I read a lot of the towns seemed like they were copy pasted in Odyssey where as in Origns they were made more special and unique ?
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It is time to be honest with ourselves, Assassin's Creed Odyssey is one of the best open world games of this generation
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Its too big. Like butter spread across too much bread.
Most temples were like every other temple. The same small room with the same art on the walls and nothing to see or do or appreciate or learn about or find except randomized handfuls of coin. Most caves were like every other cave, whether filled with five wolves or five bandits or five whatever with one chest and peppered with mineral deposits. Most statues surrounded by ruins with one chest and a few thugs, or hunters, or snakes, or wolves, felt the same as the others criss-crossing the landscape. Anonymous. Disposable. Random. Forgettable. Hidden temples were just dark halls filled with snakes.
At least in Origins, more of those places felt unique, and had distinct flavors to them, told in stories on parchment, steles or hieroglyphs along the walls, or with distinct architecture or treasured clutter. There might have been only a single scroll to tell the tale, but it was better than nothing.
Odyssey felt repetitive 10 hours in and never bucked that trend. I gave it another shot after reading here that quests were more than just your average errands, but for every unique quest with flavor or humor or backstory, there were 20 fill-in-the-blank, get-me-three-items, rescue the random person, pick flowers where wolves will jump you, "oh that cult is up to no good" etc missions that could play out the same in any time period or setting with the same dialogue and stilted performances.
I usually love the historical tourism in the AC games, but there was far too much of the overly-templated, rinse-and-repeat locations and missions making up the bulk of the game, and a loot cycle and XP grind is no replacement for hand-made, polished, memorable encounters in unique spaces with something worth taking your time to breathe in and explore. Felt like a big step back to me. Gave it three solid goes since release and ended up shelving it.
Its too bad too, as I thought Black Flag + Origins was a formula that could work. And I played it far more for action than my usual stealth, since the games seem to be moving in that direction, but there wasn't enough there, there, even in a huge world, filled to the brim with tiny little gameplay snacks.
Most temples were like every other temple. The same small room with the same art on the walls and nothing to see or do or appreciate or learn about or find except randomized handfuls of coin. Most caves were like every other cave, whether filled with five wolves or five bandits or five whatever with one chest and peppered with mineral deposits. Most statues surrounded by ruins with one chest and a few thugs, or hunters, or snakes, or wolves, felt the same as the others criss-crossing the landscape. Anonymous. Disposable. Random. Forgettable. Hidden temples were just dark halls filled with snakes.
At least in Origins, more of those places felt unique, and had distinct flavors to them, told in stories on parchment, steles or hieroglyphs along the walls, or with distinct architecture or treasured clutter. There might have been only a single scroll to tell the tale, but it was better than nothing.
Odyssey felt repetitive 10 hours in and never bucked that trend. I gave it another shot after reading here that quests were more than just your average errands, but for every unique quest with flavor or humor or backstory, there were 20 fill-in-the-blank, get-me-three-items, rescue the random person, pick flowers where wolves will jump you, "oh that cult is up to no good" etc missions that could play out the same in any time period or setting with the same dialogue and stilted performances.
I usually love the historical tourism in the AC games, but there was far too much of the overly-templated, rinse-and-repeat locations and missions making up the bulk of the game, and a loot cycle and XP grind is no replacement for hand-made, polished, memorable encounters in unique spaces with something worth taking your time to breathe in and explore. Felt like a big step back to me. Gave it three solid goes since release and ended up shelving it.
Its too bad too, as I thought Black Flag + Origins was a formula that could work. And I played it far more for action than my usual stealth, since the games seem to be moving in that direction, but there wasn't enough there, there, even in a huge world, filled to the brim with tiny little gameplay snacks.
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Copypaste is an ugly expression, but you can definitely notice a pattern in a lot of smaller towns looking quite similiar mainly due to the reused assets and layouts. Origins was more varied. In a way, that's due to the setting too - Origins had quite a bit of visible roman influence in some of its cities like Cyrene, or there's Alexandria which definitely had a bit of greek in it, then there's Memphis which was the "most" egyptian of the bunch.
