Assassin's Creed Odyssey Standard Edition - Xbox One

I've played a number of Assassin's Creed titles going back years, and I think this is my favorite of them all. The game pretty faithfully recreates the geographical locations of the ancient Greek world of the 5th century B.C. The attention to detail is remarkable. The game got me so interested in ancient Greece, that I bought a book about it.I sent some videos of the game to a friend who is the chairman of the art department at a large university, and he was really impressed with the recreation of the architecture and artwork. While I also enjoyed AC Origins, the game world in Odyssey seems more alive. The NPCs don't keep repeating the same phrases all the time, which was one of the few things that annoyed me about Origins.You can choose to play as either Kassandra or Alexios, and the choice doesn't really affect the development of the story. I chose Kassandra, and I still laugh at some of her mild sarcasm as she interacts with a particularly pompous, conceited character. The voice acting for the main characters in the story is excellent. The pronunciation of names of historical figures and places is different from what I'm accustomed to, and I assume that the Greek pronunciation in the game is more accurate. The main characters are drawn from history, although some literary license has been taken with dates and events. One example is Brasidas, a character you meet in the game. In real life, Brasidas was probably the most famous Spartan general during the Peloponnesian War.The combat offers a mix of styles of melee, ranged and stealth, so you can use whichever you prefer or is best for the situation. The main character doesn't use shields in Odyssey (although shields were a critical means of protection in ancient Greek combat), but enemies can use shields. Considering that the game takes place around the Aegean Sea, there's decent naval combat as well. Most of the boss fights are challenging, but a few are repetitive where the difficulty is based mostly on the boss's large health pool. You have lots of options to spec your character and you can re-spec with minimal cost at any time if you want to change your play style.There's an enormous amount of content in Odyssey, including lots of optional side quests and exploration of the huge game world. Plus, there's even more content in the DLC. Ubisoft created an amazing game that's well worth the cost.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey: $27.29 at the time of reviewThis was my first foray into the Assassin’s Creed franchise. Honestly, I wasn’t going to get it until a buddy recommended it. Little did I know that this would become one of my favorite games of the last 10 years.*What I liked*:The world is a *beautiful* and faithful recreation of ancient Greece. There were moments (sunsets over the fields of wheat, for example) where I just sat there and watched the sunset. Just an amazing world to be in.The story is fun and engaging. I won’t mention any specifics for fear of spoilers (even now, three years after it came out), but it’s pretty good writing for a video game.The questing/world exploration incentive model is fantastic. You explore the many smaller Greek islands and each one has a number of objectives that can be completed in order to “complete” the storyline of that island. It’s a perfect break up of objective-based gameplay that lets me feel like I got something done in my gaming session.There is a bounty system (think the star system from Grand Theft Auto) where increasingly tough bounty hunters come after you. I LOVE this! You can fight & kill them to work your way up the prestige ladder and become #1.The skill tree and combat have been a polarizing thing in this game. But for me personally, it is amazing. You can really dial in on sneaking around and being stabby (my preference), being shooty (my second favorite), or being an outright brawler. There’s a little more weight on being a brawler due to a number of large battlefield type fights which basically render your sneaking null. But they are still doable (and even easy be sparing a few skill points to the melee tree).The loot system is something closer to a Blizzard game with color-based rarity and randomized stats, another thing I LOVE. This makes getting a new piece of equipment potentially very exciting! Also, if you like the thing you have, you can just upgrade it. I used the same weapon for something like 40 hours of gameplay this way.Speaking of gameplay, there is *so much* to do here. I spent over 150 hours in the game and I never got the DLCs. But the best part is that if you just want to focus on the story you can. You don’t have to get lost in the world, but you can if you want to!*What I didn't like*:So, this game isn’t perfect. There are some quality of life skills (*cough* no fall damage *cough*) that come later in the game than they should. I’m not a fan of forcing players to choose between a quality of life skill and combat skills and you do have to do that here.There are some frustrating times where I think I should be stealthed but the AI seems to see me through walls.The ship combat is… there. It’s pretty fun at first, but even with later boat and skill upgrades it becomes tedious. I ended up maxing it out my boat so that I could just face roll the ship fights.*The Bottom Line:*As I mentioned above, AC: Odyssey is one of my favorite games of the last 10 years. I know it’s not the typical AC game (in fact, it’s below average from that perspective) but as an open world roleplaying game it is amazing. It is five stars out of five all day long. I wish I could go back and play it again without knowing anything about it. I would absolutely buy this again. For $27 bucks?! Oh yeah!

Game is super fun!

I like that I got a great deal for a fun game

First Assassin’s Creed ever played and did not disappoint. I love stealth games and this one made it quite fun. Unlike others which requires you to play stealthy, this one allows regular combat as well (for those who like to just run in swords waving). The skill tree has some interesting skills and good combinations that make the play style unique depending on the person. If I had to complain about anything, it would be the climbing mechanics.The climbing mechanics are all wonky. You can climb practically horizontal on cliff walls but sometimes can’t climb on a bookcase or two-foot fence. Trying to climb upwards is a bit buggy. You’ll be running from an enemy by climbing a cliff then suddenly stop moving while being pelted with arrows. Trying to move upwards does nothing so you hop to the right then back to where you were and it only then it’ll let you keep climbing up.Another buggy issue is parkour during lock-on combat. It’s near impossible to jump from one place to another while locked on to a target. It’s almost like invisible walls are preventing you from going anywhere. You have to unlock then lock on again. It’s honestly just better to not lock on at all unless you need a specific target.Despite all that, I love the sea combat (except chasing after a sinking treasure chest) and the RPG customization available. It’s like a mix of Skyrim and the Witcher.