E3 2018: Assassin's Creed Odyssey - 7 Ways It Changes The Franchise Forever

The Assassins and Templars, but not as you know them...

by Ewan Paterson
Assassin's Creed Odyssey Poseidon statue
Ubisoft

Although Assassin's Creed managed to take a two year hiatus between AC: Syndicate and last year's Origins, it would appear as though the franchise is back to old habits. Odyssey, having been officially announced at this year's Ubisoft conference at E3, will release later this October, but there's more to this entry than meets the eye.

For the better part of five years, the Assassin's Creed series has undergone slow but extensive change. Mechanically, yes, there may have been little to distinguish titles like AC: Unity from Syndicate, but changes were being made. With Origins already representing quite a big departure for the franchise, boasting a new combat model and an ancient setting, the prospect of further, more drastic changes perhaps didn't feel all that likely.

And yet, Odyssey is already gearing up to be the boldest Assassin's Creed yet. Much of what was shown at E3 depicted what looked to be a massive departure for the franchise, with Odyssey taking a decidedly more RPG-like focus and taking place in an era where neither Assassins nor Templars were common place.

It's a whole new era. Here's why that's a good thing.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.