Game Reviews - #17 - Assassins Creed: Odyssey.
Some huge improvements over Origins, but some critical flaws with this franchise persist that put most gamers off.
Another day, another review. I have been streaming this game and so far have about 15 hours invested into this game. I will admit I do prefer to play this title over Origins as its much better in several aspects. I would have expected the devs to have learned from their mistakes, and they have done, but only to a certain point. Many of the flaws that I have voiced in previous streams and review of Origins remain which lends itself to hinder the game rather than improve it.
Narrative.
Despite having the option of 2 different playable characters, the story remains the same with the odd tweak here and there.
The bulk of the story is based around the war between Athens and Sparta with your character, either Alexios or Kassandra being a mercenary that has the option of choosing which side to fight for.The story begins with Leonidas (yes the very same from the film, 300) and how he falls after being defeated by Xerxes. His broken spear is passed down to the descendants of Leonidas (depending on your character choice).
Your character tries to save their sibling by trying to stop a priest from killing them. Inadvertently you push your sibling off the cliff with the priest and your farther drops you over the cliff too. You survive and are raised as a mercenary by Markos, who found you washed up on the shore as a child.Doing the odd job here and there for Markos, you take a job from someone called Elpenor who wants you to kill ''the wolf of Sparta''. You find out that the wolf is your farther and confront him. During this confrontation, you can find out that your mother is still alive and he was not your farther.
During the search for your mother, you find out about a group known as ''the cult'' who are also looking for your mother and your sibling is involved.The narrative is so much better than Origins and can keep your attention for much longer. Even the side missions are far better than Origins.
After a while when playing Origins, everything seems to drone on and watching the NPC's drone on was just as bad as watching paint dry. It was boring and you probably even caught me yawning during the live stream. This time round in Odyssey, everything is far more interesting and far more engaging, almost giving you a sense of being a part of the story. But then the other aspects of the game can take away from that saving grace.
Visuals.
There are some improvements to be seen in the visuals, but not many. Facial animations have improved but are still laughable next to most other triple A titles and even some Indie ones too. The faces still seem as though they have just been taken straight from earlier Ubisoft games, and lets be honest, Ubisoft have never been overly good at facial animations in any of their games. It is just surprising to see this today when phones have better facial motion capture than Ubisoft's seamlessly unlimited budget.
Facial animations are not the only thing that seems to be reused, many, scratch that, I mean A LOT of the assets you see in this title are taken straight from Origins and other previous Assassins Creed games, most notably Black Flag.
It is understandable that 2 games made by the same company at the same time would share some assets, but at the level you see in this game is unbelievable. Buildings, Ships, Textures, paths,Trees, Grass, Buildings, and I meant to type Buildings twice. There are far to many similarities between this and older titles to make this game unique, if anything it looks like Origins crossed with Black Flag with a new skin. There is very little in this game visual wise that makes this game unique in its own right. And I don't care that it is within the same franchise and using the same engine, just take a look at other franchises, GTA 3, Vice City and San Andreas all used the same engine, but each one is truly unique only reusing minimal assets, aka, they were not lazy.Ubisoft has a bad history of asset reusing, take a look at the Rainbow Six franchise, Driver (which failed due to this problem), Ghost Recon. And more recently, the Crew 2 has taken almost every asset from the first one and in some instances have even downgraded them, hence why there servers are empty. Its a money saving tactic that is seen more and more in Triple A developers, and Odyssey is no exception.
Just as the previous title, there are limited animations when it comes to fighting with only a select few moves per each type of weapon you use and which selectable 'special' moves you have opened up in the ability tree. So apart from the Spartan Kick (which does look fucking awesome) if you are fighting or even being stealthy, this can become repetitive very quickly.
The ability to customise your outfit is a very good improvement over the previous title. Instead of having to visit a shop to buy an outfit, you can now loot many items of clothes, armour and weapons. So you can go looking like a pirate or a full on Spartan. The mechanic they built into this visual is also impressive, but at the same time, also very needless.
And on a last note, the map is larger than that of Origins and again seems lazy. The reason I say this is because 50% of the map is taken up by open sea, which is the same textures just repeated, and under water, while in some areas is very lush under water, the majority of it is just plain.
I call them out on this because this is a 2018 game, and GTAV is now a much older game, but has massively more under water detail than this. I know first hand how to build a map and populate it with environmental details and assets... it doesn't take that long. When you have a large team working on it, I would like to know what excuse they would give.
On a plus note, the water textures, effects and asset interactions are far superior than that found in World of Warships which is a sea only game with much smaller maps. So the sailing and fighting at sea looks superior in almost every way of that specific title, but when compared to Black Flag, they have dumbed it down somewhat in both visual and mechanics.
