Assassin's Creed Odyssey is the eleventh main game of the franchise, with an average of one per year since the original release in 2007. Considering this, it is not surprising that they have perfected their collective skills when it comes to creating digital reproductions of historical locations, and that in addition to creating one of the most attractive (if not the most attractive) games in the series, Ubisoft Quebec has devoted more effort and detail than ever to its interpretation of Ancient Greece, and nowhere in its massive map is there a better example of this than the city of Athens.
"It's that booming city of antiquity," says Odyssey's Creative Director, Jonathan Dumont, during a recent interview, "which we try to imagine as a city of light, as a city of the future, for them." As the cultural, social and political center of the Greek world, Athens was many things for many people. A commercial port, a center for academia and philosophy, an artistic refuge or seedbed of the political revolution and more, the diversity of 430 BC. Athens is difficult to gather. This is due in large part to the fact that, although it was one of the most famous cities of the time, it had existed for thousands of years, constantly changing hands between rulers and societies, and it would exist for thousands more before Ubisoft research teams could begin to explore it.
In statements by Ben Hall, director of the Odyssey world, and his historian Stéphanie-Anne Ruatta, Hall compared it to filtering layers of sand, and explained that "we had to try to understand which parts were contemporary to our time period", because ... has been built by so many different civilizations over the years that it was important for us to find out which layer was the right layer for us. That's where Stephanie came in. "Ruatta adds with a smile:" I had to break many dreams. "The two explained how their teams created their version of ancient Athens with plans and information from as many sources as they could consider accurate, from big strokes. Hall said the ultimate goal was "to make sure we create the most authentic and credible Greece we can, while making it beautiful and fun".
At this point, Hall and Ruatta proceeded to immerse themselves in the purpose and function of each district of the city they had recreated, providing what could be qualified as Athens' most condensed historical visit. Starting at the famous Port of Piraeus (one of the oldest seaports in the world and one that is still in use today), they made their way through the outer walls of the city, passing through Spartan camps that besieged the city : it is time of war, after all, and beyond the Temple of Hephaestus, in the artisanal districts the sculptors and marble potters elaborated their goods to exhibit them or use them for various purposes in Greece.
Greece was not as white and cold as it is usually represented. "We wanted to show how people used to work and the tools they used to use," Hall said as he drove Kassandra through the Marble District, where huge blocks of stone were carved into intricately detailed statues before being painted and loaded onto ships or cars. . "We divided the city into different themes ... Greece is not as white and cold as it is usually represented, it is very colorful and vibrant, and we wanted to make sure that we reflected that in the world while you explore it," says Hall, before admitting that it is to each area of the city its own iconic sensation was not simply an aesthetic choice. "A player can understand 'now I am in this district and what I see around me helps define where I am in the world ... Athens is one of the oldest cities ... it has a history, it has an element of chaos in the way it was built, so we wanted to reflect that ... [but] if it's too chaotic it's impossible to learn, it's impossible to navigate, it's impossible to understand. "
As we enter the city, passing through more notable places like the Agora, where citizens would come to exchange goods or discuss philosophy, or the Pnyx, whose famous view of the city served as a backdrop for political speeches, it made evident the Athens of this era was a city that embodied a strange dichotomy of ideas. Ancient Greece is, after all, almost synonymous with the foundation of democracy and philosophy as we know it, together with the then revolutionary medical and scientific techniques. However, each structure, statue and accent belies a society completely absorbed in the myths of its gods.
"The goal was to create a massive and ancient Greek world that would be based on history and then fill it with mythical wonders while you travel," says Hall. "So that's what we propose to do: the contrast runs through the pillars of the game, in all areas." You can see this theme throughout the Greece of Odyssey, which makes sense, considering that the central theme of the story is the beginning of the conflict between order and chaos. "It was super important," Hall continues, "because the ancient Greeks really believed that their world had been created by the gods, we wanted to try to represent it in the best possible way."
It was not something big, but it was important that we do it well.
Seeing this dichotomy in action is possible throughout Athens, but it is no more evident than in the Parthenon, where a sanctuary of Athena has a huge ivory statue of the goddess standing on a reflecting pond. However, what the team initially thought was an aesthetic choice was, in fact, an ingenious engineering decision. As ivory is an organic material, it runs the risk of cracking or breaking when left in too dry a climate: the pond was not there to serve as a good place to pray, but to regulate the humidity inside the temple.
Of course, sometimes these interesting realities are not necessarily the most visually or narratively interesting. After knowing an ancient monument known as the Temple of the Twelve Gods, Hall says that the team was excited about the design possibilities of such a grandiose scenario. However, according to Ruatta, the "Temple" was nothing special, rather a place of local reference used as a meeting place by people who live nearby. Hall said: "People knew it ... so even though it was not a big deal, but it was important that we do it right".
It is this kind of commitment to the small details that the team managed to discover which makes me eager to explore more of Athens and the rest of the Ancient Greek version of Ubi Quebec. It may not be a 100% accurate reproduction, but we doubt it could be without a time machine. The amount of care and effort that has gone into creating these historic sites, along with RPG-style mechanics and redesigned naval combat, is a good indicator for us to enjoy touring the Greek Islands when Odyssey launches in October. At least, we know that it will be damn beautiful and built with care.
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