I enjoy playing this but it's just too big, I may come back to it at some point but knowing it's going to take a 100+ hour commitment do everything is more than a little off putting

Update: I picked up the ultimate edition on Series X and gave it another go. 52 hours later (according to my save file, my console says 72 hours), I've finally finished the main story. Well, Kassandra's Odyssey at least.

There's still cult members to discover and kill in search of the leader, Islands I haven't visited that are above my current level, and a ton of quests to do. And that's without getting started on the DLC packs.

I maintain that it is simply too much game, but it is good. I enjoyed playing as Kassandra a lot, I began to lose interest in the main story around halfway through though. This made it a little hard to keep up with as there are A LOT of old white guys with the same hair, beards, and general faces that I started to get mixed up.

The location of ancient Greece with the dashes of mythology thrown in is one of the best settings in the series. It makes it a game I think I'll keep coming back to.

I'm a long time fan of the Assassin's Creed franchise, I've been playing every since the release of the first game - and I am totally fine with the changes Odyssey brings to the franchise. It's a new experience, if Ubisoft had kept the same gameplay style they have all the way up 'till Syndicate I would've lowered my rating, but I love the gameplay of this game and I see no reason to have a fit about it.

The story telling is much, much better than Unity, Rogue and whatever Syndicate could ever muster. It's also a tad bit better than Origins, but Origins has some elements that make it a tad bit better as well.

Main criticism from others for this game is "it doesn't feel like AC" or, "where are the Assassins?" but this game still possess the core elements of an AC game:

The Cult of Kosmos, literally the earliest incarnation of the Templars. They're very essential to AC lore because this is where it all starts, it is literally talked about in the ending of the game once you kill every member of the Cult. Alexios/Kassandra are literally the ones responsible not just for the Templars but also the Assassins. It's a prequel within a prequel, and the DLC Legacy of the First Blade just implies this even more with Darius, who was among the statues found underneath the Auditore Villa in AC II.

tl;dr - this game does feel like an AC game story wise if you actually give the game a chance, the gameplay is a massive improvement on Ubisoft's typical formula of recycling shit and it is one of my favourite games in the franchise.

I’m not looking for pristine, uncompromised games. And none of my favorites in 2018 was compromised quite like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. I’d only played the second and fourth in the series before starting, and Far Cry 2 was the sole Ubisoft game I’d even liked. So admittedly, I went in with my knives out. And the dull frame story did not disappoint. Pythagoras, the animus, some precursor nonsense, lord help me. It’s like they don’t even understand why people like these historical fantasies. As if worlds from the past, the details of distant lives, are not enough. Pile on some typical Ubi excess and you’d think I’d be out. There’s only so much assassination I can take.

But the excess had a curious effect. Because Odyssey also committed to a certain amount of role-playing this time, my Kassandra was able to choose. Not just which option in a quest but whether to do it at all. It gave voice to my zealous inner Bartleby. Thin the local bear population? I’d prefer not to. Turn the tide on that there battlefield? I’d prefer not to. Get revenge for a petty neighbor? Naw. I don’t fuck with that.

Odyssey’s muchness contributed to a stronger world feeling without stoking some inner completionist. I went where I wanted, followed my interests, of which there were plenty, and the whole thing unfurled. The spiraling map, the many interlocking systems, the slow unveiling of the cult, it’s actually remarkable how naturally it all unwinds before the player. Which makes the DLC’s forced hetero blood legacy choice I’ve heard about so disheartening. I generally don’t mess with DLC, but even from a distance it sours my Kassandra’s future a bit.

Because otherwise, what I’d found by the end of my odyssey was this: a gods-haunted people in landscapes of astonishing color and light centered on the best avatar in an open world game.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey gives us a layered history, a past with many pasts. The Greeks you meet are grappling with all of them — recent events, fading stories, and ancient myths alike — and asking existential questions with refreshing urgency. How do you live in a world of fickle gods? How do you live without them? There is an immediacy to these questions that humanizes almost everyone you meet. And not just famous figures like Socrates. Though Odyssey does recognize, correctly, what a sweetheart he’s always been.

