Assassin's Creed: Odyssey - First Reviews

Yeah, and I'm quite prepared to accept that they aren't necessary, and that the grind may not be all that bad. But, I do consider the inclusion of microtransactions to have an insidious on gaming, as time goes on. I think it's a bit like the slowly boiling frog effect, and I don't like to encourage them by buying the games that tout them. Which is a bummer, because I quite like the look of this one. I'll probably compromise, and buy it when it's cheap.

Yes I agree with this point. This is a mainstream game and targeted at kids/impatient etc and microtransactions are there to exploit such people.
 
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Just read this article linked from Couchpotato's news thread which seems relevant.

https://www.polygon.com/2018/10/4/17936292/assassins-creed-odyssey-xp-boost-price

The title doesn't explain the concept well, but for $10 you can get 50% more XP for the entire game and any other save games you make.

This is why microtransactions hurt. Assassin's Creed have slowly increased the impact of their microtransactions until this point.

Seems according to the article writer the default is 'hard' or more accurately 'tedious' mode where you have to do a lot of grinding to get to the 'good' bits.

But you can play 'normal' mode giving you more XP, but it'll cost you $10 more.

Or you can play 'easy' mode which, along with the XP gives you 50% more gold too, which will cost you $15 more.

My opinion, which I've had for a while having played other games with microtransactions, and that Ripper's mentioned here, is that rather than try to make the game as fun as they can, the developers attempt to make the game the right combination of fun and frustrating that encourages people to pay extra to increase the fun/decrease the frustration. Too much fun and you don't get the extra cash, too much frustration and people aren't going to pay extra for a game they get no enjoyment from.

I'm the type who'll never buy one of these microtransactions and if a game series becomes unfun enough I'll just stop buying. The problem with that is that I expect enough people will pay the extra $10 to more than make up for the $70 they lose from me so I don't think people like me will change things. I can foresee the time 10 years or so from now that I just stop buying new games altogether, but that's okay - I still have a crapton of old games to replay or that I haven't discovered yet!
 
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Why would anyone care about microtransactions in a non-competitive PvE game?? I just bought it, and it is clear that even more so than Origins, it is trying to take the route of The Witcher 3. Beyond that, they have specifically added an Exploration Mode that is meant to discourage the kind of mindless play-style the series has been known for. It's meant to be a long journey where you build up your character. There are DOZENS of areas to go to and increase our experience. If you want to ruin the entire game for yourself, go ahead and buy EXP boosts and weapons. If you never touch the cash shop, it won't negatively effect you in any way. In fact, it will make your experience richer.
 
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When I play these games, I do 95% of the major content (meaning main story and side missions, with a dollop of other stuff) anyway, so to me it's not a grind, it's called "playing the game". If that content isn't interesting enough to want to do, I wouldn't be playing the game at all. If it is, and to me in AC games it usually is and certainly is here, I'm going to want to do it anway. Nobody's twisting my arm.

So, microtransaction booster whatevers are irrelevant to me. I just ignore them. I also don't pre-order the game or buy any fancy premium editions, just like I don't buy them with any other game. So what's left over for me is a fun, beautiful, very generous game. I do often run into repetition fatigue after a while with AC games, and that will likely happen to me here, too. But if the story/character quality continue to be on the level I've seen in my first 11 hours, that will carry me through.
 
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Why would anyone care about microtransactions in a non-competitive PvE game??
For first post you got thumb up from me, but this sentence has a wrong premise.
AC Odyssey is a full priced game not socalled free to play. As such product, adding microtransactions to it are a huge no-no.
Competitive, pve, pvp, sp, mp, etc, doesn't matter. It has a fixed price which isn't $0.

Microtransactions, in any product, are plain scam. The reason why am I not yelling 0/10 avoidware here is because only a lunatic would buy helix points in AC Odyssey as it brings absolutely nothing to the game and is like paying money for someone's fart. Should I care about locos? I'm not a shrink. Should gaming media care? Absolutely! Drop the game's score in reviews. Instead of crowning it goty as PC Gamer did with MGS5.

Didn't notice immediately, but the article quoted up there is from Polygon. For god's sakes. That scandal making out of nothing site is supposed to be ignored.
"xp boost scandal" does not exist. By solving sidequests you'll outlevel everything (arguably as the game levelscales) so what for do you need xp boost for? It's wasted money! If Polygon got scammed and is now furious because they were stupid, well, boohoo.
 
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The microtransactions are there for the casual player, and I dare say they are not relevant to anyone reading these forums. Just ignore them...

As hard as it might be for people around here to understand - some people will NOT finish up all available story side quests in a region before moving on ;) I guess those are the people who could be interested in paying for a +50% xp boost. Personally I have the opposite problem (as well as in the Witcher 3 and AC:Origins)... simply by doing all the story missions I level up too much, so towards the end of the game I tend to be vastly overpowered for the content.

Currently playing this game on Hard and (obviously) haven't spent a dime on anything... and for now the game is giving me a fun and balanced experience.
 
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This looks like it could be a lot of fun for a person who enjoys lawnmowering content in typical RPGs. Might just buy it - my first AC game.

I tried the second or the third AC and was disappointed enough to not try any of the others. Came Origins; I tried and I loved it. Odyssey is even better.
I love the period so that helps.
 
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I'm glad I got a chance to give this a second try (returned it the first time). Once I figured the controls I got less frustrated and slowly got into it. Now having a lot of fun with it.
 
