When Odyssey first came out I got it for Christmas, I played it and wrote about it here. The level cap was 50 and my thoughts on it still stand.

After playing it recently with the Ultimate Edition I’ve got some more thoughts which I’d like to share.

The level cap has gone up. This throws the balance of the game out a bit as all the hardest challenges were centred around level 50 which meant conquering them was a mark of having gained power enough to stand up against anything, the top Cultist, Mythical monsters or Mercenary number one! Now they scale up to and higher than your level which can mean you’re ranked as the best but an unimportant Bounty Hunter could take you down with a level advantage. The raised level cap also makes the loot system more annoying as weapons need upgrading to remain useful which is just inconvenient.

Legacy Of The First Blade DLC – The add-on content finally gives the game a connection to the Assassin’s Creed series. We meet a fleeing Persian Assassin who is fighting against an Order of baddies in Greece. If I remember right then this is one of Ezio’s legendary assassin statues from AC2. We fight alongside the assassin and his son, get some character development for Kassandra (the female protagonist) and play through another set of targets which run alongside an emotion packed part of the Odyssey. The DLC comes in three parts but is one large story that makes the game feel more complete.

The Fate Of Atlantis DLC – This one is weird as it comes in three parts that tie the modern day stuff with the ancestors of the Animus, then decides to add an extra Animus inside the Animus that allows Kassandra to go to the Underworld. The three parts all feel completely different, they are:

• Elysium – The nicer part of death, run by Persephone. Kassandra helps Adonis raise a rebellion to fight their way out of the golden fields. Characters from the rest of the Odyssey can appear and player choice is more obvious. I don’t like the map design in this one as there are too many cliffs and canyons to climb, they try to compensate with teleportation but it’s still quite tedious. The enemies in Elysium can drain Adrenaline which takes away from the uniqueness of character builds and often makes combat frustrating. The cultist and mercenary systems are removed leaving only exploration and takeovers.
• The Underworld – Hades’ realm where everything is a bit brown for some reason. Kassandra kills the guardian so must find a replacement on Hades’ order. This brings back the mercenary system with Greek heroes and old enemies filling the roster. The Adrenaline draining enemies are fewer in number here, to change things up we get ethereal enemies that can’t be harmed unless you activate a Tartarus Rift and temporarily lose half your maximum health, this keeps combat fresh and adds a slight puzzle element which is good. There’s a focus on rounding out the stories of Kassandra’s old friends in this bit.
• Atlantis – Where Kassandra is brought by Poseidon to rule and provide judgment. A big white and blue city with as many things to fall of as Elysium. The story has a focus on helping Atlas and some of the other gods (a.k.a Isu or Ancient civilisation people) to learn to live with humans. Obviously it doesn’t go to plan and after a bit of divine arguing the story finishes off by tying into the story of Desmond from the early Assassin’s Creed games.

The whole Fate Of Atlantis DLC brings in challenging combat, interesting bosses and lore that’s exciting for veteran AC players, plus we’re told Eagle Vision is something to do with basically being a demigod. The Legacy Of The First Blade was also really good, if a little less out there.

We also get an extra bit in Corfu. I don’t know when this came in but it ties in with The Fate Of Atlantis. Kassandra takes a holiday which her friends interrupt with a ‘fun’ little treasure hunt. This quickly turns into a real treasure hunt which is a great and powerful item that strips Kassandra of her powerful abilities (making combat harder). It connects all previous Assassin’s Creed stories with a big map and ends by telling you to play Valhalla to finish Kassandra’s story.

I had some issues with the game: getting stuck inside a cliff three times, dead people standing up (still dead but on their feet), attacks not connecting, freeze loading (Skyrim players will know what I mean) and I fell through the floor once. Nothing too bad because the auto save was generous.

Odyssey is too big to describe. It has a beautiful open world, a decent combat system, an engaging story and a little over a hundred hours of gameplay (I play on normal difficulty with map markers enabled). It’s definitely worth £50 (or whatever cheaper price you can get it for.) I’d definitely recommend and think the link to AC was the difference between good and great.