battle becomes available and the player chooses whether to fight for Athens or Sparta. The mercenary system intersects with this activity: crimes can raise a bounty, attracting other mercenaries who pursue the protagonist, and defeating rivals can move the player up the mercenary ranks. Some opponents can instead be knocked out and recruited, giving the player a non-lethal route to add useful lieutenants to the crew. These systems make local decisions consequential to both travel and combat, since raising a bounty can make an ordinary journey more dangerous and weakening a region can change which army holds it.

The Adrestia provides a second way to move through the world and a separate combat loop on the Aegean. At sea, the player steers the trireme, rows to manoeuvre, and attacks rival ships with arrows and javelins before closing in to board or ram. Ships can be weakened and broken apart, while boarding creates a chance to fight crew members and collect supplies. Resources gathered during exploration and encounters can be spent on upgrades to the Adrestia’s weapons, hull and crew endurance, and other capabilities. Lieutenants recruited from the world add bonuses to the ship and can assist during boarding actions, so non-lethal takedowns have a practical link to naval progression. The ship is also a means of reaching islands, diving at wrecks, discovering locations, and leaving the deck to go ashore beyond a harbour.