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If the game is too hard or too long for a casual player then the game should allow an easier mode for those people. The problem with premise is that it encourages the design to entice people to spend more $$$. This shouldn't be necessary just allow a cheat mode that gives the player all the in game cash they want and it should be included in the base price. Otherwise you will find a few iterations further-on that you have to use microtransactions just to advance. It is a standard practice to slowly let users get use to a new model and then make it more forceful.
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I can see where some games (or developers of games) are struggling but generally speaking these games are quite profitable. This just equates to raw greed (or general corporate view - it isn't enough to make good money - you have to make MORE money than the previous cycle).

The microtransactions are there for the casual player, and I dare say they are not relevant to anyone reading these forums. Just ignore them…

As hard as it might be for people around here to understand - some people will NOT finish up all available story side quests in a region before moving on ;) I guess those are the people who could be interested in paying for a +50% xp boost. Personally I have the opposite problem (as well as in the Witcher 3 and AC:Origins)… simply by doing all the story missions I level up too much, so towards the end of the game I tend to be vastly overpowered for the content.

Currently playing this game on Hard and (obviously) haven't spent a dime on anything… and for now the game is giving me a fun and balanced experience.
 
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Well, actually the game does have an easy mode, and personally I cannot imagine that it would ever be necessary for anyone to pay additional money to be able to play the game. They've had microtransactions in these games for the last 4-5 games but it has never been something the player had to do. I could not say for sure, but I think your fear that it will some day be required is unfounded.

Also, none of us can really know if the game is profitable or not. Yes - they generally seem to sell a lot of copies, but they also have several hundred people working on each game. It's not always so simple to know if a game project is profitable or not....

Anyway - I'm also not a fan of microtransactions in game. But my point is that there are many games that are MUCH worse in this regard than the AC series. I think they offer excellent value for money and have a fair approach to monetization...

If the game is too hard or too long for a casual player then the game should allow an easier mode for those people. The problem with premise is that it encourages the design to entice people to spend more $$$. This shouldn't be necessary just allow a cheat mode that gives the player all the in game cash they want and it should be included in the base price. Otherwise you will find a few iterations further-on that you have to use microtransactions just to advance. It is a standard practice to slowly let users get use to a new model and then make it more forceful.
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I can see where some games (or developers of games) are struggling but generally speaking these games are quite profitable. This just equates to raw greed (or general corporate view - it isn't enough to make good money - you have to make MORE money than the previous cycle).
 
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I'm glad I got a chance to give this a second try (returned it the first time). Once I figured the controls I got less frustrated and slowly got into it. Now having a lot of fun with it.

Glad you are enjoying it. It took me while to get hang of the controls in AC Origins as well. Once you do the combat is is really fun.
 
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Just watched the Gamespot review. Looks either awful or tackily brilliant
 
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Glad you are enjoying it. It took me while to get hang of the controls in AC Origins as well. Once you do the combat is is really fun.

My thoughts too, when you get especially good at the combat there's a really fun flow to it..
 
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The new Exploration mode is a big plus for me and the main reason I'm optimistic about AC: Odyssey. One thing I've always hated about the series is the incessant hand-holding, and they finally added a mode that apparently does away with it.

I would love to see them retroactively add it to AC: Origins as well, but I'm not sure if that's even possible.
 
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I'm glad I got a chance to give this a second try (returned it the first time). Once I figured the controls I got less frustrated and slowly got into it. Now having a lot of fun with it.

Hey wolf, we typically have very similar tastes in games, so; does it have parkour? I can't do parkour. I suck at it. If I have to aim my mouse or click at an exact certain time, I'm gonna fail.
 
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Hey wolf, we typically have very similar tastes in games, so; does it have parkour? I can't do parkour. I suck at it. If I have to aim my mouse or click at an exact certain time, I'm gonna fail.
Well if you played the last game Origins they simplified how it works.

You just hold down a button move to the the location to climb and its instant.

It's nothing like how it was done in ther older Assassin Creed games.
 
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does it have parkour? I can't do parkour. I suck at it. If I have to aim my mouse or click at an exact certain time, I'm gonna fail.
It does. You can. Yes, you do, so what. No, movement is not QTE anymore, it was in some old AC titles.
You just hold down a button move to the the location to climb and its instant.
Button? What button.
Hold shift and you'll be climbing upwards automatically unless it's a ledge where holding shift while moving will make you jump. Hold C and you'll be climbing downwards automatically unless you're on a ground already where C will put you into sneaking.
Very easy to "master". If you don't like that keyboard setup, you can remap to something else, but I find the default movement scheme pretty effective.

Sadly, while movement isn't QTE, minibosses and bosses are. I have no idea who told Ubi that Dark Souls stupidity of QTE combat is something good. It sux. Luckily, most of "bulletsponges" you can "soften" with backstab assassination attempt where they're left with half or even less health. Thus all you need is to dodge, hit, dodge hit, done. Good news is also that later in the game you can unlock damage over time and stun abilities. Instead of Dark Souls idiocy of wasting half an hour on rince repeat QTE in order to nail a random (mini)boss.
 
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Button? What button.
Hold shift and you'll be climbing upwards automatically unless it's a ledge where holding shift while moving will make you jump. Hold C and you'll be climbing downwards automatically unless you're on a ground already where C will put you into sneaking.
Very easy to "master".
What button the shift key of course as you wrote.;)

Anyway it would probably kill you to know I now use a controller on the PC.

Yes I know I sold out but a few games play much better with a controller.:p
 
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