Assassin's Creed: Odyssey

Story:

The battle of Thermopylai, 480 BC. King Leonidas I of Sparta and his army of 300 stop the advance of an invading Persian army that counts tens of thousands soldiers. In the end, he falls, but not before costing the Persians so dearly that their conquest for Greece fails on the very shore they landed. Two generations later, Alexios and Kassandra were born. Depending on player's selection, one of them plays the protagonist while the other becomes an antagonist. But before they were shaped into mighty warriors, they were children, they were Spartan, and one of them was to be sacrificed to the gods at the behest of the Cult of Kosmos who works in the shadows yet controls the world through chaos. Many years later, the remaining sibling lives on the island of Kephallonia, while the other is presumed dead by being thrown from the mountain in the sacrificial process. The protagonist living in Kephallonia was rescued and raised by Markos, a shady character with a knack of making drachmae and getting himself into trouble, but with a good heart. Being raised by such a person made the protagonist took a path of becoming a mercenary. Feeling ready, it was time to venture into the world and find the answer to many questions that troubled the protagonist from the childhood. Why did their father allow the sacrifice? Is the mother still alive? Who or what is the Cult of Kosmos and what are their plans? Thus, Alexios' or Kassandra's odyssey begins.

Gameplay:

This is the the first time in the series where the player gets to choose the protagonist. In Syndicate player could switch between sibling protagonists, but here the entire story is shaped around the single selectable protagonist, Alexios or Kassandra. The game also has two main gameplay modes... one which helps the player by showing where to go next for main quests, and the exploration mode which forces the players to explore Ancient Greece on their own and find out where the next goal is on their own. Similar to previous games in the series, the player can move on foot, ride a horse, or commandeer a ship (or a smaller fishing boats that will break on open sea on big waves). Many RPG elements were taken directly from Origins so the player has various weapons and armor which can be replaced or upgraded by the blacksmith. Weapons and armors can also be engraved with special abilities. As with other RPGs, there is a leveling up system in this game, but the enemy levels up together with the player so while the player's attack, defense and overall strength increases, the same happens to the enemies so player never becomes strong enough to more easily or more quickly take out some fortress or a pack of wolves head on. Weapons and armor too have a level number assigned, but each piece of equipment can be upgraded to player's current level with enough money and resources. Money is earned by doing mercenary jobs, weather story quests or various tasks which constantly appear on the bulletin boards in towns and ports. Experience points are earned by defeating enemies, solving quests and opening new regions and areas on the map. Experience points are used to level up which in turn lets the player exchange skill points to upgrade existing or unlock new skills. After a while, additional upgrade system opens which lets the player use skill points to upgrade warrior, ranger, or assassin type of attacks. Spent skill points can be reset at any time and re-used for entirely new selection. While the player is a mercenary and he gets paid for various jobs and bounties, doing bad things in the open may create a bounty on player's head which will make other mercenaries hunt the player. Bounty can be lifted by remaining out of sight for a while, by paying money for your crimes, or by killing those that put bounty on your head. The quests are split into odyssey quests which are quests tied to the main story, add-on quests which are related to DLCs, world & characters which are quests given by chara