How Ubisoft chose the player in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey

The Assassin's Creed faction is about freedom and free will. But the characters in Ubisoft's long-running games series have not always offered players a multitude of choices. But Ubisoft hopes to have accomplished something different with Assassin's Creed: Odyssey.

The huge new game, which takes place in ancient Greece, begins on October 5 on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. I played the first four hours or so – the first full chapter of a very long match – at a Ubisoft event last week in San Francisco. I have to make choices, like playing as a male or female protagonist, Alexios or Kassandra. And in the gameplay, I could be cruel and ruthless. But if I went too far, someone would put a price on me and the mercenaries would chase me away.

I interviewed game director Scott Phillips about the design of the Odyssey. You can see my gameplay on the video below.

"At first, we decided that the choice would be essential to the game," said Phillips. "Choice in a role play environment. Greece has become a beautiful place. Then we thought about the great battles and emblematic moments of Greece and the battle of the 300 and the Thermopylae. It's a persistent thing in movies and stories. This is something we wanted to tackle very early, to start with beauty. We wanted a very personal story. It's also a little story about reuniting your family. But this small scale explodes and amplifies these events that change the world. Basically, your goal is to reunite the family you have been torn apart.

Here is an edited transcript of our interview.

GamesBeat: This is the first time I see how the game starts. You made some interesting choices. Reflecting on this, how did you decide to put this story in place? What decisions did you make about what you wanted to put first?

Scott Phillips: At first, one of our first ideas was that the choice would be at the heart of the game. Before even having a setting, the choice was essential for the game – choosing in an RPG style of play. Greece has become an ideal setting for us. Once we chose this, we looked at some of Greece's iconic historical moments, such as the Battle of 300 at Thermopylae. This has been written over 2,500 years. It's a persistent theme in stories and movies. We wanted to do it from the start to start with beauty.

As for the story, we wanted a very personal story. It's a little story about reuniting your family. But this small scale explodes and amplifies these events that change the world. On your own, your goal is to reunite the family you have been torn apart in the past.

GamesBeat: Are we jumping a bit between the Persian War and the Peloponnesian War?

Phillips: It's really the only time we miss. We start at Thermopylae, but most of the game takes place during the Peloponnesian War in 431. However, there is a strong connection during the game. The spear you have is the spear of Leonidas, which he used and lost in the battle of 300. It is also an artifact of the first civilization. In the tradition of Assassin's Creed, it is the society that existed 70,000 years ago, and they are part of all the conspiracies and mysteries of Assassin's Creed. We wanted to have this connection in your lineage between you and Leonidas, and really launch the game with a strong moment. This moment then connects us to Layla, our current protagonist, and Alexios or Kassandra, the character you play as at the time of the Peloponnesian War.

GamesBeat: Does the choice of one of the two characters matter to you?

Phillips: You will get the same story and have the same skills and all that stuff. The main difference will be in the performance of the vocal actor, as well as in your personal preference to play one or the other. This type of choice was, again, an important aspect for us, to give players the choice between a man or a woman.

GamesBeat: At the last preview event, we fought the jellyfish. It was interesting, seeing the change in mythology, these creatures and monsters. Here, I thought I might end up fighting a Cyclops.

Phillips: But he's just a man, yes.

GamesBeat: Why did you go for this contrast?

Phillips: Mythology is so essential to ancient Greece. The gods, legends and myths of the time were so central that they had to be satisfied in this experience. I think we've found a good way, as you've seen Gamescom with Medusa – an Eden apple is involved with it, which is this iconic artifact of Assassin's Creed. But we take this myth and integrate into the history of the first civilization, because all these myths come from a kind of core of truth. We take that and say, "It comes from that piece of our story. That's why it works.

We wanted to play with your expectations at the beginning of the game, asking you who is the Cyclops. But there are many of these First Civilization connections. Since we are so far, we are at the very beginning of our history. Assassin's Creed never ceased to exist – many of these artifacts and legendary sites are still present. People still know them and know they are there. In other times, they have all been destroyed and lost.

GamesBeat: Where does the name Odyssey come from?

