Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey includes an exploration mode that strips away most map markers and forces you to rely on directions and clues to find locations, instead.
Odysseus would be heartbroken to see his home now. The once resplendent palace on the island of Ithaca is now a crumbling ruin, not much more than scattered piles of stone and a couple of faltering walls. It’s also host to a company of bandits, patrolling the ancient grounds like the suitors who once tried to steal poor Penelope away.
But not for long. Assassin that I am, I kill first one and then the other bandit leaders. Odysseus may be 800 years dead, but I can at least pay my respects.
Now let’s talk about getting lost for a couple hundred words.
So what is it?
Then it’s up to you to take this info, decipher it, and mark on your map where you think you’re supposed to go. Let me stress: Most of these clues aren’t especially difficult. This isn’t a riddle game or anything. Usually the three clues are enough to triangulate a rough position.
The rest of my impressions are mostly minutiae. I boosted Kassandra up to Level 8 and thus earned a few perks. As suspected, special moves like the “This is Sparta!” kick are unlocked by skill points, and many are accessible very early in the game.
Fun fact: The Sparta kick works on wolves.
An even smaller change, but a welcome one: You no longer need to upgrade your gear by collecting a bunch of random raw materials—or at least, I didn’t see any of that on the new equipment screen during my demo.
