Go on an odyssey, an Assassin's Creed Odyssey (Review)
Environment
Assassin's Creed Odyssey is set in ancient Greece, where there are so many islands, and so many statues and temples. Honestly, aesthetically, the whole map is incredibly beautiful and scenic, but at some point in time, I just stopped being able to appreciate the beauty of it, it all became just like noise to me, except for the places significantly different locations, such as the slums on the outskirts of Athens, one of those marble mine or perhaps the Colosseum, other than that, as beautiful as the other places in the game are, they have not managed to capture my attention much. Maybe it's because I've played the game for too long, or maybe it's because, structurally, most of the cities use the same, or at least extremely similar looking building design, the streets look similar, the temples which you synchronize the locations look similar.
Although I do understand it's because the game is trying to look realistic, but still, I feel as if the beauty of the game is somewhat reduced when you keep looking at the same things where ever you go.
Gameplay
The gameplay is definitely what got me hooked to the game, there is much to do and much to get. Let's take a look at the equipment, there are quite a lot of weapon types to use, there are hammers, axes, swords, daggers, polearms and staves. Not to mention the bow for ranged attacks. In terms of combat, the variety of weapons do help to keep things interesting, but personally, I've felt as if the swords are the best way to go, they are well balanced in stats and easy to use, especially when facing enemies in groups, although, I've also found the polearms to be pretty efficient for group fights due to their range.
The bow on the other hand, has not really been prioritized by me, as I played with a controller and that does not work well with the aiming of a bow.
There's one thing I heard from one of my favorite reviewers, Ranton, that I agree with, having equipment of varying rarity and level with the same design really makes it feel not as special as it would've been if the designs are all unique.
The skills are quite well done in Assassin's Creed Odyssey, the 3 different skill trees really have some skills that actually make a difference for whichever style you decide to go for. One gripe I have with this though, is the fact that the game limited me to 4 skills equipped at given time, so I had to focus my points on those skills that I really liked, but to make matters worse, you can't upgrade the skills beyond a certain level unless you hit the Spear Level required, which is indicated on the top left, which is gained by upgrading your spear with "Mysterious Fragments" which you have to pry from the cold dead hands of cultists, but wait, you can't really unveil or find clues on many of the cultists if you're not far enough in the story.
So you see my dilemma here, I was basically forced to put some points into skills that I've never actually used. And there are also some skills that I've wanted to but never actually used all that much because of the limited amount of skills equip-able.
After hours of playing, I've narrowed down my must-have skills to these 4, Rush Assassination (for trimming down the numbers quickly), Spartan Kick (Kicking people off high places for a quick kill), Second Wind (as an insurance against death) and Shield-Breaker (because shields are annoying).
Let's talk a bit about the combat in this game. You're basically going to be in combat for a few main reasons, Conquest battles, attacking forts and assassinating key targets.
Conquest Battles are quite fun for the most parts, you get to mindlessly chop down the opposing faction and even kill some mercenaries in some, one downside is that assassinations are not an option here, but you do get epic loot for participating in one. Another downside is that no matter which faction, Sparta or Athens, you decide to support, there won't be any impact on the actual game itself, you won't gain the favor of Spartans even if you only fought for them, which is quite unsatisfying in the long run, though I do understand that if there was a loyalty system, it would make the story hard to tell, and being a misthios plays both sides works, to a certain degree.
Attacking forts and assassinating key targets often come hand in hand, because, well, the key targets are usually in forts, behind a group of relatively powerful guards. This is easily one of the things I enjoyed doing the most in the game, the thrill of assassinating the guards one by one and moving towards the key targets is always exhilarating.
There's also the Cult of Kosmos where you have to find and kill each and every of the cultists in order to stop them from bringing chaos upon the world. Most of them will appear during the main story line, some will have you do the side quests in a certain area before you happen upon them while others will need you to trigger conquest battles in some cities.
There's also this mercenary system where you can hunt mercenaries to climb up the ranks, but most of the time, you'll be the one hunted, because when you commit crimes, such as killing people or assassinating important people, a bounty will be put on your head, the more crimes you commit, the more mercenaries come after you at the same time, the maximum amount of mercenaries hunting you at a time is 5, which is a pretty hard fight to pull off, especially if the ones after you are higher level than you.
Of course, it's always possible to pay off the bounty on the map, which is a very important feature I noticed quite late into the game.
There's also the legendary animals which you're tasked to kill by the Daughters of Artemis, which are simply supersized animals, the ones I had the most trouble with, are definitely the Erymanthian Boar, which farts POISONOUS gases that lingers in the air for quite sometime, and deals tons of damage too. The Kretan Bull was also a toughie, but still only second to the Erymanthian Boar.
Naval warfare is making a comeback in Odyssey, which was a great addition, after all, it was what made Black Flag a fan favorite, but at the same time, I also feel as if the naval warfare here is not as satisfying as the one in Black Flag, because, instead of cannons, we use javelins and arrows, arrows are really not that impactful compared to cannons. Still, it was pretty fun.
