Assassin’s Creed Odyssey – What we know so far

Only a year after taking gamers to a beautifully realised ancient Egypt, Assassin’s Creed returns. And it’s keeping its sandals on.

Odyssey takes place during the year 431 BCE in ancient Greece where a fictional civil war between Athens and Sparta rages. With revamped combat, the return of naval battles, and many key new features, it’s sure to be one of 2018’s standout releases. Here’s what to expect.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey release date

The game’s available from October 5th across all regions. That’s slightly earlier in the year than Origins released – October 27th 2017.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey system requirements

Here’s what Ubisoft recommends for running the game:

Minimum Requirements

• OS: Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit versions only)
• Processor: AMD FX 6300 @ 3.8 GHz, Ryzen 3 – 1200, Intel Core i5 2400 @ 3.1 GHz
• Video: AMD Radeon R9 285 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 (2GB VRAM with Shader Model 5.0)
• Memory: 8GB RAM
• Resolution: 720p
• Targeted framerate: 30 FPS
• Video Preset: Low
• Storage: 46GB available hard drive space
• DirectX: DirectX June 2010 Redistributable
• Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card with latest drivers

Recommended Specifications

• OS: Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit versions only)
• Processor: AMD FX-8350 @ 4.0 GHz, Ryzen 5 – 1400, Intel Core i7-3770 @ 3.5 GHz
• Video: AMD Radeon R9 290 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (4GB VRAM or more with Shader Model 5.0) or better
• Memory: 8GB RAM
• Resolution: 1080p
• Targeted framerate: 30 FPS
• Video Preset: High
• Storage: 46GB available hard drive space
• DirectX: DirectX June 2010 Redistributable
• Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card with latest drivers

Recommended 4K Configuration

• OS: Windows 10 (64-bit versions only)
• Processor: AMD Ryzen 1700X @ 3.8 GHz, Intel Core i7 7700 @ 4.2 GHz
• Video: AMD Vega 64, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (8GB VRAM with Shader Model 5.0)
• Memory: 16GB RAM
• Resolution: 4K
• Targeted framerate: 30 FPS
• Video Preset: High
• Storage: 46GB available hard drive space
• DirectX: DirectX June 2010 Redistributable
• Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card with latest drivers

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey setting

It’s off to ancient Greece for the first time in the series in Odyssey, where a huge archipelago world map awaits and where political borders are subject to your actions and decisions. With so many islands to navigate between, aquatic vessels take on greater prominence here than we’ve seen in the series since Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, while on land you’ll be exploring the rugged mountains of northern Greece, lush greenery on Kefalonia Island, the urban sprawl of Peloponnese, and the harsh volcanic climes of the arid islands, to name a few.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey story

As either Alexios or Kassandra, the player is a mercenary who finds themself embroiled amidst civil war – and, this being a videogame, given a huge amount of agency over how that war plays out. Also in-keeping with the series’ tradition, there’s a modern-day narrative to which Leyla Hassan of AC Origins returns.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey combat

Building on Origins’ hitbox-based, RPG-like combat system, the fighting in Odyssey bestows four melee ability slots, and four slots for the bow, on the player. Charging up these abilities in combat lets you unleash special moves – like the iconic kick from Zack Snyder’s 300 – in battle. And for their part, battles now come in both large and small-scale varieties. Well, there is a war on, after all.

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