My First Ever Steam Refund (and Egyptian Adventures)

The holidays offer up plenty of exciting gaming opportunities.  There are many holiday themed sales featuring deeply discounted games (and some fabulous deals) and it's very possible that you're flush with holiday cash (or gift cards).  It's the perfect storm for snagging some deals and padding your library (or your pile of shame).  I've been doing some gazing (and a little buying) at the Steam sale.

I've never had much cause to test out Steam's handy-dandy refund option.  Most of the games I buy I end up playing (and usually liking).  Recently I got to enjoy the magical experience of attempting to get a refund.  The crazy part about the whole thing was the game I was trying to return--Assassin's Creed:  Syndicate.  I had purchased Syndicate in a fit of post-Odyssey excitement during the Black Friday sale--I enjoyed Odyssey and wanted to get a broader picture of the series and the entire thing was heavily discounted.

I was very excited as I started up Syndicate and was introduced to the brother/sister combo of the Frye twins.  The setting--London during the Industrial Revolution--looked absolutely amazing.  The first tutorial missions saw the twins navigating the sooty factories filled with child laborers and loud, clanking machinery.  Sadly, I didn't get far beyond the tutorial when I started experiencing problems.  The game crashed suddenly after I had assassinated my first target--we're not talking a crash-to-desktop but a complete lock-up of my PC (screen went black, couldn't do anything, and had to power completely off).  I was a little perturbed, but figured it was a one-off.  I grudgingly restarted my PC and dove back in.  A few minutes later, while I was perusing the database, it crashed again (same thing--black screen, had to power off).  Now, I was more irritated, so I decided to Google some information about the crashing issues.  Since the screen was completely blacked out and I couldn't see any potential error messages, I had no idea what was causing it.  Some cursory searching revealed that many people had/have experienced crashing issues with Syndicate on PC.  I tried some of the recommended fixes (namely running Uplay in offline mode and disabling the overlay) and lowering my graphics settings with the hope that it would solve the issue.  Attempt #3 ended a few minutes after restarting--again, while doing nothing more strenuous than reading the database.  It was at this point that I decided Syndicate was a lost cause (I read about some other possible fixes, but find it a bit ridiculous that a triple A title--and one that was released several years ago--has these sort of issues.  Also the fact that one of the top known issues for the game is "ACS.exe has stopped working.").  I had only played for 97 minutes so I was under the 2 hour cutoff imposed by Steam.  I decided to put in for the refund, but was warned that my purchase had taken place more than 14 days ago.  Within a day I had received my notice--no refund for me.  I'm not terribly upset about it, I didn't pay full price, but I am bummed that a game that looked so awesome isn't playable for me (I mean, it might be, but I don't have the patience to have to figure out fixes).

The view of Alexandria from atop the lighthouse at Pharos is stunning.

On a happier note, I have started exploring the other Assassin's Creed title that I had purchased--Origins--and it's working like a charm.  It's blatantly obvious that Origins was the template for Odyssey and I am seeing how the systems were refined over the course of the games.  So far, here's what I'm liking and not liking:  (possible early game spoilers for Origins)

Liking👍
--Bayek's story is filled with tragedy and gives players the perfect basis for his assassination spree.  While playing as Kassandra in Odyssey, I didn't feel the same rationale for killing--I had times where it just felt a bit gratuitous and semi-pointless.

--Ubisoft does a great job of using children as important parts of the plot.  Bayek's relationship with his son is touching and the part of the story that portrays Khemnu's death is tearjerking.  I really like the exploration task of finding the stone circles scattered around Egypt (a variation of the Mayan stelae puzzles from Black Flag).  Matching the celestial patterns is very basic, but the added feature of listening to the voiceover of Bayek recalling discussions with his son makes the task more meaningful.

--The gear system seems to be like a hybrid to the full-RPG system in Odyssey.  There are pieces of loot that drop--namely weapons--but the rest of your armor functions on an upgrade system.  Materials for upgrades can be found in the world, hunted/scavenged, or acquired through dismantling old gear.  The appearance of Bayeks armor changes as you upgrade, but doesn't drastically change.  I suppose the downside would be the fact that there's not much variety.  I'm enjoying the fact that I don't have to wade through oodles of drops.

--Bayek and Aya are great together.  The couple that assassinates together....stays together, I suppose.  I didn't especially enjoy the relationship aspect of Odyssey, so I am completely fine with Bayek being a married man.  It's all kinds of awesome that he's married to another assassin.

The Great Library in Alexandria.

--Ancient Egypt is gorgeous and engaging.  There's plenty of ancient history to nerd out to--the Library at Alexandria, the lighthouse at Pharos, and the freakin' Great Pyramids!  I haven't had time to mess with the discovery tour, but can completely appreciate the addition of a historical mode.

--Assassination targets feature their own storyline.  Odyssey simply slapped down a stunning array of faceless cultists who had to be revealed, tracked down, and then killed.  Bayeks targets get their own story and it makes killing them much more satisfactory.  I am really liking the fact that you are given a wide array of potential targets at differing levels that are positioned in a level appropriate zone.

Not Liking👎 
--Combat feels clunky.  It wasn't perfect in Odyssey either, but it felt much more responsive.  I am especially peeved by the weird blocking and countering system.  There's no simply mashing "E" at the right moment, but you have to be in "defensive stance" and time it in response to an enemy blow.  Thus far I haven't managed to figure it out.  Mostly I just try to dodge incoming attacks using spacebar, but even that doesn't work well at times.  I miss Kassandra :(

Even with the clunky combat, I'm happily going to be continuing my adventure through ancient Egypt.  My camel awaits!

Bayek made some feline friends.

Are We There Yeti?

After fully realizing my pirate-y bloodlust in Assassin's Creed 4:  Black Flag, I decided it was time for a break from all the stabbing and shooting.  Luckily a brand new DLC for one of my favorite games from this year rolled out at just about the perfect time!  The Bigfoot DLC for Two Point Hospital offers even more whacky hospital management.  If you haven't gotten your fill of curing weird diseases and playing task manager, well, this is your chance to re-enter the fray.

Two of the three new hospitals in the Bigfoot DLC.

The Bigfoot DLC offers up three brand new hospitals located in on the snowy northern half of the Two Point county map.  Each hospital offers up unique challenges that include a few new diseases to cure combined with a theme.  The first hospital, Underlook, is situated near a hotel/ski resort that is looking to add hospital services for its accident prone guests.  This hospital reminds me of the nightmare that was Duckworth-Upon-Bilge, but it's more like a Duckworth-lite--you only get paid for achieving the random goals that the hotel periodically throws out and these can vary from promoting a certain number of staff or curing patients in a specific treatment room.  Like on the Duckworth level, you have to pay attention to your cash flow and make sure you aren't hiring too many staff or overspending.  The level is further complicated by a reputation mechanic--guests can review the hotel (and those reviews can be either positive or negative) and it will have an impact on your reputation.  Your reputation starts out at a pitifully low level and the scenario requires you to raise it much higher.  Luckily, marketing campaigns are very useful for raising your reputation and cancelling a few undesirable hotel requests won't damage your rep too much.  One of the more unique aspects of this level is that the hotel helps to cover your costs based on your cure rate.  This factor makes this level much easier than Duckworth.

The K-9 Away is used to treat patients with Barking Mad.

The next map on the DLC is Swelbard.  Swelbard is an abandoned research facility and requires you to start with a ruined building full of garbage that needs to be cleaned up.  The major challenge on Swelbard is that all your staff are completely untrained.  Every staff member you hire requires training, so hiring enough staff so that your rooms are covered while training occurs is a major balancing act.  At Swelbard a new disease crops up, Barking Mad, which turns patients into dogs (it looks like a human in a dog costume).  To cure this new disease you must build a K-9 Away treatment room that looks like a giant dog house.  A few other diseases with visuals also start popping up (diseases that can be treated in the treatment rooms you've already unlocked)--there's Eye Candy which has patients with giant lollipops over their eyes; Tartan Telomeres which presents as patients with plaid patterns on their faces; Bard Flu which populates your hospital with Shakespeare look-alikes who require some psychiatric treatment; Evergreen presents by coloring patients faces green with some nice leafy branches.  Partway through the level you will see patients dressed like giant Godzilla-like creatures or robots traipsing through your hospital.  The new disease Urban Metropolism presents in two ways and requires patients to storm through a miniature city, wrecking it and then getting cured by some mysterious laser attachment.  Curing all these diseases and hitting research related goals (training staff in the research skill...which always feels like a waste) leads you to victory.

