The story is silly and sort of mediocre in presentation, but it is also totally compelling in some odd way, and I've really grown to like Kassandra.

Wolves are fucking annoying. I swear I run into one every five feet, and they chase me forever.

The world has grown on me quite a bit, too. I think I still like Origins world better, but I suspect that's mostly just because it was first, and I have fond memories of it. I also do really like the Egyptian stuff. There's lots of awesome detail in Odyssey, though, which was the thing I initially felt was lacking.

I'm missing some of the little stuff from Origins. It seems like they've cut out the resource stuff, for the most part, which I kind of liked. I needed some wood for a ship upgrade, and it was the first time I noticed that using Ikaros doesn't show resource deposits or animals like Senu did.

The gameplay has remained incredibly fun, though. I've been having a blast with the Sparta/Athens war stuff. Weakening an area's power and killing the leader is a satisfying loop.

The ship stuff is cool, and a welcome return. I wish it was a bit deeper, still. I miss the really open water and huge storms of Black Flag. Maybe that stuff is in there and I just haven't seen it yet--I haven't sailed to the southeast yet, where it looks like there's more water.

So, I've played a little more, and it's growing on me.

I've done a few side missions on the first island that you start on, and I think about about to leave it. I'm on the mission to kill the Cyclops and presumably steal his ship.

Primarily, I think it was just a matter of adjusting from playing Red Dead Redemption II. Assassin's Creed Odyssey is like the complete opposite of how that game is designed. Down to simple things, like Arthur in RDR2 doesn't run unless you tap the sprint button--that game is slow! Kassandra goes from 0-60 immediately, and it felt all sorts of wrong for a while. Now that I've gotten in the groove of how Odyssey controls, it feels great, and it's nice to in a game that knows it's a video game again. I love RDR2 for it's deliberate pace and long animations and all that stuff, but it is also nice to be playing a game where you can basically loot shit as you run by it at full speed.

I do hope the character interactions get a bit better. Red Dead has set a new bar for that in video games, but I still think even Origins was better than Odyssey in that regard. But, again, I'm not very far yet, so there's still lots of potential there.

The gameplay is still fun, and the game is still gorgeous (although, again, I think Origins might have been better there--or maybe it's just because this style felt new the first time around? I think it seemed like it was bit more polished, somehow).

Thanks for making a post about it--I fully intended to just skip it, but now I'm glad I bought it. It's sort of exactly what I'm looking for right now.

I’m about 17 hours in at this point, and I feel like the primary plot has just started to open up.

So far, I haven’t seen anything in terms of character interactions that match Bayak and his relationship with Aya (sweet Moses, did that relationship develop in a way that was far more sophisticated and mature than I expect from a typical video game!). Most of the dramatic performances in Odyssey are serviceable, but I’m sad to say that the actor who plays the main antagonist makes me roll my eyes with every line.

Then there’s the little side-mission NPC interactions. I’ve grown to love them, usually because they’re hilariously rediculous. It’s like a B movie. Kassandra’s dialogue options include ham-fisted attempts to seduce half the characters you meet, and it’s always so blatantly out of place that I refuse to believe anyone at Ubisoft was taking it seriously. It’s just like “let’s bang, ok? No? Lol, whatever, I’ll go kill that guy...”

While the writing is laughable, I am finding the overall plot compelling, and I’m absolutely obsessed with the world itself. I actually find this game far more beautiful than Origins. Not surprising, since my favorite parts of Origins were the areas populated by Greek settlers, and the architecture featured in those locations. Plus I’m more familiar with Greek mythology and history, so all the different locations have more iconic appeal for me. Sailing along the coast and seeing the beaches of Marathon before rounding the bend and entering the port of Athens... I got goosebumps. And Athens itself is jaw-dropping for me.

So yeah, I’m enjoying it in a different way than I enjoyed Origins, which is pretty cool :)

I've done a few side missions on the first island that you start on, and I think about about to leave it. I'm on the mission to kill the Cyclops and presumably steal his ship.

