When Assassin's Creed: Odyssey debuted earlier this month, it received widespread praise for the quality of its world-building and narrative. Some historians say it also deserves high marks for its attention to historical detail in recreating ancient Greece. Notably, the game showcases colorfully painted statues, temples, and tombs dotted about the virtual city.

Yes, it's true: contrary to all those pristine, gleaming white marble sculptures we see all the time in museums—the ones we long thought defined the Western aesthetic of the Classical era—Greco-Roman art was awash in color. Art historians have known this for a while, of course, but the knowledge hasn't really moved beyond the confines of that rarefied world. That might change, now that it's a feature in a hugely popular game.

The 11th major installment in the popular gaming franchise, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey takes place in the year 431 BCE, detailing a fictional history of the Peloponnesian War that pitted Athens against Sparta. Ubisoft's development team took its world-building so seriously, it brought on a historical advisor to help get the details just right.

Sure, the team took some liberties here and there, but judging by the response of historians like Emory University classicist Dr. Kira Jones (an avid gamer), it did a bang-up job. As Hyperallergic notes, Dr. Jones is among the leaders of a Twitter hashtag for historians to crowd-source information about the details in the new game: # ACademicOdyssey.

A colorful tour

Courtesy Dr. Kira Jones

Courtesy of Dr. Kira Jones

Courtesy of Dr. Kira Jones

Courtesy of Dr. Kira Jones

Courtesy of Dr. Kira Jones

Courtesy of Dr. Kira Jones

Courtesy of Dr. Kira Jones

Jones was particularly impressed with how closely the game recreates the actual site plans of Delphi and the Acropolis. "You can wind your way up Mt. Parnassus to Delphi, past the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia and the Tholos (which is in the process of being built)... all the way up to the Theater and Temple of Apollo," she told Hyperallergic. The route is lined with people going about their lives, chatting, praying, or hawking their wares. In fact, many of the shrines and temples in the game have merchants selling votives—another historically accurate detail, per Jones.

Even an engraving on an otherwise ordinary-looking stone slab may have been drawn from a real counterpart, Twitter historians concluded. The biggest quibble: the developers took some shortcuts when it came to decorating some of the more random buildings and pedestals, "rubber stamping" details from its in-game Parthenon frieze.

But it's the brilliant colors on display throughout that has art historians excited about Assassin's Creed: Odyssey. It's called polychromy. Since at least the Renaissance, it had been assumed that Greco-Roman sculptors deliberately left their works unpainted. The colors had been stripped away by the elements over the centuries, and while there were still some traces visible to the naked eye, the cleaning and restoration process typically wiped them away.

Major excavations in the late 19th century unearthed several clearly painted reliefs and sculptures at the Acropolis, among other sites, which should have settled the matter. By then, however, white marble had become a symbol of the pure neoclassical aesthetic, so the fact that polychromy was likely common in ancient Greece met with considerable resistance. Over time, that resistance has weakened in light of the sheer number of painted sculptures and other artifacts that have been excavated.

Science has helped gather even more evidence beyond that which can be seen by the naked eye. For instance, in 2009, conservationists at the British museum found traces on several Parthenon figures of Egyptian blue, one of the earliest known pigments, using techniques like infrared luminescence to examine the sculptures. (Egyptian blue absorbs visible light and re-emits infrared, which can be captured by a specially modified digital camera.)

There might be consensus among the classicists, but for the average person on the street, seeing brightly painted Greek statuary is still pretty jarring. Museums are doing their part to change that perception. A few years ago, for example, an exhibit of brightly painted plaster replicas called "The Gods of Color" debuted at a Munich museum and traveled around the world. But video games have the potential to have far more impact on popular culture, reaching a much broader audience. Including all those brightly painted details in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey is a good start.