[Skill Up] Bigger Isn't Always Better, Assassin's Creed:Odyssey (!! long, Spoilers, inc. MTX talk)

Ploid 6.0 · Oct 12, 2018

[Spoiler Warning] \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Doesn't seem minor.

The review contains big spoilers as he talks about different 15 hours segments of the game and things that go on during them gameplay and story wise.

He seems to think the game went for quantity over quality as far as the map goes. He goes over what he thinks about the side quests (really likes some of them), the benefit of the huge world, and he also explained the level effectiveness situation that prevents some people from continuing through their campaign (1 level below fine, 2 levels below and you may struggle a bit, 3 or more levels below and it's not worth it).

He really loves the "last 15 hours" of the game and thinks it's a shame it's saved for the end since he feel most people will not reach it (Giant Bomb's reviewer know of it but didn't want to bother giving it a shot since he was done with the campaign and just wanted it to be over).

Best combat in the series and goes into detail about it.

39:27 Why he thinks Assassin's Creed Odyssey is the most heavily monetized single player game he's ever played.

The last part reminds me of this EA quote. Skill Up likes the game, but if the middle wasn't so long he feels it would have been a more enjoyable experience and talks about it.

When you are six hours into playing Battlefield and you run out of ammo in your clip, and we ask you for a dollar to reload, you're really not very price sensitive at that point in time.

A consumer gets engaged in a property, they might spend 10,20,30,50 hours on the game and then when they're deep into the game they're well invested in in. We're not gouging, but we're charging and at that point in time the commitment can be pretty high.

But it is a great model and I think it represents a substantially better future for the industry.
EA John Riccitiello

Ocean Bones · Oct 12, 2018

Repeats what most of us already knew, game is built to make you want to spend money on mtx and it suffers for it. Such a shame.

BoJack · Oct 12, 2018

Great review as always.

Deleted member 8593 · Oct 12, 2018

Preemptively posting this:

oni-link · Oct 12, 2018

Amazingly it turns out you can play the game, enjoy the game, and still be critical of the way in which the game has been monitised

It's almost as if you don't have to needlessly attack or defend a game/developer/publisher no matter because your feelings would be hurt otherwise

Deleted member 1594 · Oct 12, 2018

Very good review that almost ensured that I won't want to buy it. Just... the size of the world and how vapid it is is a major put off. I want a reason to explore the world. I want to see new and interesting places around every corner. But so much looks the same and seems copy\pasted. And I believe him about the quality of the side quests.

The way he framed the story though.... does intrigue me. I do kinda want to experience that. So maybe... maybe when the game is dirt cheap, I'll snag it and use cheats to blast through the story.

potatohead · Oct 12, 2018

The worst thing about it imo though is just the gameplay. The combat isn't "fun" at all, like I don't even know what they are trying to design personally, it just feels awful.

Manu · Oct 12, 2018

Ocean Bones said:
Repeats what most of us already knew, game is built to make you want to spend money on mtx and it suffers for it. Such a shame.

Dardan Sandiego said:
Preemptively posting this:

lol

Kin5290 · Oct 12, 2018

Ploid 6.0 said:
[Spoiler Warning] \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Doesn't seem minor.

39:27 Why he thinks Assassin's Creed Odyssey is the most heavily monetized single player game he's ever played.

It doesn't matter what he says. He's wrong. But for the XP booster, which he admits you don't need to buy, the monetization in Odyssey is identical to that in Origins, or every Assassin's Creed game since Black Flag (which sold crafting materials packs).

Nothing about Odyssey makes it more heavily monetized than Shadow of War. Forget the lootboxes and the long final arc grind, Shadow of War integrated its cash shop into normal gameplay to a much higher degree than Odyssey, where if you don't look in the corner of some menus you'll probably never realize there was a cash shop.

Tapeworm · Oct 12, 2018

People know that this game has already dethroned BOTW as the best open world of all time and has a good chance at turning Red Dead 2 into a flop. People are scared and lashing out. When your life revolves around video games, what happens when one comes along and redefines what it even means to be a video game? What we have here is the first legit form of a video game as art. And that scares the hell out of Era.

Hey Please · Oct 12, 2018

Will watch and avoid spoilers. Generally, dude is on point and precedes with a ton of caveats to ensure that people don't misunderstand his intentions.

