Assassins Creed Odyssey

Not much to report today. Bit frustrated as I ended up lost in a tomb and well to lazy to look up the solution, yet. Ugh probably should find a way to regulate that kind of thing. Also doing a puzzle earlier threw me for a loop until I thought to myself 'did they add an ACV style puzzle to my Assassins Creed Odyssey?' and sure enough had to shoot an arrow through a door.

Not all Treassure should be found/A Message Recieved.

First of all appologies for not properly spoilering my comments from yesterday, been awhile since I have manually had to do that.

And well I got out of that stupid tomb. Had to look it up and man that was certainly intricrite as hell. Probably will get a lot of people telling me they did it by themselves but I just can't see it and it seems a bit like an artificial way of fluffing up the game time...which I suppose can't blame them since this thing is very short otherwise.

A Message Recieved



Power Corrupts us All


So in the end I am quite surprised about how relevant this was to the game, plesently so. This story didn't need to be told per se of course but probably circumstances allowed it to happen and its mega kudos for Ubisoft to do this and to make it free in the first place. This was an enjoyable little 3 ish hour experience I guess. And the last extended cutscenes were cool. So, back to Vahalla soon.

Still anyone kind of skeeving out over Alethia being all helpful given that we, the audience, know she is actually a super bitch? lol. Of course the answer to this is this is still all a part of her plan. *cue Cylon music*

SO I had bought AC Odyssey a while back when it was on sale, but only finally got around to playing it over the weekend. And holy smokes is the level-gating in this game brutal.

I played for maybe 3 hours, and I don't think I got a single piece of gear that I could actually use, it required a higher level. I wasn't high enough level to continue the main story quests, so I did a few side-quests to level up, and then figured I could do the Required Level 5 quest at level 4... Nope. Not even close. Got my ass handed to me.

And that was the last I will ever play AC Odyssey. Which is really sad because I'm a big Hellenophile and really wanted to like this game, but this is just... trash. Terrible game design.

Otoh, I read that AC Valhalla didn't have Odyssey's brutal level-gating issues, so I bought that on sale last night and played through the prologue. So far so good!

I agree - partially. The level gating in Odyssey is brutal, especially at the start. I have - after more than an hour of trying - been level 4 when killing the level 5 merc on Kepphalonia. But it was a nightmare. The difference becomes less noticeable as the game progresses, but it is still there, even when Kass/Alexios is a manifestation of the god of death. Valhalla has level suggestions/restrictions for areas, but they're nowhere near as punishing as Odyssey.

With regards to the over levelled early equipment, though...don't know that I've encountered that, myself. I'm currently back playing Odyssey for the Valhalla cross-over and enjoying it again. Kass is level 75, though, so that helps

I remember my biggest frustration playing ACOD for the first time was it really forces you into melee combat and the mercenaries being a complete pain in the ass. Choose your abilities wisely and once you start upgrading your spear you will start to become a god. I totally recommend any gear that has Melee resistance on it and Heroic Strike is a really useful ability early on.

Re the level gating, I am not usually a fan but it was mainly to make you complete some areas first and to learn the games combat, stealth and exploration and there is numerous stuff to do when you get to whatever the first place is you arrive to level up, gain resources and you should be finding a shit ton of gear.

Three hours is nothing in this game, my first PT took me over 200 hours IIRC. I think you are making a mistake not continuing to play especially as you are a fan of the era, just finish Kephalonia (you can skip the mercenary if you want to) and get to Phokis. 

Stick with it, honestly I have never know a game to drop so much gear, when you reach Phokis after Kephallonia you'll have plenty to do and I think you'll get used to at this early stage just not venturing out of the area till you reach the required level and that will change once you move on.

You can also just drop the difficulty.
 

q5tyhj totally this the thing I have missed most after playing ACOD and playing other games is the great group or especially the couple of great companions you end up having most game.

I may go back to it at some point. It was just impossible to establish any momentum or engagement, spending my first few hours in the game butting up against this brutal level-gating. Just killed my desire to go back and keep playing.

In the meantime, I'm loving Valhalla so far. 

Not to be obtuse or sound preachy but I don't get this whole level gating thing.

I assume you didn't play AC Origins it was gated the same way, Valhalla is as well it just uses a different name for it "power levels". You cannot roam wherever you want in that either you have to follow the story even more strictly than in Odyssey as enemies in higher power levels will be far too over powered for you.  In Valhalla even in the first area Norway there are enemies that are unbeatable in one area for story purposes.


If you are following the story in Odyssey the gating should not be an issue as you will quickly level above these areas level limits and be able to roam where you want except for some of the really difficult L50 areas. This ceases to become an issue the further you go along and especially as you level your Spear up which increase ability strengths and capabilities.

In Odyssey did you leave Kephallonia?

If you do all the main and side story quests on Kephallonia you will get to the maximum level there of the enemies which I think is L6 easily but you can get higher. By boss fight are you referring to The Cyclops because at L6+ you should be able to beat him and the same for the Mercenary who you can avoid till later in the game if you want to. The fights will be hard but certainly by L6 you should be able to handle them. 

When you get to Phokis (you need to defeat The Cyclops), enemies are L9 to 13 and this can be tough when you first arrive (but doable I think I had already reached L10) but if you do the side and main quests you will level up really quickly. If you want to grind it to level up further (I did) and get more gear drops and roam more freely do the notice board quests repeatedly. Only the naval ones on the boards will be difficult.

Long story short the Level Gating should not be an issue if you follow the story quests and this is the same for Valhalla.


 


 

Odyssey on Nightmare was an uphill battle the entire way. I've beat Nioh, which is a much more technically demanding game but Odyssey was almost as hard due to the level scaling and damage model. Neither Origins or Valhalla were nearly as difficult.

To be fair, I found it difficult to avoid that son of a bitch, too It made the early levels very frustrating because I had to waste time hiding and detouring instead of doing quests. But I agree with the rest of your post about level gating, aside from that merc and

Yeah it was definitely a pain avoiding the Merc on Kephallonia but I am pretty certain he follows a fixed path. The Timber Yard that you have to do IIRC is a place you have to be careful of because if that becomes open combat he goes past there and will join in.

And re your spoiler that goes without saying that was an absolutely horrendously difficult fight, quite possibly the hardest or at least one of the top three hardest fights I think I have done in any game. it was great to go back and do that fight in NG+ and demolish her.