I've tried at various points to get into the Assassin's Creed series, going way back to the first game, and never found a hook that I could connect with. For several titles (including Black Flag, which I tried when it was an Xbox GWG) I couldn't even get out of the tutorial. That all changed with Assassin's Creed Origins, which I picked up on sale after being dazzled by the game's trailer. I spent a fair bit of time in Origins--despite never finishing it--as well as the prior game, Syndicate (another GWG), both titles that gave me faith that the series had found something I could enjoy. It boils down, mostly, to mechanics: Through Black Flag (at least) the climbing/vertical aspect of the games felt like platforming. I've never been good at platforming, even in classic games like Mario, and those early Assassin's Creed games required a bit more finesse than I can put into it. But by the time Syndicate rolled around, the vertical part of the game had been streamlined to a point that it no longer felt like platforming. I could do it. The other thing that Origins brought to the table was a game design that had some RPG undertones to it, with battles that felt inspired by The Witcher III.
Given I never actually finished Syndicate (despite loving it enough that I bought the DLC add-on pack) or Origins, I was a bit nervous about going in on Odyssey. But I was bored, it was on sale, mistakes were made. You know how it goes.
Today, when I finally put the period on the last main story quest, I ended Odyssey with about 200 hours spread out over about three months of play. Don't be deceived; this is not a 200 hour main storyline. But the damned thing about Odyssey is that it's so fun just running around, doing side quests (of which there's basically a never-ending stream) that there were points where I'd let weeks elapse before returning to my next main quest. To highlight the sticky aspect of perpetual side questing: I was level 45 or so and needed to consult a walkthrough about a stupid main storyline issue I was facing. The walkthrough--which was very helpful in getting me to where I needed to be--had the quest in question marked as a level 19 quest. I had spent so much time just mucking about that I was over 25 levels above the quest's intended difficulty. Now, the game does scale quests/enemies to keep you from over-leveling the game (so if I was level 45, the quest when I did it would have been level 43), but it just goes to show the endless abyss of things you can do.
Upon launching the game, you will have some decisions to make: You choose your character (I recommend Kassandra), your level (typical easy/normal/hard/nightmare-types; I always play normal), and, most crucially, whether or not you want to play the game with objectives marked. Unmarked objectives is the "as game makers intended" option--where you use clues from conversations and map references to figure out where to go on quests. It sounds good in theory--a super-submersive gamestyle where you're navigating based on terrain and gut, not an unnatural marker constantly hovering on your screen--but I know me; if it took me 200 hours to play WITH the game telling me where to go, guess how long it would have taken if I was just bumbling around like an idiot? (It's a trick question--I'd have thrown my controller out the window after two hours.)
Combat feels really good. You start with a quick/light and a slow/strong attack, but can unlock various other attack types and powers as you level up. I kept it simple as shit, though--I tried the slow/strong attack several times and it didn't click, so I was just mashing the square button (on a PS4 controller) the whole damned time. But the strategy behind using powers (most of which are metered behind both a timer and limited energy) and the allure of using the dodge button (which, when perfectly timed, creates a satisfying slow down) makes engages much more complex than "mash square."
Also important with battles is what equipment you're using. You can get by at early levels by just using whatever weapon/armor the game indicates is the best, but relying on that for too long will put you at a disadvantage. Each piece of equipment has up to four bonuses attached to them, so properly juggling these bonuses will seriously impact the way your battles unfold. For example, if you're using a sword that boosts the "hunter" stat (which, stupidly, is merely a term that refers to archery, NOT animals/hunting--took me FOREVER to realize that), yet you're not using your bow regularly, it's a wasted perk. Use the perks that boost your goals/intentions/style.
For me, I discovered that I loved the way spears operate in this game. Very fluid, very satisfying. Also loved using fire on my weapons to add burn damage. So as much as possible I centered my upgrades and perks on spears and fire. That allowed a sense of cohesion to my kit, where my equipment was working together rather than having opposing goals.
Perhaps the trickiest part of coming up with my kit was spending my ability points. As with most RPG-type games, your ability points--one per level gained--can be spent on a skill tree. And as with most RPG-type games, these skills come in two flavors: passive abilities and assigned abilities. (There's technically a third type: non-passive, non-assigned, ie, an ability that comes with a pre-assigned button, but for the sake of this particular point, I'm considering them passive abilities.) The assigned abilities are tricky because you have to equip them (like weapons/armor), and you have a limited number of slots to equip them in. The button you press changes depending on the slot, and if you have more than four abilities assigned, it requires a second button press, too. The point being, between unassigned abilities being a wasted ability point and the general confusion in tracking the button pressing, I generally found acquiring a lot of assigned abilities to be more headache than they're worth. I got four that I found useful and knew I could rely on, and stuck with them for the entire game.
It's not all roses. I loved the game, but one big issue kept me from being able to go a full five stars: The feel of movement controls when running around the world. Odyssey has a massive, massive map, and while there are a number of fast travel points throughout, you're doing a lot of running around. On console, running uses the right trigger. RT also prompts the climbing/jumping/parkour-type of stuff. At its best, you're seamlessly going from running, to scaling a cliff, to jumping, to running. You get that "best" feeling enough to understand, like, this is the way the game should feel. Yet the game puts so many barriers in the way of actually getting that feeling. Tiki torches (lined up regularly along roads and around buildings) stop you in your tracks--I can easily scamper up a statue, but somehow a little stick in the ground is an impassable barrier? Trees can be, for some reason, climbed about halfway but no further, causing your character to jump back down. There are a LOT of trees. If you're running and accidentally skim against a boulder, all of a sudden you're climbing in a direction you didn't even want to go. Some walls--despite contrary appearances--are considered smooth by the game and you have to find specific projections to lumber up. And cliffs, with plenty of projections, require your character to inch up at a snail's pace for no reason I can tell. It's doubly frustrating because I swear Origins didn't have the pesky movement issues. It was such a fluid game to control, yet with Odyssey we have... this. At least it doesn't feel like platforming.
All in all, a wonderful game. I'm pretty hyped to return to some of the prior instalments or advance on to the DLC. Either way, it was a wonderful way to spend three months.