Tapeworm said:
People know that this game has already dethroned BOTW as the best open world of all time and has a good chance at turning Red Dead 2 into a flop. People are scared and lashing out. When your life revolves around video games, what happens when one comes along and redefines what it even means to be a video game? What we have here is the first legit form of a video game as art. And that scares the hell out of Era.

I can't tell if this is an honest post or an amazing satire.

Saint-14 · Oct 12, 2018

Tapeworm said:
People know that this game has already dethroned BOTW as the best open world of all time and has a good chance at turning Red Dead 2 into a flop. People are scared and lashing out. When your life revolves around video games, what happens when one comes along and redefines what it even means to be a video game? What we have here is the first legit form of a video game as art. And that scares the hell out of Era.

This has to be a joke.

DarkFlame92 · Oct 12, 2018

I'm sure it's a joke post and I found it quite good too

Deleted member 36578 · Oct 12, 2018

Dardan Sandiego said:
Preemptively posting this:

You know what he says directly before that right?

"Not ruling out that possibilty, because the inclusion of the 50% xp booster in the store, forces us to ask that question". In regards to the games design. It's the question that keeps coming up and why there's been people who dislike its mere existence. Thats the exact problem with it. We don't know what the devs will do with the game itself, be it pad out extra missions, or decrease xp gained just to compensate for this mtx option.

Deleted member 36086 · Oct 12, 2018

brokeastronaut said:
You know what he says directly before that right?

"Not ruling out that possibilty, because the inclusion of the 50% xp booster in the store, forces us to ask that question". In regards to it's design. It's the question that keeps coming up and why there's been people who dislike its mere existence. That is a problem.

He asks the question and answers it - not required to purchase xp booster to play and enjoy odyssey.

Deleted member 36578 · Oct 12, 2018

tommyz2kool said:
He asks the question and answers it - not required to purchase xp booster to play and enjoy odyssey.

Watch his review. It isn't an issue if somebody can beat the game(play and enjoy) without buying it, it's the fact that being able to buy it questions how the game is designed. That is my biggest issue with the mtx in Odessey.

Ploid 6.0 · Oct 12, 2018

potatohead said:
The worst thing about it imo though is just the gameplay. The combat isn't "fun" at all, like I don't even know what they are trying to design personally, it just feels awful.

I hope modders are able to tweak the combat. Take out the one hit boss moves, make them a bit tougher without it, make fire and the other DOT damage less crazy, remove the way that 3 levels above your level turns enemies into one hit killers, etc.

I will skip Origins and wait on Odyssey instead. Now I'll know what to expect, and what I need ahead of time (hope a mod pack for the level scaling is out by then).

BernardoOne · Oct 12, 2018

brokeastronaut said:
Watch his review. It isn't an issue if somebody can beat the game(play and enjoy) without buying it, it's the fact that being able to buy it questions how the game is designed. That is my biggest issue with the mtx in Odessey.

Not at all, considering it's less than Origins which had no XP boost.

Deleted member 36086 · Oct 12, 2018

brokeastronaut said:
Watch his review. It isn't an issue if somebody can beat the game(play and enjoy) without buying it, it's the fact that being able to buy it questions how the game is designed. That is my biggest issue with the mtx in Odessey.

Sure you can question it, but what matters is the real world effect. His own words are "absolutely not required to... play and enjoy."

Deleted member 36578 · Oct 12, 2018

BernardoOne said:
Not at all, considering it's less than Origins which had no XP boost.

The way the game is designed and padded makes me question it.

Deleted member 36578 · Oct 12, 2018

tommyz2kool said:
Sure you can question it, but what matters is the real world effect. His own words are "absolutely not required to... play and enjoy."

The rest of his own words, the bulk of the review, say otherwise. You aren't forced to buy it. You can beat it without it. But look what it does for you if you do purchase such a thing.

dat boi · Oct 12, 2018

Tapeworm said:
People know that this game has already dethroned BOTW as the best open world of all time and has a good chance at turning Red Dead 2 into a flop. People are scared and lashing out. When your life revolves around video games, what happens when one comes along and redefines what it even means to be a video game? What we have here is the first legit form of a video game as art. And that scares the hell out of Era.

Preach, brotha

RoninChaos · Oct 12, 2018

Dardan Sandiego said:
Preemptively posting this:

He also says later in the review that the XP booster would have bridgedthe gap from the long and tedious middle of the game to bring the bringing 15 hours and last 15 hours together to make something stellar.

