School started, life’s getting back into some routine.  Hockey for the kids starts this weekend, scouts in a bit.  Rather be busy that not.  Makes it a bit hard to write though.

I’m farther along in AC: Odyssey – much farther.  The main line game “stops” at level 50, but the actual cap keeps on going til 99.  The 1-30ish portion is just chocked full of content.  A stupid amount truthfully.  The road to 50 past there is still dense compared to nearly every other game, but it’s also clearly more focused on the main quest that pure exploration.

I completed the main quest, took out all the cultists, and have completed something like 50% of the map.  It is hard to explain how much stuff there is here.  I killed a Minotaur, solved a Sphynx, killed Medusa, did Hercules journey, fought a dozen conquest battles, cleared hundred of forts, took out dozen of leaders, killed at least 100 bounty hunters, dove for sunken treasure, found hidden tombs, found engravings, customized weapons, solved murders, caused them too.  It’s like everywhere you turn, there’s something to do.

There are 2 DLC that follow the main quest.  First is about following the footsteps of assassins from Persia.  I’m only a small bit into there since it takes place in the main map.  The other one is the Fate of Atlantis, which I recently completed.

It smartly removes the systems that didn’t work all that well (ship combat, conquest battles, bounty hunters) and instead focuses on story and exploration.  There are still some fights, and enemies are more complex and deadly.   But that’s more the exception.  You go through 3 (large!) maps, solve a bunch of quests, and get a good look at the Isu civilization that underpins the entire AC series.  Quest choices have consequences.  It’s a great capstone and probably worth the purchase of the game all on itself.  Honestly, the last DLC to even come close to the sheer amount of content is XCOM2 – War of the Chosen.

The downside here is that as you get more levels and more ways to upgrade items, you start becoming a walking god.  Where in the main game I would have to sneak around, I have enough engravings and boosts to items to be running with 100% crit chance, +150% damage, 35% faster cooldowns and a single attack (Hero Strike) that takes down every enemy in 1 hit.  Bosses may take 4-5.  Even Rush Assassinate can chain kill 4 enemies.  Entire bases are cleared out by just walking through rather than taking out strategic targets.  Sure, it makes sense to become all powerful, but it takes a lot away from the mechanics (probably why the Fate of Atlantis is so focused on not having combat).

Still have to take out the first DLC to consider the game “complete”.   Still stand by my initial reaction that this game offers more content than pretty much anything else out there.  I’m a little sad that I waited this long to pick it up.