I wonder why I waited so long to play this game. Greece during the Peloponnesian War was a dream setting for an Assassin's Creed game that I had been asking for back when I was a big fan of the series. I probably don't have to think too hard as to why it took me so long since I had heard a lot of negative things about the game, which I now realise was from a lot of AC fans feeling spurned by the new direction. Despite enjoying Origins, I wasn't chomping at the bit to play an iterative sequel. So yes, that's why I waited so long but I'm glad I've played it now since I adore it. Origins was mostly an action adventure game with some RPG mechanics which incidentally describes most games these days. Ultimately, the RPG side of the game wasn't particularly substantial while it watered down the fun stealth action and parkour from earlier entries in the series.
Assassin's Creed Odyssey is absolutely an RPG though. It very wholeheartedly embraces the genre.
The most enjoyable aspect of the game as an RPG is the build diversity. There is a lot you can do with the skill tree and the gear that can lead to some fun builds. I'm usually not that into loot vomit but if you're focused on something in particular, you don't really need to switch out your gear that often. There are a lot of abilities in the skill tree that have multiple levels that encourages specialization. You're not just going to get everything there by the end of the game and you have a limited number of slots in your ability wheel so you couldn't use them all anyway. At level 50, you're able to put points into stat boosts, of which there is a massive list of options to choose from. I know basic stat boosts can be boring but it further encourages specialization and can really enhance a build. The three general playstyles in the game are hunter (ranged combat), warrior (melee combat) and assassin (stealthy stabbing). Origins' gameplay was also divided up this way but you could easily just do a bit of everything. You can make very powerful builds just focusing on one part in Odyssey but it is also very possible to make interesting hybrid builds.
The gear may be more significant for making a really powerful character. The actual DPS or armour value of the gear isn't actually the important part so you don't need to replace gear constantly. The engravings on the gear is what you want to pay attention do. These offer some damage boosts to the three main playstyles but also have a whole assortment of different buffs. I was playing a glass assassin build so I was very focused on crit chance and crit damage. I had basically no defense which encouraged me to stay stealthy but I could one-shot pretty much anything the game could throw at me by the end. I've seen people lament the lack of guaranteed assassinations in this game but they are possible. Just not at level 1 and you have to work for it but working towards things is what makes RPGs fun. There are some unique engravings in the game that are almost transformative to your playstyle and you're able to add an angraving to your gear. The vast amount of loot drops and different rarity levels can be confusing but it isn't too overwhelming once you know what you want to look for. You mainly want purple epic gear because it has four engraving slots. Engravings are only improved every 10 levels so you don't need to switch it out every time you get something of a higher level nor will you need to constantly be grinding for upgrade materials for every level. There is some gear locked behind microtransanctions which is a bummer but most of the best stuff is accessible without it even if some RNG is involved.This is the first game where I began to appreciate level scaling. I still think leveling everything down to your level which this game doesn't do is lame. Leveling everything up to your level works really well here. Every ability point you spend along with a smart selection of gear makes you feel like you're constantly getting stronger even if the enemies are pacing alongside you.
Odyssey's Greece is incredibly vast and gorgeous. Sure, there is some procedural generation and copy and paste in there but it really does feel massive and has almost every area in Greece that you would expect to see. Although not everything is realistic, you really do feel transported to Classical Greece with the richly detailed buildings, statues and clothing. There's a lot of city states to explore and although they are not as intricate and lively as some of the city focused games earlier in the series, they are decent. They can feel a bit too similar but they all have a different layout. They do at least capture a unique character of Athens and Sparta. Traversal is very fluid which is good but they may have made it a little too easy to move around the world. I'm mainly refering to the fact that you can climb walls like Spider-Man. I understand the desire to be able to more freely navigate the rocky landscape of Greece but it more often than not just makes me not consider the the environment around me and just run in a direct line to the next waypoint. This is particularly annoying when infiltrating forts. Although there's a lot of copy and paste with the smaller outposts and camps, the bigger forts, which every area has at least one, have a unique design with different entry points. It would be nice to consider which entrance to use for where you want to go in the fort but you don't need to when you can climb every sheer wall. A lot of people think that open world stealth where you can approach an area from every angle is a positive but to me, it makes it all so much less interesting. You also have the Aegean Sea to explore with your trireme which is fairly similar to some of the boat traversal and combat of the past games.