Even after 50 hours it didn't clicked for me. I feel like I was forcing me to like it. Although I really liked Kassandra, the game is so bloated with uninteresting side quests that was a drag for me. I didn't even reached lvl 50.
I feel kind bad, actually. I'm a die hard Assassin's Creed fan and it was the first game in the franchise I wasn't excited about. The parkour sucks and I didn't like the combat that much. Origins was going the same way but it feel new so I kept playing.
I feel kind bad, actually. I'm a die hard Assassin's Creed fan and it was the first game in the franchise I wasn't excited about. The parkour sucks and I didn't like the combat that much. Origins was going the same way but it feel new so I kept playing.
There was never any forced grinding, unless you consider having to play the game a grind.
Origins was really boring. Combat was trash. I had hope that I would like Odyssey more because I hear it's the better game :-/ Will still give it a try though.
Yeah it doesn't get the recognition it deserves. It's right up there with the likes of The Witcher 3, despite aping a lot of it. If any other dev made it, it'd had gotten way more praise.
I bought it, played it up to the point where Alexios got his first boat and enlisted a new crew member (the fuck is that recruitment method, he kicked the poor lad to make him join? lol), and then stopped there due to the....... well, how should I put this, gigantic it is and that, to be honest, put a pause to me.
Although that kind of feeling is also probably caused because I was burnt out playing 90 hours of Origins.
I admit, I like what I have played so far. Alexios is a cool character. But yeah, the prospect of facing such a gigantic amount of content again just gave me pause.
Although that kind of feeling is also probably caused because I was burnt out playing 90 hours of Origins.
I admit, I like what I have played so far. Alexios is a cool character. But yeah, the prospect of facing such a gigantic amount of content again just gave me pause.
I really regret not playing more of this. I bought the Upgraded Edition for the SP/Steelbook, and what I've played of the intro feels vastly improved upon compared to all prior games. Just too many other games coming out at the same time right now.
No game with such outstanding and plot-integrated homophobic content can be the best at anything. At least not for me, since it seems most people (even on Era) are fine with that.
I was really enjoying it before that though, too bad that the developers are such assholes.
Fuck Ubisoft and their "both sides" policy.
I was really enjoying it before that though, too bad that the developers are such assholes.
Fuck Ubisoft and their "both sides" policy.
I respectfully disagree. I'm a gay man and this feels like one of the most inclusive games I've ever played. Ubisoft fucked up with the first DLC chapter and admitted their mistake, and they've tried fixing it. Calling any aspect of this game homophobic is nonsense.
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I still cannot play it on my PS4 Pro. There's some weird bug that makes it crash after only a couple of minutes of play. :(
Odyssey is the definition of repetition and bloat. It fits Ubisoft to copy paste 4 different open world activities a thousand times. Most cities have similar assets and buildings as well but that's understandable because of the size of the world.
Ubisoft is improving but if they're going to make their open worlds so massive they better put even more effort into side activities, especially after RDR2.
Ubisoft is improving but if they're going to make their open worlds so massive they better put even more effort into side activities, especially after RDR2.
Also it's funny and amusing to see Phantom Thief is not responding to the ones disagreed with him, not even once, in this thread, lol.
No it isn´t and when i am honest to myself it just sucked. Giga sized map with copy and paste/generator landscapes, sidequests stamped all over the map to the point where it becomes tedious, essentially there are 3 or 4 styles of sidequests which get repeated ad nauseam. Traversal with the horse felt awful and the whole game feels like it is bloated to the max. The main story is not exactly engaging too.
the game is too long/big for its own good and i´ve dropped it around level 25, it was just boring.
the thing that got really on my nerves is that there is no way to adjust the camera on consoles, you are playing this tiny character and the whole world is shrinked in size because you just can´t adjust the camera to be nearer to the character like in Origins.
i´ve really hated it, on a big TV the character looks really lost because it is too tiny. why they didn´t let us adjust the camera, a feature which Dragon Age origins already provided 10 years ago is beyond me. an around 100hour game with a fixed camera is a no go.
the game is too long/big for its own good and i´ve dropped it around level 25, it was just boring.
the thing that got really on my nerves is that there is no way to adjust the camera on consoles, you are playing this tiny character and the whole world is shrinked in size because you just can´t adjust the camera to be nearer to the character like in Origins.
i´ve really hated it, on a big TV the character looks really lost because it is too tiny. why they didn´t let us adjust the camera, a feature which Dragon Age origins already provided 10 years ago is beyond me. an around 100hour game with a fixed camera is a no go.