The Reanimator freezes, then reanimates patients with Monster Mishmash.

The last map in the DLC was the one that I found had the most unique twist--Roquefort Castle throws some real doozies at you.  The castle is haunted, this means that bunches of ghosts (5-10) randomly pop-up throughout the hospital.  Your janitorial staff has to be on their toes because capturing all those ghosts is time consuming and requires cleaning up the ectoplasm that they leave behind.  The map itself also presents some challenges--the castle offers plenty of space, but it's made up of very long corridors that don't directly connect to each other.  Everything is very spread out and ghosts can pop-up in any part of the hospital.  The castle is also prone to several natural disasters--avalanches and hailstorms--which will have your janitors scrambling even more!  Avalanches will damage your machinery and cause trashed pieces of the building to fall onto the floor and hailstorms will deposit large chunks of ice (similar to lava, but without the burning) that could damage machinery.  I would classify this level as one of the "janitorial nightmare" levels.  A new disease, Monster Mishmash, is also introduced and requires a special treatment room in the form of the Reanimator.  The most challenging part of Roquefort is the janitorial aspect--it was very common to have a rash of ghosts followed by an avalanche or hailstorm.  This situation would leave your machinery damaged, your hospital littered with unsightly garbage, and a bunch of ghosts scaring patients and leaving blobs of ectoplasm everywhere.  Then throw in the way that the map is spread out for some real craziness.

One thing I noticed about all three hospitals in the DLC was that they seemed to throw quite a few diseases requiring treatment rooms at you.  You really need to hire more staff to cover those rooms and it complicates things even further.

Treating Urban Metropolism means letting patients smash a miniature city.

So, the big question remains, should you buy this DLC?  If you enjoyed the base game I would definitely recommend it.  The DLC offers the chance to play a few more hospitals and cure some clever diseases (Bard Flu is my favorite).  It sells for only $8.99 and will add about 20 more hours of hospital managing fun (if you're shooting for the illustrious 3-star level).  Sadly, there is no bigfoot disease (but there is a yeti who will visit your hospital and inspect it).

What's new in this DLC:
--several new visual diseases to cure
--three diseases with unique treatment rooms
--new items (some are Christmas themed) to spruce up your hospital
--three new hospitals with unique scenarios
--new research projects (this may have been added in an update prior to the DLC)
   

The Pirate's Life for Me

After playing (and enjoying) Assassin's Creed:  Odyssey, I decided that it would be worthwhile to further explore the extensive Assassin's Creed franchise.  I had read that Odyssey marked a departure from past games and had veered into a decidedly more RPG-oriented focus (which, as an RPG fan, is awesome).  Part of me wanted to understand how much the franchise has changed so, after a bit of research, I picked out a few games from the series in an attempt to understand more about those changes and more about the backstory of the games.  Many lists that I viewed mentioned that Assassin's Creed 4:  Black Flag is one of the best games in the entire franchise.  Luckily for me there was a sale going on and I was able to snap up several games from the series for very cheap.  Why not start with the best?

Black Flag focuses on the story of 18th century pirate-turned-assassin, Edward Kenway.  The story follows Edward as he tries to accomplish several goals 1.) becoming filthy rich so that he can win back the heart of his wife (who was persuaded by her family to separate from him due to his poor social standing and lack of means), 2.) interrupt the plotting of the Templars and finding a mysterious location known as "the observatory," and 3.) working with his fellow pirate friends to establish Nassau as a free city where piracy can thrive.  Things grow more and more chaotic as some of these individual strands start connecting....and some need to be trimmed.

Since I am a shameless completionist, I tried my best to complete as much of the game as I could.  I managed 94%, which meant that I did most of the tasks, but didn't manage to get them all (those legendary ships tho'....crazy hard.  I also managed to hack 32/33 computers...I missed one measly computer).  I made it a point to discover all the locations and complete them.  Somehow I missed two treasure maps...still don't know how.  Anyway, I completed the game and here is my review.

The real reason Black Flag is so great....petting dogs!

Pros:
--The absolute highlight of Black Flag is the naval combat.  You get to captain your own 18th century pirate ship--complete with a rowdy crew of pirate friends and absolutely bristling with weapons; mortars, broadside cannons, frontal cannons (that shoot special chain shot to slow enemy ships), fire barrels, and swivel guns for precision aiming.  Learning to effectively use all these weapons can be challenging at first, but once you've figured it out there's much joy to be had in sailing the high seas and attacking the various types of ships.  Once a ship is weakened, it can be boarded which offers up a chance for some good ol' hand-to-hand combat.  I enjoyed the fact that you also get to choose how to deal with a captured ship and have options that can all be beneficial.

Success in naval combat allows you to seize items that can be used to upgrade your ship or to be sold for some extra cash.  It's really fun to see how your ship changes and becomes an absolute killing machine by the end of the game (legendary ships are still brutal)--taking down a man o'war becomes no issue.

--Buried treasure, brawls, and the freedom of piracy.  There aren't enough pirate themed games out there (although I've seen more recently) and I appreciated the fact that the game included tasks like using treasure maps to find buried chests and lots of attacking and capturing ships for the booty.  It felt appropriately pirate-y but not too overly cheesy--there aren't any parrots or peg legs.

--Scampering around rooftops and finding places to hide is a blast.  I can definitely see the roots of the Assassin's Creed series in the way that Edward deftly navigates the areas in the jungles and throughout the various cities.  I also liked the way that they incorporated the use of distraction--hire a bunch of drunken pirates or "dancers" (aka prostitutes) to create a scene while Edward slips away.

--A variety of weapons to utilize.  Edward wields special assassin's blades, two swords, multiple pistols, and a blowpipe.  Each type of weapon can be upgraded and there are many varieties of swords and pistols to choose from--from slow-swinging pirate's cutlasses to speedy, rapiers--from highly accurate hand cannons to wide-spreading blunderbusses.  The addition of the blowpipe midway through the game offers a stealthier option for dealing with enemies.

--Plenty of exploration and sidequests.  The map is covered with treasure chests, lost islands, and animus fragments to find.  There are critters to hunt and sea creatures to harpoon, shanties to track down, assassination contracts (both on land and at sea), and underwater shipwrecks to explore.  Not all of these activities are mandatory and players have the freedom to pick which of these activities that they want to complete.

--A cast of famous pirates to befriend (...sort of).  If you're a fan of pirate history or know anything about these characters you will appreciate seeing them pop-up in the game.  I really enjoyed seeing Blackbeard with his hat full of burning wicks.

--Story within a story.  Being new to Assassin's Creed, I understood very little of the animus related part of the story in Odyssey.  Black Flag really shed some light on the entire concept of the animus and how it is tied to playing all these characters in different historical periods (honestly, this concept is sort of genius because it really doesn't have to make any sense and allows for games to be set in any time period with virtually no need for ties between games).  I liked the modern part of the story (I'm still not completely sure what exactly is happening, but at least I have some idea now) and connecting all the dots about what is happening with Abstergo and the Templars.

--Upgradeable pirate hideout.  I really liked the whole concept of having your own island complete with mansion and docks.  Your docks can be used to manage a fleet of ships in a mini-game like activity (which can be used to make some extra cash but also offers unique pieces of art as rewards) and the special art items you unlock are displayed in your mansion.

--For a game from 2013, I thought the graphics looked great.  They aren't 2018 graphics, but the world is still pretty and there are lots of small details to take in.  Each city has a unique look and I loved how the color of the ocean would vary depending on where you were at.

--Assassins armor.  I liked the artistic style of Edward's armor and the various armors worn by the other assassins--it felt simultaneously pirate-like and assassin-like--a perfect combination! 

