Assassin's Creed: Odyssey - Reloaded
In 2018, virtual time travel lands in Greece, where the mysterious power of Leonidas' spear resides. We are talking about Assassin's Creed Odyssey, a title that, despite conflicting opinions, has inevitably left its mark. It is a game that despite some obvious flaws has achieved good sales success. The rumors speak of a range between ten and fifteen million copies worldwide. Obtaining precise statistics when it comes to Ubisoft is as usual rather complicated since the French company never releases precise data and the platforms on which the game is present are different (PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC) in physical and digital.
Despite the imminent arrival of the twelfth chapter, that is Valhalla, Odyssey continues to represent an interesting title for fans. If you had already resumed Origins late, also thanks to our Reloaded a year and a half ago, even Odyssey continues to be a pleasant videogame discovery. But how much support has this latest title been? And above all, is it still worth playing with the next-gen at the gates?
The spectacular Photo Mode has allowed players to participate in real competitions with the Collector's Edition of the game up for grabs. Our research immediately reveals the speed with which Ubisoft has supported the game from the beginning, in order to guarantee the player a title in constant growth and updating. The similarities with what has been done with Origins are evident: in addition to being the subject of a substantial patch campaign, Odyssey also boasts the presence of unreleased DLCs. The additional content questline turned out to be even more satisfying and complete than the main storyline, but we'll talk about that in a moment. Let's start from the beginning, or from the most important patch released one month after the official launch. Priority was given to the technical sector, as well as to stability. The most relevant problems initially concerned an error that caused the game to freeze, especially when equipping some types of armor. In addition, some bugs related to the HUD and an issue that prevented Windows 7 owners from using the benchmark tool have been fixed.
Gameplay, both on console and on PC, was also a victim of several problems on which Ubisoft acted in a timely manner. The most annoying concerned the visual which, during the fights, proved to be rather confusing. Exploration has had its usual weaknesses; some resources, for example, were located in inaccessible places, wasting the player's precious time. While the classic frustrations predictable from an open-world have arisen, at the same time Ubisoft has tried to facilitate the player during the adventure. It starts from the auto-craft of normal arrows, to the economic advantages obtained by killing the mercenaries and, moreover, to the decrease in upgrade costs. Great importance was also given to the contents of the story, adding the new series Lost Tales of Greece. This is a downloadable expansion, containing free episodes with new characters and missions. The new questlines have been released at regular intervals between two great DLCs that we will talk about shortly.
Within a very short time of launch, new mythological creatures, secrets and treasures have arrived to unearth: the player still has so much to do certainly not to be faced with a game poor in content. Maximum importance has been given to user feedback, which is why the level cap has been increased from 50 to 70. With patch 1.0.7, improvements have also been made to the graphics and technical sector, solving some problems of lighting texture , terrain and weather, as well as the character. On PC, in particular, some graphic details were not consistent with the selected options.
This content is hosted on an external platform, which will only display it if you accept targeting cookies. Please enable cookies to view. Manage cookie settings Watch on YouTube. We have already spoken extensively about the technical sector at the Digital Foundry, comparing the performance of the various consoles. From the technical analysis it emerged that PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X offer a decidedly more performing experience with a resolution that grows considerably following the power scale of the platforms. They range from 2227x1242 to a maximum of 2816x1584 on PlayStation 4 Pro, to full 4K on Xbox One X.
Our British colleagues have highlighted the best image definition on Xbox, but in any case Odyssey it runs excellently on all midgen consoles and enjoys well-implemented dynamic resolution to keep the frame rate high. Different speech for those who own a PC: in the case of older hardware, an i5 2400 processor and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 are enough to ensure an enjoyable and stable experience at least. For those who want to push the game to very high details, we highly recommend an i7 7700 paired with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080. On this platform, CPU usage was subsequently optimized, in addition to overall game stability. In short, over the months the publisher has focused equally on consoles and on PC, trying to ensure the right compromise between the technical sector and gameplay.
If you can choose where to play it, in case you want to fully enjoy the graphics sector and do not own a medium-high-end PC, we definitely recommend you to play on consoles. In the latter case, as we have already explained, the game is at its best on consoles enhanced for 4K, so Xbox One X would be the perfect platform. The choice depends entirely on your preferences, as there are no abysmal differences in gameplay performance.
This content is hosted on an external platform, which will only display it if you accept targeting cookies. Please enable cookies to view. Manage cookie settings Watch on YouTube. With the arrival of patches 1.1.0 and 1.1.1 Ubisoft has introduced interesting new features. The mastery level system became available upon reaching level 50 and has incentivized the player to further enhance the character, honing the skills of hunters, warriors and assassins. The ability to set the difficulty level of enemies according to your preferences has also been added. This option, however, is not available in the Nightmare difficulty, in order to maintain some consistency with the gaming experience.
