Assassin's Creed Odyssey RPG-all

I got a update on the free copy for playing on project stream. The update said they are working on moving progress over to uplay and they will send a new update by Feb 25.

Finally finished my Odyssey. General thoughts below, some spoilered:

At least, I think I finished it. I got like three or four different ending cutscenes, but didn't get the "unskippable twenty minute everyone who ever worked on the game six times" credit roll. Still, I completed every main quest in the game except for the set of "Assassinate a whole bunch of Athenian polemarchs" quests, and the "decipher these terrible maps" quests.

Playing on hard was the right decision. It made fights feel consequential and made me want to sneak around more like an assassin. But damn, it sure drew out the game longer than I would have liked. The Medusa battle damn near broke me. A bunch of the legendary animal hunts were painful as well.

My top 5 assassins as of right now:
1. Bayek
2. Ezio
3. Kassandra
4. Altair
5. Adéwalé

Kassandra was great, and her voice actress was exceptional. I kind of like that she was a bit of a dumbass. Like, there wasn't any effort to make her a secret savant or something. She had her lane, she knew how to stay in it, and when to step back and let someone else do their thing.

Spoiler:

I'm irrationally upset about Phoibe dying. They did such a great job creating that character, and then just kind of threw her away for no good reason. As I got close to the end, I thought that it was going to create an emotional touchstone when you confronted Arespia(sp). (Especially since in retrospect, it's clear that Arespia had Phoibe killed for whatever reason.) But no, they just don't mention it until you're walking through the cemetary with Sokrates.

This is the fourth(?!) AC game I've completed in the last three months, so I may be done with the Creed for a little while. It's been a good run, and I'll probably be there for the inevitable Assassin's Creed: Viking Raid that will show up in another year or two.

I completed the Abantis Isles area this weekend. Completed the quest chain involving The Dagger, nabbed a couple cultists while I was there, killed the legendary animal, and knocked out all the icons on the map there. It took me several hours spread across three days to do all that. It's impressive and daunting how large the areas in this game are.

I also got to the first modern day segment where you can walk around and interact with a bunch of things. The tone of the writing in these segments is so over the top edgy and forced. I wonder if some other team handled the writing, or if this is just what they decided they wanted. I've always had a soft spot for the modern day story in this series, but it's really cringey this time around.

beanman101283 wrote:

I completed the Abantis Isles area this weekend. Completed the quest chain involving The Dagger, nabbed a couple cultists while I was there, killed the legendary animal, and knocked out all the icons on the map there. It took me several hours spread across three days to do all that. It's impressive and daunting how large the areas in this game are.

I also got to the first modern day segment where you can walk around and interact with a bunch of things. The tone of the writing in these segments is so over the top edgy and forced. I wonder if some other team handled the writing, or if this is just what they decided they wanted. I've always had a soft spot for the modern day story in this series, but it's really cringey this time around.

Apparently a lot of the modern day stuff this time around is cribbed from the comic books. Which look awful.

Oh no, since I began with Bayek, whom I just adore, does that mean it's all downhill from here?

kazooka wrote:
beanman101283 wrote:

I completed the Abantis Isles area this weekend. Completed the quest chain involving The Dagger, nabbed a couple cultists while I was there, killed the legendary animal, and knocked out all the icons on the map there. It took me several hours spread across three days to do all that. It's impressive and daunting how large the areas in this game are.

I also got to the first modern day segment where you can walk around and interact with a bunch of things. The tone of the writing in these segments is so over the top edgy and forced. I wonder if some other team handled the writing, or if this is just what they decided they wanted. I've always had a soft spot for the modern day story in this series, but it's really cringey this time around.

Apparently a lot of the modern day stuff this time around is cribbed from the comic books. Which look awful.

I suspected as much. All the references to off-screen capers, the characters given no introduction, it just smells like “only true fans will know who these people are!” It’s a shame.

Veloxi wrote:

Oh no, since I began with Bayek, whom I just adore, does that mean it's all downhill from here?

I mean, the actual games are still great, it’s just the modern day segments are even more incomprehensible than they used to be.

