Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Uses a Choice-Based Narrative for a “More Personal Experience”

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey places a huge emphasis on player-choice in order to help gamers better relate to the male or female protagonist of the game.

Speaking to IGN, creative director Jonathan Dumont said Ubisoft is “really embracing the role-playing aspect of RPGs” by making Assassin’s Creed Odyssey a choice-based driven game. “We are continuing that transformation,” said Dumont. “[We] wanted to give a deeper, richer, and more personal experience so that you feel that this is truly me expressing myself through Alexios or Kassandra.”

Apparently, the developers at Ubisoft also wanted players to influence more than just the moment to moment action in the Assassin’s Creed series. Narrative director Mel MacCoubrey told IGN that the team wanted “to create a relationship between a player and the game, where the player has inputs in moments of action, of course, but also in moments of story.”

For those unaware, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is the first game in the series that allow players to affect the overacting story. Similar to games such as the Mass Effect series, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey will have minor and major choice-based consequences, from influencing your steamy sexual encounters to encountering various endings.

Player choices are also more complex in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, as the team aims to tackle morally gray scenarios. Coupled with long-term choice-based consequences, players will definitely have to take their time before making a decision. “You can have long-term choices where you know you are making a big choice up front, and it could very well have a long-term consequences,” said MacCoubrey. “And I wish I could give you an example for that… but I won’t

Arguably, the choice-based focus in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey brings great replay value to the game, especially for gamers who want to experience every possible outcome. With the recent open-world Ubisoft game being filled to the brim with content, however, it might be a bit daunting for players to go replay the whole game again just to experience different story outcomes.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey releases Oct 5. for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.