Cons:
--Controls can feel mushy and slow--especially during hand-to-hand combat.  I would frequently be irritated by the fact that I would be mashing the counter button only to watch it not work at all.  Attacks can also seem like they don't happen very fast--there's a bit of a combo build-up type of thing, but it mostly just makes it feel like you're not in control.  Fighting someone on top of stairs or standing on something is also very awkward and doesn't work at all.  It doesn't ruin the game or anything, it just makes certain things more annoying.

--I wasn't terribly impressed by the story.  I am getting the impression that AC is all about massive conspiracies...which is fine, but I didn't feel anything special about hunting down people or the way the story resolved itself.  After playing this and Odyssey I am getting a strong sense that story isn't really the focal point of AC.  The huge worlds and parkour style stealth seem to be the main focal points.  There were parts of the story I liked, but overall it felt pretty meh.

--I bought it on Steam and still had to activate it through Uplay.  It's yet another game launcher that I have to download and maintain.  The game runs on this weird dual setup between Steam and Uplay.  If you already have Uplay....just get it there.

Recommended for:
--fans of stealth action games
--wannabe pirates
--exploration junkies who want a game chocked full of locations to explore and items to track down
--PARKOUR!  *you like climbing, jumping, balancing, and games that give you the feeling of astounding agility
--people who like stabbing people in video games (you probably shouldn't admit this one...but it's true)
--conspiracy theorists
--people who started off with Odyssey but who want a better feel for the series

Not recommended for:
--people who want an astoundingly strong story in their games.

The holiday season is fast approaching and Black Flag is more than worth the low price that it will be offered for on various sales.  Give piracy a chance!

#TheDreadWolfRises--Fans of Dragon Age Rejoice!

If you're a fan of BioWare games, particularly the Dragon Age series, there has finally been a tiny bit of good news.  For years fans have waited for news of a fourth installment of the fantasy RPG series.  There were some hinting Tweets and comments from the architects of the game, but really nothing concrete.  Yesterday, something concrete finally appeared in the form of a short teaser type of video.

SPOILERS SHALL FOLLOW!  If you haven't finished Inquisition give the next section a pass.

It appears that the fourth game will have much to do with the huge cliffhanger at the end of Inquisition--the fact that Solas was actually an elven god in disguise and who appears to have some very sinister plans for the world of Thedas.  There appears to be some link to the red lyrium that was spreading throughout Thedas and to the lyrium idol that was part of the story in Dragon Age II.  There's also references to events that happen in the Trespasser DLC.  Honestly, there's not much to go on, but just the fact that it appears that they are working on a fourth game offers a huge glimmer of hope for fans of the series.

Spoilers over.

As a fan, I'm fairly excited, but I'm feeling cautious.  Mass Effect:  Andromeda was not a high point for BioWare and there are still many fans who are very bitter about that nightmare--look at any post on social media and usually the top comment is a no-holds-barred smackdown related to Andromeda.  It's hard to forget that entire situation.

My hopes for a new Dragon Age game are that BioWare sticks to what it does well--story, characters, and relationships.  That's naively optimistic--Anthem appears to be taking a completely new tack with its multiplayer focus and I really don't foresee a new game that doesn't include some sort of MP (AKA a continuous revenue stream--which is something that EA definitely wants).  I'm still maintaining my opinion that the success or failure of Anthem could mark a huge change for the way BioWare does games.  If they are able to successfully capture a combination of MP and strong story/character focus, it could mean all future games adopt that model.

It has been a very long time since I've played Inquisition, but watching this trailer has given me a desire to fire up another inquisitor.  I think I've only played the DLC once and I can barely remember it.  I'm currently neck deep in Assassin's Creed glory, so Inquisition is going to have to stay on deck for now.  That's perfectly fine because much of the information related to Dragon Age 4 appears to indicate that a new game is at least several years off.  Until then, we can all fantasize about our perfect DA4 world.

From Philosophy to Piracy

After completing Assassin's Creed: Odyssey (which I enjoyed very much), my yearning for more assassination didn't feel fully sated.  Not to mention the fact that Steam was right in the middle of its Autumn Sale (just call it Black Friday, Steam--we all know that's what you mean!), so it was the perfect time to look into expanding my recently piqued interest in the long-running Assassin's Creed series.  I decided to pick up three other games in the series; Assassin's Creed 4:  Black Flag, Syndicate, and Origins.  I had read that many people consider Black Flag to be the best game in the series and Syndicate and Origins were mentioned as praiseworthy entries.  I've decided to continue my AC journey on the high seas of the Caribbean during the golden age of pirates in Black Flag.

Edward's crew is an assortment of pirate types.

The protagonist in Black Flag is the roguishly handsome Edward Kenway.  Kenway has been introduced as Welshman who has married above his station and who wants to make a fortune.  He decides that the best way to make his fortune is to head off to sea as a privateer (AKA pirate).  After joining up with a crew he finds himself aboard a ship that is attacking a larger English ship.  The firefight is fierce--cannons are booming and ships are ramming each other.  The battle doesn't turn out well for either ship involved, both sustain heavy damage and are sunk.  Edward manages to survive the sinking and finds himself washed ashore on a deserted island--but he's not the sole survivor; a mysteriously hooded Englishman has also survived and has washed up on the beach.  As both men awaken, the hooded figure runs and Edward pursues him.  Upon catching the mysterious character a sword fight ensues and Edward finds himself victorious.  He rummages through the pockets (AKA looting--but it does feel very rummag-ey in Black Flag) and discovers that this man isn't a regular English soldier but is an assassin in possession of a strange object--a small, glass cube.  A letter carried by the assassin implores him to reach a contact in the nearby major city of Havana...it also conveniently mentions that the contact has no idea what this assassin looks like--the perfect opportunity for some 18th century identity theft!  Edward decides to assume the identity of this assassin and head to Havana.  He finds a group of pirates actively searching for the assassin on the opposite end of the island, and after some brief sneaking and assassinating, he manages to find a place aboard a ship heading to Havana.

I've definitely noticed that Black Flag feels much more like a stealth/parkour game than Odyssey does.  Edward can handily scamper up the side of a building and scramble across rooftops like a wily, stray cat.  There are fewer RPG-like features--no dialogue options, no talent points, and no fancy loot system.  Like Odyssey, there is a sprawling map filled with various locations to explore (it's nowhere near to the insane size of ancient Greece, but for a game from 2013, it is impressive).

The highlight of my early adventures in the land of piracy has been the naval combat.  Edward's ship, the Jackdaw, starts off as a ramshackle tub in desperate need of some upgrades.  Even in this early stage the ship offers a formidable array of offensive abilities--chain shot that can be used to slow down enemy ships; broadside cannons that can spew a deadly rain of cannonballs; fire barrels that can be dropped as annoying floating hazards; and smaller deck guns that can pick off enemy sailors during boarding.  Managing those weapons is fairly complicated and involves using the camera to look in a specific direction--it's a little bit crazy.

Thus far, my major dislike has been the sword combat.  It feels much more complicated than it needs to be and engaging multiple enemies is difficult (and, I know that the goal is to avoid this situation, but sometimes things go south).  It's challenging to figure out when to break defenses, counter, and learning how to avoid getting stabbed has been a bit of a learning curve.  Poor Edward has died many times in sword fights due to my poor stealthing skills.

Playing Black Flag has helped me understand the animus technology that was mentioned in Odyssey.  I've learned that it's a type of advanced VR that uses genetic memories.  Part of the story revolves around the idea that you're working for an entertainment company that is testing and developing the technology for public consumption.  The company hopes to use the story of Edward Kenway as one of its scenarios and it's your job to play through that story and pick out the most useful parts.  I haven't been overly concerned with that part of the story, but it does help shed some light on some of the things I didn't understand in Odyssey.

My Assassin's Creed journey has just begun, but it promises to span several historical eras and be filled with much, much more stabbing.

*A quick addition that I forgot to mention--I decided to buy the three games I mentioned on Steam only to find out that you still have to go through Uplay (Ubisoft's digital store).  It was annoying to see that you have to use both platforms.  Just be prepared--you might as well just buy it on Uplay.

