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Old 2018-08-20, 14:05   Link #21
Renegade334
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JagdPanther View Post
Its sheer size was stupidly, unnecessarily large.

(...)

Fortunately, given the pace at which I usually play games anymore, Shadow of the Tomb Raider should keep me occupied plenty so that I can wait for plenty of real user reviews to flow in on Odyssey, letting me know if it's going to be another time waster.
Funny thing is, yesterday, a friend of mine who had Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands allowed me to start a new playthrough on his PC and let me have a taste for myself, as I was a bit skeptical about a massive open-world FPS (I had already had a gander at that category with Just Cause 3 and Far Cry 4 [both of which I incidentally never finished, either because I got bored or grew tired of it])...and boy did that map instantly discourage me....

Honestly, I do not cherish the prospect of having to zip across the entire map, from province to province, just so that I can unlock either one small gun component (vertical handgrip, short barrel, compensator, etc) or a specific gun itself. Worse even, most places are either military bases or villages that have a slighty cut-and-paste quality to them (yes, they have their own mission and local boss, etc...not my point), making the grind rather uninteresting if not tedious. At this point I'm not sure I should continue my experiment with Wildlands.


Ubisoft claims that Odyssey will have an even larger map than Origins...but most of it will definitely be water, thus making the exploration and roaming around a lil' annoying...but at least each city and its monuments will definitely reward your effort, unlike Wildlands, where you're just climbing tiers, unlocking weapons and skills and hopping from one locale to the other.
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Old 2018-08-20, 20:02   Link #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Renegade334 View Post
Funny thing is, yesterday, a friend of mine who had Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands allowed me to start a new playthrough on his PC and let me have a taste for myself, as I was a bit skeptical about a massive open-world FPS (I had already had a gander at that category with Just Cause 3 and Far Cry 4 [both of which I incidentally never finished, either because I got bored or grew tired of it])...and boy did that map instantly discourage me....

Honestly, I do not cherish the prospect of having to zip across the entire map, from province to province, just so that I can unlock either one small gun component (vertical handgrip, short barrel, compensator, etc) or a specific gun itself. Worse even, most places are either military bases or villages that have a slighty cut-and-paste quality to them (yes, they have their own mission and local boss, etc...not my point), making the grind rather uninteresting if not tedious. At this point I'm not sure I should continue my experiment with Wildlands.


Ubisoft claims that Odyssey will have an even larger map than Origins...but most of it will definitely be water, thus making the exploration and roaming around a lil' annoying...but at least each city and its monuments will definitely reward your effort, unlike Wildlands, where you're just climbing tiers, unlocking weapons and skills and hopping from one locale to the other.
I actually really liked Black Flag, but if something really annoyed me about exploring the world map, it was having to sail as close as possible to something, jump off, go grab a collectible, and then swim back to the ship. So much time wasted trying to do that, whereas in land-based AC games you can usually at least ride a horse up to whatever it is that has the collectible.

If Odyssey brings that back, I'll be irked.

I get ya on the Far Cry games. I gave up on FC2 really quickly because I just couldn't deal with how big the map was and how long it took to traverse. I'm fine with it taking a while to traverse Rome in ACII or something, but when it's just open wasteland without things to see or things to interact with if you're bored, then it just sucks. I loved the wild in ACIII because at least it was all forest and the Appalachian hills. There was actually terrain and plenty of fauna around to keep things interesting.
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Old 2018-08-20, 20:23   Link #23
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As far as I took a look about it, a number of collectibles will be under water as the character can now take a dive anywhere with a limited amount of oxygen.
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Old 2018-08-21, 05:25   Link #24
Renegade334
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The big problem with very large maps is that player enjoyable is not only directly tied to the amount of content to be found therein but also the amount -and uniqueness- of activities to be done there. Each area, in order to make the long grind more fun, has to have a distinct flavor that would make the player say "oh I need to go back there later".

Case in point, Just Cause 3 ended up burning me out because the only thing I was doing, in every goddamn region, was blow things up. Sure, as I moved further inland, the buildings changed (from oil rigs to large-scale communications antennas to bucket-wheel excavators), giving me some regional variety, but I was still doing the same damn thing. Sure, I unlocked new stuff (fighter jets, jetpack) but I was still only triggering explosions left and right.

