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Calvarok

Assassin's Creed Origins

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22 minutes ago, TangoCharlie said:

Does Oranges do the thing at the end of a mission, where if you fail an optional objective it honks at you and flashes a red X in the corner of the screen?

 

Not that I've noticed. Oranges missions have linear objectives, or if there's optional or branching objectives, they don't sign post them at all, which I have not noticed. Some Oranges missions do take place in forts that have their own optional objectives like kill commander or steal loot, and that is static for that location.

 

AC3 missions were much more like episodes, they could  be replayed via a submenu. Which the replaying option opens up the ability to pursue the side objectives. I seem to recall other AC games including the replay of story missions, I can't recall which games did and didn't have a mission replay option. From what I can tell Oranges is specifically devoid of mission replay.

 

P.S. AC3 also introduced the mission voting system so Ubisoft can collect data on the quality of their levels. Perhas it is this data that caused pursuit and eavesdropping missions to be mostly removed from Oranges.

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I have played most Assassin's Creed games from AC2 on, but got super tired after Unity and skipped Syndicate altogether. I think both me taking a break from the series and the developers reworking some aspects were good ideas, because I'm definitely enjoying the game more than I did Unity.

 

However, I'm still not sure what my overall impression of the game is because most great things are balanced by some annoyances. For example, on the one hand, Egypt is absolutely gorgeous. On the other hand, I feel like I shouldn't be enjoying the scenery but smashing down statues or killing wild animals for their pelts or moving from one objective to the next. Exploring cities like Alexandria or Memphis is super cool in theory, but there are only a couple of main missions and a couple more side missions in each and you are not encouraged to go back to those later because the leveling system discourages completing low-level side missions. Scouting out enemy camps with your eagle drone, and successfully clearing them out silently with your bow and occasional back-stab feels really great at first. However, practically every side mission requires (or at least encourages) you to do this in some form, so after a while, it loses its effect. The weapon types seem to offer good variety and each player can choose the one which fits their playstyle the best – except in gladiator arena type main missions where you absolutely have to use a specific weapon type (this was a a real problem for me because I was used to deal with shielded soldiers using a sickle swords). I like finding good loot and seeing my numbers go up, but this is also one of the few games where I feel like I have to do serious work to reach the recommended level for the main missions. It would help a lot if the side missions had better variety and/or writing.

 

Finally, exploring Ptolemaic Egypt is really fascinating, because I haven't consumed other media set in this period (I'm sure it exists, just haven't personally engaged in it). But of course, this is an Assassin's Creed game, so there has to be a modern day super-plot that the player should care about for whatever reason. Not only that but Ubisoft seems to use the historical setting for stupid cross-promotional stuff now as well:

(side-mission spoilers)

 

I did a side mission that released an anime-character from a tomb. I also got his anime-sword, -shield and -mount. I immediately wished I could bury that shit back in the sand.


Now I'm stuck with this fucking thing in my inventory forever
assassins-creed-origins-final-fantasy-xv

I know it is just a goofy thing borne from some sort of product placement deal, but it really annoyed me because it sullied the actual historical setting. As if Egypt didn't have enough cool shit in it.

 

 

Anyway, I just killed the Croc boss, and I'm getting a bit tired of this game, but I think I will still try to complete the game, because there are enough things that I like in it.

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18 hours ago, Nappi said:

the leveling system discourages completing low-level side missions

 

this is also one of the few games where I feel like I have to do serious work to reach the recommended level for the main missions

 

I will note that while you may not like doing them, doing the side missions is precisely how the game intends for you to level up for the main missions. The xp rewards even for low-level side missions tends to not be insignificant even if any loot you get will be low levelled.

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Sure. What I meant is that I'm currently at a stage where I need 12,000+ xp for the next level, and my options are to complete low-level side missions that reward ~1000 xp (and useless loot) or newer missions that reward >3000 xp. With no obvious differences in the quality or length of the missions I'm going to choose the latter.

 

This is, of course, quite standard thing in RPGs, but still..

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I finished the game. Leveling up for the final few missions definitely stated to feel like a grind, but I'm still glad I finished the game.

 

I'm happy that they got rid of many of the most frustrating aspects of old Assassin's Creed games, for example, the insta-fail sneaking and tailing missions. Unfortunately, that meant that the way they ramped up the difficulty towards the end was to introduce a bunch of boss battles. The combat wasn't my favorite part of the game, but luckily the fights weren't too bad. 

 

I didn't like the plot very much. I'm super tired stories that start with some bad guys killing or kidnapping your child/spouse/family just because that is the easiest way to motivate the players. In this game, I disliked it even more because, while they kept talking about their kid all the time, the plot revolved so much around political intrigue that I really didn't feel like I was seeking justice for my kid. The writers clearly wanted to make a story with a lot of twists and turns, but because of the pacing of the missions, nothing felt very impactful ("I can't believe this guy betrayed u... there, he is dead. I killed him"). I would have been much happier if they had just introduced a hierarchy of bad guys, so that I had felt I was making some progress with my revenge plan instead of just waiting for the new name and marker to appear.

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