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Publication: Daily Californian, University of California - Berkeley, Berkeley CA.
Grade: 5.0/5.0
Perched at the very top of the statue of Athena, overlooking the city of Athens, it is difficult not to be amazed by the painstakingly reconstructed environment that the action-adventure, open-world role-playing game, or RPG, “Assassin’s Creed Odyssey” effortlessly showcases. The city below appears to breathe and move of its own volition as civilians and soldiers mull about, the dense forests and sandy shores along the Aegean Sea just visible in the distance behind them.
Following in the footsteps of last year’s wildly successful “Assassin’s Creed Origins,” Ubisoft’s highly anticipated latest addition to its beloved third-person historical fiction series takes place in ancient Greece in 431 B.C. The player enters the ancient Greek civilization at the height of the Peloponnesian War between the Athenian and Spartan powers.
Beginning their journey on the quiet island of Kephallonia, far from the cries of war, the player takes on the role of either a female protagonist named Kassandra or a male protagonist named Alexios. The player having the ability to choose the gender of the protagonist marks a first for the “Assassin’s Creed” franchise, whose protagonists have previously all been male.
A descendant of the esteemed Spartan King Leonidas I, the protagonist, known commonly as “the Misthios,” or mercenary, of Kephallonia, starts out as a warrior independent of the war altogether. Yet the Misthios is soon dragged onto volatile battlegrounds across ancient Greece after learning of old family secrets, leading them into a dark dance with the shadowy Cult of Kosmos amid the backdrop of the ongoing war.
As the Misthios makes their way across Athenian and Spartan territory, the game takes them on a whirlwind tour of historical locations and figures...