So, I made a post a few weeks ago (shit maybe months now...) about Assassin's Creed Odyssey and how at the time I was mostly enjoying the game. Few issues here and there, and the game was hardly GoTY worthy, but it was a mostly positive experience backed by Ubisoft seeming to actually give a shit about the game with features and free updates that added or fixed things on a pretty good scale. The game's well maintained for a game in the modern era (which is sad now that I think about it).
But, the game itself has really been bugging me for the last month or so, which is weird because I haven't really dived into it like I would have with the older games (upto Black Flag), or even like I just tend to with any game that I at least mostly enjoy. I have problems with just about every game but considering AC: Odyssey was a new game with pretty great gameplay, great combat that really worked for me and...a moderately not shitty story (and decent voice acting) it's weird that I stopped enjoying it pretty much at all. I think the weird issue with the game is actually scale, combined with a lack of proper questing outside of the Main Quest. Well, I say that but really there's a few other problems with the game, I could bitch about the wonky horse riding, the lack of interesting enemies or countless other things but I think the issue really is that the game has a lack of focus with such a massive area.
So let's bring a bit of perspective into things. I'm a huge fan of Assassins Creed 2 and think it might actually be the best game in the series, behind only Brotherhood which might be better, and even then I'm not sure if I shouldn't just combine them for the single 'top spot'. To compare the games is difficult because for all it's scale, Assassin's Creed 2 has a pretty simple premise, with a pretty simple storyline that's effective, insanely effective in my opinion. To summerize, most of it is about discovering what it means to be an Assassin and hunting this one dude. Sure others get in the way and all that, but you've still always got a goal that you can work towards in a natural way. With Kassandra, she's trying to find her family, kill the cult, save all of Greece, discover who she is, discover who her family is and unravel about 6 billion different plots. Alongside that you have to fight in a boring ass war for either Spartans or Athenians, except you just help either side whenever you want and it doesn't have an effect on anything (I might make a huge discussion on that as well). The point is, there's a lot of goals that she has (or the bloke's name...) and yet the game still pretty much has you go from one city to the next, doing a teeny bit and then moving on. Once you get there, you do a quest to get a piece of information and move on. Athens is interesting once you go back, but as far as I can tell you don't really have much of an impact on the City.
Imagine this as a compromise, the entire game took place in either Athens or Sparta (at least once you finish the tutorial area) and you dealt with the game's issues from either city. Sure the world would be smaller, but it'd make more sense and I honestly think it'd feel like a more polished game. For the most part, 99% of the world is boring and there really isn't anything to do other than go through it, even most caves or ruins or whatever are boring and scaled up just for the sake of making a larger game. I hope that all makes sense, it's half rant half review in the end, but...I just sort of miss the days when games couldn't be this massive so good companies filled the world with as much interesting content as they could. Hell even with Morrowind or Oblivion (or even Skyrim) you got a world that was mostly full of content, sure some of it was boring, but I never felt like there was nothing to do in most cities. You go to Windhelm or Chorrol, and there's at least three interesting quests, and fascinating characters to fill the world. With AC: Odyssesy...there just isn't anything in the massive world worth looking at.
So, I made a post a few weeks ago (shit maybe months now...) about Assassin's Creed Odyssey and how at the time I was mostly enjoying the game. Few issues here and there, and the game was hardly GoTY worthy, but it was a mostly positive experience backed by Ubisoft seeming to actually give a shit about the game with features and free updates that added or fixed things on a pretty good scale. The game's well maintained for a game in the modern era (which is sad now that I think about it).
But, the game itself has really been bugging me for the last month or so, which is weird because I haven't really dived into it like I would have with the older games (upto Black Flag), or even like I just tend to with any game that I at least mostly enjoy. I have problems with just about every game but considering AC: Odyssey was a new game with pretty great gameplay, great combat that really worked for me and...a moderately not shitty story (and decent voice acting) it's weird that I stopped enjoying it pretty much at all. I think the weird issue with the game is actually scale, combined with a lack of proper questing outside of the Main Quest. Well, I say that but really there's a few other problems with the game, I could bitch about the wonky horse riding, the lack of interesting enemies or countless other things but I think the issue really is that the game has a lack of focus with such a massive area.
So let's bring a bit of perspective into things. I'm a huge fan of Assassins Creed 2 and think it might actually be the best game in the series, behind only Brotherhood which might be better, and even then I'm not sure if I shouldn't just combine them for the single 'top spot'. To compare the games is difficult because for all it's scale, Assassin's Creed 2 has a pretty simple premise, with a pretty simple storyline that's effective, insanely effective in my opinion. To summerize, most of it is about discovering what it means to be an Assassin and hunting this one dude. Sure others get in the way and all that, but you've still always got a goal that you can work towards in a natural way. With Kassandra, she's trying to find her family, kill the cult, save all of Greece, discover who she is, discover who her family is and unravel about 6 billion different plots. Alongside that you have to fight in a boring ass war for either Spartans or Athenians, except you just help either side whenever you want and it doesn't have an effect on anything (I might make a huge discussion on that as well). The point is, there's a lot of goals that she has (or the bloke's name...) and yet the game still pretty much has you go from one city to the next, doing a teeny bit and then moving on. Once you get there, you do a quest to get a piece of information and move on. Athens is interesting once you go back, but as far as I can tell you don't really have much of an impact on the City.
Imagine this as a compromise, the entire game took place in either Athens or Sparta (at least once you finish the tutorial area) and you dealt with the game's issues from either city. Sure the world would be smaller, but it'd make more sense and I honestly think it'd feel like a more polished game. For the most part, 99% of the world is boring and there really isn't anything to do other than go through it, even most caves or ruins or whatever are boring and scaled up just for the sake of making a larger game. I hope that all makes sense, it's half rant half review in the end, but...I just sort of miss the days when games couldn't be this massive so good companies filled the world with as much interesting content as they could. Hell even with Morrowind or Oblivion (or even Skyrim) you got a world that was mostly full of content, sure some of it was boring, but I never felt like there was nothing to do in most cities. You go to Windhelm or Chorrol, and there's at least three interesting quests, and fascinating characters to fill the world. With AC: Odyssesy...there just isn't anything in the massive world worth looking at.
