Assassin's Creed: Odyssey (2018): The Review

Overview

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is a sweeping triumph in world-building, environmental design, and consistently engaging gameplay, even if a few rough patches crop up along the way. Its stunning recreation of ancient Greece is the kind of setting you’ll want to revisit long after the credits roll, and its interlocking systems come together with an ease that’s tough to rival. Flaws aside, Odyssey raises the bar for the series and confidently earns its place in the ongoing conversation about the greatest open-world RPGs out there.

Score: 8,5 out of 10

The Positives ✅

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is anything but restrained. Ironically for a game steeped in Spartan history, it goes absolutely overboard, in the best way possible. This is Assassin’s Creed at its biggest, boldest, and most unapologetically lavish, delivering a sprawling open-world adventure that rarely sacrifices quality for sheer scale.

Ancient Greece is the real star. From sun-bleached islands and marble cities to dense forests and glittering coastlines, it’s one of the most striking worlds Ubisoft has ever built. The lighting alone can make you stop mid-quest just to soak in a sunset. Even after dozens of hours, I kept catching myself entering photo mode like a tourist.

Combat continues the RPG-leaning evolution that began in Origins, and it feels fantastic. Weapons all have distinct rhythms, abilities are flashy and satisfying, and fights flow like a dance of dodges, parries, and brutal finishers. Whether you’re clearing forts, dueling mercenaries, or punting someone off a cliff with the glorious Sparta Kick, it’s endlessly entertaining.

Build freedom is another huge win. Between skill trees, engravings, gear perks, and upgrade paths, you can mold your mercenary into almost anything, stealth assassin, ranged hunter, frontline brawler, or some absurd hybrid of all three. Very few Assassin’s Creed games have let you tailor your playstyle this freely without feeling punished.

And then there’s naval gameplay. Commanding the Adrestia, upgrading it piece by piece, recruiting lieutenants, and smashing enemy ships to splinters is addictive in its own right. Odyssey somehow makes the sea feel just as important as land, turning every voyage into an opportunity for chaos and loot.

The Negatives ⚠️

Of course, a world this massive isn’t spotless.

Technical hiccups crop up more often than they should. Draw distance sometimes undercuts those otherwise gorgeous vistas, textures can pop in late, and the occasional bug, getting stuck on geometry or interacting with an unlootable chest, breaks immersion.

Voice acting is uneven too. While the main cast is generally strong (especially Kassandra), side NPCs swing wildly between convincing and cartoonishly over-the-top. Some accents feel authentic; others sound like someone guessing what “Greek” might sound like after one movie night.

Systems like conquest battles and the nation war mechanics also feel shallower than they first appear. They’re fun spectacles, but your choices rarely matter. No matter who wins, the war just keeps chugging along, which drains the drama out of what should be major events.

Worst of all is the story padding. For every meaningful character moment, there are hours of busywork, errands, fetch quests, and filler objectives that stretch the pacing thin. It can make genuine emotional beats feel diluted by the grind it takes to reach them.

The Experience 🎮

Still, once Odyssey gets its hooks in you, it’s hard to shake. I’d set out to complete one quest and somehow end up three islands away, chasing mercenaries, raiding forts, or hunting legendary beasts. It constantly distracts you in the best possible way.

Playing as either Alexios or Kassandra adds a nice role-playing layer, too. Dialogue choices let you shape their personality however you want, heroic, sarcastic, greedy, ruthless, and while not every decision has huge consequences, enough of them do that you feel ownership over who your mercenary becomes.

The bounty system adds a chaotic twist I didn’t expect to love. Commit too many crimes and suddenly named mercenaries start hunting you down mid-mission. What starts as an inconvenience quickly turns into intense, unscripted showdowns that can derail everything in the most entertaining ways.

Naval exploration became my comfort zone. Just sailing across the Aegean, spotting trouble on the horizon, and diving headfirst into ship battles felt weirdly relaxing. Upgrading the Adrestia and recruiting crew gave the journey a satisfying long-term progression loop.

By the time the credits rolled, I wasn’t ready to leave. Between cult hunts, mythological monsters, leftover quests, and unexplored corners of the map, Odyssey still had more to offer. It’s messy, bloated, occasionally buggy, but it’s also easily the most ambitious and impressive Assassin’s Creed has ever been. Big, beautiful, and bursting with stuff to do, it’s the series at full throttle.