Much of this humanity comes from the writing, full of pathos and good humor, warm and philosophic throughout, but always with a light touch. My Kassandra was worldweary and worldwise, nobody’s fool, but also a misthios who just plain cared. You could hear it in her voice. She saw people clearly, their dreams and their bullshit, and yet still wanted to throw in with them. She was game for the struggle, and she had the arms to prove it.

There’s just so much life in Odyssey. Such a feeling of world happening all around you. The markets and shrines, your ship with its shanties, every single dusk and dawn. They don’t announce themselves or demand your attention. When you come upon a patch of morning mist that just catches the light, the game doesn’t overdo it. It’s not there for your mission or cutscene but for world feeling alone, something that just happens. And sure it’s all background, and true you’ll run right through it, but that’s by design. This isn’t your pokey howdy ma’am realism asking questions the game cannot answer. Instead, it simply aims for beauty and adventure and a proud ancient world, with all the zip and thereness it can muster. Even when it stretches, with stunning transitions from land to ship to swelling sea, its felt sense of continuity and scale makes the speed a source of wonder. Will the illusion hold? By the gods, it will.

Odyssey asks solid game questions, for now. It attempts a world, not a stage show. This world may clearly be a videogame simulation, but it’s not trying to fool you. There’s far too much murder, but the game doesn’t ask me to mourn the assassin’s lifestyle or con me into believing it’s something it’s not. And it is this honesty, along with its writing and its misthios and its goddamned humanity, that makes it 2018’s true alternative to that malákas cowboy game.

This title made me never want to play another Assassin’s Creed game ever again. I’ve been with the series since 2, completing each title, and this broke me. It checks all the boxes of bad Ubisoft open world design: too many objectives with no incentive to do so, and all too large map that prioritizes scale over respect for a player’s time. The 3 main story quests are like copy pasted from other games: the conspiracy story is a rip of Ghost Recon: Wildlands, the main story acts like a bad version of RPGs like the Witcher, and the mythical Atlantis story is like a lame version of the Witcher 3’s monster contracts. The story has 3 endings and none of them are able to be satisfying. The combat feels fine, nothing special. You end up relying on the cool down based special attacks which makes combat boil down to a lot of waiting when fighting tougher enemies. The constant flow of new gear inundates you to the feeling of getting new loot, making exploration and rewards for combat and quests boring quickly. I ended up stopping before the DLC not because of the story ending but because I was so bored I couldn’t bring myself to continue.

just a great game world to throw yourself into and a great lead in kassandra even if the main plot and much of the side quests feel a let down in comparison to origins. the return of your own ship and ship combat is a welcome return as it's always been excellently done in the AC series and is even better in an ancient greece which is just gorgeous to sail around in.

also big kudos to them leaning wholeheartedly into the ludicrous supernatural greek myths. it's the best development on the original wild lore that typified assassin's creed. ofc lenin was supported by the assassins! ofc the templars rigged the 2000 american presidential election. the minotaur is real, and it's pissed, why not?

"Always question your choices but don't doubt them -Sokrates"

It improved upon everything I hated about AC Origins. The only thing that's stopping me from a perfect score is that the game is too big in my opinion. I was able to do a decent amount of side quest and finished the main game quest but I wasn't even halfway with seeing the entire map of the game. I love AC to death but even I wasn't compelled into combing every part of this vast world. There should always still be a balance, sometimes less is more.

Pro tip: the ONLY way to play this game is as Kassandra.
Plus, you get to climb on Zeus' balls 💯

tldr; I love it BUT IT'S JUST SO DAMN BIG

Alright, so this is the most recent one and not shit I finished awhile ago. This wasnt great but I didnt hate it? It wasnt at all an Assassins Creed game but Kassandra was tremendously acted, the story made sense for awhile which, for an AC game, is an incredible feat. It was weirdly addicting and I got all the achievements which I never do anymore. Super fluid overall despite the fact that I didnt like the setting and was burnt out on this universe.

Hidden Blade fuckin sucked though.

And now I’m trying to dig through all these fucking AC games that I have on my Xbox hard drive, which is basically all of them from the 360 era (though remastered) (most of them I already played) (and spent money on fuckin twice now) and I’ll have THOUGHTS.