Alucrid · Oct 12, 2018

what's the timestamp for the "last 15 hours of the game" comment? because i can't figure out what the hell that means

Deleted member 36578 · Oct 12, 2018

Alucrid said:
what's the timestamp for the "last 15 hours of the game" comment? because i can't figure out what the hell that means

It was somewhere about 30 minutes in.

Alucrid · Oct 12, 2018

brokeastronaut said:
It was somewhere about 30 minutes in.

thanks. not sure why he says that's the "last 15 hours" when those things can be pretty well interspersed throughout the mid-late game. one of the things he talked about i finished up before finishing the last three episodes (so "1/3" of the game or at least main story)

Ploid 6.0 · Oct 12, 2018

Oh nvm, you found it.

Deleted member 36578 · Oct 12, 2018

I believe everyone who keeps defending the mtx in Odessey really should at least watch the final portion of this video because it's what I've been worried about and it's the heart of the issue . Unfortunately there will be reprecussions.

Ocean Bones · Oct 12, 2018

Manu said:
lol

"The game suffers for it" = "people can't enjoy this without mtx"

What would ubi do without ya.

Crayon · Oct 13, 2018

This is a great video so far. I think i've sen one or two from this channel before. I could whatch this all night .

WordsintheWater · Oct 13, 2018

Can't watch this at the moment because I am nowhere near done, but I am starting to feel the fatigue just with how big this world is, I wish they would cut down the size of these maps. I mean I've played 13 hours and feel like I haven't really done anything.

Shark · Oct 13, 2018

Ocean Bones said:
Repeats what most of us already knew, game is built to make you want to spend money on mtx and it suffers for it. Such a shame.

Blatantly false. If it was, they did an absolutely awful job making it enticing.

Deleted member 8408 · Oct 13, 2018

This was an excellent review. Covers all the bases in a well thought out intelligent way.

We need more long-form reviews like this.

huH1678 · Oct 13, 2018

It'll only get more intrusive as we go along, people said horse armor wasn't a big deal either.

SRTtoZ · Oct 13, 2018

Maybe I'm in the minority but quantity over quality is what I hate most about Ubisoft games. So much meaningless side shit. If there was way less of it but more meaningful it would go a long way.

Fardeen · Oct 13, 2018

such a great review, very well balanced

Deleted member 46948 · Oct 13, 2018

Ocean Bones said:
Repeats what most of us already knew, game is built to make you want to spend money on mtx and it suffers for it. Such a shame.

Lol

Fardeen · Oct 13, 2018

GHG said:
This was an excellent review. Covers all the bases in a well thought out intelligent way.

We need more long-form reviews like this.

yes brother, we need more reviews like this

Minilla · Oct 13, 2018

SRTtoZ said:
Maybe I'm in the minority but quantity over quality is what I hate most about Ubisoft games. So much meaningless side shit. If there was way less of it but more meaningful it would go a long way.

So much this.

And as for the people laughing at the mtx quote from above. This reviewer states he was tempted .

And the store front looks like a mobile game , haha

Maybe I will pay a mobile price for it one day ?!?

Deleted member 46948 · Oct 13, 2018

Also this now makes 9th thread about "oDySsEY iS gRiNDy", congrats, that must be a new record.

entrydenied · Oct 13, 2018

Will watch when I'm done with the game. Looks interesting enough. I had a brief moment in the middle of my playthrough where I felt like I wasn't really gaining levels as quick as I want to but since I like the side content (the side quests for many regions have overarching stories that more open world games should attempt to have) I found myself not at level 44 and I'm still have about 30 to 40 of main story content to go through .The level cap is 50.

I did wish that they maybe considered having less dense areas. The scale of the world, because they chose to depict such a large portion of the ancient greek world, was also a bit weird. It's strange to be able to walk across an island in about 5 min when the character mentioned in a cutscene that it's huge.

CarthOhNoes · Oct 13, 2018

Will watch when I've completed it. I'm having more fun with it than any AC game before. It's hp there with spiderman and god of War so far for me. Just had a side quest which was genuinely poignant.

On the small island south of Attika, the little girl who wants you to get jewellery to help her "friends" was genuinely sad for me as a Primary school teacher who sees children with similar issues in a day to day basis.

Deleted member 8593 · Oct 13, 2018

brokeastronaut said:
You know what he says directly before that right?

