Assassin's Creed Odyssey

Assassin's Creed Odyssey is a 2018 action role-playing video game developed by Ubisoft Quebec and published by Ubisoft. It is the eleventh major installment in the Assassin's Creed series and the successor to 2017's Assassin's Creed Origins. Like its predecessor, the game features a large open world and adopts many elements from the role-playing genre, putting more emphasis on combat and exploration than stealth. Naval combat from previous titles in the series also plays a prominent role in Odyssey. The game's setting, while fictional, is based on real-world events. It tells a mythological history of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta from 431 to 422 BC. Players control a Spartan mercenary, who fights on both sides of the conflict, as they attempt to find their family and eliminate the mysterious Cult of Kosmos. Odyssey also continues the story arc of Layla Hassan, a major character introduced in Origins, who relives the mercenary's memories through the Animus device as part of her efforts to locate a powerful artifact on behalf of the Assassin Brotherhood.

Development of the game commenced shortly following the release of Assassin's Creed Syndicate. Following in the footsteps of Origins, Odyssey facilitated the transition of Assassin's Creed into a series of action role-playing games by introducing player choice mechanics. Compared with other games in the series, Odyssey has a larger focus on historical mythology, and a smaller focus on the conflict between the Assassins and Templars, which is the central narrative element present in most Assassin's Creed games. Throughout the game's development, the team was inspired by other contemporary RPG titles including The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and Fallout. The music of the game was composed by The Flight.

Odyssey was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on October 5, 2018. It received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for its gameplay, graphics, characters, role-playing elements, and world design, but was criticised for its overambitiousness, pacing, and the inclusion of microtransactions. The prioritization of role-playing mechanics over traditional Assassin's Creed elements also drew a mixed response from critics and players. Odyssey was a commercial success, selling over 10 million copies worldwide by March 2020. Ubisoft supported the game extensively following its launch, releasing two paid expansions and a Discovery Tour mode, which includes a series of guided tours that allow players to explore the world of Classical Greece for educational purposes. Odyssey was followed in November 2020 by Assassin's Creed Valhalla, which features a historical setting in medieval England and Norway during the Viking expansion across Europe and concludes Layla's story arc.