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Write your own epic odyssey and become a legendary Spartan hero in Assassin’s Creed® Odyssey, an inspiring adventure where you must forge your destiny and define your own path in a world on the brink of tearing itself apart. Influence how history unfolds as you experience a rich and ever-changing world shaped by your decisions.
Assassins creed odyssey is the 11th game in the long running series developed and published by Ubisoft. The series gained huge popularity receiving great reception with releases of assassin’s creed II and Brotherhood, largely claimed by many to be the pinnacle of the series. However, with each new release more and more fans departed from the series being disappointed again and again.
Ubisoft heard the fans disappointment and have decidedly responded by reinventing the game series through the last two titles. The first being Assassins creed: Origins and most recently Assassins creed: Odyssey. The question is, Is odyssey a return to good form? And is it worth the high price point of £49.99
The assassins creed staple idea was that you as the player went back in time to control a powerful hero in moderately sized open world based on a particular period of history. By experiencing and reliving the memories of these characters players would traverse through a plot connecting the future and past together. The series always liked to encourage stealth gameplay although the combat mechanics were very simple and abusable making almost every encounter easily completable with little to no stealth. However, with the release of origins Ubisoft have decided to move the game towards being an RPG. Including staple RPG elements like a levelling system, Gear stats & requirements and Character progression just to name a few that have inspired the gameplay within Origins. With reasonably good reception Ubisoft have continued this new theme bringing many of those elements back for Odyssey while expanding on many more.
Odyssey takes place in Greece during the Peloponnesian war (431 BCE to be exact) retelling its own take on the war between Athens and Sparta. Given the grand scale of the theme and setting the map size has also been given an upgrade making it over double the size of the previous within origins, Making Odysseys map the largest in game area seen in the whole series to date. Every corner of the map is beautifully crafted with each of the Greek islands feeling original and well made. The soundtrack takes key instruments and elements from Greek culture allowing it to blend into the surroundings perfectly which brings together the overall setting and theme of the game. Initially the game gives the player two new choices upon starting. The first being to choose between playing a female or a male character. The second being the choice to turn exploration mode on. The choice of character is permanent but a nice addition to see within the new RPG setting. It’s a simple change but helps the player feel as if the story is a more their own rather than playing a set characters events. The second choice however can be toggled off and on via the options at any point although personally after playing through the game with exploration mode on I think it adds so much to the game while simply doing so little. All exploration mode does is it removes most markers like quest objectives from the map and HUD pushing players to investigate the surroundings and gather more information to complete quests. It takes away the mindless cycle of receiving a quest, heading straight for the marker and handing it in. The added layer of mystery and investigation surprisingly adds a lot to the game and thus I think it’s a welcomed addition.
As mentioned earlier, Odyssey is a character-based RPG meaning that as you progress through the game your character gets stronger and stronger with the addition of more abilities and better gear which all ties in to character level. At its core all the main elements of the game are tied to this system, the questing, the combat and even exploration features. This simultaneously one of the best elements of the game and one of the biggest downfalls.
The levelling system is what gives players access to the three skill trees; Hunter which focuses on bows, Warrior which focuses on hand to hand combat and assassin which focuses on stealth. As you level up ability points are awarded to you to be spent in any skill tree meaning you aren’t locked into one choice although by diversifying into many you will have less progress in each. Each provides a unique set of gameplay however after playing through the first few hours players will notice that all have their uses making them all viable but some are objectively stronger than others, especially for the early game areas. The story is very slow to be introduced therefor much of the early game is the player hopping from side quest to side quest levelling and slowly building up an arsenal of better gear and more powerful abilities. While doing this the game slowly introduces some new mechanics like the bounty system, a new ship system and naval combat. The pacing of which these new features are shown and introduced feels good and well timed. Most of the core features are available to you by about 1-2 hours of playtime which is when you are prompted to depart from the first island, this is also where the main story starts to take place and unveil itself to you. However, this is where the first major issues start to show.
Due to the levelling systems running alongside the main story quests, each of the quests within the game have a suggested level, letting the player know if it’s appropriate to do. The player can usually do quests that are 1 to 2 levels higher but any higher becomes incredibly challenging as the opponents you face along those quests statistically are out of your range in damage and health. This means that throughout the game the player is forced to constantly be increasing their level to keep up with the content of the newer regions. For most of the additional content I believe this would be okay, but it is impossible to keep up with the main story of the game without taking constant breaks from it to grind out multiple side quests that will raise your level to the resume the main story. Not only does this take away from the commitment and investment into the story with constant breaks but it also means that the creative, fun and genuinely interesting story of the game is diluted with simple mundane side quests. Which brings the game to its second biggest problem.