Most of the regions in the game have their own story which is told through a series of side quests, of which there are a ton of. From now until the end of time, every game that has side quests like this is going to be compared to The Witcher 3 and that comparison is mostly going to be unfavourable. Yes, the side quests are not as interesting or well written as those in The Witcher 3 but they are decent. They give each region their own character and make them feel ore memorable. Some are definitely better than others. I particular liked the storyline on The Silver Islands dealing with a rebellion. Whereas I disliked most the quests related to The Olympics in Elis (which is connected to the main story). There's a lot to do outside of these quests. I very much suffered from the "just one more thing" syndrome when I was going to turn the game off for the night. Whether that be trying to get a higher tier in my mercenary ranking, or hunting down another cultist or clearing out another fort or take part in another conquest battle. I can see why people think Ubisoft games have gotten too long or bloated but I was happy to find any reason to stay in Greece.
The main story is nothing special but it is good. They do a decent job of giving motivation to the main character. You can pick to play as Kassandra or Alexios at the start and most people say pick Kassandra which I did. She is a fun protagonist and has some entertaining interactions throughout the games. The game giving you dialogue options and story choices does somewhat muddle her personality to a degree. Maybe that's on me for not staying consistent but there's very little reason to care. Most of the choices are related to romances which I found pretty uninpired in this game. You'll meet a lot of characters throughout this long game, a number of which you will probably completely forget right after meeting them and be confused when they show back up. There are definitely some fun characters. As typical of the series, you bump into historical people of the era and it's great dealing with Alkibiades' insatiateness or Socrates' never ending questions. The story definitely takes a more fantastical turn than the series has had before. There were always sci-fi elements to the games but Odyssey definitely pushes it further. I think this works fine with how far back in history it is though as I feel there's more room to play with the mythology of the era.
I really do love this game mostly for the character builds and the setting. I've seen a lot of people questioning whether it should be considered a good Assassin's Creed game and if it is a good game in its own right. Personally, I don't care much about that distinction. As a game titled Assassin's Creed, it's my favourite since the Ezio days. It definitely is a strong shift in genre which I think it did very successfully but there are plenty of the older style of AC games. Perhaps there were too many which is way it needed a change. With that said, I do think there are plenty of elements to make it feel like an AC game. It takes place in lavishly detailed period setting that games rarely do, you hand out with historical figures, you synchronize at high points, you clear out forts and camps, you can stealthily stab lots of dudes (even if you don't specifically have a hidden blade), there's a modern story that distracts you from the actually interesting history stuff and the cultist system which has you gathering info and luring out targets is reminiscent of the old assassination missions. So yes, I do think it it belongs to the AC series and is a damn good game too.
Assassin's Creed Odyssey is absolutely an RPG though. It very wholeheartedly embraces the genre.
The most enjoyable aspect of the game as an RPG is the build diversity. There is a lot you can do with the skill tree and the gear that can lead to some fun builds. I'm usually not that into loot vomit but if you're focused on something in particular, you don't really need to switch out your gear that often. There are a lot of abilities in the skill tree that have multiple levels that encourages specialization. You're not just going to get everything there by the end of the game and you have a limited number of slots in your ability wheel so you couldn't use them all anyway. At level 50, you're able to put points into stat boosts, of which there is a massive list of options to choose from. I know basic stat boosts can be boring but it further encourages specialization and can really enhance a build. The three general playstyles in the game are hunter (ranged combat), warrior (melee combat) and assassin (stealthy stabbing). Origins' gameplay was also divided up this way but you could easily just do a bit of everything. You can make very powerful builds just focusing on one part in Odyssey but it is also very possible to make interesting hybrid builds.
The gear may be more significant for making a really powerful character. The actual DPS or armour value of the gear isn't actually the important part so you don't need to replace gear constantly. The engravings on the gear is what you want to pay attention do. These offer some damage boosts to the three main playstyles but also have a whole assortment of different buffs. I was playing a glass assassin build so I was very focused on crit chance and crit damage. I had basically no defense which encouraged me to stay stealthy but I could one-shot pretty much anything the game could throw at me by the end. I've seen people lament the lack of guaranteed assassinations in this game but they are possible. Just not at level 1 and you have to work for it but working towards things is what makes RPGs fun. There are some unique engravings in the game that are almost transformative to your playstyle and you're able to add an angraving to your gear. The vast amount of loot drops and different rarity levels can be confusing but it isn't too overwhelming once you know what you want to look for. You mainly want purple epic gear because it has four engraving slots. Engravings are only improved every 10 levels so you don't need to switch it out every time you get something of a higher level nor will you need to constantly be grinding for upgrade materials for every level. There is some gear locked behind microtransanctions which is a bummer but most of the best stuff is accessible without it even if some RNG is involved.This is the first game where I began to appreciate level scaling. I still think leveling everything down to your level which this game doesn't do is lame. Leveling everything up to your level works really well here. Every ability point you spend along with a smart selection of gear makes you feel like you're constantly getting stronger even if the enemies are pacing alongside you.
