It’s been one month since Assassin’s Creed Odyssey released, allowing players around the world to live out their lifelong fantasies of fighting sharks and hunting down cultist.
Between discussions of microtransactions, cancelled live events, and new quests, the game continues to generation discussion and grow bigger with each passing day. Here’s what’s happened since release.
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Assassin’s Creed Odyssey releases officially on October 5, and folks mostly enjoy it. Our own review complimented the game’s vivid world and intricate gameplay systems. But some players are immediately taken aback by the inclusion of certain items within the in-game store. Most notably, concerns arise over a purchasable experience booster that grants a permanent bonus to experience gain. Some players are enraged, believing that the game is intentionally unbalanced in order to force players to buy the boost.
Other players, including many here at Kotaku, say they never felt tempted to pick up a boost.
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Google’s ‘Project Stream’ begins testing around the same time, using Assassin’s Creed Odyssey as its first game. The impressive streaming service allows players to open up a browser tab and almost instantly play a streamed version of the game with next to no lag.
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YouTube channel “How Big Is The Map?” travels from one end of Odyssey’s world to the other. In all, it took 2:27:54 for them to get from one end of Ancient Greece to the other.
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Speaking to Kotaku on October 9, Ubisoft outlines more information about Odyssey’s microtransactions. They explain that the odds of Olympian Gift lootboxes are more favourable to the player than Origins’ Heka Chests, and that time-saving maps largely pay out more rewards (in loot or orichalcum) than their monetary value. The transparency does help to explain the microtransaction situation, but many players remain disappointed.
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On October 11, Ubisoft sneaks a very helpful addition into the game: a small chest on the Adrestia that allows players to stow excess loot. Players rejoice at the fact they their cluttered inventories can finally be cleaned out.
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A week after release, I take some time to remind folks that some of the game’s best content isn’t tied to the main quest to reunite Kassandra’s family. I’m mentioning it here again because, for real, some of the game’s stranger and best stuff is on the fringes.
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Live events, which were meant to launch on October 16th, don’t arrive at the expected time. The problem centres on the first legendary mercenary: Damais the Indifferent A that the development team is looking for a fix to whatever is preventing his arrival in game.
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One week after the first failed live event release, Ubisoft is still unable to add legendary mercenaries to the game. Instead, the game’s first legendary ship, the Black Wind, is added for players to battle. All things considered, it’s an exciting fight that shows how promising live events can be.
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At the same time, Origins’ hero Bayek is added as an Ubisoft Club reward. Players can spend their in-game points to unlock him as a lieutenant for their ship.
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On October 25, Kotaku staff writer Gita Jackson embarks on her quest to be extremely gay and kiss all the ladies in game. Time will tell if she succeeds.
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Patch 1.0.6 drops soon after, bringing numerous quality of life improvements with it. An in-depth player stats screen is added and cadded an option to auto-craft arrows. The patch also grants greater rewards for taking down enemy mercenaries and decreases the cost for upgrading gear.
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The new patch also adds the first “Lost Tale of Greece” to the game. In it, the player must help put on (or screw up) one of Thespis’ plays. It’s a surprisingly lengthy side-quest with fun character moments that players definitely shouldn’t miss.
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On November 3, Ubisoft finally announces that legendary mercenary events have been put on hold. The content was apparently only appearing for a small portion of players. Ubisoft says it hopes to implement a fix “this month” and announces weekly legendary ship battles in the meantime.
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Talk of Odyssey’s difficulty continues on official forums and elsewhere. On Ubisoft’s forums, an official confirms that “an option for the Auto enemy scaling is part of our post-launch content roadmap.”
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Today, Ubisoft outlined more additions coming to the game including the ability to toggle XP boosters on and off, new outfit customisations, and a battle (available November 13) against a new monster: Steropes the Cyclops.
And that’s where we are. Odyssey’s first month was a mixture of growing pains and attentive new additions and features.This is a game that Ubisoft plans to update for a long time. Players can look forward to more Lost Tales of Greece, mythical creature fights, and the Legacy of the First Blade DLC which is aimed for a December release.