The Odyssey is Complete!

It turns out that I was much closer to finishing Assassin's Creed:  Odyssey than I originally thought.  I just barely finished the main storyline and after 143 hours of play, it's finally time to write up my review.  Odyssey was my first foray into the long-running Assassin's Creed franchise and it has more than piqued my interest in the series (in fact, I just purchased two other AC games on the Steam Autumn sale).  I had largely ignored the series as a console staple that couldn't possibly be good.  I think my 2018 year in gaming would be called "you're wrong and need to stop believing in game stereotypes."  I had an absolute blast playing Odyssey!

Since Odyssey is my first AC game, I have no basis for comparing it to any of the past games in the series.  My review is going to be solely based on my experiences, so if you're hoping for some sort of in-depth comparison to other games in the series...sorry to disappoint.  I have only a slight idea about new features and my only understanding about the series and/or backstory comes from the few things I had read about it prior to picking it up (which was very few).  Several articles have mentioned that Origins and Odyssey seem to have marked a change in the series to make them more RPG-like than previous games.

And, just as an FYI, I did receive Odyssey free as part of a promotion that came with my new graphics card.  This did not sway my opinion in any way (but daaamn if it wasn't the best of the three free games I received!).  The downside of this free offer was that I had to activate it on Uplay (Ubisoft's store/platform) rather than on Steam.

To give you a general idea of my first playthrough and the experience I am basing my review from--I am a completionist to the nth degree--if it can be completed, I will complete it (it might take for-freaking-ever, but it will get done!).  I made it my goal to explore all the locations on the map, to complete all the locations (which I did with mixed success), to complete all marked sidequests, to finish all the major sidetasks (mercenary rankings, cultist hunting, ainigmata ostraka solving, arena fights).  All of this, plus the main storyline, clocked in at 143 hours for me (knowing how the main storyline progresses, I could do it faster now--I repeated many locations).  I feel like I have a good feeling for the game as a whole.

Pros:

Athens is magnificent.

1.) Big, beautiful ancient Greek world.  From the minute I stepped into the game I was completely blown away by the detail and beauty of the world.  Whether you're adventuring in the majesty of the city of Athens or riding through a simple village, it feels absolutely amazing.  The game definitely banks on this fact and all fast travel locations are conveniently located atop breathtaking vistas that are meant to make you stop and take it all in.  You can't help but be impressed.

Kassandra is a great character.

 2.) Kassandra!  I am absolutely in love with Kassandra as the female protagonist.  She's tough, smart, beautiful and extremely well acted (she's my second favorite character next to FemShep from Mass Effect).  As a female gamer, she's exactly the type of character who I want to play and I appreciated the fact that she wasn't overly feminized or sexualized--she's muscular and looks and acts like the brash mercenary that she is.  Even with all this toughness there were still moments where you got to see her softer side--her interactions with kids are great and she does have some emotional moments that are tied to the story.  Usually when I re-play a game I use my second time as a chance to play as the character I didn't choose--I don't know if I can do it with Odyssey...Kassandra is amazing.

3.) Tasks, tasks, and more tasks!  Yes, the world is huge, but there are so many different options for you to choose how you spend your time in the game.  Here is a list to give you an idea:
   --exploration/completing locations
   --conquering regions/conquest battles
   --gathering materials to upgrade your ship, the Adrestia.
   --hunting down unique ships (which can drop unique sail designs, figureheads, or crew designs)
   --completing mission board assignments for cash/orichalcum
   --marked sidequests
   --hunting down cultists
   --competing in arena fights
   --gaining ranks on the mercenary chart
   --hunting down legendary animals
   --finding and solving ainigmata ostraka riddles
   --searching for all the legendary Greek Hero items
   --main storyline missions

Yes, you're going to be busy for a long time.

4.) Talent trees that support several different playstyles.  The hunter tree offers archery-related talents that provide maximal sniping abilities.  The warrior tree leans toward a directly confrontational playstyle and has abilities that range from flaming weapons to coordinated, overpowering melee attacks.  The assassin tree is perfect for players who prefer a stealthier approach.  All three trees can be mixed and matched to provide the abilities you want (and, some you don't).

5.) Armor sets upon armor sets.  Since I was madly completionist I collected the bulk of the sets from the main game.  Each set is uniquely detailed and has an aesthetic that matches the playstyle associated with the matching stats.  Armor sets that favor warrior stats look more heavily armored while the assassin sets are hooded and are made out of lighter materials.  There are so many sets that you can find one that is a good match for whatever unique blend of talents you've chosen.  I went assassin heavy with an emphasis on poison damage and stuck with the Venom set for much of the game.  Epic pieces aren't part of a set, but can also provide a very unique look for your character.

The Adrestia can be personalized with a number of options.

6.) Your ship, the Adrestia.  It's your home base, and it's also a powerful tool for naval warfare.  There are many options for personalization that can be unlocked through exploration or completing specific missions/tasks.  Investing resources in improving your ship also changes the way that it looks.  You can also recruit unique lieutenants who provide special combat boosts.  Another fun feature is the ability to personalize your crew--there are a wide range of male and female crews to find and unlock.  I really liked the fact that you could choose between male and female crews.  My crew of Daughters of Artemis made for fearsome sailors.  I loved the fact that my lady pirates dominated the sea.

7.) Parkour!  I'm pretty sure this is a staple of the series, but I enjoyed the fact that Kassandra could climb (and jump off of) almost anything.  Figuring out the best place to balance and plan an assassination was enjoyable.

8.) Conquest battles.  These battles feel epic.  There's an entire battlefield crawling with enemies and it's your job to help turn the tide.  I don't know that I've played another game that has given me that feeling of being in the middle of a pitched battle.  I also enjoyed the fact that some battles are naval battles--it gives players some variety.

9.) Choices.  There are many major dialogue options where you can choose how to proceed.  You don't have to kill everyone and can opt for something more diplomatic.  It appeared that those choices did have some effect on the story outcome (I can't say exactly to what extent though).

Photo mode lets you capture the beauty of ancient Greece.

10.) Photo mode.  I loved the fact that Odyssey included a built-in photo mode.   Personally, I enjoy taking screenshots and trying to capture the beauty in games.  Photo mode is easy to use, allows you to manipulate the camera to the desired angle, and includes a number of tools help make your images look exactly how you want them to.  (I wish that The Witcher 3 had a photo mode like the one in Odyssey)

11.) Historical fantasy.  As a history nerd, it was fun to see some of the major figures from ancient Greece as characters in a video game.  Is Odyssey an accurate representation of ancient Greece?  Definitely not; but it is a lot of fun!  I liked the fact that they included locations of historical significance and that players could choose to read about those locations on the map.  It was really awesome to see an imagined version of the Statue of Zeus at Olympia or the Parthenon in Athens.

12.) Humorous moments.  The main storyline is very serious, but there are some side quests that include lighter moments.  Arguing about philosophy with Sokrates (Kassandra's eyerolls are freakin' priceless--amazing animation), escorting the Spartan prizefighter Testikles to the Olympics, and generally any hi-jinx featuring Alkibiades (and his sexual innuendos).  Those moments of levity are a nice change of pace.

13.) About half of the main storyline (I will get to the other half).  I am going to try to avoid spoilers, but I genuinely enjoyed the part of the story that was about Kassandra and her family.  There were a lot of highly emotional moments that were well-written and it was a joy to see it all come together.

14.) Mythical creature fights.  As part of the main storyline you must find and defeat several creatures from Greek mythology.  These fights are boss battles and are definitely much more difficult than facing off against another mercenary or elite enemy.  I loved the way the creatures looked (the Sphinx is so cool!) and fighting and defeating them feels like a true accomplishment.

Cons:
1.) How big is too big? (let your inner twelve-year old laugh at this statement....)  The world is huge, but I can't help but think that it's too big.  The map is littered with locations and each one has a set of tasks to accomplish.  It's all too easy to get swept up in the checklist game, but how meaningful are those tasks?  Sure, you could argue that completing them does have a direct tie to nation power, but in the end, how meaningful is the entire concept of which nation rules an area?  In reality, it's not important at all (unless it's one of the main storyline areas).  Odyssey definitely suffers from what I like to call "open-world bloat."  It's a common affliction in many modern, open-world RPG's where developers feel the need to wow gamers with the size and scope of their creation.  I loved the beauty of the game, but I did find that the exploration and completion aspect got tedious.  There are a bajillion military bases and they seem to have the same three-ish designs.