Story
The story is incredibly intriguing, the mysteries of Kassandra/Alexios are the key to the story, true to its name, this game is an odyssey, an odyssey for truth and family, it starts off with you being tasked by a stranger to kill your father, and unlike most Assassin's Creed games, you actually have a say in what happens in the game, which was a very good change in my opinion, it immerses me all the more as I am the one who shapes the story of Kassandra, the protagonist I picked for my playthrough.
The options to kill or spare key characters in the story and to romance various characters are really a breath of fresh air as opposed to the linear storyline in most of the previous games.
Personally I did love the story up to the point where you kill off the cultists and reunite with your family that was actually a very satisfying ending, but the story goes on for quite a bit more, the actul ending for the story is basically another set up for the franchise, as I have not followed the franchise very closely, I could only guess bits and parts of it, so I wasn't really that invested in the end.
Summary/Conclusion
Pros:
+ Engaging storyline
+ Your choices matter
+ Combat works
+ Many fun challenges and side quests
+ Beautiful Graphics
Cons:
- Story didn't end when it should've
- Finding and killing every single cultist becomes a chore because a few were pretty hard to find
- Side quests are not optional if you want to complete the story
- Equipment with varying rarity have similar appearances
Graphics: 9/10
Gameplay 8/10
Overall: 8/10
I haven't played a game for so many hours in quite some time now, so I was kinda shocked when I put in as many hours in Assassin's Creed Odyssey as I did. Overall, the game is a very solid one, not without its downsides but still managing to hold my interest right till the end.
Conquest Battles are quite fun for the most parts, you get to mindlessly chop down the opposing faction and even kill some mercenaries in some, one downside is that assassinations are not an option here, but you do get epic loot for participating in one. Another downside is that no matter which faction, Sparta or Athens, you decide to support, there won't be any impact on the actual game itself, you won't gain the favor of Spartans even if you only fought for them, which is quite unsatisfying in the long run, though I do understand that if there was a loyalty system, it would make the story hard to tell, and being a misthios plays both sides works, to a certain degree.
Attacking forts and assassinating key targets often come hand in hand, because, well, the key targets are usually in forts, behind a group of relatively powerful guards. This is easily one of the things I enjoyed doing the most in the game, the thrill of assassinating the guards one by one and moving towards the key targets is always exhilarating.
There's also the Cult of Kosmos where you have to find and kill each and every of the cultists in order to stop them from bringing chaos upon the world. Most of them will appear during the main story line, some will have you do the side quests in a certain area before you happen upon them while others will need you to trigger conquest battles in some cities.
There's also this mercenary system where you can hunt mercenaries to climb up the ranks, but most of the time, you'll be the one hunted, because when you commit crimes, such as killing people or assassinating important people, a bounty will be put on your head, the more crimes you commit, the more mercenaries come after you at the same time, the maximum amount of mercenaries hunting you at a time is 5, which is a pretty hard fight to pull off, especially if the ones after you are higher level than you.
Of course, it's always possible to pay off the bounty on the map, which is a very important feature I noticed quite late into the game.
There's also the legendary animals which you're tasked to kill by the Daughters of Artemis, which are simply supersized animals, the ones I had the most trouble with, are definitely the Erymanthian Boar, which farts POISONOUS gases that lingers in the air for quite sometime, and deals tons of damage too. The Kretan Bull was also a toughie, but still only second to the Erymanthian Boar.
Naval warfare is making a comeback in Odyssey, which was a great addition, after all, it was what made Black Flag a fan favorite, but at the same time, I also feel as if the naval warfare here is not as satisfying as the one in Black Flag, because, instead of cannons, we use javelins and arrows, arrows are really not that impactful compared to cannons. Still, it was pretty fun.
Story
The story is incredibly intriguing, the mysteries of Kassandra/Alexios are the key to the story, true to its name, this game is an odyssey, an odyssey for truth and family, it starts off with you being tasked by a stranger to kill your father, and unlike most Assassin's Creed games, you actually have a say in what happens in the game, which was a very good change in my opinion, it immerses me all the more as I am the one who shapes the story of Kassandra, the protagonist I picked for my playthrough.
The options to kill or spare key characters in the story and to romance various characters are really a breath of fresh air as opposed to the linear storyline in most of the previous games.
Personally I did love the story up to the point where you kill off the cultists and reunite with your family that was actually a very satisfying ending, but the story goes on for quite a bit more, the actul ending for the story is basically another set up for the franchise, as I have not followed the franchise very closely, I could only guess bits and parts of it, so I wasn't really that invested in the end.
Summary/Conclusion
Pros:
+ Engaging storyline
+ Your choices matter
+ Combat works
+ Many fun challenges and side quests
+ Beautiful Graphics
Cons:
- Story didn't end when it should've
- Finding and killing every single cultist becomes a chore because a few were pretty hard to find
- Side quests are not optional if you want to complete the story
- Equipment with varying rarity have similar appearances
Graphics: 9/10
Gameplay 8/10
Overall: 8/10
I haven't played a game for so many hours in quite some time now, so I was kinda shocked when I put in as many hours in Assassin's Creed Odyssey as I did. Overall, the game is a very solid one, not without its downsides but still managing to hold my interest right till the end.
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