There’s a clear delineation among those who follow Assassin’s Creed: people love the modern sci-fi trappings of the series, and those who want it gone completely. Recent titles in the series have greatly reduced the role the modern wrapper and the Animus plays in the story, but it’s still there – and the director of Odyssey still thinks it’s an important part of the series.
Asked if we still need the conceit of the Animus, game director Scott Phillips says “I think it’s important to the overall, having two stories. I think it is important.” That’s not exactly an in-depth response, but it comes as part of Game Informer’s regular rapid-fire question series – that makes the answers rapid, too.
Odyssey continues the modern-day story of Layla Hassan, as creative director Jonathan Dumont told Kotaku back at E3. Layla’s quest for “First Civilization information leads her to discover one day a lost book, the lost book of Herodotus, the first historian.” That in turn leads her to Alexios or Kassandra, wielder of the superpowered Spear of Leonidas.
Whether Layla’s story is any more engaging in the new game than it was in Origins won’t be clear until the Assassin’s Creed Odyssey release date, though it’ll apparently still be quite optional. Hopefully it’ll have some more substance this time around, especially if the folks behind the series still believe it’s an “important” part of the story.
You can hear Phillips’ comments on the animus at 1:22 in the video above. That same interview also brought us news of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s length (it’s very big), and the fact that there won’t be a Greek language option. Expect plenty more details as we head into the game’s launch this October.