The Assassin's Creed Odyssey puzzle is still far from being totally complete. Ubisoft is supporting its title on a regular and frequent basis, providing new content on a regular basis and without breaking the promises made on its roadmap. The French house, precise as a Swiss clock, presents the first episode of the new narrative arc, the Destiny of Atlantis. This new pack of downloadable content will be split, as for Legacy of the First Blade, into three different episodes.
After discovering what are the actual connections between Alexios and Kassandra with the Brotherhood, it's time to take a small step back, returning to the origins of the Spartan family and its connection with Isu artifacts: it's time to take a dip in the Elysian Fields.
The Trials of the Keeper
After completing the Atlantean vein in the main storyline, Aletheia will call Alexios / Kassandra to her, revealing to him that there are other issues in store to resolve. Before getting to the heart of the action, however, the majestic Isu will put Layla Hassan in "communication" with ours, in such a way as to find key symbols to open a mysterious portal in the ruins of Atlantis. After getting rid of this (rather boring) preamble, Aletheia will reveal to us that in order to be worthy to carry the staff of Hermes Trismegistus and make the artifact reach its full potential there are tests to be supported, albeit in the form of simulation. If you are expecting something closely related to Atlantis you will be disappointed: our destination will be the Elysian Fields instead.
However if you were in love with the landscapes that Ubisoft had given us by bringing to light Ancient Greece, get ready to be amazed once again: the beauty of the Greek Underworld is comparable to that of a real Garden of Eden. Flowering fields, endless peaks and overhangs, graceful rivers and majestic waterfalls will be ready to leave you speechless, together with the (almost) always present shower of petals and butterflies that will characterize the Elysian Fields. From this point of view Ubisoft has shown that it is always able to improve, even within a single title: something that Assassin's Creed Odyssey cannot be refuted is certainly the beauty of the settings.
However, not all that glitters is gold: to dominate this slice of the Beyond is Persephone, who does not seem to enjoy the sympathy of many of the humans who, apparently, cannot find peace even when dead. Needless to say, we will soon find ourselves embroiled in this story: Hermes, Adonis, Hecate and Persephone will involve us in no time at all in their machinations, each trying to carry out their own thesis and their own goals. Ours will not be able to do anything but try to take the side that he deems most right, even if his purpose is only to abandon the Elysian Fields and to do so he will need, willy-nilly, the intervention of Persephone.
The incipit of the plot seems to be interesting but, unlike the Legacy of the First Blade, The Destiny of Atlantis begins in a rather apathetic way. In the Elysian Fields, in fact, the events intertwine with each other with little bite and in a rather confused way, perhaps even a little too "stretched": in the 7 hours it took to get to the epilogue of this first episode, the feeling that everything could be closed much earlier was strong. Regardless of the choices we make, the ending of this new piece of Assassin's Creed Odyssey will leave us on standby, without reaching a real conclusion but instead giving us a small cliffhanger.
Silence in the Underworld
The basic gameplay of Assassin's Creed Odyssey is not distorted in "Elysian Fields" but some good grafts are offered. What you immediately perceive, once you arrive in the domain of Persephone, is that the Underworld is not a place where it is worth making too much noise. Both the soldiers of the goddess and the new Colossi will on average be tougher and harder to knock out if faced in the open field. The approach that pays the most, in the Elysian Fields, is undoubtedly the stealth one: by moving stealthily, we will be able to eliminate the soldiers without awakening the Colossi, which normally remain in the form of statues unless alarm situations occur. The new types of enemies, as well as more resistant and powerful, will be equipped with new attacks that are quite annoying, some of which will target the ability to be able to use our skills, complicating things especially if we find ourselves in relatively critical situations.
In this new setting of Assassin's Creed Odyssey there will be many tasks to complete, some very similar to those present in the main title: the conquest of the territories by infiltrating the forts and killing the Superintendents, the destruction of the statues of Persephone and the search for the Visions of the Heir that will allow us to upgrade the staff. This upgrade will result in the evolution of some skills, as long as you have already upgraded them up to level three. Indeed some of these turn out to be more comfortable in combat, while others do not seem so essential, resulting more spectacular from the visual point of view than from that of actual utility. Fortunately, we can still decide to activate or deactivate the enhancement of the ability, evolved thanks to the stick.
A bit like in the traditional map of Assassin's Creed Odyssey, the territory of the Elysian Fields develops very vertically, or rather, many of the points of interest are located on top of huge peaks or reliefs that storm the entire domain of Persephone. To move with more agility and speed between the various hot spots, Ubisoft, in the role of Hermes, has made portals called Wings of Hermes available to the Shadow of the Eagle that will teleport us from the plain to the top of the peaks. However, this approach is not always advantageous as, given the vastness and grandeur of the reliefs, as well as the presence of a myriad of rivers, it forces us to "circumnavigate" them before being able to reach the Wings of Hermes connected to them.
Very often, during the reviews, we ended up preferring a climb of at least 300 meters instead of doing the entire tour of the peak and then using the teleportation: in this way, in fact, we could also take advantage of some tactical advantages on certain occasions such as the infiltration of the forts, starting from more advantageous positions than the "fixed" ones of the Wings of Hermes. Not to mention the fact that climbing the peaks you can enjoy even more of the majestic and beautiful landscape of the Greek Land of the Dead.
The debut of Assassin's Creed Odyssey in the Elysian Fields, the first episode of The Destiny of Atlantis, stands out from previous DLCs for its longevity, its vastness and above all the beauty of the setting. What is missing, however, is the narrative component which seems to be a little less curated than in The Legacy of the First Blade, where the focus on the plot was much more felt. All this without detracting from the various characters who make their appearance in the kingdom of Persephone: they all have their own precise personality, well defined, and never go against their true purpose. Ubisoft's first step into Ancient Greece's realm of the dead isn't great but it lays a good foundation and makes sure to hide some good cards in the proverbial sleeve to play for the next round. So the expectations for the second episode are there and are also quite high.