Far Cry 4...two things hampered my ability to enjoy it. 1°) the Tibetan context and culture didn't really click with me (I wasn't too fond of the Thangka oneiric/mystical missions, either) and 2°) it was getting too damn repetitive. Sure, there was this one area where you could play in an arena against waves of enemies and whatnot, but so far there was nothing to compel me to go back (unless for a collectible or unlock) to a specific region and just casually explore like I did in Origins or the Witcher 3. No massive landmark, building, community or resource trove enticed me back; I just trod on to the next objective with no backward glance.

Origins and most of the other AC games counterweighed that by furbishing each region with a distinctive/exclusive landmark that established the latter's identity and feel. Faiyum had the crocodile-worshipping Krokodilopolis and its gladiator arena, Alexandria was the predominantly Greek nome with a nearby hippodrome, Memphis had the "old Egypt" feel and plenty of funerary tunnels to investigate, Giza had all those famous pyramids to explore, Siwa was the oasis-type environment, Kyrenaika was the place that made you feel like you were either in Lebanon or in Greece (also had a gladiator arena), Herakleion was the water-logged delta area with lots of animals to hunt, etc, etc. They made the effort to give each part its own identity and material that made you think, "oh I need to get back there, not just because I missed some written anecdotes about the monuments, but because there's something unique to be done there".

Witcher 3 and Skyrim took that advice to heart. In the latter, each Hold had its share of exclusive areas of interest and activities (like the Thieves' Guild in Riften or the Mage College in Winterhold, etc). And the local missions (especially in Witcher 3) were positively gripping and not near-carbon copies of an earlier quest or so, a trend Origins practically embraced after a while.

Of course, I expect Odyssey to have its fair share of eye-opening structures such as the Acropolis in Athens (can we hope for a few still-standing Wonders of the Ancient World like the Statue of Zeus in Olympia?...though I suppose Rhodes and Ephesus are too far to the East to be included), but I expect there to be many ruins to explore, shipwrecks to plunder, camps to raid...the standard fare already present in Origins.

There will be the "flip each region in your chosen camp's favor" feature, but I'm not expecting huge changes (in Witcher 3, choosing a side meant city-occupying armies would change according to the consequences of your action). However, my chief concern ATM lies in the rather bland mission design Ubisoft used with Origins: get to point A, investigate, go to point B, stealthily pick off everyone with a predator bow until no one is left, then move on to the next quest marker on the map (I used that method for practically EVERY military compound and bandit hideout, with only a few other times where I just charged in, Leeroy Jenkins style, out of pure boredom). Odyssey, I'm afraid, runs a high risk of being as repetitive as Origins was. But I suppose the sights and sounds will alleviate some of the boredom.

That said, I'm not too keen on sailing around half of the time (yes, I know about fast travel), that tended to really bore me in Black Flag.



...Okay, I've said my piece on the matter; if I continue any further I'll probably morph into a broken gramophone, so it's best for me to stop now.
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Old 2018-09-13, 12:23   Link #25
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Season Pass content revealed.

https://gematsu.com/2018/09/assassin...ntent-detailed
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Old 2018-09-13, 13:11   Link #26
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That is good news. I could barely play 3 last time. Certain areas were way too glitchy
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Old 2018-10-02, 13:32   Link #27
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Got this on PC this week. Those who bought the Gold version can begin playing today.
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Old 2018-10-02, 13:41   Link #28
Renegade334
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I decided not to pick it up just yet, maybe next year or so when the price will abate somewhat. Had a couple unforeseen medical expenses (and maybe more consultations on the way) the past month that have my wallet shivering in dread and pretty much ix-nayed any entertainment-type purchase for the rest of the year.

Besides, I don't think I'm ready to tackle another Origins, especially since this year had me catching the completionist virus and I need the free time elsewhere. From what I gathered on the Net, the game is really gorgeous but meh on several aspects (AI). Will see about that later.
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Old 2018-10-02, 19:24   Link #29
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In one of the reviews I read that the map is way larger than in Origins. Amongst other things I read, I'm even less enthused about this game than before, and I was pretty down on it.