Comments
13 responses to “Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, One Month Later”
Thanks for the updates like this. With Games As A Service becoming more prevalent, revisiting games some time after release is becoming more important. You can no longer rely on just the launch reviews in deciding if a game is worth it later on, and articles like this help with that.
That’s one of my biggest issues with the state of the internet as an information source these days. It’s been around long enough that whenever you look something up the results are almost always going to be from the past. That being said, the irony is if you’re trying to find information about something from the past you’ll most likely end up with the most recent results instead.
Yeah, its gotten worse over the years as we’ve relied on it more. But as it promotes the recent results, you need recent results to matter as well, and not just be copies of other reviews. Articles like this help, which is what I like.
Google “assassin’s creed odyssey review” and its a mixed bag of release reviews, and a couple in recent days. People looking for info may not be aware of whats changed and how much better it might make the experience.
Oh good to hear about the scaling. I am 19 and already four levels over the zone i am in. I might hold off a little then. keep myself entertained in the Old West until then.
Level-scaling already exists – as you level-up, you will already notice that the enemies will start scaling up. My understanding is that it’s affected by difficulty – at easier difficulty settings, the game will allow a larger gap between your level and how much it up-scales the content you out-level. So, if out-levelling the content is making it too easy, it’ll probably be better to either tackle higher content, wait til 50, or up the difficulty a notch.
The discussion they’re having, I believe, is how to turn scaling off (currently not an option), so that you can be a level 50 whomping on 19s, instead of not being able to find any zones that are under 46.
i have seriously loved this game….. BUT, and its a big one, Once i got to the level 50 cap i lost a lot of interest. I pretty much have the best gear in the game and im at the highest level so i stopped invading fortes etc to get xp and loot to upgrade my equipment. Then i just smashed out the rest of he main story quests. A little annoying
Have you tried a different set? I found when I got a bit too settled in my poison set, shifting to a hunter set forced me to play differently and it was interesting to try out.
No i haven’t actually. Not a bad idea at all. I could change up the way i play and reset all my abilities as well.
How many hours did it take you to reach the cap? It sounds like you’re annoyed that you finished it?
Yeah haha I am upset. I easily got 70 hours out of it and that makes me sound bad complaining. It just felt like I was in the middle of the game and suddenly I couldn’t go any further.
This is such a good game. I’m 35 hours in and nearly level 30.
The auto-levelling annoyed me at first – I have my own personal “run” through Breath of the Wild I’ve done five times now which enables me to get some amazing armour before even starting the main quest – so I like to be overpowered, but this just isn’t possible here. I relaxed a bit though when I realised the main quest hovers around your level and never goes beyond it. It’s a way to lock you out of regions, but keep the main quest at your level. I’d be surprised if UBISOFT changed this given most microtransactions relate to powering up.
I don’t think this reviewed well given it’s scope – it would feel like a slog if you were trying to finish it for a review. But in terms of respect for time, each and every 30min brings a new story and a new location. Jason Schreier mentioned in a recent splitscreen he thought it was better than Witcher 3. Other might not agree, but I definitely agree (it has taken me 2 years to put 30 hours into Witcher 3, as opposed to a month for ACO).
I’ve been slowly getting through it and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every minute. Side quests are now actually enjoyable compared to Origins.
Yeah but when are they putting the Discovery Tour mode in?
I’m 80hrs and going strong. This is a casual gamers paradise. As a father of two it is great to pop in, complete a few quests and pop out again. As a fisherman myself the ocean is extraordinarily well implemented and the ships are tremendous fun.. 280 and counting. The singing crew just adds a wonderful dimension and the visit then fast travel options make moving around a breeze. Enjoying myself thoroughly.
I haven’t started this, I quite like Origins but I have barely scratched the surface of that. I really don’t know whether to wait a while, play more of Origins. Or just jump into this, because really? What’s the difference if I own both.
In Origins I have found myself often just exploring, doing side quests and various things and not progressing the story.