Primarily, I think it was just a matter of adjusting from playing Red Dead Redemption II. Assassin's Creed Odyssey is like the complete opposite of how that game is designed. Down to simple things, like Arthur in RDR2 doesn't run unless you tap the sprint button--that game is slow! Kassandra goes from 0-60 immediately, and it felt all sorts of wrong for a while. Now that I've gotten in the groove of how Odyssey controls, it feels great, and it's nice to in a game that knows it's a video game again. I love RDR2 for it's deliberate pace and long animations and all that stuff, but it is also nice to be playing a game where you can basically loot shit as you run by it at full speed.

I do hope the character interactions get a bit better. Red Dead has set a new bar for that in video games, but I still think even Origins was better than Odyssey in that regard. But, again, I'm not very far yet, so there's still lots of potential there.

The gameplay is still fun, and the game is still gorgeous (although, again, I think Origins might have been better there--or maybe it's just because this style felt new the first time around? I think it seemed like it was bit more polished, somehow).

Thanks for making a post about it--I fully intended to just skip it, but now I'm glad I bought it. It's sort of exactly what I'm looking for right now.

I'm only like two hours in, but I'm just not feeling it. I like Kassandra's attitude, but she is nowhere near as interesting as Bayek was.

It's a good thing the gameplay is still really fun, because the game isn't doing anything for me in any other way. Even the world feels less interesting than the one in Origins, but that may just be because I'm not that far in, yet.

At this point, I'm honestly half considering re-installing Origins instead. There's still a ton of stuff I never got around to in that game.

100% agreed on Origins' start-off. The hell were they thinking?

I wasn't planning on getting Odyssey, since I already beat Origins very recently, but your review makes me reconsider it.

Yeah I feel like they’ve been strangely bad at figuring out how AC games should start for quite a while. Odyssey is better in that regard than Origins, but it’s not on the same level as AC2 by any means. More than anything else, I feel like Odyssey manages to slip the player into a good gameplay loop quite quickly.

I’m still only 6-8 hours into Odyssey, but so far I’m glad I got it. Especially considering it’s on sale right now. If you ended up liking Origins, I think you’ll like this one, too.

I wasn't planning on getting Odyssey, since I already beat Origins very recently, but your review makes me reconsider it.

I just listened to all of Giant Bomb’s game of the year podcasts, and it sounds like the story gets really wild a really dumb, which I am totally here for.

GRIS:

Lol kj. It's pretentious garbage.

If that’s not a motivator to try a game out, I really don’t know what is.

It’s a mechanical sequel to AC Origins, so if you played much of that game, you’ll have a basic idea of what to expect.

It starts off much better than Origins did (I thought Origins was downright BAD for the first ~6 hours, but then it begins to find its stride). So far, Odyssey has a better narrative thrust to kick things off, some interesting mechanical layers added on, and the world is jaw-droppingly gorgeous. Oh, and ship combat is back in a big way, including the “board the enemy ship” stuff from AC Black Flag, and it’s just as addictive now as it was then.

Also like Origins, AC Odyssey has a quest-chaining system unlike anything I’ve seen in any other open-world game, and the loop it creates is super compelling. I find the quest systems in most games usually work like a menu at a restaurant. I’ll look at my quest log, pick an activity that I’m in the mood for, complete it, then go back to the log and pick another, and so on. But with these newest AC games, I’m constantly stumbling across new quest items mid-mission, and I often allow myself to be diverted by them (rather than stating focused on the objective I’d started with). So I’ll often pick a quest item to get going, and then 3 hours later I’ll end up completing that mission after encountering and completing a dozen other objectives, all without ever leaving or aborting the mission I first started with. It makes it a difficult game to put down, because there are so few clear-cut breaks in the action.

I’ve heard that the game suffers from a lot of bloat and redundancy in its middle hours, so I’ll see how it goes. But so far, I’m having a great time with it.

Came out in 2018 for the Mac. Excellent game, although it suffers a bit from Super Meat Boy syndrome, in the sense that the challenges are bite sized so you are never forced to play well for more than 2 minutes at a time (the exception being a section of the last island, which is where it actually becomes great). Run and Guns like Metal Slug were about getting good and playing your best for 30+ minutes at a time. Jettisoning a Relic from a bygone era, or symptom of our cultural gaming ADD?

Leisure Suit Larry Wet Dreams Don't Dry

Stupid title aside, the game is actually pretty good and up there with Love for Sail. The jabs it takes at the modern digital world of sex and dating aren't really that original, but it's done with its own style that will definitely amuse you if you ever liked this series.