I've got Shadow of the Tomb Raider up right now. I'll crawl through that, probably, being semi-completionist about it. After that, it'll be Valkyria Chronicles 4, so I've got plenty of time to stew about Odyssey.

There's no new mainline AC in 2019, right? I'll have plenty of time to work myself up to a state of actually wanting to play this, and then maybe go through it just on the mainline story instead of trying to be as completionist as I usually try to be with AC games. But, the thing that holds even that back is that I don't really like the new modern counterpart story from Origins. Unless they bring back Shaun and the original modern cast, I don't really even care that much about the modern story, which has been one of my favorite parts of the AC series.
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Old 2018-10-03, 01:38   Link #30
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I have about 5-6 hours sunk into the game now. I'm around level 8 at the moment and it's pretty fun, similar to Origins in terms of combat system. (you can bind abilities to the system now though)

Seems the game has more emphasis on naval combat compared to the previous game and there's many ways to upgrade the ships. You can even recruit people if you manage to capture them. The map is definitely big even with the seawater. Some of the islands I've visited so far has a lot of side quests, camps, etc.

There's also a bounty system now where you get hunted if you commit too many crimes. I was at level 4 Bounty at one point lol and there were many soldiers coming after me lol

I'm probably going to spend a lot of time in this game. Ubisoft continues to impress me with their Assassin's Creed franchise lately.

Might post some screenshots on Thursday. I'm playing it on PC/Steam and the game hasn't shown yet since I'm playing it early wtih the Gold Edition.
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Old 2018-10-03, 02:17   Link #31
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I heard you can climb Zeus’ dick in the game on his giant statue.
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Old 2018-10-03, 08:05   Link #32
Renegade334
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JagdPanther View Post
In one of the reviews I read that the map is way larger than in Origins. Amongst other things I read, I'm even less enthused about this game than before, and I was pretty down on it.
A lot of it will be water, though, as on Black Flag.

Quote:
There's no new mainline AC in 2019, right? I'll have plenty of time to work myself up to a state of actually wanting to play this, and then maybe go through it just on the mainline story instead of trying to be as completionist as I usually try to be with AC games.
No, but next year the remastered AC3 and AC:Liberation will be released as part of the Season Pass.

Quote:
But, the thing that holds even that back is that I don't really like the new modern counterpart story from Origins. Unless they bring back Shaun and the original modern cast, I don't really even care that much about the modern story, which has been one of my favorite parts of the AC series.
I know I'm repeating myself, but I feel that Ubisoft doesn't have a clue what to do with the modern Assassin-Templar-Isu war ever since they killed off Desmond in AC3. They've been freewheeling for a long time, stalling for a proper continuation of the Desmond plot until now (more below). Worse even, they decided to delegate the plugging of plot holes and gaps between games to the novel and comic books series, both of which introduce stuff the games allude to every now and then.

Spoiler for don't open if you don't want to be spoiled:

Oh, and remember the Shroud from Syndicate and how it'd be used to recreate Aita? Completely forgotten in Origins and for good reason: that plot was resolved in the comics.
That said, the writers in Black Flag seemed to be a little more creative and there was therefore hope for a more engaging modern-time storyline, but that thread ultimately went nowhere aside from introducing the concept of Sages and the fact that Juno is scheming behind Abstergo's back. Rogue and Unity pretty much buried that "mole roaming around inside Abstergo" initiative.

By the way, in Odyssey, the Japanese Assassin on lookout actually comes from the comics. The Assassin floating HQ ship Layla eventually uses at one point (the Altair II) is also comics material.

Now, Layla Hassan sounds more and more like a desperate (and too belated) attempt at creating a Desmond replacement. Heck, the writers even
Spoiler for Origins spoiler:

One thing that, if true (friend of mine who watched the endings mentioned it to me), had me laughing wryly is that apparently
Spoiler for possible Odyssey spoiler:
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Old 2018-10-03, 19:30   Link #33
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Everything you just said angers me.