Odyssey's Greece is incredibly vast and gorgeous. Sure, there is some procedural generation and copy and paste in there but it really does feel massive and has almost every area in Greece that you would expect to see. Although not everything is realistic, you really do feel transported to Classical Greece with the richly detailed buildings, statues and clothing. There's a lot of city states to explore and although they are not as intricate and lively as some of the city focused games earlier in the series, they are decent. They can feel a bit too similar but they all have a different layout. They do at least capture a unique character of Athens and Sparta. Traversal is very fluid which is good but they may have made it a little too easy to move around the world. I'm mainly refering to the fact that you can climb walls like Spider-Man. I understand the desire to be able to more freely navigate the rocky landscape of Greece but it more often than not just makes me not consider the the environment around me and just run in a direct line to the next waypoint. This is particularly annoying when infiltrating forts. Although there's a lot of copy and paste with the smaller outposts and camps, the bigger forts, which every area has at least one, have a unique design with different entry points. It would be nice to consider which entrance to use for where you want to go in the fort but you don't need to when you can climb every sheer wall. A lot of people think that open world stealth where you can approach an area from every angle is a positive but to me, it makes it all so much less interesting. You also have the Aegean Sea to explore with your trireme which is fairly similar to some of the boat traversal and combat of the past games.
Most of the regions in the game have their own story which is told through a series of side quests, of which there are a ton of. From now until the end of time, every game that has side quests like this is going to be compared to The Witcher 3 and that comparison is mostly going to be unfavourable. Yes, the side quests are not as interesting or well written as those in The Witcher 3 but they are decent. They give each region their own character and make them feel ore memorable. Some are definitely better than others. I particular liked the storyline on The Silver Islands dealing with a rebellion. Whereas I disliked most the quests related to The Olympics in Elis (which is connected to the main story). There's a lot to do outside of these quests. I very much suffered from the "just one more thing" syndrome when I was going to turn the game off for the night. Whether that be trying to get a higher tier in my mercenary ranking, or hunting down another cultist or clearing out another fort or take part in another conquest battle. I can see why people think Ubisoft games have gotten too long or bloated but I was happy to find any reason to stay in Greece.
The main story is nothing special but it is good. They do a decent job of giving motivation to the main character. You can pick to play as Kassandra or Alexios at the start and most people say pick Kassandra which I did. She is a fun protagonist and has some entertaining interactions throughout the games. The game giving you dialogue options and story choices does somewhat muddle her personality to a degree. Maybe that's on me for not staying consistent but there's very little reason to care. Most of the choices are related to romances which I found pretty uninpired in this game. You'll meet a lot of characters throughout this long game, a number of which you will probably completely forget right after meeting them and be confused when they show back up. There are definitely some fun characters. As typical of the series, you bump into historical people of the era and it's great dealing with Alkibiades' insatiateness or Socrates' never ending questions. The story definitely takes a more fantastical turn than the series has had before. There were always sci-fi elements to the games but Odyssey definitely pushes it further. I think this works fine with how far back in history it is though as I feel there's more room to play with the mythology of the era.
I really do love this game mostly for the character builds and the setting. I've seen a lot of people questioning whether it should be considered a good Assassin's Creed game and if it is a good game in its own right. Personally, I don't care much about that distinction. As a game titled Assassin's Creed, it's my favourite since the Ezio days. It definitely is a strong shift in genre which I think it did very successfully but there are plenty of the older style of AC games. Perhaps there were too many which is way it needed a change. With that said, I do think there are plenty of elements to make it feel like an AC game. It takes place in lavishly detailed period setting that games rarely do, you hand out with historical figures, you synchronize at high points, you clear out forts and camps, you can stealthily stab lots of dudes (even if you don't specifically have a hidden blade), there's a modern story that distracts you from the actually interesting history stuff and the cultist system which has you gathering info and luring out targets is reminiscent of the old assassination missions. So yes, I do think it it belongs to the AC series and is a damn good game too.