The side quests are incredibly tedious making the fact that you must do them to keep progressing incredibly frustrating. While I will admit some of them offer a breath of fresh air most of them revolve around you “The hero of Greece, armed with legendary weapons and abilities” running errands and chores for the people. An exception to this critique would be the side quests to hunt the 4 main mythical creatures present within the world which is something that was done previously in Origins against the Egyptian gods. Within odyssey you can face medusa, a minotaur and even a cyclops each with their own original fight and individual themed loot dropping from each.
As mentioned previously Odyssey includes an new ship system for both management and sailing. This works by allowing the player to upgrade various components of the ship to help in naval battles. Upgrading weapons, hull, figure heads and even choosing what crew mans the ship. While adventuring through Greece the player can use non-lethal takedowns to recruit enemies to join your ships crew adding them to a roster of people who can be enlisted on your ship, each providing buffs of their own benefiting the ship further. The ship management meshes incredibly well with the main game and never detracts from the main experience, so a player can easily spend hours focusing on upgrading their ship or simply upgrading from time to time throughout the story.
A surprising new feature within Odyssey is the “bounty” system that could be compared to an altered version of the nemesis system within the “Shadow of Mordor” games. As the player performs certain actions throughout the world their bounty level will increase forcing unique individual enemies known as “Bounty hunters” to try and kill you. These bounty hunters are specially geared enemies often with their own flare. For example, one could be accompanied by a creature as a pet that will aid it in combat while another may use fire as a weapon, with each of the bounty hunters also having unique weaknesses and strengths against things like poison damage, assassination damage & fire damage etc. This closely follows the system in place in Shadow of Mordor allowing the player to engage each unique opponent with a new strategy that they are weak too. While I think this system needs work and some time to become its own it defiantly is a nice addition to the game, but for now at its simple implementation many people will simply compare it to its clear inspirations.
The final new addition to the game is the narrative system of choice which present through most of the main story and a few moments of the side content. This isn’t a new idea but its not one that I would have expected from an assassins creed game however It surprisingly works well. One of the biggest issues when games provide “choice” is the false illusion of choice, being able to choose something but the end result being exactly the same regardless, a common issue the persisted through many “choice based” titles. However in odyssey the few choices you do get are fairly big ones each having their own effect on the story and eventually your ending. This continues to further the RPG idea of playing your own character and not being shoehorned into playing someone else’s vision or story.
Assassin’s creed: Odyssey is definitely not a return to form in the sense that the game is so strikingly different from previous titles however that doesn’t take away from the fact that the new RPG formula is a good refreshing way to return to the series. If you’re looking for a game to sink a lot of time into or you’re simply just interested in the setting, theme and elements that go into making odyssey great then this is a good game for you. However, acknowledging the flaws when it comes to its repetitive grind needed to progress is crucial but all in all I don’t think its flaws take away enough of its positives to warrant it being anything a but a fun and interesting start to a potential rebirth of a once beloved series.
6/10 – A beautiful and hopeful foundation for a new era of the assassin’s creed series.
To celebrate the release of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Sanitarium.Fm’s patrons received exclusive artwork of Lara Croft by our artist in residence, PhaseChan.
Check out the process behind the portrait below:
Love this illustration? Sanitarium.FM patrons get exclusive Game Of The Month artwork every month, support the station today to start receiving your prints.
Twin Mirror, The Dark Pictures and The Gardens Between number among the new releases shown, focusing mainly on darker more story based theatrical games while Cat Quest 2: The Lupus Empire is a quirky, bright RPG starring a cat and is the only direct sequel announced so far.
Not exactly sequels, Playlink: Chimparty adds some more games to the Playstation Playlink, while other titles such as Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition takes an existing game world setting with a new art style and story, Fist of the Northstar Lost Paradise sees Kenshiro enter a new play style by the team that brought us the Yakuza series, Persona 3 Dancing in the Moonlight + Persona 5 Dancing in the Sunlight is a new entry in the bizarre dancing spin-offs to the popular Persona RPG series, and lastly everyone’s favourite purple dragon is having his classic adventures updated for the PS4 with the Spyro Reignited Trilogy.
And a quick round up of the games shown ont eh Playstation stream –
You can check out the trailers over in our playlist
That’s it for the day one roundup, a strong first day for lovers of new and classic gaming. make sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for live blogging of the developer sessions!
~Sirhc
Starring the world’s most iconic Super Hero, Spider-Man features the acrobatic abilities, improvisation and web-slinging that the wall-crawler is famous for, while also introducing elements never-before-seen in a Spider-Man game. From traversing with parkour and utilizing the environment, to new combat and blockbuster set pieces, it’s Spider-Man unlike any you’ve played before.
