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Assassin's Creed is Randy Spears Archivesdiving back in time to ancient Greece in Assassin's Creed: Odysseyand with that journey comes a handful of new features and the return of a fan favorite to keep the series fresh into its 11th installment.

I had a chance to play Assassin's Creed: Odysseyat a preview event ahead of E3 and experience a few hours of the upcoming game, exploring a couple of islands in the Aegean Sea, fighting enemies, delving into tombs, and taking on the open waters.

In 431 BCE, the Peloponnesian War is waging between the Spartans and the Athenians, and Greece is at your fingertips. Within the open world ahead of you, similar in style to Assassin's Creed: Origins, there is enough new stuff to set Odysseyapart from the previous games to keep things fun and interesting.

Here are six features in Assassin's Creed: Odysseythat keep things spicy:

1. Choose your character

Assassin's Creed: Odysseylets you choose who to play as. You pick between Kassandra, the female protagonist, or Alexios, the male protagonist, both of whom are descendants of Leonidas I, the famous king of Sparta during the Second Persian War. The choice won't really affect the game that much, but it allows players to further personalize their experience.

2. New combat abilities

Odysseyspices up the series' combat with new special abilities. During any given fight, you build up an ability meter that can be spent on a handful of abilities like a powerful Spartan kick that sends enemies flying, a ranged attack that allows you to nock several arrows in a single shot, and a melee move where you steal your enemy's shield and bash them with it.

3. Boats are back in a big way

Taking a note from Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, naval warfare is back, baby. With the Aegean Sea at your fingertips, it's only natural that ship battles are a feature of the landscape. You can build up a crew, take down pirate ships, board other boats, and kick enemies into the sea to watch them get eaten by sharks.

4. Choices matter

Your input and behavior in Assassin's Creed: Odysseyhas a big impact on the game. During the main storyline and in side quests, players will be able to make decisions about how to tackle certain predicaments and who they form positive and negative relationships with. These decisions will even have an impact on how the game ends.

5. Mercenaries

Odysseyhas its own system of checks and balances with the inclusion of mercenaries. Because there is no formal police service in Greece, citizens will employ mercenaries to take out people who have wronged them, including you.

6. Big battles

Odysseytakes place during the Peloponnesian War, which means there will be large-scale battles like the series has never seen before. Players can help Spartan armies fight back against Athenians in these battles by taking out random soldiers as well as key commanders and heroes to turn the tide of the war in Sparta's favor.

Of course all of your favorite activities from past games will be there too: covert assassinations, toppling authority, and exploring for new weapons and armor will factor heavily into Odysseywhen it arrives Oct. 5.