Nah, it's one of the best open-world games ever.
Dense with content, massive world and no more than 500 meters between each activity on the map. It is a master-class of how to put content in n open-world game to add to the open world design.
Dense with content, massive world and no more than 500 meters between each activity on the map. It is a master-class of how to put content in n open-world game to add to the open world design.
If this is what the open world genre can call one of its best. Then lol
At least in Rockstar open world games the writing can hold my attention for more than 10 seconds and the stuff you do in missions is different from the open world side stuff . In Odyssey the things I do in the open world is the shit I'll do in a main mission. Go into this base. Go sink these ships. Go fight in the arena. Fight a shitty Souls boss
7/10.
At least in Rockstar open world games the writing can hold my attention for more than 10 seconds and the stuff you do in missions is different from the open world side stuff . In Odyssey the things I do in the open world is the shit I'll do in a main mission. Go into this base. Go sink these ships. Go fight in the arena. Fight a shitty Souls boss
7/10.
"Tried fixing it"? Come on, it's the textbook definition of "not even trying".
What did they fix? They changed the name of an achievement, they added a heart icon next to a dialogue option (which doesn't matter since every option ends up romantic anyway) and removed an on screen kiss.
All of this ultimately does NOT matter since your character enter in a relationship, has offscreen sex and builds a family with the opposite-sex character anyway.
And I agree that the original game was awesome and gay friendly, which made this unexpected content hurt a lot for me.
if anything, it is a masterclass in stamping content all over the map to the point where it becomes uninteresting to annoying.
Eh... sometimes a player need that breathing space, you know? "A content in every 500 meters" can get really grating, yeah? Give the player a time to relax. Less is more, that kind of thing. BoTW does this well. The key is balance.
I loved Origins, but was a bit worn out on it. Wasn't too keen on the "quick" sequel Odyssey and the "godmode" gameplay. But after buying it last week... it's fast becoming one of my favorite open world games of all time.
It blends RPG and action/adventure into sweet AC goodness with a touch of Bethesda's narrative choice system. The world also feels amazing, quite the feat coming from Origins.
It blends RPG and action/adventure into sweet AC goodness with a touch of Bethesda's narrative choice system. The world also feels amazing, quite the feat coming from Origins.
Playing it immediately after RDR2 felt like a revelation in many ways.
It's a video game that wants to make you feel like you're playing a video game, not roleplay as living in that world. It's there to entertain you first and foremost which I appreciated.
It's a video game that wants to make you feel like you're playing a video game, not roleplay as living in that world. It's there to entertain you first and foremost which I appreciated.
It's probably my least favorite AC of the gen (played all the main ones), largely due to how big and bloated it's open world is.
It's a horrible game for someone like me who can't no life the game, I wind up taking a break or moving on to something else. Then I feel like I wasted my money because the story and characters aren't engaging enough for me to remember anything. Like I'm playing over the Witcher 3 and the world jsit drags me in and I feel like garald more than I felt like alexios. I also feel like everything about the combat is unsatisfying wether it's the way the horse moves or your running animation it feels gamey for the sake of feeling gamey. I really expect more from theses games orgins felt like a 8/10 because of Egypt ant bayek, where this feels like a 6.5ish.
This.
Honestly, no, they did a good job of reproducing the map while making concessions on the real one.
For side quests, the efforts are really there: but I agree that the enormity of the map forces them to do a lot of more limited and less complex side stuff as well.
But Torment of Hades has shown that they can focus on good side quests. They found the right formula in this episode.
The thing is it's a wonderful open world game if you set your expectations right.
I'm about 40 hours in, and after 120 plus hours of Origins, I knew exactly what I was getting into. If you like map clearing endlessly, this is a dream. I think we're falling into the pattern of open world titles filling large vast spaces with how much you'd like to explore. I love Assassin's Creed - I've played and completed every title released (yes, even Bloodlines).
