Impressions: Assassin's Creed Odyssey

[PZ]

You're right about that - they changed just enough of the game to make it something "new", but in doing so, left out some of the best parts of Origins. One other thing - there does not appear to be a games plus mode, which if true, will limit me to a single play through.

[LowPolyOWG]

Waiting for the DLCs I think. Otherwise, you could risk bugs, DLC items wouldn't be carried over in a NG+ mode

[PZ]

Likely so - I hadn't thought of that.

The game is a bit buggy, and while I have not experienced anything that is a disaster, there are small things like a document I was supposed to collect to complete an area. However, the game did not allow me to collect it, even though it had shown up in my inventory - still the game did not recognized I had completed the area.

The next day I was traveling through the same region, and up pops a message that I had completed the area.

[LowPolyOWG]

RDR2 got some small bugs that is kind of similar I think. Nothing game breaking, but I guess R*'s  dev team that survived the 100 hour weeks probably took some leave. Since they haven't been patched yet

[PZ]

Graphics are great, but if I go through an area really fast, say, on a horse, then at times it will freeze momentarily as if it is buffering content.

[LowPolyOWG]

Probably some streaming issues.

[PZ]

Not sure, but I never had anything like this in Origins

[LowPolyOWG]

The map is much larger than Origins, so I can imagine the PS4 getting hit hard (bottlenecked by HDD/CPU/memory speed)

[PZ]

Maybe, but like the other games it is only loading a small part of the map at a time. It takes a long while for a saved game to load, move to a new location, etc.

What I like is the quick save feature (as long as you are not in a hostile area) so you can try something and if it does not w0#k out, you can reload the save. What I dislike is that the main mission line contains these massive battles where everything is chaos - I've never liked that kind of game play. What I really dislike is that if you decide to level up before you tackle these, think again - the battles you left automatically raise the minimum level to your current level, so you never get a break.

[PZ]

I'm liking the game a bit better now even though the poison system is not nearly as good as in Origins. The world is massive, and seemingly every day they have new quests available. If they continue to offer the new missions, the game will be able to played with new free content for a very long time.

I did some of the naval battles which I normally dislike, but they were not too bad. The oceans are much more realistic with large swells, crashing on the shores, and in short, much more realistic wave action.

It is essential that you upgrade your character as much as you can to keep up with the mission levels, much more than in prior games, and the choices you make in your weapons upgrades makes a big difference. For example, in order to complete the challenge battles I finally realized I needed to maximize my warrior upgrades - these things never mattered in prior games.

I really like the movement to the RPG way in the game - you feel like your choices in the conversation really matter. I read somewhere that there are 9 possible outcomes to the game dependent on you choices, which make the replay value quite high.

[fragger]

Agreed, it sounds as though there will be good replay value with this title. I like a game that's flexible and allows for multiple outcomes, not the same linear, unyielding storyline every go-through

Glad to hear you're enjoying it, PZ

[PZ]

Thanks fragger 

The game is growing on me as I discover what must be done in order to become successful. The map is massive, and there are daily quests that appear on the in-game message boards. It appears that there will always be something new to do. This is actually the first game I've played where the content is so extensive I feel like it will never end.

[LowPolyOWG]

Well it's the new AAA staple. Make games full of microtransactions and live events to keep you playing and make you spend some money at it over time

[PZ]

Good thing is that you are not required to spend real money, at least at this time.

[LowPolyOWG]

Honestly, microtransactions in single player games are bullshit. Just visit the in-game store and look on the stuff you can buy. You can of course earn gear through gameplay and the store items are not necessarily better. It's still sad though, I remember games in the old days were complete experiences, despite being glitchy etc.