Late to the party, on the latest sale on Steam, I decided it was time to get down and play this entry in the series. I'm writing this, after 167h of playtime, and getting 100%.
I grew up with these games since the first came out, but I was sad to slowly lose interest in them after Ubisoft kept pushing one out every year regardless of quality, especially while the modern story after Desmond was a cringe-fest that led nowhere. Speaking of which, the latter is not any better in this one, sorry.
This game plays so differently than what Assassin's Creed has always been, but that's exactly what made it good for me.
THE GOOD
This game is so far from being an AC that it doesn't even feature assassins in it. In this game, you play as a misthios, a mercenary, in Ancient Greece. It's somewhat connected to the other games, with one of the expansions, but being set prior to Origins, it's not actually Assassins.
This makes this game the best attempt of Ubisoft at making a The Witcher 3-like game, and it does so to the point of mimicry sometimes, with the soundtrack sounding extremely similar.
The main character can be chosen between Alexios and Kassandra, and their story, or better, Odyssey is one of the highlights of the game, really. The game has a well-rounded combat system, with a nice and detailed ability tree to make your own playstyle shine be it either Warrior, Assassin, or Hunter. The map is big and full of things to do, although not all interesting. Exploration is heavily influenced by The Lend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and its impact on the gaming industry allowing the player to climb every possible surface and explore with unlocked freedom, but in this case, overdoing it by removing any Stamina limits. Quests are really good and well written, sometimes featuring also Romance options which are mostly a fade-to-black while kissing scene and have 0 impact over the game. That's not always the case, however, but don't expect Yennefer and Triss' level of romancing. From what I understand, the devs after the launch kept adding for free more Greek world stories that feature a series of missions and are written amazingly, easily my favorite part of the game, closely followed by the main story. The game has an armor and weapon system with perks and whatnot giving even more customization options for your experience. By the end of the game, I had been using mainly an Assassin build with 100% CRIT Chance and 650% Crit Damage when full health. The game also includes a free transmog system to always look your best while using the best armors and perks. The expansions are sufficient additions and worth playing for their new story, maps, equipment, or abilities, but I don't think they were worth the 40€ the Season Pass would have cost at launch. I strongly suggest this game on sale to players who have a few hundred hours in their hands and want to play a game that is somewhat RPG when it comes to building the character, but not for the choices, options, and consequences, with some rare cases not following this rule.
THE BAD
On top of good story missions, this game also features the worst possible missions you could think of, falling in the worst possible fetch quests that you could think of. Often, the objective boils down to the exact same thing when it comes to gameplay, offering no reward other than money. It feels like Ubisoft is scared that if instead of 100 bad side-missions in the game, there were only 30, but well-written, people would not think it's worth the money they ask, which is a lot including the Expansions which are basically mandatory. How, do you ask? The modern story of Odyssey legit doesn't end in the game but inside the second Expansion. This is sadly not the only scummy-live-service thing in the game. There are boosters that can permanently help to level up easier and get more money, which seems pointless at first. That's not the case after you see the prices on the last ship upgrades, and also realize that after level 99 there is no level cap, giving the player a chance to min-max perks and stats outside armor and weapons. The store also sells a LOT of unobtainable-in-game Armor, Weapons, and Ship Cosmetics which are amazing to look at and cost often 15€ each, in a single-player game. There's a way to get them in-game with in-game currency, but it requires grinding a resource through bounties almost daily - my Destiny 2 PTSD is kicking in - and waiting for the vendor in the game to rotate and maybe selling what you want. Ubisoft is literally asking single-player gamers to log in every day and do boring bounties objectives - as if the game didn't have many already - so maybe you could buy this armor which looks a m a z i n g if and when it's available, ooooor...15€. Additionally, the items drop at your level and are always a bit stronger than the same level and rarity items you can get in-game. ;)".
On top of the many missions and objectives only to keep you busy, the game gave me the feeling that some mechanics are included to further babysit the player almost to avoid them having to think of anything at all, just like climbing. I'll make some examples of some I really didn't like.
