Sadly, the mode was dropped entirely for Unity, possibly in part due to server costs and the newly-introduced co-op system. Power-ups, special abilities, and full rank progression all helped contribute to it being much bigger than it had any right to be. It was a difficult game to understand at the best of times, and the skill gap between newcomers and veterans was surprisingly large. In practice, nobody ever played multiplayer how it was intended, and so it turned into an all-you-can-stab parkour party. From there, the goal was to watch the crowds and find your target, who could be picked out through erratic, human-like behaviours. Players picked one of a colourful roster of Animus avatars and then dropped into bustling crowds full of NPC doppelgängers. Introduced in the third entry, Brotherhood, competitive multiplayer was – in theory – an intriguing adaptation of the series’ focus on hiding in plain sight.

With Odyssey being so damn good, we thought it would be worth looking back on where it came from and remember some of the ways, for better or worse, that Assassin’s Creed has dabbled in change since 2007.

Those 11 years have been a constant cycle of reinvention and refinement, introducing, tweaking, or entirely dropping mechanics every few years to keep stabbing Templars in the face feel fresh. Best-in-the-series-so-far levels of good, which is surprising considering we’ve had an entry (almost) every year since its debut in 2007. Once again the community came together to help out, and so in addition to my photos, Steph, Cleetose, Wodar, and WarningTrack all supplied galleries below, so check them all out.Assassin’s Creed Odyssey has been out for a week now, and it’s good. My hasty exit also left a distinct lack of pictures on my camera. Under normal circumstances I am incredibly grateful to everybody for helping with the booth, but 2019 was a new level of amazingness and I can’t thank them all enough.

However, I ended up having a family emergency and had to fly home the morning of the first day! Luckily, John and Alice and the volunteers all stepped up and took over all the booth duties, including selling and turning the booth on and off every day and even breaking it all down and getting it into storage. The new Redwoods venue! Photo credit: lthummus

Spyparty alice