When I first heard about this game my Spidey senses were tingling in anticipation of something special, being a fan of both Spider-Man and Insomniac Games the illustrious studio tasked with this latest gaming adaption for the webslinging hero.
So let’s start off with the briefest of histories about this character, Spider-Man is one of the most famous superheroes ever created, I would have said top 3 most well known along with Superman and Batman but since Marvel have been cranking out box office shattering blockbusters for 10 years now superheroes are at an all time mainstream acceptance level.
Spidey, just like Supes and Bats has over the years been in countless comic book series, animated shows, live action movies and videogames, some of which have been terrible and some quite good, much like the Dark Knight, the Webslinger has been in some truly awful games, but after years of virtually unplayable throwaway garbage games Rocksteady Studios managed to make a character defining series with their Batman Arkham games, so the hope is that Insomniac can do the same for everyone’s friendly neighbourhood spider-man, after all they are working on a stronger base with some previous Spiderman games being quite fun, and with the character being done right on the big screen over the past few years (Cameo in Captain America Civil War, solo film Spider-Man Homecoming and ensemble film Avengers Infinity War all nailing the characters tone) the time is right for people to embrace the wall climbing vigilante.
And the company bringing this new game to us, none other than Incomniac games, the creators of the iconic Spyro the Dragon and Ratchet and Clank series’ as well as the Resistance series, Sunset Overdrive and Song of the Deep, among other smaller projects.
Let’s start off with the obvious, the game looks nice, like really nice, even moving at high speeds there is a lot of clarity in the digital streets of New York, and it feels like a living, breathing, digital world, I played on the standard PS4 but the PS4 Pro makes the game look even better.
Another thing that is apparent right away is the humour and pop culture, specifically Spider-Man pop culture references, humour has always been integral to the character, and the quips fly just as fast as the webs, as well as some cleverly placed references and Easter eggs, even just the difficulty selection, your choices are Friendly, Amazing and Spectacular, Friendly being one of his catchphrases “just your friendly neighbourhood spider-man”, and both Amazing and Spectacular being the titles of long running and well received Spider-Man comic book series (which makes me wonder if their will be an unshockable “Ultimate” difficulty), there also appears to be a stack of comic books in the opening scene that includes a classic Spider-Man cover.
Story wise the game is fairly basic, Peter has been Spider-Man for 8 years prior to the games events, wisely eschewing the typical Origin story and jumping straight out of a building and into the game proper, you start off helping out the police to take down William Fisk AKA Kingpin, swinging through the city and into one of his buildings and beating up a bunch of goons as you go, some of you might be wondering where this game falls in the tangled web of Spidey’s history (not sorry for that pun, not one bit), the short answer is, despite Peter Parker’s appearance looking quite similar to actor Tom Holland (who portrays the webslinger in the MCU), Spider-Man is a standalone story, however it is scheduled to tie-in with an upcoming comic series with a series titled “Spider-Geddon” written by Christos Gage who also worked on the game and has confirmed the series will take place after the events from the game.
The opening mission with Fisk also serves as a nice introduction to the game, as it is one of those rare “fun” tutorials, teaching you how to use Spidey’s abilities, mainly his webs and hand to hand combat, but he also gets a focus meter which allows for some extra tactical options, as it can be used to heal Spidey or take down a thug.
The combat in the game is fast, frenetic and super smooth, they really captured the agility of the wall climber being able to spring around while throwing punches, kicks and of course webs, Spidey also has his famous “Spider sense” which can be used to anticipate and avoid incoming attacks, this is a very handy feature and will need to be used frequently, as very early on you’ll find that just jamming on the buttons has its limits, you need to work out who is the biggest threat and which skills to use, and you have a lot of options, for instance you could approach a group of thugs, launch one into the air with an uppercut, follow them into the air with an air combo, and then use your web to grab them while in the air and slam them into another enemy, then as you land Spidey can dodge through the legs of another enemy, fire off some web blasters to wrap up a gunman and then use your web as a grappling hook on another, launching yourself over to punch that guy and then combo into the guy you wrapped up, sticking him to a wall, then dodging onto the wall and launching off to take down the last enemy.
And that’s all with just the skills you start off with, as you play you can level up and gain upgrades like improved swing speed and health increases, and you get skill points that you can use to spend on skill trees, increasing Spidey’s arsenal of attacks.
Along with fighting thugs and swinging around, you can also explore the city and find collectables, mini games and events, the mini games include things like match the frequencies and create a track to send electricity from one point to another (fans of the Ratchet and Clank series will recognise this one), and the events come in the form of crimes for Spidey to stop, which generally involve beating up thugs, but they can range from stopping an assault (which ends in beating up thugs), to locating a kidnapped person (which ends in beating up thugs) and even taking down a speeding car filled with thugs (which you beat up, but in more of a quicktime event instead of just brawling).