The enemies scale to the player at all times, there's no way to disable it, and the time it'll take you at level 1 to kill an archer by attacking it will be almost the same at level 99 with 8000 damage. Obviously with abilities and builds it's possible to create a gap between the player and enemies, but it takes the fun away never getting stronger except under specific conditions.
Starting from level 20 falling from heights has no consequences or damage whatsoever. It's not a bad option per se, but I would rather take less damage than none at all, exponentially getting higher the more you fall.
Another mechanic the game strips the player of is hiding bodies. Coming from Far Cry 5 I assumed hiding corpses in the bushes would work, but in reality, the AI cheats and will go even outside the camp to find the corpse and then send the alarm wirelessly with no delay to the rest of the enemies. It would be quite annoying, if not that very early in the game the player can access an ability that requires only 1 point to unlock to make the corpses of assassinated enemies disappear into thin air. If you plan on playing stealth it's almost mandatory especially when the option of not using the ability is not possible as the corpses are found regardless of how well you hide them.
Not the end of the world, but I just don't understand why not build on those mechanics but instead almost "disable" them.
CONCLUSION
The game is fun, not perfect, but bought on sale it's absolutely worth it. The microtransactions should not be there, to begin with, in my opinion, but I'm not the only one thinking this way as for these games there are always Inventory Editors and whatnot to still get those items without paying.
If you're in the mood for a really good story, some beautiful side missions that were patched in post-launch, a nice combat system, and a big world to explore, don't think twice and get it!
6.9/10
I grew up with these games since the first came out, but I was sad to slowly lose interest in them after Ubisoft kept pushing one out every year regardless of quality, especially while the modern story after Desmond was a cringe-fest that led nowhere. Speaking of which, the latter is not any better in this one, sorry.
This game plays so differently than what Assassin's Creed has always been, but that's exactly what made it good for me.
THE GOOD
This game is so far from being an AC that it doesn't even feature assassins in it. In this game, you play as a misthios, a mercenary, in Ancient Greece. It's somewhat connected to the other games, with one of the expansions, but being set prior to Origins, it's not actually Assassins.
This makes this game the best attempt of Ubisoft at making a The Witcher 3-like game, and it does so to the point of mimicry sometimes, with the soundtrack sounding extremely similar.
The main character can be chosen between Alexios and Kassandra, and their story, or better, Odyssey is one of the highlights of the game, really. The game has a well-rounded combat system, with a nice and detailed ability tree to make your own playstyle shine be it either Warrior, Assassin, or Hunter. The map is big and full of things to do, although not all interesting. Exploration is heavily influenced by The Lend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and its impact on the gaming industry allowing the player to climb every possible surface and explore with unlocked freedom, but in this case, overdoing it by removing any Stamina limits. Quests are really good and well written, sometimes featuring also Romance options which are mostly a fade-to-black while kissing scene and have 0 impact over the game. That's not always the case, however, but don't expect Yennefer and Triss' level of romancing. From what I understand, the devs after the launch kept adding for free more Greek world stories that feature a series of missions and are written amazingly, easily my favorite part of the game, closely followed by the main story. The game has an armor and weapon system with perks and whatnot giving even more customization options for your experience. By the end of the game, I had been using mainly an Assassin build with 100% CRIT Chance and 650% Crit Damage when full health. The game also includes a free transmog system to always look your best while using the best armors and perks. The expansions are sufficient additions and worth playing for their new story, maps, equipment, or abilities, but I don't think they were worth the 40€ the Season Pass would have cost at launch. I strongly suggest this game on sale to players who have a few hundred hours in their hands and want to play a game that is somewhat RPG when it comes to building the character, but not for the choices, options, and consequences, with some rare cases not following this rule.