2.) A side consequence of open-world bloat is that the story winds up getting buried.  I'm having a hard time recalling parts of the main storyline because it took place 100+ hours ago!  I think this is where so many open-world games suffer--the story gets lost behind the world itself.  I wish there were more storylines built in to each area as opposed to more places to explore.  Maybe this is a personal preference, but I think story is so much more engaging than exploring your 900th cave.

3.) There's a relationship aspect to the game that I felt mixed about.  Certain characters offer the dialogue option to flirt and I didn't think (in most cases) that there was much point to it--other than providing a cutscene of some nice video game smooching (it's not awkward and well animated, so that's a plus).  There are many female characters to flirt with and not many male options.  These relationships have virtually no consequences (there are a few that have their own story and those are the highlight).  It's my hope that this feature gets fleshed out more--it could provide some relief from open-world bloat.  (I did not get to make out with Brasidas, which was my goal)

4.) Conquest.  I was really thinking that there would be some major tie-in with the main story and the fact that you can fight to change the ruling nation in each area.  Well, SPOILERS, there's not (for the most part, anyway).  The main point seems to be that you can earn some drachmae and a few pieces of epic armor.  Conquest battles are epic, but like exploration, they get tedious after awhile.  Besides getting paid, there's also really no point in completing them.

5.) The backstory that's part of the main storyline.  Maybe it's the fact that I haven't played the entire series, but it made little sense and felt like a distraction.  I really didn't care about whatever modern mumbo-jumbo that was going on--I cared about Kassandra and her story.  I guess they included it to show the link between the games, but I mostly wanted to get past it.  I was also really confused when I finished part of the story and it felt like the end (but it wasn't).

6.) Cultists.  I enjoyed the concept of hunting down cultists and trying to figure out who they were, but I was frustrated by the fact that several times I accidentally killed cultists.  I wish that hunting them down felt more satisfactory and that it was impossible to stumble across them unless they had been revealed.  I also felt like I knew who the central cultist was from very early on in the story.  It wasn't much of a surprise when they were unmasked at the end of the game.

7.) Talent points.  If you are a completionist it's possible that you can earn and discover (through locating stele in tombs) a plethora of talent points.  By the end of my playthrough I had taken every single talent in the assassin tree (maxed out), about 3/4 of the warrior talents, and about 1/3 of the hunter talents.  The reality is that I could only map 8 melee abilities at a time.  This meant that many of my talent points were mostly useless (you can swap out abilities).  Swapping between both melee bars also felt kind of awkward (definitely something that's meant for a controller).

Odyssey isn't perfect, but it is a lot of fun.  I enjoyed it so much that I've become an almost overnight fan of Assassin's Creed.  I think it would be better if the world was trimmed down and more story was injected as opposed to just the sheer number of locations.  It's a beautiful world and I adore Kassandra as a character.  I keep reading that singleplayer RPG's are in their death throes but games like Odyssey give me hope that the genre still has some life left.

It's true....I love stabbing people.

I would recommend Odyssey to a wide variety of gamers--those looking for a strong, awesome female protagonist; those who want a huge, beautiful world to explore; or those who just want to stab a whole bunch of people in a video game.  There's something for everyone.

My Odyssey Wish and Gripes List

Guess what?  Chicken butt!  Just kidding--but I'm about to lead off with the exact same sentiment that I've led off with for the past four weeks--I'm still playing Assassin's Creed:  Odyssey.  According to the horrible counter on Uplay's game dock, I've played for 135 hours, killed 4,389 critters/people, and travelled 1,351,217 meters (kilometers?  I don't know.).  And yet, I'm still not finished.  I'm 72% through the main storyline and still have a stubborn determination to find and complete as many locations as I can.  Oh, the pain of being such an ardent completionist...I've mostly had fun, but there have definitely been some moments of questioning the point of clearing out yet another military outpost or creeping through my billionth cave.  (FYI--There might be some spoilers.  You've probably already finished the game though, because you're not stubbornly clinging to finding and doing everything.  If so, read on!)

This is what it feels like to be the #1 mercenary.

The one major achievement I can chalk up is finally climbing to the top of the ancient Greek mercenary charts.  I mostly ignored the entire concept of gaining ranks until I noticed that some of the discounts offered at higher ranks were actually very good.  Trying to keep my gear upgraded has been a bit of a headache that has required an obscene amount of leather--stupidly, I didn't noticed that at tier 3 rank the material cost for gear upgrades is reduced by 50%.  I could've saved so much leather.....blargh.  I mostly faced off against the other mercenaries in the Pephka arena--a few I killed while they were trying to track me down.  The entire mercenary ranking system culminates with a fight against a "legendary" fighter who is one of the sage level cultists.  You get to become #1 and take out one of the high ranking cultists--bargain!  Sadly, becoming #1 doesn't really provide much in the way of rewards--legendary guy drops a huge, fiery mace and I think you get a legendary skin for your horse--some sort of flaming, underworld type of deal.  Then you get to sit happily on your throne of mercenary bodies.  Hurrah!

I've also managed to slay all four of the mythical creatures.  My favorite fight was against Medusa--you definitely need to be on your toes to avoid her petrification beam and her lightning call down (I don't know what to call it--the red circles you have to avoid).  The two other fights seemed easy compared to Medusa.  I managed to avoid fighting the Sphinx by answering its riddles correctly.

Throughout all this time playing I've been thinking about things that bug me and things that I wish were different or better.  Since I'm still not done playing, I've decided to make that list a thing outside of my own head.  I'm new to the series, so I have no idea if any of the things I'm listing are new features or unique to Odyssey.

Wishes:
1.) Relationships/flirting seems to be mostly (*with a few exceptions) pointless.  I've read that this entire aspect of the game is a new thing, so there's room for improvement.  I wish they would flesh out the relationship part of the game more--maybe something along the lines of a BioWare-esque relationship system.  For example, I think it would be nice to have unique, recruitable lieutenants for your ship.  It would be even better if those lieutenants had some sort of questline that adds backstory and can help develop the relationship between your character and the lieutenant.  To me, it just seems so weird and forced when your character has barely met someone and then they're basically hopping straight into bed with them (or they seem to happen at really awkward times--for example, when someone is sick and you offer to help...but not until after you've made the sweet, sweet love!  It just feels weird/wrong!).  Maybe that's a personal preference, but the relationships I've liked the most have been the ones that develop over the course of a chaining questline (Kyra comes to mind).

Along those same relationship related lines, I've noticed that the ratio of male to female options seems extremely skewed.  There are a ton of options to flirt with women, while there are only a few male characters open to flirtations.  I can only bring to mind four male choices--a cute doctor who wants you to kill his mother-in-law (there's an entire story--it's in one of the early zones), Alkibiades--the Greek playboy who seems to be down for whatever--a horny blacksmith who seems to want sexual favors in exchange for providing you with a sword for a quest--and Mikkos, a guy who is supposed to be taking care of Barnabas' sick nephew (but still brazenly flirts with you while you're offering to help and Neleus lays in bed--this is a prime example of the awkward situation).  I want some more male options!  (I'm not far enough into the main storyline, but I'm really feeling Brasidas--he better be an option!)

2.) More branching/detailed side quests.  I managed to find a few more notable and enjoyable branching sidequests that provided some nice stories, but I'm still finding that many zones are largely lacking in story.  The islands seem to have more to offer than the main Greek peninsula.  Exploration gets really draggy without something to spice it up and add interest.

3.) Morality system.  I will get to this under the "bugs me" section.

Bugs Me:
1.) I've been questioning whether the legendary gear sets are really worth it.  Each set seems to be crafted toward a certain playstyle and I've sided on the assassin heavy sets (the Venom set particularly.  Epic gear seems better though--you get three unique stat buffs plus an engraving.  The main challenge with epic gear is getting the correct combination of stats that you want.  I feel like the legendary gear should feel...more legendary.  There are some really nice looking items--I have to say that.

