Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is out now on PS4, Xbox One and PC.
The latest entry in the long-running series features new role-playing elements, as well as player choice.
Ubisoft’s decision to transform the gameplay style has gone down well with critics and fans, receiving a perfect score from this very publications.
Express Online recently spoke to narrative director Melissa MacCoubrey about how big an impact player choice has on the game.
MacCoubrey also explained how Assassin’s Creed handles continuity, what she wants from the next-gen and if we can expect the game to come to Nintendo Switch.
Ubisoft celebrated the release of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey in a bizarre way, offering free Spartan-inspired haircuts in the build up to launch. You can check out the free haircut promotion in the video below.
How do you handle continuity in such a huge franchise like Assassin’s Creed?
We work very closely with the established lore and are very fortunate to be supported and helped by fans of the Assassin’s Creed franchise with the fan-run wiki. This helps us remember all that has been established in different time periods throughout the lore to make sure our stories are consistent, innovative, and un-obtrusive with the established lore.
How big of an impact do the conversation choices have further along in the game?
Depends which ones! We have a variety of choices we chose to include in order to keep the player engaged with the content without having the experience spiral out of control. We have personality-based, action-based, short-term and long-term choices. Some quests feature moments where you make a choice you don’t know will have an impact down the road (like the rebel quest in the E3 demo content). Personality and action based choices you make in dialogues can very much influence the outcome of the quest (like lying to a quest giver or romancing them), or change the way the characters perceive and communicate with you (ie. Drucilla’s wood quest). Short-term choices are choices where you see the immediate effect of your actions (ie. Sparing the thugs at the beginning of the game makes them come back for revenge). And long-term choices are choices you make where you come across the consequence much later in the game (I won’t spoil these!).
Does Odyssey have multiple endings?
We do! It was very exciting for us to be able to explore what that meant for the Assassin’s Creed franchise and how that impacted your personal journey.
Could you have radically different playthroughs based on the choices you make when interacting with other characters?
Depends on who you interact with! With some of the main characters, yes you can get different endings based on how you communicate with them. Some of the side content too offers different conclusions and paths based on choices, and some of those choices affect the way those characters see you afterwards.
After taking a well-received break between Syndicate and Origins, were you concerned about releasing a follow-up so soon after?
Personally, I was so excited about the work we were doing and the changes that we were making that I was more concerned about whether or not the players would have a good time, than I was concerned about releasing a year after Origins. We were fortunate that ACO did such a wonderful job at pushing the franchise in the direction we had always wanted to go.
A cloud-based Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was recently announced for Switch in Japan. What are the chances it will come to other regions?
From what I understand, the cloud-based Nintendo Switch streaming is only coming out in Japan. I cannot speak to the rest of the post-launch plans at this time.
What would you like to see from the next-generation of consoles? Something that would benefit your work as a narrative director, perhaps?
The ability to iterate more quickly on published works would be nice – in terms of updating graphics and submitting updates.
What was the most rewarding thing about your work on this Assassin’s Creed game?
So much of this has been rewarding. The ability to work with such a passionate, and talented team of writers is the first thing that comes to mind, but also the ability to work with a talented cast that helped the game come to life both on the mocap stage and in recording. And of course, having the ability to really put ourselves out there and try new things – is maybe the most rewarding experience a studio can have.