THE BAD
On top of good story missions, this game also features the worst possible missions you could think of, falling in the worst possible fetch quests that you could think of. Often, the objective boils down to the exact same thing when it comes to gameplay, offering no reward other than money. It feels like Ubisoft is scared that if instead of 100 bad side-missions in the game, there were only 30, but well-written, people would not think it's worth the money they ask, which is a lot including the Expansions which are basically mandatory. How, do you ask? The modern story of Odyssey legit doesn't end in the game but inside the second Expansion. This is sadly not the only scummy-live-service thing in the game. There are boosters that can permanently help to level up easier and get more money, which seems pointless at first. That's not the case after you see the prices on the last ship upgrades, and also realize that after level 99 there is no level cap, giving the player a chance to min-max perks and stats outside armor and weapons. The store also sells a LOT of unobtainable-in-game Armor, Weapons, and Ship Cosmetics which are amazing to look at and cost often 15€ each, in a single-player game. There's a way to get them in-game with in-game currency, but it requires grinding a resource through bounties almost daily - my Destiny 2 PTSD is kicking in - and waiting for the vendor in the game to rotate and maybe selling what you want. Ubisoft is literally asking single-player gamers to log in every day and do boring bounties objectives - as if the game didn't have many already - so maybe you could buy this armor which looks a m a z i n g if and when it's available, ooooor...15€. Additionally, the items drop at your level and are always a bit stronger than the same level and rarity items you can get in-game. ;)".
On top of the many missions and objectives only to keep you busy, the game gave me the feeling that some mechanics are included to further babysit the player almost to avoid them having to think of anything at all, just like climbing. I'll make some examples of some I really didn't like.
The enemies scale to the player at all times, there's no way to disable it, and the time it'll take you at level 1 to kill an archer by attacking it will be almost the same at level 99 with 8000 damage. Obviously with abilities and builds it's possible to create a gap between the player and enemies, but it takes the fun away never getting stronger except under specific conditions.
Starting from level 20 falling from heights has no consequences or damage whatsoever. It's not a bad option per se, but I would rather take less damage than none at all, exponentially getting higher the more you fall.
Another mechanic the game strips the player of is hiding bodies. Coming from Far Cry 5 I assumed hiding corpses in the bushes would work, but in reality, the AI cheats and will go even outside the camp to find the corpse and then send the alarm wirelessly with no delay to the rest of the enemies. It would be quite annoying, if not that very early in the game the player can access an ability that requires only 1 point to unlock to make the corpses of assassinated enemies disappear into thin air. If you plan on playing stealth it's almost mandatory especially when the option of not using the ability is not possible as the corpses are found regardless of how well you hide them.
Not the end of the world, but I just don't understand why not build on those mechanics but instead almost "disable" them.
CONCLUSION
The game is fun, not perfect, but bought on sale it's absolutely worth it. The microtransactions should not be there, to begin with, in my opinion, but I'm not the only one thinking this way as for these games there are always Inventory Editors and whatnot to still get those items without paying.
If you're in the mood for a really good story, some beautiful side missions that were patched in post-launch, a nice combat system, and a big world to explore, don't think twice and get it!
6.9/10
Sorry to dissappoint y'all, but despite being into history and art, I'm not the Assassin's Creed type of girl, this was my first one, so it didn't feel like a letdown to me at all, I actually loved it, as I really like Greece.
I totally understand that some people might be tired of the formula cause this game was really similar to Origins, to the point that it could have been a DLC, and that some other people felt betrayed cause this isnt what Assassins Creed was/was meant to be and it was more like "The Witcher" instead, but honestly, it was quite a ride for me.
If we analyze this game as a standalone title, it's pretty solid, there arent many real cons, aside from the classic ubisoft problems that persist in every single piece of media they make.
What can I say, I personally enjoyed the story, the graphics, the setting, the soundtrack (ocasionally) and the whole adventure!
I totally understand that some people might be tired of the formula cause this game was really similar to Origins, to the point that it could have been a DLC, and that some other people felt betrayed cause this isnt what Assassins Creed was/was meant to be and it was more like "The Witcher" instead, but honestly, it was quite a ride for me.
If we analyze this game as a standalone title, it's pretty solid, there arent many real cons, aside from the classic ubisoft problems that persist in every single piece of media they make.
What can I say, I personally enjoyed the story, the graphics, the setting, the soundtrack (ocasionally) and the whole adventure!