Unavowed

Wrote about it here.

GRIS:

Lol kj. It's pretentious garbage.

Red Strings Club

Aside from some bullshit mini games, it's a rad cyberpunk tale that deals with human sexuality in a surprisingly mature manner, both for a video game and for a piece of dystopia.

Life is Strange 2

It's hard to top Chloe and Max, but so far so good.

Megaman 11

Looks better in motion than the screenshots would suggest. The two 'gears' are essentially redundant, but the game provides a nice level of difficulty if you are a returning fan of the series. It's not easy. If you've never played a magaman game before, just go home and skip it - you have no chance.

Unforeseen Incidents

The art style is hit or miss, but it's a pretty good adventure game in terms of story and mechanics.

Yeah there's some added challenge there, for sure. You can always try the Pro controller or buy an adapter that lets you use an Xbox/PS4 controller? (If you wanna keep your progress on one platform :P)

I have a Pro controller--the d-pad on that thing sucks, too. I didn't make it far enough to really worry about keeping progress. I've been told by a few people that they played the entire thing using the thumbstick instead of the d-pad, but it just doesn't feel right for me.

Yeah I played most of it with the thumbstick. I paid the price with some excess, unnecessary deaths.

Yeah there's some added challenge there, for sure. You can always try the Pro controller or buy an adapter that lets you use an Xbox/PS4 controller? (If you wanna keep your progress on one platform :P)

I have a Pro controller--the d-pad on that thing sucks, too. I didn't make it far enough to really worry about keeping progress. I've been told by a few people that they played the entire thing using the thumbstick instead of the d-pad, but it just doesn't feel right for me.

And just an FYI Celeste one of the year's best platformers will be free for Xbox LIVE Gold members in January. I bought it on Switch, but that travesty of a thing they decided was good enough for a d-pad made it damn near unplayable. I always meant to give it another shot, maybe even buy it on another console, but next month I can finally get back to it.

Yeah there's some added challenge there, for sure. You can always try the Pro controller or buy an adapter that lets you use an Xbox/PS4 controller? (If you wanna keep your progress on one platform :P)

It seems like a good time to take a week off. I'm at 650 on my Hunter, so I'm no longer in danger of being "behind." Niobe Labs isn't until the 8th, so there's presumably nothing new next week.

Destiny is so good and fun right now that it's preventing me from playing other things I want to play, such as . . .

Divinity Original Sin II.

I bought this the other night. I loved the first game, despite never finishing it. This sequel seems like more of the same, but better (at least after the five or so hours I've put into it). Unlike the first game, which had a pair of customizable blank slate main characters, this one allows you to choose to play as one of the main party members right out of the gate. Each has a unique back story and questline to follow, which is a great addition. The combat is better than ever, with a strong mix of classic RPG stats and rules, and a very tactical feel (elemental and environmental awareness is critical).

I also desperately still need to finish Red Dead Redemption II, which is what I'm playing tonight.

Seriously, this game is good, if not for everybody. If you decide to check this out, I have some strong advice to help avoid burnout--follow the main story for a good while before you explore too much. I spent way too much time in the first few chapters just dicking around and getting lost in the massive, gorgeous open world. This game is great for that! The problem is, I spent so long doing that, and there's still a 40 hour game behind it, one that will still require tons of traversing that open world and more opportunities for getting lost in it. If you front load that exploration, the game can feel like a slog afterwards. So spread it out!

If you have the patience, this is truly one of the best experiences in gaming, ever. The story it tells is truly masterful, which is not something I say lightly, and not something I would ever expect out of Rockstar. But they have created a great cast of very real feeling characters, and Arthur's story is a truly affecting one. The game is slow and deliberate, and while I understand why that might not be appealing, it is absolutely paid off by the end, and I can't see the story of the game working without that pace.

And just an FYI Celeste one of the year's best platformers will be free for Xbox LIVE Gold members in January. I bought it on Switch, but that travesty of a thing they decided was good enough for a d-pad made it damn near unplayable. I always meant to give it another shot, maybe even buy it on another console, but next month I can finally get back to it.

The money I make on the side by scanning systems every time I jump isn't half bad either.

It is available in a collection for PS3 and that is probably esasier than finding an actual PSP with it.

Totally worth playing, IMO. It's my favorite game in the series, aside from GoW PS4.