Update: We’ve also confirmed with Ubisoft Quebec that gay, lesbian, bisexual and asexual relationship options are part of the romancing system. For more on that, head here.
Original story: Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey has a new dialogue system that adds player choice to in-game cutscenes.
In our hands-on time, we were able to choose friendly, aggressive and options when dealing with a situation between Delos Island’s natives. Moreover, we could choose to lie to NPCs as part of conversation and even had the option to romance another person.
“It’s really on how you wanna play, because we have about over 13 different ways to roleplay,” Narrative Director, Melissa MacCoubrey, said of the dialogue system to Stevivor. “Some of the ones that you see in the demo that are more prominently featured are the fact that you can be aggressive, that you can romance people, and that you can lie. But there are other options to be explored. So it really depends on how you feel like playing the character that you’re playing, so that you really are making your own unique experience. And they will all take you on twisted adventures, I’m sure.”
The dialogue system also provides the player a chance to debate with the historical figure Socrates. In the hands-on demo, we mulled over the concept of justice and whether or not Alexios (or Kassandra) should save a man who murdered another. Regardless on your thoughts on that particular matter, there isn’t a Mass Effect-style Paragon or Renegade system to track your choices, but said choices to matter, MacCoubrey confirmed.
“We really wanted to make sure that the choices you were making were gray. So just because you’re choosing to lie, it doesn’t mean you’re going to have a negative outcome. It really depends on the context in which you’re playing, and it really depends on the character you’re speaking to as well. And this is something we really explored in romance, was so often in games you find romances like, ‘Here’s a present! Do you love me?’ or ‘look, there’s the Heart option, I’m just gonna keep clicking the Heart option until we get to 100%’.
“We wanted to build it so when you’re talking to a person, when you’re trying to romance a character or whether you’re trying to build a relationship with them in a friendly basis, however, that it really depended on the person you’re talking to.
“Our romance has different roleplay options, but not all of them will appeal to the character that you’re talking to. So in the demo, some of the responses work with Kira, like you brought up. But some of them just don’t.”
MacCoubrey also confirmed that there are “a handful of characters that you can romance across the entire game.”
“It’s very much dependent on the context, and we built them so that you have a different experience with all of them. So for Kira and Faletas [characters in the demo], it’s very much you are taking that personal decision to interfere in their lives, by taking a selfish decision to romance them. They’re already kind of together, so you’re putting yourself in there and it really impacts how their stories play out.”
Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey heads to Windows PC, Xbox One and PS4 on 5 October, Ubisoft today announced. We’ve a post detailing all we know of the game here.
Steve Wright traveled to Los Angeles to cover Odyssey as a guest of Ubisoft. The arrangement does not impact our Ubisoft coverage, nor limit additional E3 2018 coverage.
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