[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACZpHzBKCqU[/embedyt]   It seems to be an annual franchise. Only a year has passed since fans played Assassins Creed Origins, which was released last October. Ubisoft. Set in 431 BC Greece, this game sets a tone that reminds me of 300. You’ll battle as either Alexios or Kassandra, descendants of King Leonidas himself. Fighting during the Peloponnesian War. Bringing back naval combat to the franchise and a giant map of Greece to explore and conquer makes Assassins Creed Odyssey a wonderful journey.     Athenians and Spartans are in all out war. Ships battle at sea, soldiers shedding blood in honour of their country. Spies, corruption, and of course Assassins must come into play. The way AC: Odyssey plays out is very story driven. Much like Origins except with a few changes.  First of all the obvious. The map of Greece. Its massive! Good thing they brought back auto run to your objective when your on a horse. I love that feature so happy they kept it in Odyssey. They also brought back the eagle feature from Origins for spotting enemies, loot, and points of interest. Seeing this franchise do something like Origins mixed with the Black Flag game was very refreshing. Now you’ll be battling with mighty Spartans or the Athenians depending on which dialogue path you take with Scripted NPC’s and key decisions that you make in some story quests. This game has 9 different endings! Each country/province you explore will have influence of a nation. You can weaken a countries influence by destroying supplies, completing side quests, and eventually killing the nation leader. When a nation is weak enough, you can start a huge battle for the region and change the leadership. A player can get lost in the territory control like a game of risk. Odyssey has so much to do that exploring doesn’t feel like exploring. As you discover camps, cities, caves, each with loot chests and other collectibles, it’s very easy to get side tracked and eventually wander around the game gathering goods for the next gear piece or the next boat upgrade or ability point. Each character (Alexios and Kassandra) have 3 different ability trees. The Hunter tree focuses on archery damage and bow abilities. Warrior tree focuses on combat abilities and weapon damage. The Assassin tree focuses on stealth abilities and damage. You can see also passive abilities as well.  Gear is often found in quests and through exploration, in chests or found on elite enemies like captains and mercenaries. But you can also buy and upgrade equipment from blacksmiths.  After you play through the story and get your ship you’ll want to upgrade it as fast as possible. Fire arrows, Javelins , to stronger hulls and stronger crew. You need a lot of coin and resources to fully upgrade everything. Good thing sailing around destroying other ships and stealing their supplies doesn’t feel like a chore at all.     Combat in Odyssey is very similar to Origins. I was never a fan of the shoulder buttons taking over the combat instead of the face buttons. Nothing beats the combat and the counter animations from Assassins Creed 1+2. even though it felt to easy at times, you could take on 12 guards at the same time and be wowed at the sequences that a player can mash-up with. Odyssey and Origins, while the combat is unique, I don’t believe Assassins creed needs all the RPG elements. The colored gear, the character levels and all that. Just make enemies look bad ass that you don’t want to mess with. Let the player figure it out. it adds to the exploration as well. I want be able to travel and find locations and rare items freely and not bound to a level. I don’t want to see on the map the region I have to go to is filled with enemies 10 levels higher than. It also takes away from the brutality as well. Which AC: Odyssey missed out on there. When doing such a good era involving a Brutal war. How can you go soft on the executions. NO! amputations, no dismemberment. A lot of running a soldier through with a spear and pulling it out the other side of him.  The parkour felt like it’s not as smooth as its been in other games. Feels glitchy and jumps sometimes take you in an undesired direction. At least the environments look great. Especially with a 4k upscale, The colors just pop. The ocean detail, boat combat all look amazing. Seeing whales and dolphins swim next to and around your ship in so cool. The voice acting and the dialogue sequences look great. The ability to choose your own story is one of the most exciting parts of AC: Odyssey and is pushing this series in the right direction. The intro cutscene to this game was fantastic with King Leonidas himself. Flying with Orkos the eagle was beautiful as you can see the horizon which was breathtaking.       Overall I am pleased with AC: Odyssey and the series is going in the right direction. Although I am a die-hard fan of the  non RPG style AC games I still enjoyed my journey into this beautiful world of mysterious Greece. Controls felt a little off and clunky from games in the past but don’t let that deter you from picking up this game. The stunning visuals and the countless hours of quests and missions you can do really makes this game great AC: Odyssey brings Greece to life and the Gods would be pleased!