Assassin's Creed Odyssey ESRB Rating Details Violence and Sexual Themes

The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) released its official rating for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, assigning it a Mature 17+ designation. The board’s summary details the specific content that warranted the rating, citing “Blood and Gore,” “Intense Violence,” “Sexual Themes,” and “Strong Language.” This breakdown offers a clear preview of the mature elements woven into the game’s narrative and gameplay, set in Ancient Greece.

According to the ESRB, the game is an action-adventure title where players choose between two protagonists, the siblings Alexios or Kassandra. As mercenaries on a quest for vengeance, they explore a large open-world environment, interact with various characters, and undertake missions that often involve infiltrating enemy bases and strongholds. The core conflict revolves around killing human enemies.

Intense Violence and Gore

The combat system is a primary source of the game’s violence. The ESRB notes that players use swords, spears, and bows in “melee-style combat” against enemy soldiers and bandits. In addition to direct confrontation, stealth attacks are a significant part of the gameplay, with the summary mentioning “knife stabbing” as a method to “dispatch enemies discreetly.”

The visual depiction of violence is graphic. The rating highlights the presence of “large blood-splatter effects” that occur when enemies are killed. The game’s environments also reflect this violent tone, with some areas containing “severed limbs and dismembered corpses on the ground,” contributing to the “Blood and Gore” content descriptor.

A handful of cutscenes were singled out for depicting “more intense acts of violence and/or gore.” The ESRB provided specific examples to illustrate this point. One scene shows characters being stabbed through the head or neck with bladed weapons. In another, young characters are thrown from a cliff. A third particularly graphic scene involves a man being mauled by a mob, culminating in his arm being thrown into the air. These narrative moments contribute significantly to the Mature rating.

Sexual Content and Language

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey also incorporates sexual themes, although direct depiction is avoided. The ESRB describes scenes where characters are shown “kissing and caressing before the screen fades to black.” This technique implies sexual encounters without showing them. The summary also mentions a scenario where a character hears “sexual moaning sounds behind a door.”

Dialogue is another key element contributing to the sexual themes. The rating board quoted several lines from the game, including references to prostitution like, “Anything goes in this sex andron,” and a character distinguishing between romance and business by saying, “That is love, this is commerce. What are you into?” These lines establish a world where such topics are openly discussed.

Finally, the “Strong Language” descriptor is justified by the inclusion of profanity in the game’s script. The ESRB confirmed that the words “f**k” and “sh*t” can be heard in the dialogue. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was scheduled to launch on October 5, 2018.