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Origins vs Odyssey


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I really enjoyed Origins but felt the same about Odyssey, it just didn't grab me. The whole experience felt really tedious to me. So much of the game is copied and pasted from Origins that it kinda felt like i was replaying a game, like the fun was still there - but i couldn't engage with it. On top of that we had the horrendous XP requirements for main missions and as you mentioned, the auto scaling enemies, so it's not even possible to just go for the parts you want to do or streamline it. You have to do everything and you have to endure battles that take far to long all the way through it.

 

Honestly i was exhausted. Finishing the game was enough for me, i didn't even want to look at the trophy list.

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5 minutes ago, Terarded said:

So much of the game is copied and pasted from Origins that it kinda felt like i was replaying a game, like the fun was still there - but i couldn't engage with it.

 

That perfectly describes how I felt/feel as well. I thought that was just a personal thing, my problem, but now I wonder. 

 

7 minutes ago, Terarded said:

Honestly i was exhausted. Finishing the game was enough for me, i didn't even want to look at the trophy list.

 

Right now I wonder if I will even get that far ?

So far I haven’t had to endure “you need to do stuff you don’t want to continue the story due to XP limits”, but the moment I will I just don’t know if I can bother. I’d like to pretend I won’t run into this ?

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I hated it to start and left it for a long time, I came back to it when I heard about the first xp glitch to mop up some trophies. I levelled to 50 in an hour or 2, and from then the game became amazing again, like Origins. I heard all that’s patched now, but there might be ways around it. With all the abilities I wanted unlocked, the game really did become good. And all the enemies scale up anyway, so it’s not that much of a cheat. You just have some cool abilities, and you can skip the forces levelling to continue the main mission!

Edited by Gefro-On-Defro
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Wow, that's a surprise. I actually really enjoyed Odyssey.

 

I know both games are very similar, and depending on your choice of historical theme, you'll like one more than the other. For instance, I'm a sucker for Ancient Egyptian art and history, so I loved Origins's setting, and yet I also really enjoyed exploring Ancient Greece and the Cyclades.

 

Bayek was an okay protagonist, but I felt Kassandra/Alexios was fleshed out more (I played as Kassandra, the canon protagonist). Their story and background resonated more with me. Aside from that, Odyssey combined a lot of great elements of previous games and rolled it all into one: visual customization from Unity, a skill tree introduced in Origins, the naval exploration/combat from Black Flag, ... And it introduced dialogue trees and different endings, giving it an even bigger RPG feel. I felt the game was a love letter to AC fans, and I enjoyed it a lot, despite the fact that there were very few connections to the actual AC lore.

 

I'll happily drop a bomb here in the thread and say that this game finally surpassed AC2, for me personally. Ezio's first game was a classic - it still is. But no AC was ever able to knock it off of its pedestal ... Until Odyssey came out.

 

There is one thing I'll give you, though: the game's open world felt bloated. There was so much to do, too much for some people. I remember getting my review copy, and the first thing I thought when I zoomed out and looked at the world map was: "Jesus Christ, this open world is so huge, maybe it's too big even, for the first time ever in a video game." Granted, they wanted to go for the epic scale of an "odyssey", and in that respect, they did justice to the subtitle. So you can't complain that you didn't get any bang for your buck, because the game was jam-packed with stuff to do. ;)

 

TL;DR: Odyssey > Origins, despite the few quibbles I have with Odyssey. But they're both great.

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I have put well over 200 hours in both, my favorite of them is Origins just because of the story and Bayek. It took itself seriously and Odyssey seems light-hearted and silly compared to it (tone-wise) ,did not like Kassandra or Alexios and their journey nearly as much.

 

There is alot I love with Odyssey, like the mytchical beasts. The post-launch support has been outstanding. I put Origins down for good just a few months after the release of the game because I had done everything there was to do, but Odyssey I still check out every month because they keep adding quests and bosses.