"Not ruling out that possibilty, because the inclusion of the 50% xp booster in the store, forces us to ask that question". In regards to the games design. It's the question that keeps coming up and why there's been people who dislike its mere existence. Thats the exact problem with it. We don't know what the devs will do with the game itself, be it pad out extra missions, or decrease xp gained just to compensate for this mtx option.

RoninChaos said:
He also says later in the review that the XP booster would have bridgedthe gap from the long and tedious middle of the game to bring the bringing 15 hours and last 15 hours together to make something stellar.

Yes, he makes it pretty clear that he personally didn't enjoy that part but also acknowledges that many people will like the grind and busywork. The XP booster obviously needs to be addressed because it's the big topic with this game now but there's worth in examining its effects on the game itself. My intent with posting that picture wasn't to claim that the XP booster isn't a problem whatsoever; He later specifically says that it might be the game that leads down a slippery slope. It was more to show that his argument isn't that it affects the game as is right now.

Deleted member 13328 · Oct 13, 2018

I haven't played the game so I won't watch it. Looking forward to my play through to see where I land with the fatigue and if I feel that the world is to big, I felt some of that fatigue during my play through of Origins, but I platinum-ed it either way so I'm looking forward to playing through it when I have the time.

It's going to be interesting seeing the trophy stats for this game, see how many finishes the game or how much side stuff people really do. At least get a hint how well people like doing side stuff.

Claven said:
Also this now makes 9th thread about "oDySsEY iS gRiNDy", congrats, that must be a new record.

No this thread is about Skill-Ups review, I think there is a interesting discussion to be had about big worlds in games, how much is too much and so on and I think this review is a great jumping off point.

Deleted member 11421 · Oct 13, 2018

RoninChaos said:
He also says later in the review that the XP booster would have bridgedthe gap from the long and tedious middle of the game to bring the bringing 15 hours and last 15 hours together to make something stellar.

I'm not sure how that happened to him, the actual wall (it jumps from level 26 or so to 32 out of nowhere for the main quest) doesn't occur for most people until the last 15-20% of the game.

Even with the booster, if you haven't been doing a ton of exploring and extra missions, you will have to do side content for a while at that point; the same damn thing that annoyed me in Origins.

Deleted member 36578 · Oct 13, 2018

Dardan Sandiego said:
Yes, he makes it pretty clear that he personally didn't enjoy that part but also acknowledges that many people will like the grind and busywork. The XP booster obviously needs to be addressed because it's the big topic with this game now but there's worth in examining its effects on the game itself. My intent with posting that picture wasn't to claim that the XP booster isn't a problem whatsoever; He later specifically says that it might be the game that leads down a slippery slope. It was more to show that his argument isn't that it affects the game as is right now.

Absolutely. I think there are still some who just don't realize the plight that mtx has introduced into single player games. Even if someone completely ignores them their existence is an important talking point .

Deleted member 13328 · Oct 13, 2018

I think it's also somewhat up to how you are as an player. I never noticed the gating in Origins since when I play open-world games I'm almost always over leveled. For example, when I played Fallout 4 I was almost max level before going for the main story. In Origins I maxed out my level way before I finished the main story.

TemplaerDude · Oct 13, 2018

Tapeworm said:
People know that this game has already dethroned BOTW as the best open world of all time and has a good chance at turning Red Dead 2 into a flop. People are scared and lashing out. When your life revolves around video games, what happens when one comes along and redefines what it even means to be a video game? What we have here is the first legit form of a video game as art. And that scares the hell out of Era.

This is the best copypasta I've seen on here.

Deleted member 8408 · Oct 13, 2018

Tapeworm said:
People know that this game has already dethroned BOTW as the best open world of all time and has a good chance at turning Red Dead 2 into a flop. People are scared and lashing out. When your life revolves around video games, what happens when one comes along and redefines what it even means to be a video game? What we have here is the first legit form of a video game as art. And that scares the hell out of Era.

Fully agreed.

This will be a landmark moment for singleplayer games and will be remembered forever.

We will look back in 10 year time and think "man, remember when XP boosters used to cost just $10 in Assassin's Creed Oddysey? Those were some good times".

True art is expensive. You've got to spend a decent amount of money to experience it.

Deranged Hermit · Oct 13, 2018

Not sure I see how the size of the world and mtx are related. You'll hit the level cap long before you finish exploring everything and you don't earn xp at the cap.

[Skill Up] Bigger Isn't Always Better, Assassin's Creed:Odyssey (!! long, Spoilers, inc. MTX talk)

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