Stealth Failure

After getting bored with The Division 2 (which, FYI has released it's first DLC "episode," so could potentially be worth revisiting), I decided to rededicate myself to completing the not-so-stealthy adventures of warrior Kassandra in Assassin's Creed:  Odyssey.  I forgot how absolutely massive the ancient Greek world is in Odyssey and can't stop my completionist self from completing every...single...location on the effin' map.  I've officially reached the point where every zone is almost finished and I'm ready to knock out the rest of the main story and move on to the DLC (which was my goal for re-playing the entire thing).

Warrior Kassandra looking heroic.

Playing as warrior Kassandra has prompted several changes in my playstyle from the first time around.  I decided to put all my talents into the "warrior" tree (rather than the assassin tree which I initially chose) and Kassandra is an absolute beast when it comes to pummeling large numbers of enemies.  On the other hand, her stealth skills are trash and trying to sneak through anything is hit or miss--she can stab someone from stealth, but they usually don't die in one hit (it's probably worth mentioning here that I also decided to raise the difficulty on this playthrough to hard).  This means that being remotely stealthy means luring unwitting guards, bandits, etc. to somewhat isolated areas, stabbing away a portion of health, and then giving them a few powerful whacks with the minotaur axe (I decided to go the two-hander route for the warrior build).  This strategy sort of works, but the majority of the time other guards hear the whacking taking place and Kassandra winds up in a wild melee with numerous enemies--it's chaos, but with the chain attack overpower ability and some built up adrenaline, it's usually bam, bam, bam, bam, and they're dead.

Further contributing to warrior Kassandra's lack of stealth is the decision to use fire-based attacks.  I do love a good DoT, but poor Kassandra lights herself on fire more often than not.  I've mastered the stop-drop-and roll method of putting out the raging self-inflicted fire.  I've grabbed every weapon that has extra fire damage and especially enjoy the bow of Hades which turns all basic arrows into fire arrows.  The downside of the bow is that I frequently forget about the flaming arrows and accidentally engulf entire camps in a raging inferno--which doesn't exactly encourage stealth--the guards will notice (eventually).

"Hard" difficulty hasn't been too bad, but due to the aforementioned poor stealth skills, Kassandra tends to have some level of bounty on her head.  One of the major differences from "normal" difficulty is that bounties seem to decay at a much slower level.  I've had to make it a point to seek out bounty holders and slay them if I want the bounty level to lower to where I won't be constantly stalked by baby mercenaries hoping to slay the godlike-Kassandra (they are fairly easy to kill, but have a tendency to make appearances at very inopportune moments).

A very non-consequential decision I made about this playthrough is that if the "flirt" option is offered in dialogue, Kassandra will take it.  As a result, Kassandra has had numerous romantic encounters with a very wide variety of people.  One of my favorites happens early in the game--the infamous horny, old lady who lives near the Oracle of Delphi (she sends you on a mission to gather a bunch of animal-based ingredients so she can make a potion for her exhausted husband).  I wasn't sure how the scenario would work out with flirting right in front of her husband...but he actually seems relieved when you offer to take his place.  There's a funny cutscene of several days passing--while the husband spends his free time hanging out with friends and practicing his musical skills on some sort of stringed instrument--and then your character finally emerges and basically tells the husband that the old lady should be good for a few days.  I really didn't expect that and it made me laugh.

In another romantically based decision I decided to forgo a romance with Kyra (the rebel leader on the island of Mykonos) in an effort to avoid the tragic end of that whole quest line (SPOILERS here for this quest--basically her Spartan BF doesn't really appreciate you cheating and the quest line ends with a fight and his death).  I even tried to flirt with the BF and he stayed loyal to Kyra and turned Kassandra down!  I thought I would get a happier ending to the quest line...but noooooo, someone still dies (I had made another decision which could have been different and possibly would have resulted in a better ending).  Sometimes you just can't win.

I have yet to touch the DLC, but I'm getting close.  My goal is to be neck-deep in it next week and able to write about it next weekend.