An enormous boss fight against Medusa is not something you would have expected from an Assassin's Creed game a few years ago. God of War? Of course. Castlevania, sure. But to face off against the mythological monster in a series so concerned with history as Assassin's Creed? You'd think the developers had spent a little too much time in the Animus for their own good.
And yet it fits this new breed of Assassin's Creed - one unashamedly wearing its RPG systems as obviously as Ezio draped that cloak over his shoulder before you followed yet another NPC over a rooftop. Assassin's Creed has always dabbled in myths and conspiracy stories, but never quite this overtly. Since last year's Origins, however, the series has embraced ancient times and allowed itself a little more wiggle room to work in its fantastical elements. It fits - featuring the importance of the time period's Gods and other legendary figures and explaining their feats using connections to the series' own legendary First Civilisation.
Assassin's Creed has often used the First Civ as a creator of macguffins (the various Apples of Eden, for instance, First Civ objet d'arts which control human will) - but has also often kept the really wacky stuff at arm's length - hidden away for hardcore players to find, and rarely if ever mentioned during the game's marketing campaign. But this is a different Assassin's Creed era - and especially so with Odyssey as it takes place before the actual Brotherhood was founded. Fans have asked Ubisoft what Odyssey has to do with the Assassins if it does not include any. Ubisoft's answer is that Odyssey features the mythological elements the series has established over the past decade - which may well be why our Gamescom demo is all about the First Civ now.