151.7 hours played
Written 15 days ago
9.2/10
A game with both clear strengths and weaknesses, but overall, it is a grand adventure worthy of the Odyssey name. Let’s start with the strengths: compared to Origins, Odyssey has further optimized many aspects of gameplay, such as a more in-depth skill system and a more diverse combat system, allowing players to enjoy different combat styles; In terms of narrative, it largely draws inspiration from excellent RPG models like The Witcher 3 or The Elder Scrolls, adopting a choice-based dialogue system where players' decisions significantly influence the progression of the story, allowing them to craft their own legendary tale based on their choices; Side quests have also seen a significant improvement in quality compared to Origins. These stories are either humorous and entertaining or gripping and intense, and most left a strong impression on me, playing a crucial role in expanding the world-building and shaping the historical backdrop. Overall, as the second installment of the Mythology Trilogy, it has quite a few standout features.
Now let's talk about the drawbacks. The biggest issue is that Ubisoft has taken its signature “copy-paste” approach to the extreme in this game. From AC1 all the way to Origins, I've never encountered such a severe problem in any previous title. With a 200-square-kilometer open-world map filled with question marks, nearly all the gameplay is identical, which is utterly tedious. When you play any other game, you enjoy the process of “playing.” But when you play Odyssey, you just want to “finish” it and “end” it. Players feel like they're not “playing a game” but “completing a task”. It's a double whammy on both physical and mental endurance. While Origins at least had memorable, unique Egyptian landscapes, Odyssey simply copies and pastes the same scenery tens of thousands of times: blue skies, seas, trees, stone statues, stone houses, wooden houses, animals, caves, dungeons, fortresses... Over 200 square kilometers of open-world map filled with these elements, lacking any memorable or distinctive features.
What's worse, Odyssey's main storyline is rather lackluster. While the side stories are content-rich, when paired with such formulaic, template-based gameplay, it's easy for players to feel frustrated and bored. Most tasks follow the same pattern: to complete A, you must first complete B, C, and D; to complete B, C, and D, you must first complete B1, B2, B3, C1, C2, C3, D1, D2, D3... talk to him, talk to her, help him, help her, kill him, kill her... Even the most compelling storylines become tedious and monotonous when paired with such gameplay. After playing for a few hours, players quickly figure out the game's formula, losing the sense of novelty, and the remaining time is spent repeating the same content, which is extremely frustrating.
More importantly, Odyssey lacks the elements that keep players motivated to play. The plot is lackluster, and the gameplay is repetitive. Previous AC series titles featured meticulously designed levels and intricate details, allowing players to enjoy stealth, assassination, parkour, or combat with equal enthusiasm; Odyssey, however, simply presents players with a 200-square-kilometer open world that feels like a copy-paste job, devoid of any carefully crafted content, feeling rushed and half-hearted, leaving players unable to derive much enjoyment from the designers' intentions. I believe most players are like me—they rarely bother with stealth assassinations and instead charge in to kill enemies directly, as the assassination mechanics are extremely boring and unengaging. With numerous enemies, blade no longer capable of one-hit kills, significantly reduced stealth environments, and greatly increased difficulty in stealth gameplay, why would players choose to play as an assassin? It’s simpler to transform into a berserker and engage in unrestrained combat. Actually, this has been the case since Origins. The Mythology Trilogy has completely lost the core fun and essence of “Assassin's Creed.”
In summary, Odyssey has many aspects that I find unsatisfying. However, if we evaluate the Mythology Trilogy as a separate game, there are still many commendable aspects. If we overlook these flaws and shortcomings, Odyssey is still an excellent work, and I personally recommend playing it. I spent 150 hours unlocking all achievements, and just doing that alone left me exhausted. Unfortunately, there are still many unresolved questions in the game, and some repetitive tasks remain undone. If I were to complete everything, it would likely take over 200 hours, and I swear that would be the most grueling experience of my life, so I gave up. However, if you don't aim to unlock all achievements and simply want to enjoy the main storyline and some interesting side stories, then Odyssey offers a pretty good experience.
That said, Assassin's Creed, in my opinion, had already come to an end with Syndicate. All subsequent works are essentially different games.