Wow... I'm really irked about this game now.
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Old 2018-10-04, 07:19   Link #34
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To be fair, it doesn't mean Odyssey is a steaming pile of horse manure, only that on the storytelling side of things, Ubisoft hasn't been at the top of its game (no pun intended) for a long time already: it feels like they don't have a clear endgame (again, no pun) in mind and they are just going with the flow, hopping from installment from installment without establishing a continuous plot thread. From Black Flag to Syndicate, we've only been presented standalone vignettes rather than consecutive chapters of a single book. Origins reined the story back onto a set railtrack, but it doesn't necessarily mean the storytelling problems are over, especially if Ubisoft is still willing to defer many plot points and holes to the comics and novels, rather than resolve them in-game.

The extended media sidestory problem kind of started after Brotherhood, when Ubisoft made a browser game (the one featuring Giovanni, Cesare Borgia's son, who would later become Ezio's Assassin apprentice -- some of the other characters were even taken from AC:B's multiplayer mode) and started pumping out comics like they just found a new oil field in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. IMHO it's gotten worse lately...and to boot, they've also added a live-action movie, which is also considered canon (Alan Rikkin's death is officially referenced in Origins, IIRC).

Origins was the first AC game in a while where the Animus diver was actually given a name and face, along with a war-ending mission (most other divers since BF were low-level employees or subcontractors unearthing memories for their employer), but I feel that Layla Hassan is being pushed forward as too much of a Desmond 2.0 (her character development seems a bit rushed - OTOH, Desmond did have FOUR games to get fully fleshed out). I have since watched the ending my friend was referring to (even spoiled me to a rather surprising modern-day plot twist I wasn't expecting) and...yeah.
Spoiler for mild Odyssey ending spoilers!:

That said, from what I've seen of the game already, the sights are positively sumptuous and the mythical boss creatures (along with their lairs) are something to look forward to (they might even be more enjoyable than the Trials of the Gods from Origins). So don't write it off completely - even if I didn't particularly enjoy Unity, I still like to roam around 1789-era Paris and take in the sights and sounds.
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Old 2018-10-16, 00:09   Link #35
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Playing this through Project Stream currently. I haven't played an AC game since ACIII (played maybe 30 minutes of Black Flag but that doesn't count). The combat is decent, but I do prefer the older one. And I do like having dialogue options. It helps that the player's face is visually appealing with those close ups.
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Old 2018-11-27, 13:46   Link #36
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Old 2018-11-28, 04:18   Link #37
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I had an interesting thought while playing this game.

Spoiler for theory:
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Old 2018-12-09, 18:27   Link #38
Renegade334
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So here's a preliminary review -if you can call it that, by the way, it's more like a collection of thoughts- of Odyssey. I initially meant to type a more comprehensive, well-constructed report, but I have been repeatedly distracted these past few days and the only thing I managed to cobble together was a series of insights on certain aspects of the game. I definitely came up with a better write-up for Origins, but I'm unsure as to whether I'll have the time or desire to properly expand and touch up on what I've already written so far. Since the future for this..."review" is in doubt, I'm dumping everything already penned, here for your profit. DO NOT be surprised it feels lacking...incomplete, BECAUSE IT IS. There are plenty of stuff I should be touching on that I ended up not doing; I'm not a professional reviewer, so please don't hold me to high standards I shall never meet - heck, you might even find my wall-o-texts a bit tedious or winding, and I apologize for that. To lessen your burden, I added a few screenshots (click to enlarge) to illustrate some of the discussed aspects.

So...let's have a look, shall we?

TL;DR…
 
Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

End Part 1 (had to halve my review due to Animesuki's 50,000 word limit per post).
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Old 2018-12-09, 18:28   Link #39
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Part 2.
TL;DR…
 
Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?
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Old 2018-12-10, 12:15   Link #40
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One thing I noticed about fighting other mercenaries is that it is better to take the fight at sea when the bounty is up. With a well-armored ship, you can finish ships off and kill the mercenary on board by ramming the enemy ship into oblivion. You would get the piece of hardware you want without getting into close encounters against those mercs. Like in Black Flag, it's much more fun to sink ships by ramming them.
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