Rita Zhang

In the last few decades, video games have become an increasingly mainstream mode of engagement with the ancient past. They have had distinct success in providing players with immersive, atmospheric worlds that “feel” real. This paper explores the role of atmosphere in video game (re)constructions of ancient worlds and their influence over perceptions of historical facticity, or verisimilitude, with an anthropological lens. Using Ubisoft’s 2018 release ‘Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey’ as a case study, this paper identifies two major components of atmosphere – sensory realism and virtual embodiment – and examines how they are evoked. It further utilises Bourdieusian critical theory to elucidate the power relations between game developer, medium, and player, and demonstrates how atmosphere is deployed as a rhetorical device by developers. Finally, it evaluates how effectively atmosphere suspends disbelief and convinces players of historical authenticity. Through semi-structured interviews with players and online discourse analysis, this paper finds that the immersive nature of photorealism and agentive fallacy provided by the game’s open world and role-play mechanics suppresses how critically players engage with the highly convincing reconstructions. This paper therefore demonstrates the significance of atmosphere in video games, particularly those levelled at mainstream audiences as popular representations of antiquity. It also highlights the value of video games as facilitators of interactive and engaging experiences where one may access the no-longer-accessible past, as well as the importance of active and critical engagement with their content in the face of the rhetoric of atmosphere.