Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey is an RPG so that history can be your playground

I spent the Sunday before the 2018 Electronic Entertainment Expo locked away in a cool, climate-controlled room packed with PCs running Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey. Ubisoft had invited the media to go hands-on with the new open-world adventure for around an hour, but first the publisher took some time to explain how this game is different from its predecessors. Unlike most of the previous games, Odyssey is a full role-playing game. It is the end point of a transition that Ubisoft started with Assassin’s Creed: Origins.

But what does it mean that Ubisoft is making an Assassin’s Creed RPG? Well, I spoke with Odyssey director Scott Phillips about that, and he explained the studio’s thought process.