Stop worrying about Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s length: its side stories make it worthwhile

The narrative designers at Ubisoft have their work cut out. Not only must they craft a story that remains engaging during its many hours - hours that will be more plentiful than its Egyptian predecessor, Origins - but they must do so with player choice and romance options thrown in there for good measure. Now, in my Gamescom hands on, I can’t exactly assess whether Ubisoft has succeeded, yet, but I’m certainly impressed with what I’ve seen. The core of my demo starts innocuously enough: I am to rescue a woman from a group of harassers. This battle leads into an island-hopping quest as epic in scope and scale as any AC adventure I can remember. I must sail my boat, willed on by my crew as they yell out a good sea shanty, search for clues, and of course, assassinate my fair share of bad guys. The islands I visit featuer the same filler tasks - find x treasures, kill the commander, you know the stuff - but you can choose to ignore them. The woman I rescued ultimately leads me into a foreboding forest, down a path flanked by human statues frozen in fear, petrified in both senses of the word. It doesn’t take an encyclopedic knowledge of Greek mythology to realise what snake-haired gorgon is likely waiting for me at the end of this woodland trail.