Asssassin’s Creed: Odyssey won’t let you romance Socrates, so what’s the point?

Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey is the culmination of Ubisoft’s efforts to turn its historical playground adventures into full role-playing experiences. The publisher started that effort with Origins, and now Odyssey is overflowing with loot, dialogue options, and romanceable characters. Ubisoft is leaning into these elements while a studio like BioWare, which is known for its role-playing games and love stories, is stepping away from those mechanics in favor of shared online multiplayer experiences.

When it comes to Assassin’s Creed’s transformation into an RPG, the publisher isn’t trying to hide its colors. It has a freak flag, and it didn’t take long into my hands-on demo before the game let it fly. I got to play several sections of Odyssey during a 90-minute session, and those included an introduction to the world, naval combat, a story mission with Socrates, and an epic battle. The ship combat is a refined version of Assassin’s Creed 4. The Socrates mission is Odyssey’s version of getting quests from da Vinci. And the battles was Assassin’s Creed combat by way of Dynasty Warriors complete with enemy generals that you have to eliminate to turn the tide of the fight.