Gameplay.
Aside from my gripe to the reuse of assets making this feel like the same game with a different skin, there have been some much needed improvements in the gameplay, but have left the most devastating flaw in with this game. LEVELES!
Why the fuck have they implemented online RPG mechanics into a single player game? This is one of the biggest downsides to Origins and it makes no sense in this game either. Sure make some areas and NPC's more difficult to beat, but to do it to this extreme? Let me explain...
You can kill a goat, man, bore, deer with one swipe of your sword in one area, yet that same goat, man, bore, deer can not be killed in another area regardless of how many times you hit it. In some instances, that animal can kill you... WTF? This is a mechanic that is seen in more than a few RPG games, THAT ARE ONLINE MULTIPLAYERS! I don't see any reason why this is a mechanic used in a single player game. It makes less sense that the map is fully explorable from the start.
I can understand that there needs to be a progression system in an RPG, but why not do something much more simple and much more effective like learning new skills, that make you quieter when assassinating, be less conspicuous when hunted, change clothes when hunted to avoid being recognized. Run faster, jump higher. This would lend itself to having more animations making the game less repetitive and more enjoyable. These skills could make you better at getting past more difficult sections of the game instead of having levelled NPC's, animals and areas where they are not needed or wanted.
This levelled issue is something that leaves much of the gameplay and mechanics superfluous and unnecessary.The mechanics of the clothing/armour is something that saves this game somewhat. As said, you can loot items of clothing or armour instead of buying it. Along with upgrading weapons, you can do the same with armour and clothing. I am still using the same clothing/armour I got in a DLC when I started the game, only now instead of them being a level 5, they are now level 20 thanks to those upgrades. Along side this, you can have these items engraved along with weapons to improve your overall stats in certain activities such as power, stealth, assassinations, extra XP and more. It gives you something to grind towards as it improves your overall abilities as a whole.
Hunting is something that you don't have to do as much in this game when compared to Origins, almost like it takes a back seat as looting or stealing seems to be the main way in which to obtain resources. This is a much welcome change as the grinding away in Origins was getting, well, a grind, and one of the reasons it board the hell out of me. This way, the narrative moves forward at a slightly less slow pace and makes the game overall more enjoyable to play over Origins.
As mentioned, half of the map is dedicated to open sea, so battles at sea are a main focus of the gameplay. It is just a shame that they have minimized what it is you can do at sea. When compared to Black Flag, which was a welcome change in the assassins creed franchise, they have not implemented everything from that game and improved on it in this one. Instead they have only taken select mechanics, dumbed them down and left out the rest. This makes every battle at see, very repetitive and ultimately boring.
You can avoid fighting at sea, (which I often do) but that in itself is boring as all you are doing is steering a ship towards its next location which can take 5, 10, 15 minutes. It is faster than Origins, but because of the size increase of the map, it made little difference.For some reason, Developers are always thinking ''Bigger is Better''. And while in the trouser department, that may be true, in a game, that would depend on how well the game overall is made. GTAV is half the size, yet seems to be more active and populated than this one. Skyrim is smaller still and again, there is much more to see and do. This map, while has pockets of populated areas, is for the most part, empty and unused space, so when you are travelling from one location to the next, you are left with nothing but time to kill. You may run into the odd animal, bounty hunter or group, but passed that, it is spaced that is not being utilized and seems more like a wast than a pretty environment.
If I had to compare this RPG and The Witcher III, there is so much more to do and so much more engaging environment, assets and narratives in the Witcher over this, and its an older title. I know Ubisoft want to stand apart, but they are basically trying to reinvent what an RPG should be instead of improving the franchise they have. Why not even try a soft reboot with a different engine and all new visuals instead of reusing the same dated shit we have seen in every other bloody assassins game. FUCK! They are dumb.
Conclusion.
- Ubisoft needs a kick in the kite. They are slowly turning into Konami, and by that statement I mean, ' A bunch of corporate dickless dicks', trying to save a buck or two anywhere possible and giving us, the end user a shitty experience within a full priced title.
Don't get me wrong, the one saving grace this game has is the narrative and the huge improvements in the side missions also, but that's about it.
6.5/10
Origins and Odyssey both started development at the same time, and with Odyssey being in development for a full year longer allowed the devs to listen to the complaints about Origins direct from the players. To their credit, they have improved several aspects of the game, but in a nut shell, they created an online RPG, complete with levelled players, NPC's and areas but decided it would be best suited as a single player. The game, despite its excellent narrative, makes zero sense as a single player and would have been better suited as a multiplayer complete with custom character creation. The only way I would recommend this game is if you enjoy a good story and not bothered too much by the gameplay.
Thank you for reading.
Stu @TechMojo
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