Phillips: Well, the Iliad and the Odyssey – the Odyssey being such an iconic Greek story, the story of a struggle to achieve something you've lost in the past, which was super powerful for us. We wanted it to be a great epic journey. "Epic" and "Odyssey" were key words, key elements for us from the beginning. We knew that "Odyssey" was the strongest word and the best description of the game we wanted to do.

GamesBeat: As a mercenary, are we necessarily interested in who we are fighting for? Whether in Athens or Sparta?

Phillips: As a character, we wanted to give you a role that allows you to make those choices. We did not want to say, "You are a Spartan, so you have to fight for the Spartans and you believe in their ideals." We wanted you to have options. If you want to be nice and help people because you are a good person, it's your choice. You can play roles in this way. If you want to be an insatiable mercenary, who only fights for money and who does not care, you can also play the roles.

GamesBeat: The quests that start at the beginning, how did you approach the ones you wanted to present first? Some of them look almost like training missions?

Phillips: Yes, it's the beginning of the game, so we wanted to involve a lot of mechanics. It's always a challenge, how fast or how fast we introduce new mechanics. We wanted to wait several hours on the naval gameplay until you were more comfortable with the gameplay on the ground. We wanted to put you in the structure of the game, how do mercenaries and bonuses work. It was an iterative process. We make a first pass, we test it, and we see what happens. Do you agree that the players have no idea how the mercenaries work? Let's change the way we introduce this.

GamesBeat: What straight line do you want to draw with the story? I'm sure you want to hang people, but you also want them to explore this open world.

Phillips: It's a challenge, that's for sure. We are a big open world game. We know that players are distracted and will do other things, and we want it. Provide the player with a big goal that is potentially out of their reach – for example, getting to Megaris, you have to find the wolf. But you can not go to the wolf right now, so you have to go through a few steps to get there. Along the way, if you decide to ramp up for a while and go on a discovery, or if you want to do other quests, or read the message and find local quests, or if you want you train up – there are a lot of engines, a lot of different things that will engage the player and get them to move the game forward. This is not just the main story.

As the game progresses, as we said, we have three great story arcs, but there are also many other little ones. They all start at different times in the game. We wanted to make sure you get new stories, long-term stories and short-term stories during the game. You can constantly be distracted by something new.

GamesBeat: Talos was interesting, the level five guy. It was not too hard. I think my partner on this mission has released it.

Phillips: They can also be killed by animals. We wanted to have a systemic and living world, where anything can happen. We have certainly seen wild animals kill quest characters, and this quest fails or may be successful. They can do your work for you.

GamesBeat: Does this become a tactic, potentially?

Phillips: You can certainly tame the animals and have the animals attacked, or you can bring a mercenary to come fight someone else and get the guards to attack him. There are many ways to play with systems.

GamesBeat: the point where the Assassin's Creed Odyssey title comes into play, where it blinks. …

Phillips: At the end of Kefalonia, yes.

GamesBeat: Is it because it's the first time you leave the island, or the first time you discover your real mission?

Phillips: It's exactly that. This is where you learn the secret of this member of my family who is still alive. It starts your journey from this island of lost hope, agree, I need to solve some of these events from my past. This triggers the real odyssey of the game.

GamesBeat: You're in a few weeks, then?

Phillips: October 5, yes. We are just finishing the final economic adjustments to make sure the systems are fun and fair, and that all the difficulties are resolved properly. Everything must be as beautiful and tight as possible. We are satisfied with the game we produced. As a player, I really like role playing and dialogue and open world choice, so I'm happy to have done it in Assassin's Creed and push the franchise in a cool direction.

GamesBeat: And you take a sabbatical year?

Phillips: Yes, that's what Yves said. No Assassin's Creed next year.

GamesBeat: What did you feel about this? It was a surprise for many of us.

Phillips: Yves is the CEO, so he can make whatever decision he wants. For us on Assassin's Creed, we have a very strong post-launch plan to keep players aware of the content and keep them involved in the game. We see Odyssey as a very powerful platform for people to buy and continue to play. play for a long time.

GamesBeat: Skull and Bones arrives next year. This should keep some people satisfied.

Phillips: Yes, there are elements of Black Flag and Naval Multiplayer. It will be very interesting. I can not wait to play it myself.