Assassin’s Creed Odyssey has its own tribute to the battle royale trend

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is packed full of quests and missions. Sometimes they’re rewarding, multi-layered stories with their own cast of characters, and sometimes they’re low XP-yield, fetch-and-carry cut-outs.

There was one quest in particular that caught my attention, when I played the game for Polygon’s review. It’s called “The Battle of 100 Hands,” in which warriors from all over the ancient Greek world fight to the death in an extended arena. It’s basically a Battle Royale tribute.

While Battle Royale games are generally multiplayer affairs, this is strictly a single-player mission. Odyssey’s protagonist Kassandra (or her brother Alexios) comes across a street hawker, rustling up entrants to a big showpiece battle. Kassandra can choose to take part, with a big pot of drachmae for the winner (as well as a nice XP boost).

Drakios, the quest-giver, sells the event as “very deadly,” and “a last-person-standing type of affair.” Kassandra enters a mini-world made up of a canyon, elevated wooden walkways, a cave and a beach. The 100 competitors begin by fighting pell-mell against anyone they encounter, but as their numbers thin out, some of them band together to take out Cassandra.

Eventually, the event starts to feel less like a Battle Royale and more like a standard run-and-slash mission, but it’s still good fun, and a cheeky little nod to modern gaming mores. And if you choose to play Kassandra as a glory-hunting egomaniac, victory is definitely another bow in her quiver. Only trouble is, the event is not as it seems, and Kassandra’s victory turns out to be Pyrrhic, at best.

You can follow our Assassin’s Creed Odyssey coverage here. The game comes out Friday, Oct. 5 on PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One.