Part II
Turns out sneaky Markos borrowed money from the Cyclops to buy his vineyard, landing us both in a world of trouble. Obviously I head back to him to give him a piece of my mind.
Now we both owe the Cyclops money. So what's the best way to pay him back? To steal his obsidian eye of course, then sell it and pay him back the money – what could go wrong?
After following the clues to the Cyclops' lair, I send Ikaros ahead to scout out the area and identify where the eye actually is. This saves a heap of time wandering about looking for items, instead I can simply sneak in and out – slicing through any bandits in my way and picking up any loose change.
Of course, after my mission of bravery, we can't actually sell the eye or we'll get caught. So instead, Markos' new madcap idea is to kill and lot some rich soldiers at an abandoned house near Sami. I feel like this is all getting very complicated, but Markos is pretty charming and has apparently done a lot for Kassandra, so I guess we owe him.
After wiping out all the men in the abandoned house, one strange fellow survives and offers me the job of fetching the Shroud of Phoebe for him from Odysseus' temple. Drachmae is drachmae. So I agree, and head off to steal a small boat which will take me a short distance across the water to the temple.
Not only is the Sparta Kick an incredibly badass move (try kicking someone off a cliff), it's also pretty handy. When boarding an enemy vessel, a quick and easy way to take their ship is simply to kick everyone overboard and take their loot.
By this point I should perhaps mention that a bounty hunter called Talos the Stone Fist has been hunting me for a while – due to the kerfuffle with the Cyclops. Until this point I have been avoiding him, as my level wasn't high enough to take him on (despite his heart condition). But sick of running away, and a few levels higher, I decide it's time to take him on to retrieve the shroud.
Bounty hunters continuously look for you once a bounty is on your head: you can see a little marker on your map which tells you where they are and warns when they are too close, giving you the choice to either hide or run away. But this time I decided that I would run towards my death and face Talos.
As I spot him in the distance, I decide that shooting arrows at him first is perhaps a good idea (even though by this point I had forgotten about his heart condition which means he is vulnerable to assassination). Clearly annoyed by my incessant archery, the lump of a man charges at me – heavy hitting but slow. I parry and dodge throughout our battle (which was much harder than expected), Sparta kicking and bull charging wherever possible to break his shield, then taking swipes when his defence drops.
Eventually, I finish him off, driving my sword through his head and taking his mercenary ranking. That's one annoyance out of the way. In addition, I receive an invite to the Arena for killing Talos. But I'm about 20 levels short of being able to do that right now.
I head back to the docks of Sami and steal a little boat, without anyone spotting me, and sail the short distance to Odysseus' temple – which is over-run with bad guys. I'm not the most patient person in the world, so I hack and slash my way through them rather than stealthily assassinate them. Turns out they have a captive, so I grab the shroud and free her.
The captive tells me her name is Odessa and she's a descendant of Odysseus himself. Yeah, right... She asks me to escort her to the actual temple, so I agree and decide this is a perfect time to try out my flirting skills – you'll know when you can try out when your dialogue options have a little heart beside them. While I initially begin to lure he in, I accidentally then begin to insult her and immediately mess up any romantic chances I have. With my tail between my legs, I head back to the creepy guy that requested the shroud, trying my best to ensure no sharks eat me on my way back (that's a real concern).
These stone tablets contain riddles and can be found around the map in particular locations (typically where you find loot boxes, but your location objectives will tell you when one is nearby). If you solve the riddle, and go to the location it mentions then you are rewarded with a new engraving.
I return the shroud to the strange man who requested it, but it turns out he was merely testing me. What he actually wants is for me to assassinate the Wolf of Sparta. That means I need to sail east to Megaris – and a little boat won't cut it, so this time I need a ship and crew.
But apparently ships are super expensive. Always the master of the world's worst ideas, Kassandra hears that the Cyclops has just docked in Kephalonia and decides to steal his ship and kill him in one swoop.
Realizing I'm probably not going to be here much longer, I head throughout the island hoovering up any forgotten loot chests and completing all my incomplete locations. I also take the opportunity to visit the blacksmith and see what engravings are all about.
Engravings are essentially like augmentations, and add perks to your gear or weapon in return for a certain amount of drachmae and materials. In addition, you can upgrade weapons and gear you like (I'm a fan of the original mercenary skin), sell items you don't need or buy materials that you do.
Having upgraded my gear and explored thoroughly, I make my way to where the Cyclops is docked – only to find him attempting to drown his sea captain for referring to him as 'Cyclops'. Apparently he's not a fan of the nickname, nor of the fact I stole his obsidian eye and stuck it up a goat's arse. Cyclops is a tad touchy.
After battling with the big man himself and his men (some of which had poison arrows), I rescued the captain, who offers his crew and ship as thanks. Excellent. As soon as I'm ready, I meet him back at the Sami dock and say goodbye to my home island – though not without Markos and Phoebe seeing me off. The Odyssey has truly begun now.
Commanding a boat crew is hard, especially in hostile waters and even more so when you have little idea of where you're going – thanks exploration mode. As commander of the ship, you can have your crew speed up, slow down, or fire upon enemy vessels (and there's quite a few of them). There is also the option to upgrade the endurance, weapons damage and arsenal of your ship, as well as add new cosmetics and figureheads.
Often I found my boat being rammed by pirates, and immediately having to embark on a naval battle, firing countless arrows into the enemy ship until it was destroyed enough to board - which meant climbing on and murdering (Sparta kicking into the sea) every rival crew member and then stealing their loot.
My captain advises me we should probably recruit more crew members than the ones he brought. Luckily he knows a guy on Pirate island – sounds welcoming – who will join if we manage to 'persuade' him. In this instance 'persuade' means knock out and drag onto the ship, which is what I did to my new archer friend as soon as I found him.
The difficulty of exploration mode becomes much more prevalent when navigating through the sea, and after about ten minutes of sailing backwards and forwards looking for Pirate Island (and how to get off the ship) I became sick of my crew's sea shanties and the cute dolphins leaping beside our ship. "I hate Flipper!" I shout at my TV, but they don't care. Hopefully a shark will come along soon.
