Assassins Creed Odyssey

I finally finished the game this weekend.
My Kassandra was a very violent, selfish, arrogant, mercenary-type person (I still liked her though) and so I guess I didn't get the best ending to the family story. I killed Deimos/Alexios and the final dinner was Mom, Nikolaos (didn't kill him) and me. Irenni called it bitter sweet, which I guess is fair enough for this type of protagonist. So I thought it was a decent ending, nothing super special but decent.
As for the cultists, I killed Aspesia so that was that, not much to add there.

However, i did make one mistake, I did the Atlantis ending before the family ending. Clearly, it was kinda meant the other way around, at least I think it would have worked way better if - of the three distinct endings (family story, cult story and Atlantis story) - this one would have been the last and I think it would have been better if Ubisoft had guided us here and made it mandatory to finish the other main quests before being able to finish this one. Freedom for the player is nice but in this instance, I felt that it really hurt the story telling.

Anyway, I really liked the meeting between Layla and modern-day Kassandra, that was a bit of a "Wow!" moment. But in general, I have to say that Ubisoft blew it on the modern day storyline yet again. It clearly is only some super messy window dressing at this point that the writers do not care about whatsoever. And that's a shame, really.
I mean, after meeting Kassandra, Layla has the staff, Atlantis is unlocked in the present and everyone is gushing how important all this information is. And Layla has nothing better to do than go back into the Animus to "spend some more time with Kassandra"? That just doesn't make sense at all ... again.
Well, at least this time, we know that one of the DLCs is supposed to deal with Atlantis in some way. I do hope it will pick up on these threads and involve Layla, otherwise, I will be sorely disappointed.

All in all, I'd say odyssey is a fairly good game. I couldn't quite manage the same enthusiasm for it as for Origin though. It was just too big and felt blown up. Since I am a completionist explorer, the story felt very stretched. The more light-hearted approach to a large portion of the game was a nice touch but it went so far that some characters felt more like caricatures. And some of the game mechanics (like the whole nation power and war stuff as well as the reoccuring mini-quests) is too gamey and takes away from the immersion in this otherwise beautiful world).

But if I could ask Ubisoft for one thing (well, actually kind of two things but they belong together in a way), it would be this: Allow me to get rid of all the location icons and objectives!
I hate the icons because nip any chance of meaningful exploration in the bud. I can't stumble across anything in this world and be surprised and happy I found it if it's on the fricking compass from 2 kilometers away. There is nothing hidden in this world and that makes exploration completely meaningless for me and I become a goddam lawnmower.
I hate the location objectives because they are the gameyest thing ever and the completely drag me out of the world and rub it into my face that it's a game with game rules. I mean, making the killing of the alpha bear in a cave an objective is not so bad but why do I have to raid every temple, every warehouse and every military camp I come across and not just steal their stuff but also kill their leader? Or why should I blow up those poor farmers grain silos? There is no point to these objectives whatsoever, other than getting the XP and havin the peace of mind that the place is now completed. IMO, when designing a game, it is one of the worst thing a dev can do to add objectives that go contrary to what you'd expect the protagonist to do in this wolrd, especially when world building is such an important part of your game as is the case in AC: OD.

So to go through those location (icons) and completing them, I have to literally take an hour or two after doing the quests in one region, snap out of the game and just do it (if I want to have a complete run, which I do want). The irony is that the quests (the main and big yellow-marker side quests) are actually pretty good for the most part and they already incentivize you to explore most of the world anyway, Take the rebellion plot on the Silver Islands for example. By the time you are done with that questline, you'll have extensively traveled both islands already and seen almost all of the locations anyway. If you choose to actually try and kill everyone around there would than just be up to you, without some artificial objective "forcing" you. And even if this would mean that most players may miss a cave or a camp here and there, that's fine! It doesn't make them useless, in order to build a world that is believable you need those places that are a bit hidden, out of the way and hard to find. They are then rewards for really inquisitive players (and more of a reward because you didn't just follow an icon on the map/compass).

So yea, enough ranting (it's not my first rant about this either). my big hope is that RDR2 will actually change the industry standard on this issue. Skyrim popularized the compass icons because the critics and magazines liked them so much back in the day (I hated them from the start). But from what I read, RDR2 doesn't have them anymore and critics seem to see that as a positive these days (yay!). I am hoping this will have the same sort of ripple effect on the industry.

So I watched this: In order to get inspiration and an idea of just how effective the Hunter playstyle can be. And boy it seemed to work because to quote a show I am rather fond of I have become someone else...something else. (more on that in a bit )

So as you guys may be keeping track of (or may not) I do rarely post my stuff on Monday's what I do because I basically play twice, when I get up and when I go to bed. My intention is the first half is to just do random puttering around, side quests and exploration stuff and then the second half to bull rush as much story as I can get it. Don't think that will be too much of a problem for this game.