These minigames and collectables also have further incentives other than being fun diversions, as they will result in XP for levelling Spidey, and some give you “Tokens” which are used to upgrade Spidey’s costumes and gadgets, with some upgrades requiring tokens from multiple groups, so you might need 3 crime tokens from stopping crimes, 2 backpack tokens from locating Spidey’s old backpacks dotted around the city and a location token received from finding and photographing iconic locations.
There are also sections of the game where you will play as Peter Parker without the suit, and even sections where you control MJ (who in this universe is Peter’s ex-girlfriend and has started working as a journalist), but the bulk of the game will be played as the fully costumed hero, which is no bad thing considering how fun he is to control.
In summary, there is a lot to love about Spider-Man, the game has a lot of mechanics baked into its DNA from other series, at times it feels like Grand Theft Auto (but with webs), and at times Prototype (but with webs), other times like the Batman Arkham series (but with webs), and of course like some of the good previous spider-man games (but with…better everything), and it injects some new ideas into the mix, Insomniac are like chefs, they started off with nice stock (the Spider-Man character), and added the finest ingredients from from competing and former recipes, stirred in some special seasonings of their own, made sure it all blended together with no unexpected and unfitting flavours, and created one of the best game/meals I’ve had the pleasure to play/eat in quite a while.
Cheack out the video review below –
Spider-Man on PS4 swings in with a Heroic 10/10
~TGB_SirhcAndAr0n
For the first time in history, the long-closed borders of Summerset are open to foreigners by decree of Queen Ayrenn. But darkness looms over the ancestral home of the High Elves, and whispers stir of Daedric followers organizing in the shadows. Rally your allies, brave champions. Summerset awaits.
Explore an all-new zone packed with adventure. Join the mysterious Psijic Order and gain powerful new abilities. Reunite with old friends, forge new alliances, and work together to unravel a conspiracy that threatens Tamriel’s very existence.
Summerset is the newest chapter to the The Elder Scrolls Online, and while it adds much new content, a new crafting skill line and a new skill line focusing on time manipulation from the Psijic order, new mobs, two beautiful zones to explore and an amazing continuation to the main overarching story, it does not do much else, which is a good thing. ZOS stuck with what makes ESO great and avoided trying to reinvent the wheel.
When I do a review I have one main question I always ask myself and set out to answer. Is this fun? And the answer is a resounding OH HELL YEAH. I have long loved the elder scrolls franchise and I love ESO, but the game is not without its flaws, which is true of all games, but I have to say that Summerset is some of the most fun I have had in a long while in an mmo, from new trash mobs with interesting combat mechanics in the open world too the amazing new coral crab mob designs and the quest stories and writing has gone a long way to making this one of the best expansions yet for ESO.
Underneath the beauty of the High Elven island lies a darker side, The high elves prejudice against the “lesser races” is on full display, their political intrigues show up in force in Summerset’s main story as it is both a continuation of the Morrowwind Clock Work City story picking up right where it left off with more daedric cults and daedric princes up to no good and a continuation of the Aldmeri dominion’s story lines surrounding queen Ayrenn’s ascension to the throne. The quests diving deeper into the motivations of the characters around you and not simply praising your prowess as a world-class savior brings a human quality to the game that helps you feel more connected and immersed in the game. One example of this is Razum-dar, a long time fan favorite, he is not just another NPC but a friend to the player. As a result, Summerset is both familiar and foreign. The new Public dungeons are a breath of fresh air in how they are designed and some of the new bosses look amazing. The new trial, Cloud rest, has you taking on one to the ancient long thought extinct sloads, a slug devil toad abomination that just wants to smash your face with the help of mind controlled minions and crazy daedric magic.
Summerset brings a host of new additions to the game, The main story as mentioned previously, 6 new delves, 6 new Fun world bosses, 6 abyssal geysers which function like dolmens. 2 new public dungeons which have farm-able collections that net you prizes such as the new ginger kitten vanity pet. A new trial that can be completed multiple ways. The new psijic order skill line which adds 5 active abilities, a new ultimate, and new passives. It also adds Jewelry crafting which allows you to craft your own jewelry and make set piece jewelry. Both of these new skill lines drastically open up build diversity. The champion point cap was also increased to 750 and the game adds several new interesting gear sets to the game.
If I had to rate Summerset on a scale of 1 to 10 I would rate it a solid 8, it just does so much right in terms of what an expansion should add to the game but it still has old flaws that still need to be addressed from older versions of the game and class balance & build balance issues that continue to still plague the game.
~Darsch
The Elder Scrolls Online: Summerset is available now on –