My top 5 Assassins:

1. Kassandra
2. Evie
3. Ezio
4. Bayek
5. ?

I haven't played all the games, but I didn't really like Altaïr or Edward James Kenway.

Veloxi wrote:

Oh no, since I began with Bayek, whom I just adore, does that mean it's all downhill from here?

Yes. I like Kassandra but she’s a pretty stereotypical sarcastic video game hero in a very video game world. The out of animus stuff is absolutely terrible in Odyssey. Overall the whole game is ridiculous and it took me about 40 hours to come to terms with that and treat it like a Greek play.

Kazooka, I’m not done yet but you’ve mimicked my thoughts and played the same as I have.

1. Bayek
2. Edward Kenway
3. Kassandra
4. Ezio
5. Altair

Special mentions to Adewale and Aya who are both fantastic.

I think one's experience of Kassandra depends a lot on the choices you make. She can be snarky or compassionate. Having played her more than one way now, I can see how the snark may get to be too much after a while. Alexios' voice actor doesn't get enough credit, from what I've seen. His character can be very earnest and charming, which for me was a nice change of pace in an Asssassin protagonist.

Veloxi wrote:

Oh no, since I began with Bayek, whom I just adore, does that mean it's all downhill from here?

I think Kassandra and Bayek are toss ups as to who's better. Ezio makes the top three in part because he acquires personality as you go through his three(!) games. He starts off as the young hothead Cassanova and grows into this wizened, greying, uh, Cassanova. But I could also see Edward Kenneway making a push into the top 5.

Altair is kind of the ph 7 of Assassins. He's not going to give you a lot of personality, but on the other hand, there's nothing to make you hate him, either!

Most hilarious AC protagonist is Shay, who wipes out the entire Assassin's organization in North America basically because of a misunderstanding. All the poor assassins that he kills die shaking their heads and going, "Christ, it's amazing how dumb you are."

But generally you're not playing AC games for the character work.

True, but I really like Bayek just the same.

Vector wrote:

I like Kassandra but she’s a pretty stereotypical sarcastic video game hero in a very video game world.

The line about video games used to be that their cultural touchstones started and ended with James Cameron movies. Now, I want to take every video game writer and shake them until they can name three writers who influence their work without mentioning Joss Whedon. Sarcastic quips for everyone!

BadKen wrote:

Alexios' voice actor doesn't get enough credit, from what I've seen. His character can be very earnest and charming, which for me was a nice change of pace in an Asssassin protagonist.

Having picked Kassandra for my playthrough, I think part of the issue there is that while Alexios might acquit himself better as the player character, as an NPC, he's all one note 'roid rage.

Having just been forced to make a choice between whether I liked AC Origins or Odyssey better in my GotY list, my decision wound up favoring Origins by a hair, which is kind of an assessment of the protagonists. I think as characters, I like them just about equally, but in different ways. Kassandra is great because she's justifiably confident, had a bum deal early in life, but from there, made the best of it and forged her own path. She's influenced by events around her, but I still feel like she mostly drove her personal narrative forward on her own. That said, I wound up being less personally moved by her overall narrative. At the end of the game, she's still largely the same character as she was at the start, but she's gained some things as a result of her hard work. It was satisfying to see her rewarded, but not super moving.

Bayek did it more for me because not only was he an incredibly genuine, warm, helpful personality, but the story he moved through hit me a lot harder. He spends more time being pushed by events than pushing them himself, but that wound up being okay. The relationship with his wife was especially good, nuanced, and really managed to earn the emotional beats they hit at the end.

I think my ranking of AC protagonists really comes down to:

1. Kassandra/Bayek
2. basically all the rest
3. The dummy brother dude from Syndicate
4. All the ones I haven't played yet

I'm pleasantly surprised how well (so far, at least) the cultist thing works. When that giant screen of targets first showed up, I was a little intimidated by the seemingly endless path now in front of me. But they throw a bunch at you without having to go too far out of your way, and they structure each area with several side quests to further incentivize the exploring that takes you to targets. I even found one by accident when I killed an area's leader.

