Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey has the distinction of being the first AAA game I ever reviewed and it remains one of the biggest, too. To call it huge is to do it disservice, honestly. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is, for all intents and purposes, a sprawl. Spread out over various isles on the Mediterranean Sea, this game lives up to its name, sending you on a journey that can only be summed up as a Greek epic. In it you play as either Alexios or Kassandra, who embark on a quest that sends them all over the known Greek world. You become the captain of a ship, you engage in territorial battles on several warfronts, and on at least one occasion, you get shitfaced with some soldiers on the beach. Odyssey features, among other things, a Shadow of Mordor-like nemesis system that is tied to a web of conspirators, as well as romance, which results in a freewheeling exploration of the sexual fluidity of Grecian culture. As you sleep and murder your way from Athens to Crete, you even unearth the origins of several mythological creatures. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey may be intimidatingly large, and even a little bit unwieldy, but it also has the most fun of any of the formulaic Ubisoft open-world games, and it can be yours for $12 on Xbox.