This week’s arrival of the fantastic – and completely free – Assassin’s Creed Stories crossover was much heralded for bringing immortal Odyssey star Kassandra into the world of Valhalla. With very few exceptions, Assassin’s Creed protagonists do not meet and share screen time – and they certainly do not team up in the fashion we see in Valhalla’s new Island of Skye location, where the long-lived, wise-cracking Kassandra acts as a neat foil for the no-nonsense Valhalla hero Eivor.
Such crossovers are always going to be fan-pleasing fun – but it was actually the first half of this new content, added to 2018’s Odyssey, which really took me by surprise. It has been a very long three years since I explored Odyssey’s sun-drenched Aegean for the first time – and this week’s sizeable new questline, lovingly crafted by Odyssey’s Quebec studio, felt like a trip back in time.
Assassin’s Creed Crossover Stories – Announcement Trailer Watch on YouTube
It’s a little surprising Ubisoft hasn’t said more about what Odyssey’s new “A Kind of Treasure Hunt” DLC has in store – or how much there is there to discover. I wonder whether this is to stop anyone who doesn’t play it feeling alienated – and it’s true, you don’t to play it to understand what Kassandra’s up to in Valhalla. I’ve also seen plenty of people, including fans, say they just don’t have Odyssey installed anymore, or their save is gone.
But to skip this extra slice of Odyssey would be a great shame, not least because this fresh epilogue is a reminder of what made Odyssey one of the series’ high points. The warmth and humour of Odyssey’s writing is all there, amidst the sun-baked Greek locations and fantastical hero powers. Better still, the DLC does what many good additions don’t – and actually serves to improve the base game in hindsight.
One of Odyssey’s few failings was its inability to balance the freedom to travel basically anywhere, anytime, with the need to provide a satisfactory conclusion to its base storylines. 80 hours in, you could have wrapped up several of its three main arcs. However, the need for narrative flexibility meant these conclusions were brief, rushed affairs which, by necessity, then left players in the same world state, floating back around the Aegean.