But the real focus of after-sales support was in the content: December 4, 2018 was first episode of Legacy of the First Blade DLC released. It was the first of three acts, published six weeks apart, and tells the story of the first owner of the iconic hidden blade. The events are shaped on the same frame of Ancient Greece, merging the two narrative elements into a single essence. Ubisoft has tried to further enrich an immense game world and, this time, it has done so by putting the dots on the i's of the plot. If in the main story of the original game Alexios and Kassandra look like randomly placed Spartan heroes, this DLC begins to give clear answers about their background.
New stories were added to The Lost Tales of Greece on January 15th and, in addition, the second chapter entitled "Dark Legacy" was released. The first two episodes of the DLC were not particularly satisfying, leading creative director Jonathan Dumont to apologize with a message to the community, following a lack of choice in some situations. In this regard, some cinematics have been modified, in order to better adapt to the choices made by the player.
This content is hosted on an external platform, which will only display it if you accept targeting cookies. Please enable cookies to view. Manage cookie settings Watch on YouTube. In February 2019 Odyssey has been updated with the New Game + mode, which allows you to start a new adventure while preserving the progress obtained in the main game. Soon after, numerous problems arose: the most serious concerned the new legendary equipment obtained which, instead of replacing the equipment in use, disappeared from the inventory. That's not all, as this massive patch included the level cap increase to 99, twenty-two new fast travels, and two new mercenary tiers. The month of March 2019 featured the remastered of Assassin's Creed III, available both in a standalone version and as an additional content of the Odyssey season pass (available for purchase for € 39.99). Connor's adventure is back in a new guise and, this time, with a technical sector that supported HDR and resolution up to 4K.
With the April 1.2.0 patch, the second DLC has arrived, entitled The fate of Atlantis, which took the player to a truly well-crafted underwater world. In addition to a wonderful graphics sector, Ubisoft has worked hard on the narrative content: players have been able to discover new mysteries and, above all, the power of the First Civilization. This second DLC was the best additional content of all those released and, with its three episodes, it filled in a sense the missing pieces of the main story. After a few months a totally new modality arrived; in fact, players were able to give full rein to their creativity thanks to the Story Creator Mode. This new type of interaction allows you to use a mission editor and a tree dialog system. It's a great way to create an even more visceral relationship with the game, to the point where you can share your stories with other members of the community.
As always, there is no lack of historical characters of great depth. The protagonist of this patch was also the second episode of The Fate of Atlantis, entitled "The Torment of Hades". The settings have undergone a drastic design change, passing from the bright colors of the Elysian Fields to the gloomy tones of the Underworld. Also with this second episode there was the demonstration that experimenting new and stimulating contents in the long run pays off. The third and final episode, called "Judgment of Atlantis" ended in full RPG style, as always. The twists and turns went hand in hand with an excellent graphics sector, leaving the doors open to future narrative scenarios.
Vast regions steeped in Greek mythology were not enough for Ubisoft which, in September 2019, released the Discovery Tour. Already present in Origins, this time he wanted to tell the real Greek world, with a more educational look: the player can visit the various places of interest without any enemies nearby, while the voice of a narrator explains the origins of the places of worship or of the daily life of the ancient Greeks in an experience capable of attracting even the least curious, bringing them closer to history and art. Like Origins, the game is full of extremely famous historical characters, but we prefer not to spoil the surprise by revealing the names.
In October 2019, support from Ubisoft officially ended and it stopped with the knowledge that it had listened the community and having released a lot of content to entertain it pleasantly. The game has been supported effectively and constantly by Ubisoft: even if some small bugs are still present, these are minor problems that do not unduly affect the gameplay.
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The DLCs, despite some flaws we have talked about, have proved to be interesting and deserving to be tested above all because they are functional to the story, bringing a good added value to the gaming experience. We believe they are worth buying, especially considering a main story that, despite having interesting bases, has been overshadowed by the excessive breadth of often repetitive content, sometimes proving confusing and overall less focused than that of Origins. Many players have also encountered an enormous difficulty in completing the most important missions: it is necessary to complete many side quests to level up and continue the main story even facing endless and extremely difficult fights. Ubisoft with Valhalla is indeed running for cover and the clashes will be based on unlocked passive skills, no longer on zones divided into levels.
The arrival of the new chapter should therefore not prevent you from considering Odyssey, a game which can offer 80-90 hours of gameplay in the main quest that can reach over 150 for the most avid completists. We advise you to take a look at the various offers that you will find on the stores: right on Amazon you can buy the Origins + Odyssey package for only € 38.47 for PlayStation 4, compared to € 60 for the single Odyssey. On the latter store, however, the game is often discounted at € 20, so we advise you to take advantage of it at the right time. Khairete, travelers!
