Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s monsters are real

The big question since Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was first revealed has been ‘Are the monsters real?’ The first trailer showed a glimpse of what appeared to be the minotaur from the legend of Theseus, but the way myth had been threaded into Assassin’s Creed Origins suggested that such creatures could merely be hallucinations, or even just a man wearing a bull’s head mask. But at Gamescom 2018, Ubisoft has revealed that the monsters are real. Well, sort of. Talking with IGN on their Gamescom 2018 livestream, creative director Scott Phillips explained that the monsters in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey are in fact humans that have been corrupted by artefacts left behind by the First Civilisation. These artefacts, which sound a little like even more ancient versions of plot macguffins like the Apple of Eden, transform regular humans into monstrous creatures. In the demo shown at Gamescom, Kassandra must defeat a character who has been turned into Medusa. In discussion with IGN and in our own Gamescom Assassin’s Creed Odyssey interview, Phillips emphasises that the more mythological elements of the game are present in side quests and endgame content, leaving the main story to be a little more grounded. For example, the Medusa questline is ranked at level 50, meaning players will have to have progressed beyond the finale of the game to be tough enough to defeat her.