2.) Accidentally killing cultists.  I know this is a weird thing, but I feel like killing cultists should be more satisfactory and epic feeling.  It felt decidedly lackluster when I accidentally killed two cultists who I thought were guards (one of them was sleeping in a fort, I stabbed him only to discover that he didn't die and was actually quite tough--after a short scuffle, it was revealed that he was a cultist--it was simultaneously surprising and a bit disappointing).  Part of me wishes that the cultists would only appear after you have found the clues to reveal them.  One really weird thing happened with another cultist where he was already dead!  It appeared that he had wandered into a small camp of Spartan soldiers who then killed him.  Stabbing his dead corpse was anticlimactic.

Ask me to stab a cultist guard...OK.  Ask me to burn a silo....ugh.

3.)  Completing some locations requires doing things that I don't like doing.  Yes, it's true that I can choose not to do them, but then I won't get credit for completing the location.  In particular I am thinking of blowing up silos.  Destroying supplies does tie in with the entire idea of there being a war and trying to weaken one side or the other--that doesn't stop it from feeling horrible each time that I do it (I don't know why--I will literally stab a billion guards, but blowing up a silo....it just sucks).  Silos are also usually surrounded by civilians who are working in the fields and tend to get blown up in the process--I don't like that and try not to kill civilians.  I wish the civilians would scare off more easily or run away when they see me toss a torch onto a silo.  This makes me wish for some sort of more comprehensive morality system--it's true that if you are seen committing crimes that your bounty increases, but I don't feel like there is much of a penalty for killing civilians.  I also don't like that some things are stealing while others are just looting.  Maybe I'm just weird.

4.) Only being able to map 8 melee abilities.  It's true that I mostly have 3-4 go to skills, but it feels so pointless to have a bunch of abilities that I can't map because my melee bar is full.

I am hoping that by next week that I will have completed my first full playthrough and can write my review.  Thus far I've been impressed by the sheer size and scope of the game.  There is so much to do--you definitely do not need to worry about running out of tasks.  It's not perfect, but I'm finding Odyssey to be a fun RPG.

BIG SPOILER HERE--DON'T READ UNLESS YOU'RE VERY FAR ADVANCED INTO THE STORY.

I never got to make out with Brasidas and now I'm sad.  Damn you Ubisoft for ruining both Kyra and Brasidas for me!

Epic Odyssey

Yup, that's right, I'm still playing Assassin's Creed: Odyssey for the fourth week in a row.  This should be a very good indication of the amazing size of the game.  It's true that I could stop my insane completionist mission to discover every single location in the game, but why would I possibly want to do that?  A recent update just raised the level cap, added a new mythical foe to defeat, and also added a new "hard" mode for other mythical enemies.  The "hard" mode also offers the chance to cobble together a fancy new set of armor from the loot that all those hard-to-kill mythical monsters drop.  There's still so much to do!

I managed to slightly advance the main storyline in between bouts of exploration, but I'm still mostly just wandering around killing everything in sight (but somewhat trying to avoid it...I swear!).  Something that I just recently discovered (which I honestly don't know how I missed it) is the in-game photo mode.  Photo mode is something that most people probably scoff at and don't touch.  I absolutely love trying to capture fantastic photos of beautifully crafted video game worlds.  It has been great to see more and more games include special tools for taking and editing these photographs.  The most recent update also included additional features in photo mode and I'm secretly dying to check them out.  So far, the only photo I've taken is this completely uninspiring picture of a statue that I liked.  There's something about the statues in Odyssey that makes me want to take photos of them--I think it's somewhat related to the cognitive dissonance I have from having the image of the ruined, marble statues in museums not equate to the beautifully painted statues in the game.  It's fun to get to imagine what those statues would have looked like in antiquity.

A statue!

There have been a few compelling moments in my explorations.  I've finally located two mythical creatures--the Minotaur and the Cyclops--and succeeded in killing them.  On normal, the fights weren't too difficult and involved timing dodges correctly and figuring out how to temporarily disable the beasts so I could unload on them.  Each drops a legendary item that can be added to your stash (I think I got some sort of heavy weapon from each of them--nothing I'm particularly interested in.)

There have also been several opportunities to spark up hook-ups with some random characters.  I'm not sure how to feel about these encounters as some of them seem weirdly out of place and others do tie-in with a specific character and their story.  One of the hook-ups that I found the strangest happened on the small, volcanic island of Hydrea.  While exploring, I stumbled across a woman who looked to be sparring (and kicking the pants off of her opponents).  She offered a mission, so why not?  In approaching her, I learned that she was training for this huge battle and so far, couldn't find any training partners who were up to snuff.  As if!  I immediately offered to participate in a few different training activities with her and promptly beat her in all three (not so high and mighty now!).  After completing the training activities, I found my Kassandra sitting atop a hill with a beautiful view and chatting up Roxana.  Things were obviously leaning in a romantic fashion...and it felt kind of weird.  "I really like you."  We literally just hung out for 10 minutes while I kicked your butt in every activity.  Plus, there was this looming reality that if I/Kassandra entered the fighting event with Roxana that we would end up facing off.  That would be a regular Greek tragedy....so, I had Kassandra awkwardly tell Roxana "no thanks."  (I won't spoil the end of this relationship--but it does suck)

Ancient Greek beaches are made for lovin'.

One hook-up that I did opt for and then later regret was with Kyra, the leader of a group of rebels on Mykonos.  She didn't come on as strong and suddenly as Roxana and, there was something definitely charming about her drunken, reckless demeanor.  About midway through her chaining missions on Mykonos there are options to flirt and I went for it.  The result was a retreat to a beautiful beach where there's a cutscene and more options for flirting.  Partially through the dialogue and flirting, Kyra drops a bomb on you--she's in a relationship with Thaletas, the Spartan commander who is helping kick the Athenians off Mykonos.  Then, there's a choice to be made--do you continue your reckless flirting with Kyra, or do you tell her that she shouldn't cheat on Thaletas?  What the heck!  I've already stabbed like 4,000 people, what's breaking one poor guy's heart?  (Yes, I made a horrible person decision)  The night passes with some ancient Greek hookin' up and then you and Kyra part ways amid some goodbye kisses.  It's nice!  Things don't work out so well for poor Thaletas...(yeah, it turns out that my horrible person decision had some consequences)

A Few Exceptions

Last week I lamented the fact that there really didn't seem to be many longer, chaining missions to add depth to the massive world of ancient Greece in Assassin's Creed:  Odyssey.  As I've continued playing, I've stumbled across several that do add some interest to particular areas.  I somewhat bungled two of them and didn't get the exact outcome I was hoping for, but I was glad to finally have a break from my seemingly endless pursuit of discovering and conquering every place on the map.

For quite awhile I had a mission sitting in my log that required me to travel to the far flung corners of the ancient Greek world.  It was a request to travel to the island of Pephka to find an arena that sponsored fights between mercenaries.  I decided it was finally time to find this mysterious arena and see what it had to offer.  The arena is easy to find and offers up fights that include a few waves of mixed enemies (archers, brutes, spearmen, shield bearers, etc.) and then a final round against a "boss" type.  The "boss" can also fall within one of those enemy types and is essentially a bigger, badder version of fighting another mercenary.  I decided to complete two rounds of arena fighting--the initial fights were both well below my current level--and realized that one of the cultists fights in the arena.  So, the arena fighting scenario turned into a "two birds with one stone" kind of thing--I completed one of the five fights to establish myself as the "arena champion," and I killed off another cultist.  I desperately needed one more artifact fragment to level my spear up and unlock the third tier of talents, so it worked out perfectly.  I think there's one more fight within my current level range but that the final two fights will require some more levelling up.  (Spoilers for a set of side quests on Pephka ahead)

The lighting was nice in this location.  Of course I offered to help!