I'm still not excited about the sailing. I know the Greek setting basically demands it, but I'm still tired of it after AC4 and Rogue. At least the boarding process is a lot simpler. But I'd be fine if they never had sailing in the series again.

Is there any benefit to taking out mercenaries/bounty hunters beneath you in the mercenary rankings? You get some XP, and the ongoing challenge for killing mercenaries ticks up, but otherwise I've started ignoring most of them unless they'll get me higher in the rankings.

I like the constant balancing act between causing mayhem and preventing your bounty from getting too high. Sometimes I use it as a way to challenge myself to do something without being seen. Other times I deliberately trigger a bounty increase to goad higher level mercenaries to come at me. The only thing I raise my eyebrows at is how quickly bounty hunters show up sometimes, as well as the fact that your bounty level doesn't immediately go down if you eliminate all witnesses to a crime. Not a big deal though, and probably better that it errs on the side of making you engage with the bounty system more.

I think killing a lower level merc will identify one of the higher level ones, so you can hunt them down. Or you might just want to kill a lower one that has a piece of gear you want.

By the end, I was ignoring the wanted level and mercs except when I decided to finish climbing the ladder. If I got a wanted level, I'd immediately go to the map screen to pay it off to avoid the hastle of a merc teleporting in to get in the way.

Each tier of mercs unlocks a bonus, like blacksmith discounts and ship upgrade discounts. In the Merc screen, hover the cursor over the tier name for an explanation.

Mercs also drop one of the best Legendary sets for boss fights: the Greek Heroes set. Massive defensive bonuses. Which piece depends on the Merc name suffix, but you can view individuals you have revealed to see what they drop. Sometimes a Merc below your level will have one of the legendary pieces. They drop legendary weapons, too, but I believe those only come from specific higher level mercenaries that are in the list from the start.

Oh and while you're checking out details on the merc screen, check the icons on the left to see specific combat strengths and weaknesses.

I think I have 2 or 3 pieces of that Greek Heroes set already. I've noticed some mercs give clues to higher level ones, but wasn't sure why I'd necessarily want to do that. Hunting for specific gear makes sense though. Thanks!

Murder is its own reward.

Heads up to people waiting for project stream copies. I went to the forums and saw that as of yesterday folks had copies in their UPLAY accounts. I checked mine and there it was in the my games section waiting to be installed. Check your accounts and as always YMMV.

Looks like the emails about "project stream" copies are going out now too. Just got mine saying I can now access the game from UPlay.

Igneus wrote:

Looks like the emails about "project stream" copies are going out now too. Just got mine saying I can now access the game from UPlay.

Yep just saw mine come through.

Hobear wrote:
Igneus wrote:

Looks like the emails about "project stream" copies are going out now too. Just got mine saying I can now access the game from UPlay.

Yep just saw mine come through.

Mine too! Nice!!!

Version 1.1.4 dropped today for all platforms.
New Game Plus, Level cap is now 99, tons of fixes and enhancements!

The new ship tiers sure do cost a pretty penny. I’ve mostly ignored gathering mats after I initially maxxed out the ship. It’s going to take some grinding.

Fortunately floating loot in the sea scales by level now, and it can contain more than just wood. That should help.

Dang, tried to fight a level 90 mercenary as a level 70 and got my butt kicked. Been a while since there have been enemies I need to worry about. The update is kind of nice that I'm no longer way overleveled.

I put 100 hours in, did all the base game stuff and a fair amount of side stuff. I wound up somewhere in the upper 50s for levels, and I ran out of stuff I really cared about putting my skill points into. I love this game, but I don't see a reason to care about getting myself up to max level, unless I happen to get there while doing other stuff.

Don't get me wrong, I love this game, but the increases to the level cap and late game treadmill have been pretty lackluster for me.

I find this game oddly relaxing so I've been accumulating cheevos largely passively and probably now have my highest single game cheevo score ever. I'm also playing all the DLC which I rarely ever do (Dishonored being pretty much the only other time I did that) I just hit 70 right before the patch dropped... and have been going with a Hunter load out which is great for one on one encounters but not so great when you get swarmed.