I think the new formula for the AC games post Unity has had ups and downs. I especially don't enjoy feeling powerless next to enemies in certain regions that are level gated. But there's got to be some trade off to keep people from roaming at their leisure as you've got enough RPG lite mechanics to compel you to push through and gain new abilities.
I'm someone who loves the Mafia 3's, the inFamous titles, the mindless mundane objectives of Spider-Man, the endless skirmishes in Horizon. That is to say this AC has the best protagonist in Kassandra and it's one of the most beautiful mindless map clearing open worlds I've had the pleasure to step in.
I'll probably hit 200ish hours to comb through everything, as I play these titles over months. I think most of the time, people are searching for the Breath of the Wild revolutionary take on how to change open world dynamics. This may not be that, but it's one of the most vast and incredible virtual places to explore. Even if a lot of the region restrictions and level gating force the grind.
I'm about 40 hours in, and after 120 plus hours of Origins, I knew exactly what I was getting into. If you like map clearing endlessly, this is a dream. I think we're falling into the pattern of open world titles filling large vast spaces with how much you'd like to explore. I love Assassin's Creed - I've played and completed every title released (yes, even Bloodlines).
I think the new formula for the AC games post Unity has had ups and downs. I especially don't enjoy feeling powerless next to enemies in certain regions that are level gated. But there's got to be some trade off to keep people from roaming at their leisure as you've got enough RPG lite mechanics to compel you to push through and gain new abilities.
I'm someone who loves the Mafia 3's, the inFamous titles, the mindless mundane objectives of Spider-Man, the endless skirmishes in Horizon. That is to say this AC has the best protagonist in Kassandra and it's one of the most beautiful mindless map clearing open worlds I've had the pleasure to step in.
I'll probably hit 200ish hours to comb through everything, as I play these titles over months. I think most of the time, people are searching for the Breath of the Wild revolutionary take on how to change open world dynamics. This may not be that, but it's one of the most vast and incredible virtual places to explore. Even if a lot of the region restrictions and level gating force the grind.
It seems that way, but like all UBI games as of late, it's mostly empty calories. There's very little in terms of story, worldbuilding, quest design, combat. Everything is very samey and bland and safe. There is no real exploration. The overarching AC story i going in circles for a few years now.
It's pleasant and inoffensive and a nice time-sink to relax, but doesn't leave any lasting impression whatsoever. It's the definition of game as a consumer product rather than art.
It's pleasant and inoffensive and a nice time-sink to relax, but doesn't leave any lasting impression whatsoever. It's the definition of game as a consumer product rather than art.
It's a decent game, but not much more than that. The writing is consistently decent but never better than that, the dialogue choices were a nice idea,but never quite deep enough to be anything more than a gimmick. Everything else just feels like fluff. Grundy busywork designed to waste time. I seriously wish they'd put all the effort they put into that stuff into the story and world instead and actually made a real RPG.
Hm. If I had to pinpoint one thing, it'd be making you genuinely feel something. Another way is making stuff memorable, either through setup, execution or payoff. Enriching you with backstory, secrets or discovery.
In recent memory, Witcher 3 comes to mind. The sidestories of Lost Odyssey. The character stories of Shadow Hearts: Covenant. A flawed example might be the side stories (not quests) from Horizon: Zero Dawn; flawed, because in the end they're audiologs, easily skippable and slowing down the pacing of the quests; but from a story standpoint, they build an evokative picture.
The quests in Odyssey feel like somewhat paid lip service to the whole thing. Like they had a qoute'a to fill. They are mostly light-hearted (but nothing too offensive) and follow the same fetch quest structure. They also leave the main character unaffected.
This last thing is also worth noting; a lot of quests, not only in Odyssey, but in general, seem to exist in a somewhat removed state from the main character. The character does something on someone else's behalf, but is not personally invested in them. He's more of a courier or hired muscle. It's really hard to care.
An example that comes to my mind of something more involved would be the side quests in AC:Revelations. It's not the best game in the series, but it nailed (IMO) the emotional stuff - the whole quest chain of old Ezio finding love that late in life is charming, yet memorable for example. It informs my character, it shows me he's growing, by the end of the quest chain he's story is irreversibly changed.
Compare that to another farmer looking for his lost child.
