If you thought the hot streets of Bayek’s Egypt looked good, prepare yourself for a shock: we’ve got an hour of the Grecian Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (opens in new tab) in glorious 4K and by Zeus’ beard it’ll make your eyeballs deliriously happy. Captured on Xbox One X, it shows off our assassin Kassandra as she voyages around Delos and Mykonos, twin islands that are currently under the yoke of the Athenian Empire’s Delian League (an association of city states ruled over by Athens).
So yeah, the Athenians aren’t the good guys. Their suffocating rule hasn’t been kindly received by Sparta. In Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, you’re put in the shoes of either Kassandra or Alexios, both mercenaries who are fighting for Sparta as they attempt to rebel against Athens. There’s naval combat, a new bounty meter that keeps track of your theft and murdering, massive 150 v 150 battles, war supplies to burn…you know what, you’re probably best off watching the video to see it all in action. Listing everything that’s new here might take some time.
By the looks of it Ubisoft has taken everything that made Assassin’s Creed Origins (opens in new tab) great – the story-heavy quests, an open world, new combat mechanics – and has managed to improve upon it for Odyssey. The increase in naval combat – something that was lacking in Origins – gives Ubisoft a chance to bring back everything it learned from Assassin’s Creed Black Flag (opens in new tab) and adapt it to fit the Spartan mercenary life. The one question you have to ask yourself is will Odyssey push Origins off of the top space in our best Assassin’s Creed games (opens in new tab)? We’ll just have to wait to find out, but that hour of gameplay does make a compelling case.
Be sure to check out the E3 2018 schedule (opens in new tab) to see when the other major players will announce their news, and keep an eye on our list of E3 2018 games (opens in new tab) to see all the titles coming your way.