So the first thing I did I bumped into, quote accidentally, was my first tomb. I have been looking for them to do my evil plans when it comes to levelling so I was rather pumped. Went into it and all there was was a couple of snakes in there, and got my ability point so I gave myself the shield breaker ability to fill out what I wanted for the warrior stuff for now. Ironically enough though when I levelled up (level 9) I then got the last Archer ability I had left to get, Master Archer Paralyzing arrows yey! But this might mean I will have to go back to my assassin abilities or something next level but it occurs to me I might unlock the next string of abilities at level ten....maybe?

Anyways then through random exploration I bumped into a Spartan standing out in the middle of nowhere and he told me a tale of how this supply caravan was ambushed. Alexios was skeptical but I tracked the supples to abunch of civilians in the cave. It soon became clear that they were not responsible since they were spindly. Interrogating them the name 'hyrkanos' popped up and I silently complimented the game in my head for making the build up for this threat a little better then with the Cyclops...but then upon returning to the Spartan he promptly gave me a task to hunt hyrkanos down. *sigh*. I did so and tried to be all clever by trying t knock him out which... ended in my death. So then I was able to kill him the rest of the way on the second turn by pincushioning him with arrows then finishing him off with a flurry of dagger strikes. But now that I got my paralyzing arrows hopefully I will have more luck 'recruiting' people in the future.

I finished off my gameplay by running into Odessa. I was like 'hey its that one girl' *starts bitching about her legacy to Odysseus* 'oh right you're a bit of a bitch.' Turns out she had a problem with the leader trying to force a marriage on her and get her estate something she didn't want to do...I tracked down this proof down to the leader house. I got in and out without being seen though I also killed the Captain, burned the supplies, and assasinated or shot anyone in my way. Which knocked off a good deal of the support quests...so much for not doing any of the story, but hey it was in my way. So returning to Odessa I decided she was the victim because I do not like arranged marriages at all, she was happy, and I got to recruit her to my ship.

Anyways the combat in this game is just phenemonal. If DA 4s combat is half as good as this we are going to be in for a real treat. Though I am skeptical if DA 4 sticks to its companions how stealthy it is but I like just hanging out on a cliff or in the rafters all Arrow-style and scouting out the area, picking my route, and then slowly working my way through these places.

Anyways one question for me...how important are the timed contract quests? I mean A. I hate timed quests and B. I hate quests which don't actually give you a location which the contracts/ timed quests seem to do both so my instinct is to avoid them but I do not know if they have any valuable resources that I might need to buy or procrure other things.

They're just a way to get more drachmae. They usually have a 24hr time limit. I picked them up because inevitably I'll be diving shipwrecks and running into sharks or sailing and running into pirates along the way. If I didn't, it doesn't matter because these quests recycle. The rewards for all side quests are usually money along with a stack of skins / wood / metal. Quests with a ! would throw an additional equipment; armor / weapon.

Don't they say in TV never work with children or animals????? 

I avoid those as well, had a few annoying ones where I had to deliver something to someone and I get there and the person is being attacked by a wolf or something and you intervene and end hitting the person cause they run in front of you and then they attack you. 

This is why I usually don't start with the sword. Once the mobs appear, I hit each one with an arrow (spread shot) to get their attention while moving away from the quest NPC. Then I start whacking them with the sword. If the quest NPC gets into the action, the bow comes out again. I generally go for plain sword exchanges, no power skills in case I hit the NPC too.  

Its OK when I logged back on the game told me I had completed it. Must be a different cave this had A leader to be killed and three chests to loot.

I have noticed a few odd things and I think I said just the other day that the patches seem to be causing some problems like the ones you mentioned. 

I wish I could tell the people of the town that Swordfish was terrorizing that he's dead. For real. I'd be more than happy to bring out the corpse and dump it at their feet and then kill the bully who's making sure nobody talked about swordfish. But there's no such option.

Regards the first problem, no. I did not encounter it. Regards the second on the pet. Yes, it seems the pet disappears when the player logs off. I was experimenting with pets in the present PT and that was what happened. I redid the ability points, deeming such a feature a pointless hassle.  

I tried to do what you said and was successful in not killing the person I was protecting  

Yesterday I was sneaking up on a bandit camp and apparently a bandit walked into the campfire and started burning and his friends tried to put the fire out but were unsuccessful so they were telling him to RIP  

So alas I didn't get to do that much of the story last night after all. The next story quest is at level 10 and I am still only level 9.

But I decided to make a detour and take out the fort with the mercenary showing up that gave me trouble the first time. And it still gave me trouble. On the way down from sabotaging the bonfire I was seen by a guy so a skirmish broke out between me and like four guys. But it could've been worse and I did dispatch them and then cleared out the rest of the fort.

Last thing I did was I finally upgraded/ engraved my first item. Penelope's shroud. There seems to be few hoods at this point and the thing is rare for crying out loud so I gave it five percent headshot damage and upgraded it.

I also must say I am rather fond of the level up diddy that plays when you...level up.

Wait the DLC is already released?

Ah I discovered more branching icons. The list is :

* Given command of the Adrestia
* Megaris
* The decision regards Nikolaus
* Elpenor
* The Pythia
* Herodotus