Yeah no, I struggle to come up with a more gay friendly game out there, and not because of the romance options, but because same sex romance is frequently referenced in the game and it feels natural relative to the world.
See. That is something I thought before I started played HUD-less. Towns feel similar to each other but that's more or less how Greece worked, they were efficient and built things the way they thougt it was going to last. So if you play the game but /are not paying attention/ to the landscape of many towns will feel the same.
HOWEVER
If you play the more HUD-less you can, you'll see how ever town as its quirks. Maybe the God they praise is different. Maybe it's got its own town hall or important landmark. Maybe one town's main activity is agriculture and the other's is making boats, the world reflects that.
I personally believe the AC games would be 104071749% more praised if the default HUD wasn't designed for toddlers.
It just fights too much for your attention instead of letting you soak in the world
Show, don't tell. Always.
Very true.
At least until you reach the dlc, where the game makes a 180 and suddenly tells you that having a heterosexual family and a blood-related heir is life's ultimate purpose and that even if you're gay you should just quit it (literally "grow up").
And the same Ubisoft that, before the release, literally said that you could play the game 100% gay and that they would never force you an unwanted relationship, suddenly forces your character into heteronormativity, no matter the dialogue options you choose.
I struggle to come up with a more homophobic content out there in gaming, expecially in recent times.
I beat this game earlier this year and had a lot of fun. There's so much to like. However, the game definitely has some glaring flaws. In terms of overall gameplay design, they mixed The Witcher III in with BotW, but doesn't hit the highs of either of those games. The most obvious example is the free climbing. You can climb anything and go anywhere you want. You could do this in the past AC games, but it was limited to buildings and even then there were often specific paths you had to discover. Now you can scale mountains! Cliffs! A big column! However there is no thought put into this. In Zelda you had the stamina system which made you think about every step, in past AC games you had to look at the environment to think about where to go next, but in AC Odyssey, just hold up and you're good.
It's easy to pick apart this game but yes, I did have fun. The setting is interesting, the world is beautiful, there are likeable and memorable characters etc. But to me, open world games are completely defined by Witcher III and BotW, so you need to do something amazing to even come close to those titles.
It's easy to pick apart this game but yes, I did have fun. The setting is interesting, the world is beautiful, there are likeable and memorable characters etc. But to me, open world games are completely defined by Witcher III and BotW, so you need to do something amazing to even come close to those titles.
I love it, but there it soo much to do, I've almost finished every location by now. I don't know why I'm doing this to myself.
I'm lvl 50 and I've barely started the story...
I'm lvl 50 and I've barely started the story...
About 20 hours in and whilst it's enjoyable, I've already dropped it for a month or so because it's just too much. There's an art to introducing new content to players but imo, Odyssey just throws it all you and expects you to choose what you care about, which isn't how I typically roll. Because there is so much to do and see it becomes unfocused, and by the time I rejoin the storyline I'm lost and end up not caring. And just following the story from point to point doesn't work well either, it feels like the antithesis of the way the game is designed and the level-gating is quite harsh.
It's a lot more engaging than Origins, Kassandra is great and I love the cult system. Just wish it was cut down by about 40%.
It's a lot more engaging than Origins, Kassandra is great and I love the cult system. Just wish it was cut down by about 40%.
I think this is also true, I read that they are going for more of the exploration mode on the next one. Super hyped.
There is no grinding. There's also level scaling options (added Jan 2019) and easy mode.
As someone who was a diehard AC fan that fell off the series really hard with Black Flag (between the modern day story cratering, me being the weirdo that doesn't like the ship stuff I just didn't like AC4 much and me getting sick of the Ubisoft open world design) I've wanted to get back into the series for awhile. Having said that, I haven't seen or heard much about Origins and Odyssey that made me want to check them out. I generally dislike the RPGification of everything in gaming, the combat holds no appeal to me, Ubisoft open worlds sound like more of a grind than ever, and maybe I've just seen some bad moments but the VO+writing in both Origins and Odyssey seem alarmingly bad?
But between my history with the series and just how much praise people heap on these games I feel like I should check them out but I think I might just be done with Ubisoft open world games.
But between my history with the series and just how much praise people heap on these games I feel like I should check them out but I think I might just be done with Ubisoft open world games.