Refined Naval Combat
Ask any fan of the Assassin’s Creed series what their favorite game is and chances are Black Flag will be right up there. While the controls don’t translate all that well since its release, the naval combat and traversal on the high seas were things of legend – so much so Ubisoft has an upcoming game built entirely around it. Since cannons and great pirate ships weren’t around during the Peloponnesian War, players will be met with quite a different arsenal at hand. You’ll be commanding a great ship similar to the one Aya controlled in Origins, however not only will the entire ship be customizable with a variety of parts but the crew itself is said to be made up of the men you pick: want to be faster? Get more rowers. Want a devastating long range attack? Load your boat up with archers. There seems to be a few varieties of crew types and it sounds like how you choose to fill out your crew will drastically alter gameplay as opposed to Black Flags system of simply adding more men.
New Combat Abilities
Odyssey is pulling out all the stops of making Assassin’s Creed a proper RPG series. One of the key new features to the game will be truly phenomenal and devastating special abilities used on what appears to be a charge meter. While Origins let players preform high power and gruesome special kills when the meter was fully charged, Odyssey takes it one step further and allows players to button map special abilities such as disarming an enemies shield, sending out a blinding shockwave, and of course the iconic ability that everyone and their mums will be using left right and center – the Spartan Kick made famous by King Leonidas himself in 300. We’ve only seen a few of these attacks in action but there will surely be some mind-blowing abilities to discover.
Mercenaries and the Wanted System
Running around in restricted areas has always been the best way to get the attention of the local guards/bandits/ general bad guys, in which leaving the area, killing your enemies, or simply hiding well enough would make them forget you even existed. With Odyssey now set in Ancient Greece – arguably the birthplace of law and order – the game will now feature a wanted system much like the one found in all of Rockstars games. Should you go around stealing, killing, or generally being a nuisance, the local authorities will chase you down with varying degrees of intensity. It has also been stated there will be mercenaries hired specifically for the purpose of killing you much like the various high powered enemies found in Origins and both of its DLCs. While not a new innovation to gaming, it is still new to the series and something that will add new layers of fun as the game attempts to keep you in line.
Epic Battles
The Spartans are particularly known for their brutality and absolute love of combat and war, however a series built around the notion of stealth and subterfuge makes it a little hard to incorporate the Spartans in its original state; cue the absolutely badass epic battles of 150 vs 150. Players will be plopped down in the sand for some truly epic battles as the screen is littered with bodies trying to eviscerate each other in short order. Generals and special targets will be highlighted on screen but all in all this is just going to be a hyper-aggressive, frantic, and epic battle scenario worthy of the Peloponnesian War. We can only hope these kinds of battles will appear much more frequently than Origins’ war elephants in which the strongest enemy in the game only appeared a handful of times.
So that’s our list. Did we miss anything? Have anything you want to add? Are you looking forward to Assassin’s Creed Odyssey? Let us know your thoughts on Facebook, Twitter, or the Comments section below. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is set for release on October 5 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. For more information, check out the game’s official website.