After I finished off my brief stint in the arena, I decided that it was time to explore the rest of the island and check off some location goals.  I made my way across the island and realized that I actually had another set of missions that started in the town of Lato.  These missions revolved around finding and fighting the Minotaur.  Upon arriving at the port in Lato, I was drawn to the enticing exclamation point of a new mission.  There was a kid who was offering tours related to the Minotaur--I decided to bite and take the tour.  Tour kid ran off and I followed--he proceeded to show me a large, half-completed statue of the Minotaur....but offered no real information about where to find the creature.  He then beckoned to follow him into the central market square of Lato and stopped next to a stall where he explained that true heroes might need some of his special "minotaur elixir" to give them some extra "oomph" to defeat it.  I was highly skeptical, but the kid was kind of cute and definitely had some entrepreneurial talents, so I paid 200 drachmae for a vial of the definitely fake elixir.

The tour proceeded and the kid ran off toward a cave near the market.  I followed him and discovered a cave with a large statue of a minotaur and some smaller paraphernalia.  The kid announced that this was the end of the tour and that the fee for his services needed to be paid--that's when two imposing looking brutes sidled in from out of the frame   The little turkey then announced that the price of his tour was 3000 drachmae and that I could either pay it or face his two hulking friends.  Fighting off his muscle wouldn't have been a problem, but I admired the racket that the kid had come up with, so I decided to pay him the money.  Sheesh, getting extorted in ancient Greece!

From here I headed out to the main square in Lato and found the mission target, a guy name Leiandros who was offering warriors a chance to find and fight the Minotaur.  But first....you had to complete a series of "pre-trials" to prove that you had the required skills.  Upon completing the trials, you would receive a token that you could give to Leiandros to prove that you succeeded.  I headed off toward the first task--a trial of strength--and found a burly man in a small fighting arena.  He offered to sell me his token rather than fight him, which seemed kind of odd.  I turned him down (partially because I had just been fleeced of 3000 drachmae by the kid) and faced the task of defeating him.  The fight was over in a matter of seconds and he handed over the token.

The next task, the trial of accuracy, looked like it was going to involve showing off my archery skills.  I mentally prepared myself for some fancy shooting and approached the mission target.  I was surprised when he started explaining the trial and then trailed off.  Instead of completing the trial he offered the chance to skip it if I would locate his three missing sons, who were "little shits" that refused to come home and were hiding on a neighboring farm.  I offered to wrangle the brats in exchange for the trial token and released Ikaros to get a fix on their exact location.  One son was crouched in the middle of a tall wheat field, another was atop a set of scaffolding that was currently surrounded by a group of wild boars, and the last was inside a structure on the farm.  Dispatching the boars was simple and breaking into the structure with the third son revealed a hidden snake that had him trapped inside.  I headed back to the frustrated father/really crappy trial giver and was showered with thanks for getting his kids to return.  He handed over the token and it was time to head to the last trial.

The last trial was to involve endurance and the instructions were to dive down into a large pool of water (that happened to be filled with sharks) and retrieve the token from a chest hidden in the bottom of the pool....or I could pay 1200 drachamae and skip it!  It didn't sound difficult, so I perched myself atop a conveniently protruding post and picked off the sharks using my archery abilities.  Then, I dove into the sinkhole and quickly found the chest with the token.  Possessing all three tokens meant that I could head back to Leiandros and finally receive instructions about where to locate the Minotaur.

I headed back to the main square and presented the tokens to Leiandros.  He promptly offered to sell them to me as souvenirs for 1200 drachmae!  What the hell?  I watched as Kassandra angrily told him to knock off the money grubbing nonsense and reveal the location of the Minotaur.  Leiandros shrunk back, but grudgingly revealed that the Minotaur could be found in a nearby cave known as the "cave of heroes."  Before I was to enter the cave, I was to meet two other warriors who were hoping to take on this legendary creature.  It looked like it was going to be a tough fight.

The fearsome "Minotaur."

I rode into Warrior's Rest and found the two warriors--they were squabbling over who would get to strike the killing blow on the beast and claim the glory.  I mostly ignored them as we mounted up and headed for the nearby cave.  Once inside the cave we started to see signs of what looked like many victims of the Minotaur's brutality--corpses and piles of skulls....but, we also started to hear some strange noises--someone who was yelling "growl!"  and "moo!"  The two warriors who were accompanying me were frightened and fled the cave.  As I proceeded further into the cave and began investigating the corpses, it was obvious that they hadn't been killed by a Minotaur (not that the human voice yelling "growl" and "moo" wasn't completely obvious).  In a large central chamber I finally got to confront the fearsome beast....which, turned out to be a guy in a bull-shaped headdress.   I prepared to attack the "beast" when three shadowy figures emerged from the corner of the cave to attack me.  The fight was quick and they were dead within less than a minute.  The "Minotaur" was cowering behind a fake throne, so I decided to confront him and find out the truth about what was going on.  As he removed his bull's head helmet, he revealed himself to be none other than Leiandros!  He apologized for his deceit and explained that a group of cultists had kidnapped his daughter and forced him to participate in their scheme to fleece and kill thousands of "warriors" who completed the trials.  He then asked if I would rescue his daughter from the cultists and offered up their location.  I convinced him that his daughter would appreciate her father more if he was the one to help rescue her and he agreed to continue his role as the Minotaur and participate in freeing her from the cultists.

From here, Leiandros urged me to follow him to some nearby ruins that were the base of operations for the cultists.  His daughter was being held in some caves below the base.  Leiandros offered to help, but didn't appear to have any actual combat abilities.  I convinced him to distract the guards by pretending to be the Minotaur while I sneaked through the camp and freed his daughter.  Of course there was lots of guard killing--the camp was crawling with guards!  I stealthily killed a few and then proceeded to be spotted by a pack of guards near the cave entrance.  Rather than run away and renew my stealthy approach, I decided to take them on directly and managed to kill almost all of them off.  The remaining few were far enough in the cave that they weren't alerted to my presence and could easily be assassinated.  I unlocked the cage and escorted Leiandroses daughter to a safe location on the outskirts of the camp.  Leiandros, in full Minotaur mode, approached and I forced him to reveal his role as the "Minotaur" to his daughter.  We returned to Lato where the entire family was happily reunited.

I appreciated this mission chain and found it to be funny and enjoyable.  It cracked me up that the entire island appeared to be a P.T. Barnum style humbug that was designed to fleece wannabe warriors from around ancient Greece.  It was nice to have a break from exploring and to have a fun story interjected.  I think a few more zones in Odyssey could benefit from chaining missions, especially the larger ones.  In a way, I have to eat my words from last week about there not really being any notable missions--there are some, and they definitely add something to the world. 

Stabbing Guilt...Literally

Assassin's Creed:  Odyssey is proving to be a massive undertaking.  Sadly, after many more hours of play, I've barely advanced my main storyline progression--damn you enticing question marks!  At this point, I've stabbed so many poor Athenians, Spartans, bandits, cultists, mercenaries, and various other baddies that I've started feeling a bit guilty about it.  I've even started to try to avoid killing people (which never turns out well--usually I end up getting spotted by the guards anyway and the killing turns from a silent, orderly assassination-fest into a chaotic bout of ducking, dodging, and running).  Here's a good indication of my murderousness:

That's right, I've advanced the main storyline by 9% in one week and I've killed 1,323 people.  Sheesh.

Mostly, I'm still having fun, but I will admit that I've found myself getting a bit bored with my personal game of question mark/checklist checkoff.  Like I mentioned last week, the world of ancient Greece is stunningly beautiful, but after I've cleared out my 30th military base (that looks oddly similar to most of the other bases) I find myself getting antsy.  I've also found myself feeling a little weird about killing people in an urban area--it feels wrong to stab someone in the middle of a marketplace (yes, you are playing the role of an assassin--I get that) and I've been steering clear of bounties where you kill civilians.  I'm loving Kassandra as a character, but it does feel quite ruthless to be blatantly stabbing...well, everyone.

