Assassin's Creed Odyssey [PC, PS4, XBone] - October 5th

[Snowy]

So it is out today. I have pre-loaded and will unlock it but won't get to play today - working from home then straight off to London for a Behemoth album signing.

Thoughts tomorrow.

[Jez]

I am unsure. Part of me would really like to get this. I enjoyed Origins to a point and then once again felt overwhelmed by the sameyness. They definitely have made efforts to improve on this but for whatever reason I bounce off and don't go back. The story writing just never grips me whatsoever to boot and the gameplay although solid becomes very samey. Again I think they have made efforts to improve this. I'll wait for more comprehensive reviews and see what's what.

[Sly Boots]

Very good but horrible grind and cynical microtransactions.

[Snowy]

If it is anything like AC:O then the grind is actually an enjoyable way to extend the core game (I never felt out upon and I hate grind) and the micro transactions utterly irrelevant. Neither imposed on my enjoyment one jot.

[Mantis]

This one is supposedly a lot longer than Origins. I'm not sure that dragging the game out over 100 hours is necessarily a good way of making the experience more worthwhile.

[Jez]

Mac has pretty much killed it off for me there.

[Sly Boots]

If it is anything like AC:O then the grind is actually an enjoyable way to extend the core game (I never felt out upon and I hate grind) and the micro transactions utterly irrelevant. Neither imposed on my enjoyment one jot.

I think it's very much a 'your mileage may vary' thing. He says it didn't kill it off for him as he really enjoys the gameplay, but there are probably people for whom that would be a bigger deal. It's difficult to judge without playing it, but I'm not massively keen on the idea of sections of the story being (effectively) level-gated and having to spend hours hunting for stuff to allow you to level up in order to progress.

[Jez]

I suppose that could be satisfying in its own kind of "worked hard for that win" kind of way but the line would be micro thin crossing into annoyance and quiting.

[Snowy]

I read the same thing about AC:Origins, that is what I am basing my opinion on currently. In AC:O I enjoyed exploring, finding tombs, side quests etc. The main storyline had relatively few actual assassination targets so wasn't something I was keen to rush. I found that the reverse was true for me, I was actually usually a higher level than the quest demanded as I spent so much time doing other stuff.

While AC:Odyssey (damn them for their two AC:O titles) feels in game terms very similar to Origins, there is also a bit of a Witcher 3 vibe to it where you have no boundaries and can go about your game however you please. I also like that now not all loot is just for the taking, theft is a thing in the new game and mercenaries get sent after you if you misbehave, whether killing the wrong people, stealing etc. I have only come up against one so far and he was a level higher than me, but he was a tough bastard and took me 4 attempts to kill. I also like that the mercs can come into the game whatever you are doing, so can throw a real wildcard into the mix.

I am level 9 currently, got my boat and just set out in the world, but it has all the hallmarks of an Ubi game I am going to enjoy. I have it set to explorer mode too so you don't just pick up a quest and immediately get signposted, instead you have to find out information to discover where you need to go. You still get markers once you are close and have sent your bird in to scout, but you have to find your own way which is refreshing and also allows me to indulge my wanderlust. From what I watched of the Mack review, he hit a wall at lvl 16 so I will have to see how it plays out for me, but so far so good.

[Jez]

Seen reports that the wall he talks about isn't really a thing. I suppose it depends how much level work grind you'll have done throughout. If he was just playing out the main and dipping occasionally into the rest then it sort of makes sense that difficulty spike would catch up with you somewhere.

[Jez]

I've seen enough to overcome some concerns and bought it. Virtually certain I won't finish it but I'm at a loose end for something new with coming to the end of a behemoth few months with Divinity OS2.

[Sly Boots]

I didn't get Origins, and it's largely for that reason I could see myself picking this up down the line (I had AC fatigue somewhat), but not at the release price.

[DjchunKfunK]

I have no idea where people are getting this idea of level grind from, someone over at Polygon had the same issue and I just can't understand it. I've been playing this for around 7 hours now and I'm currently at level 12 and have never had an issue finding things to do. There are constantly new places to explore and new things to do. There is a quests billboard system that refreshes every few hours which whilst not always giving you the most exciting quests, gives you something to go do and gain a good chunk of experience from.

My overriding feeling from playing this game is that it's just a lot of fun. The combat and the skills system is a big improvement over Origins. Fights are tense exchanges where you are attacked by a variety of enemies who come at you in different ways. It has one of the best parry systems I've seen in a game with a nice generous window meaning you don't have to just roll around all the time to avoid attacks. It also does a good job of signposting when an enemy is going to attack and what kind of attack it is so you know if you can parry or not. In every AC game up to this one, when infiltrating an outpost I have always run away when spotted as I didn't want to have to deal with fighting large groups or just fighting in general. In Odyssey I don't care if I get seen as the combat is so fun to play.

Case in point, I had a mission the other day where I had to take a Mercenary out who was stationed in the middle of a Spartan camp. I didn't know if I would be attacked by the Spartans if I attacked the mercenary, turns out they did attack. In previous AC games this would have been where I would have run away, but not this time, I stood and fought. Ten minutes later I had killed everyone in the camp plus a couple of Mercenaries who had arrived due to my wanted meter going up. It was a complete blast.

It's also a beautiful game and Ubisoft have done a good job of filing the world with stuff. This means that islands have their own personality and it isn't a case of each island just looking the same.

I'm really enjoying what I have played of so far, my only regret is that I chose Alexios over Cassandra as I hear the VO for Cassandra is great. Alexios is OK, but he is a bit of a dumb-dumb and the game does play up to that a bit, but along with that and the delivery it occasionally grates.

[Sly Boots]

Mack said in his review that for him the grinding really kicked in around level 16, I don't think it was a case of not having tasks available to level up, more that at that point you have to do a lot of it and he didn't find the side activities engaging.

[Achtung Englander]

Yeah I think this is a new psychological thing. The grind hits from level 16 and for a completest it pose an issue if the levelling to 17 could take tens of hours. That is what I have heard anyway