The Assassin’s Creed games have been mainstays at E3 for years, much like the usual Madden, FIFA, Call of Duty, and Battlefield games. After a case of Assassin’s Creed burnout though, the franchise took a break, and then came back last year with Assassin’s Creed Origins. The title completely revamped the stale series, a departure from the established norm, and left fans wondering how the next one would shake things up.
We weren’t quite sure what to expect at this year’s E3, whether Origins had sold well enough for them to consider another sequel right away or not, or if they’d take another drastic step to shake up the formula. There were a few purported leaks, but it wasn’t until E3 that we got to really see the next big step for Assassin’s Creed.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey aims to bridge the gap between open-world adventure and RPG to an even greater extent. Taking place in ancient Greece, Odyssey will feel almost like a Bioware game in the depth of roleplaying it will allow. For the first time ever, you actually get to choose the character you play as, between a male and female character.
The boats are coming back in a big way, as one would expect for a Greek setting, and many facets of the “new” Assassin’s Creed formula from Origins have been improved, tweaked, and built-upon. Combat will be similar to Origins, and stealth will be making a comeback.
Most notably of all, however, is Ubisoft’s push to add more dialogue options and social roleplaying elements. You will be able to reply to people in different ways, with branching dialogue. You can lie to people, you can flirt with people, you can even romance people.
The romance options, in order to be authentic to ancient Greece, will not have any sort of “orientation boundaries”. As any scholarly historian can tell you, ancient Greece was full of homosexuality. Spartan troops would often have younger male attendants they would sodomize. Guys would just kinda stick it in each other’s butts all the time. It was no big deal at all, perfectly natural. Just a couple men, dicking it up, all manly-like. There was nothing weird about it at all.
But the sexual debauchery doesn’t even end there. Ubisoft is digging deeper into the complex sexual psychology of the Greco-Roman era. Anyone fluent on Greek history, mythology, theater, and literature should know that the Greeks were into a lot of weird stuff. There’s the classic story of Oedipus, there’s quite a few myths and legends involving Zeus transforming into animals or impregnating animals, quite a bit of rape and adultery, and a lot of vore. Yeah, lot of just eating people. Swallowing them whole, and then vomiting them up again.
According to a developer panel at E3, Ubisoft wants to capture a “true tale of the Greco-Roman era” with Odyssey. And they’re not gonna tiptoe around any of the controversial stuff. That’s right.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey will be the first game in the franchise to offer not just openly incestuous romance options, but bestial ones as well. Ubisoft has had their development team carefully studying Greek literature, art, and sculptures for historical accuracy. Bulls, swans, goats, eagles, and more will all be potential romantic partners. And much like the human ones, these saucy creatures won’t discriminate based on gender. Both the male and female characters will be allowed to pursue the beasts of their choosing.
Similar to the hunting aspects in past games, different animals will populate the map. While killing them for food or materials is still an option, they can now be fed, tamed, seduced, and fucked. In addition to these bestial lovers, players will be able to romance their own fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, and any assorted extended family members they may find. Occasionally, players will need to kill the immediate spouse in order for the romance options to open up, but it’s not always required.
And while players can marry in-game, marriages aren’t necessarily the end of one’s romantic adventures. There’s no limit to the amount of spouses or romantic partners one may have, though not every partner will be as okay with it as you are. As of now, there are no confirmed rape or vore romance options, but Ubisoft did confirm that it was possible to be eaten by cannibals if one ventures far enough. They do not consume the player whole, and it will result in a game over.
As one Ubisoft rep put it during the interviews, “Ancient Greece was fucking wack, dude. They were fucking everything back then, they didn’t give a shit.”
However, their boldness in sticking to historical accuracy has definitely ruffled some feathers. And not just from the swans you’ll be fucking. Such a blatantly extreme move has people asking, is this really okay to put in a video game? Isn’t this illegal, or at the very least immoral? Should video games be able to legally explore something as extreme as zoophilia or incest? Would the game still retain its M rating from the ESRB, or would they need to give it an AO rating?
When we reached out, Ubisoft wouldn’t give us much clarification. The official statement I was given was “We are currently talking this over with lawmakers. This is not the first time extreme lengths were taken for historical accuracy, and we will reserve our right to express our artistic freedom. Would you like to see the bull fucking trailer in the meantime? It’s an hour long.”
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is currently dated for October 5th and will be coming to Xbox One, PS4, and PC. It remains to be seen how this bold, progressive take on in-game romance will pan out. But I must say, the bull fucking trailer was really, really well done.