Assassin's Creed Odyssey adds love triangles and new game plus this month
The trouble with large adult sons
Ubisoft's villainous plan to keep people playing Assassin's Creed Odyssey until the heat-death of the universe moves into an even more dastardly phase this month. Available now is a new free quest arc called A Brother's Seduction, putting your chiselled mercenary at the peak of a love triangle, but the big stuff happens later this month. Ubisoft will be raising the level cap to a preposterous 99 (presumably not 100 so they don't have to widen all those number boxes), and adding a New Game Plus mode - you can keep your stats, but switch character and reset the plot.
The new, free quest sounds like a great palate cleanser after last month's awkwardness. While investigating the death of a poet, Alexios or Kassandra ends up the object of affection for both of his scruffy adult sons. I've not had a chance to dive into it yet, but I'm curious just how much of it will be played for laughs, soap-opera drama, or bawdy humour. I'm definitely hoping for some 'there's enough hero here for the both of you' dialogue options. I doubt that'll resolve whatever conflicts the two brothers have going on, but at least someone ends up satisfied.
New story aside, Ubisoft are going all-in on players who like big numbers wot go up this month. Some time within the next couple weeks, they'll be rolling out a positively number-bloated update. Players can ascend to level 99 (along with three new Engraving tiers and new ship upgrades), rise up another two grades on the Mercenary Ladder and generally get your stats all kinds of swole. And if you want to restart the story and try out new quest solutions without sacrificing any of your enormous numbers and loot, that'll be an option to, so long as you've completed the main story.
There's also a couple new premium costume sets on the way - boar and shark themed, for those wanting to get wild. Credit where due, Ubisoft have added an impressive amount of stuff to Odyssey for free. While the premium DLC story arcs are nice to have, they're far from essential, and the free Lost Tales Of Greece, new mercenary hunts and the occasional mythological monster boss is a great excuse to return every few weeks. It was an almost absurdly huge game when it first launched. By the time they're done, it'll be capable of devouring months of your time, if you'll let it.
A Brother's Seduction is live in Odyssey now, with the NG+ patch due soon. You can see the planned update notes here. I also spot that glowy green hardware outfit Razer are selling the regular edition of the game for half price - £25/€30/$30, if you're looking for a cheap place to start. The Gold edition (possibly named for the shiny Assassin's Creed 3 Remastered) is similarly discounted.