Even though I have had those strange, misplaced feelings of guilt, that hasn't stopped me from my ridiculously murderous desire to Spartan Kick anyone and everyone off of any slight incline.  Why is it so stinkin' fun to boot someone off the side of a cliff?  Am I a horrible person for enjoying it so much?  One of my highlight Spartan Kicking moments came in the Forge of Hephaistos (a cultist camp located in a cave within a volcano) where I was accidentally spotted by a patrolling cultist (and a captain at that).  After some brief sparring, I noticed that el capitan was standing right on the edge of the boiling, lava filled cauldron, so I decided to give him the boot.  Much to my satisfaction, he landed perfectly in the lava--no loot, but a much easier fight!  (And, I also have to yell "this...is...Sparta!" like every time)

It's a big, beautiful world in ancient Greece...but it can get boring.

Something that I'm still trying to figure out is the loot system.  Epic gear (purple) seems to have better stats than legendary gear...but, legendary gear can form sets that seem to give out some seriously potent set bonuses.  I've accumulated a bunch of disparate set pieces and now they're all sitting at different levels.  It seems to cost a good chunk of resources to upgrade legendary pieces to your current level.  I have a bad feeling that by the time I finally do get a set together that it's going to require a ridiculous amount of resources to upgrade it to my character level.  Is it even worth it?

Assassin's Creed:  Odyssey seems to suffer from the "open world" problem--Ubisoft have re-created this gorgeous world, but it becomes the main focal point and the story gets lost in the background.  I really wish that each zone/area had more of a story built into it or some sort of chaining quests/missions to make the huge world more interesting.  I always refer back to The Witcher 3, because it's one game where I feel like they succeeded in adding in enough story that the open world didn't start to get old--each area had a story to go with it.  It doesn't necessarily need to be linear (which is like a bad word now), but it needs something to break up the drudgery.

I'm still having a lot of fun (even with my guilty assassin's conscience) and foresee myself spending many, many more hours adventuring in ancient Greece.

I Drank the Kool-Aid

I decided to cap off my "free" game adventures (my new graphics card came with a special promotion that offered three free games) by saving the biggest game for last--Assassin's Creed:  Odyssey.  Here's the part where I admit that I've never played an Assassin's Creed game prior to Odyssey.  Yes, yes, I know that's really weird, but I've had a sort of doubtful bias against the big name, AAA titles who make it a point to roll out a new game annually.  How good can a game really be if there's virtually no development time between games (and, I think they actually skipped a year prior to Odyssey if I'm remembering correctly)?  Well, it turns out that those games can actually be pretty dang good.  I'm currently having a blast sneaking and stabbing my way indiscriminately through ancient Greece.  I drank the Assassin's Creed Kool-Aid and I'm glad I did.

Since I've never played another AC game before, I have no idea how Odyssey chalks up against its predecessors.  It could be the worst game in the series...or it could be the best, honestly, I don't really care.  Not having played the previous games doesn't seem to have me at any disadvantages other than not really understanding the backstory of the modern, technological parts of the game--there have been a couple of cutscenes involving a VR-like apparatus and some researchers who are basically viewing the story of Kassandra/Alexios.  There's obviously a much bigger story that has played out through the series.

The main story in the game follows your character--either Kassandra or Alexios--as they uncover their strange past in the world of ancient Greece.  They both survived some very traumatic events and have some powerful, almost god-like gifts.  Trying to unravel exactly what happened to their family members is just one piece of the puzzle--there are much bigger conspiracies at work throughout the Greek world.

I've been playing for about 23 hours and have progressed about 25% into the main storyline.  Here's what I'm loving so far:

1.) Kassandra as the female character.  She's tough, smart, beautiful, and exactly the type of female character that I think many female gamers will enjoy playing.  In recent years there seems to have been a shift away from the scantily clad, eye-candy type of character to a stronger, more realistic portrayal of women.  I love the fact that she has bulging biceps and can rock the Greek armor as well as the male character and in a completely unsexualized way.

2.) As someone who loves history, I keep having these nerdy moments of awe as I navigate the Greek world.  I had to stop and take a minute while I was exploring the temple of Apollo just to take in the sites.  It's absolutely amazing to wander around a game version of these real-life wonders of the ancient world.  I love checking out the mosaics, murals, and statues that adorn the temples in cities.  It's also fun to see how they've implemented everyday life into the game--olive groves where workers make olive oil or vineyards filled with vats of grapes being stomped by workers.  So cool!

When they introduced Herodotus as a character....it sort of blew my mind.  The "father of history" in a video game!  Anyone who has ever taken an ancient civ class has learned about or studied Herodotus.

3.) Massive, open world.  I haven't progressed far in the main storyline because I am having a difficult time tearing myself away from simply exploring.  The map is filled with one of my favorite distractions--question marks.  Each of these ? represent a new location to discover and each also includes a virtual to-do list.  It could be a fort filled with soldiers, loot, and war supplies to destroy or a bandit camp that needs clearing.  Either way, I've made it my goal to fill my map with check marks...I have a feeling that will keep me busy for quite awhile.

4.) So much to do!  There's the main storyline, there is exploration, there are mercenaries who can be tracked down and killed so you can rise in rank, there are cultists to unveil and kill, there is a ship to be upgraded, a spear to be upgraded....there are options for a wide variety of player activities.  I've been very impressed with the depth.

5.) Using Ikaros to scout ahead or just to fly over areas and take in the view.  I'm loving having my eagle friend mark enemies and locate treasures.

And now, for the parts that I'm not liking as much or that are confusing to me:

1.)  Early on, players are introduced to the idea that the Greek world is at war.  Athens and Sparta are battling it out for control and each area is under the influence of one of those two factions.  You can influence who is in control of each zone by completing specific objectives that reduce the "nation power" of a faction.  These objectives include killing enemy soldiers, burning "war supplies" that are hidden inside forts, and killing higher ranking enemies--captains or polemarchs.  Each zone includes a leader who must be killed for the area to be vulnerable to conquest--reducing nation power means that this leader gradually becomes more loosely defended.  After you've disposed of the leader, you can participate in a battlefield event to either keep the current faction in charge or replace it with the opposing faction (which is supposed to be more difficult).

So far, I don't really understand the point of this system.  Maybe I haven't progressed far enough in the story to understand how the war ties in with Kassandra's quest to find her family, but I mostly just want to complete the location objectives.  As a result, I've been slaying Athenians and Spartans with no real purpose other than to get that magical checkmark on my map.  Should I be picking sides?  I don't know.

2.) Civilian reactions could be more realistic.  There's a part of me that wishes that they would react like the characters in Dishonored--if they catch you sneaking around in a place where you don't belong, that they go grab the guards.  Instead, they mostly just stand around or don't really react to the fact that you've just jumped off the roof of a building and stuck your spear through a guard's head.  This is probably just nitpicking, and the game doesn't seem to be about hardcore stealth, so it's probably for the best that they don't have a set reaction.

I foresee myself playing Odyssey for many, many more hours.  I've barely scratched the surface of this massively sprawling RPG, and there is a huge checklist of things for me to do.  If you're like me, a PC gamer who hasn't given the Assassin's Creed series much of a chance, I would recommend that you look into them.  I'm having so much fun!

ADDITION 10/28/18:  I decided I should focus on the main storyline (so I can figure out the war and whatnot) and headed into Athens.  Athens is absolutely amazing--a huge, sprawling ancient city that is filled with historical locations--I could climb on top of the Parthenon!  I can fast travel to the top of a massive statue of Athena and take in the sites!  BUT WAIT....I don't want to do that because performance in Athens is REALLY, REALLY HORRIBLE.  I desperately wanted to enjoy these moments as Ikaros flew around and revealed the panorama of the city, but instead was treated to my game slowing down to a sluggish chugfest.  I had Kassandra choppily scamper down the massive statue and noticed that there was an improvement in performance--but not by much.  Don't be surprised if you hit Athens and see your performance tank.  Every other location has run smooth as butter for me.  I've been trying to rapidly finish the locations and missions in Athens so I can get out of the city, which is a bit of a bummer because it's so cool. *Later, that day....so, apparently the problem was that my video card drivers were out of date (I had been willfully ignoring the message that popped up when I logged into the game--alas, it was correct).  Upon updating them to the latest version, Athens runs beautifully.  I took a trek up to the Aeropagus and enjoyed the magical view of the Akropolis.