Assassin's Creed Odyssey

Ancient Greece is still one of Ubisoft's most convincing playgrounds. Odyssey committed to the RPG direction fully and the result is an enormous map with enough variety to stay interesting across the hundred-plus hours most players will put in. I have spent time with most of the modern Assassin's Creed games and Odyssey holds up as the most purely enjoyable to simply roam. The reason it missed the ten is that it is Ubisoft to its core: icons everywhere, activities designed to fill time, and a world that sometimes feels like it was built for the map rather than the other way around. Worth your time, but not quite at the standard of the games above it.

Ancient Greece stretched across an archipelago is exactly the kind of historical setting that keeps me in an Assassin's Creed game longer than I probably should be. I have a soft spot for the series going back to the original, and Odyssey is the most geographically ambitious entry by some margin. Sailing between islands, stumbling onto a Spartan war camp, picking up a side quest that turns into something surprisingly personal two hours later. That loop works. The content is genuinely enormous, which cuts both ways. If you are a completionist, this is a dream. If you are a parent with two kids and limited evenings, maybe decide in advance that you are only doing the main path.