Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, Legacy of the First Blade: Episode 1- Review (PS4)
"I eventually came to love all the quirk and cool powers, especially when Kassandra started to looked like Wonder Woman."
Disclaimer: some spoilers for the base game.
The Assassin’s Creed franchise has been going for over ten years. There have been, ups, downs, comic books, a movie, and so, so much more. This year, Ubisoft debuted Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, and despite initial reservations from fans, the game has been a success. Odyssey has been slowly introducing small content since launch, including cosmetics and free quest lines for all players, but this December they released the first episode of the first of two major DLC suites.
To recap: Ubisoft is rolling out paid and free content for all players and two DLC suites over the next few months. By the time this all comes out, Odyssey is going to have an abundance of content to rival almost any other single play experience. Legacy of the First Blade is the title of the first DLC pack, and the first episode (of three) is a strong start.
The Story
Episode 1 picks up at an undetermined time, but is set exclusively in the northern region of Makedonia, future home of Alexander the Great. The major city in Makedonia, Amphipolis, features in a mission in the base game, but unless players were thoroughly exploring or chasing the platinum trophy, this region is going to be pretty unfamiliar. Makedonia is a beautiful wooded region, but visually there’s not much new here.
The arrival of the player in the region coincides with the razing of a village by Persian soldiers. While tracking down the perpetrators, Kassandra/Alexios will run headfirst into a character fans of Assassins Creed II might recognize. This guest star of the DLC pack is Darius, the Persian who assassinated the tyrant Xerxes with the first hidden blade, a series staple conspicuously missing from Odyssey. Getting to know Darius is pretty fun. He is reminiscent of Old Man Altair from Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, and I really hope to see much more of him as Legacy of the First Blade unfolds.
The story revolves around a sinister group that is chasing down Darius for revenge, and chasing down Kassandra/Alexios because… because they want to kill them. Their excuse is that the misthios has tainted blood, referring to their ancestry from the First Civilization. We’re not sure how the Order of Ancients is aware of this, but it’s taken for granted that the misthios has garnered a degree of fame and infamy across the globe. This sinister group is known as the Order of Ancients. Sound familiar? No explicit connections are made beyond the name, but one can assume this is the same Order of Ancients that pisses off the wrong medjay in Egypt several hundred years later.
Side Content
Just like in the base game, players can choose to hunt down and eliminate this branch of the Order of Ancients. Based on the new UI in the pause menu, each episode will introduce a new branch of the Order of Ancients. There are other side quests in Episode 1 as well, including a treasure hunt and some pretty typical fetch/murder quests that maintain the high standard from the base game.
There’s a few new unique pieces of gear that come out of this. A new Persian sword allows players to chain assassinate to one extra target, which is pretty handy. The Order of Ancients also drops a new set, the Persian Elite Armor. l enjoyed the overall look of the new armor. Fans of wearing pants will definitely love it, but it wasn’t enough to get me to stop using the Amazon or Pilgrim set.
The DLC also adds a new ability, “Death Veil”, that causes enemy bodies to dissolve into First Civilization glyphs when killed with stealth. Theoretically, this skill makes stealth easier, as wandering guards won’t get terribly upset for a few minutes upon finding their dead comrade. It looks cool, it smooths out game-play for players who have already put dozens of hours into Odyssey, but it also breaks immersion a little. As an initial naysayer of Odyssey’s fantasy/heavy sci-fi aspects, I eventually came to love all the quirk and cool powers, especially when Kassandra started to looked like Wonder Woman. This particular stretch bothers me, mainly because players will find themselves looting empty ground for quest items and gear.
Recommendation
Ubisoft packed a few new trophies in as well, related to trying out the new skills and exploring the side content in Makedonia. All in all, Episode 1 contains more than a few hours of good quality content. When this suite is complete, it’ll constitute a fairly sizable post-launch package, which combined with the next suite, Fate of Atlantis, will be nearly enough content for a whole game. Because of the episodic structure, players may feel Episode 1 to be a little too much set up, but it feels complete enough to not be trite or annoyingly foreshadowing. There feels to be a distinct lack of new content, but there was clearly a ton of work put into the writing, directing of cut-scenes, and polishing of details.
Overall, Handsome Phantom recommends Episode 1, and we also recommend purchasing the season pass for Odyssey. You’ll save a few bucks for the whole DLC, and snag the remaster of Assassin’s Creed III as well. Achievements for Episode 2 have already gone up on PlayStation, and it looks to be continuing the structure of Episode 1. We’re pretty excited for it.
But let us know what you think! How did you like Episode 1? What do you expect form Ubisoft going forward? Are you playing as Alexios, or did you choose correctly and play as Kassandra? Let Handsome Phantom know your thoughts!
And be sure to check out out Platted That! for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and our recent review of Marvel’s Spider-Man, The City That Never Sleeps: Turf Wars!
