Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey is the latest form of media to make me question whether I was even present for the majority of my Ancient History degree.
Ditching a surprising amount of the Assassin’s Creed baggage to the point I sometimes find myself thinking “this actually plays a bit like one of those Assassin’s Creed games”, Odyssey takes you on a wild romp through Ancient Greece, set in the midst of the Peloponnesian War, or at least I think it’s this and I’m too scared to look it up in case I’m wrong and I have to hand my degree back in.
It features running, jumping, assassinating through stealth or in my case attempting to assassinate through stealth and then having to blunder your way through half of the Athenian/Spartan army to run away.
It also apparently includes surprise emotional trauma for me. Spoilers for a minor side quest called “Making Friends” after this paragraph. If you’re not sure if you’ve done this one or not, it’s the one with the little girl in the clay pit. If that doesn’t ring a bell, you haven’t done it yet.
My wife asked me over Whatsapp “Is Donkey Kong good or bad?” which is a perfectly expected question and entirely consistent with the sorts of questions I find myself fielding from friends and family all the time. I’m lucky I have spent so long playing games, reading about games and listening to podcasts about games for otherwise I would be ill equipped for life, which apparently requires the successful answering of these sorts of questions.