Edited by LOL_Jokke97
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I need to play Origins yet (my friend did and she really liked game), but I really like Odyssey. I'm more ancient Greece fan (Greek mythology is favourite of mine) and I'm greatly enjoying game. It's  actually first AC game I'm actually using and enjoying stealth and I'm not even playing assassin character, lol. 

I think it's really depends from people and which mythology/country they enjoy more, and of they played earlier game before. Since Egypt and its mythology is at 3rd place right after nordic myths, I don't think origins will beat odyssey for me.

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Well you said it yourself you don't like AC games, and since Origins and Odyssey are going after the witcher 3 crowd it's safe to say they aren't real AC games. I mean you can't even one shot murder someone with a hidden blade like you wrote. That's the problem with RPG stat systems, it's not really realistic when you think about a headshot should kill someone immediatelly but can't because oh it's a guy 5 levels higher lol. Maybe you should play other RPG games instead of (not)AC games masquareding as RPG games.

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A lot of the criticisms you gave are actually true. Auto-scaling can roll up and die; one of the best part of RPGs is going back to previous areas and absolutely demolishing enemies that used to gave you trouble when you were low level but having all normal grunts keep up with you in levels pretty much erases that feeling of growth that's fun in RPGs. I get that to some the story was awful but I think it was ment to reflect one of those cheesy yet overly-dramatic greek tales and be very different to Origins, I believe that was the point. Sure, you have the Deimos situation and you can pretty much slaughter your family but then it hits you with Atlantis, mythical creatures and putting the crystal eye of a thug inside a goat's ass and it's just like those old greek tales were Zeus would cut one of his balls and then from that cut ballsack another god would be born. Silly, yet taken seriously.

 

Yeah, I really enjoyed the Egypt setting in Origins but I'm much more into ancient Greece and being able to sail and roam around the different areas of Greece, climbing giant statues of Greek gods and being able to slay cyclops, Cerberus, Medusa... that did it for me much more than "let's see what inside a pyramid". However I also will say that a lot of old AC stuff is missing from both Origins and Odyssey, specially social stealth and building parkour. Sure, you can climb stuff but because houses and buildings are built so far apart in ancient Egypt and Greece, you lose that feeling of movement from older ACs when you could flawlessly run through roofs (assuming you mastered the slightly clunky movement mechanics of running full-speed and slowing down at the right times). Also it's sad that a franchise about assassination is losing emphasis on assassinating but hey, Odyssey goes for a different feeling, like Syndicate which was more gang-oriented and felt much more like GTA; or Black Flag and Rogue which leaned more into naval combat, making Odyssey the "AC where you are a ruthless mercenary who doesn't bother with stealth".

 

Origins may be the better game in an objective sense (storywise, with much more carefully considered gameplay) but I'm quite fond of the Frankenstein's monster that Odyssey is even with all of it's glaring, awful, smelly flaws, as it's a game I imagined myself playing since I was a kid, fighting against Achilles, king Leonidas and meeting Socrates and traveling from Athens to Sparta by horse all taking place during the Peloponisian war and all from a third person POV, instead of those RTS games where I could only build monuments instead of being able to walk in the roads of ancient Greece like I wish I could do.

 

So, I might prefer Odyssey above Origins for purely personal reasons, but I still want AC to go back to it's roots: more parkour, more stealth and assassinations, less brawls. But let's not go back to when full sync was still a thing, that was terrible and Origins did good removing it.

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The problem with Odyssey is that if you don't start to create a build from the start you are going to get into a lot of combats. Your first point is that stealth is no existent but I have to disagree, the level I'm currently on can kill any guard with the spear, mainly because my build increases a lot of my Assassin status.

 

Early levels I felt the same getting into combat a lot of times but once you start upgrading the game just clicks, it was like that for me

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I’ve got to say I am positively surprised by the reactions. I’ve seen these kind of discussions go off the rails quickly elsewhere and I’m pleased that it didn’t here. I am genuinely pissed myself that I don’t love the game, that more than anything. I really want to. 

 

I’ve just put in a few more hours and caved: easy difficulty & full auto-aim. Don’t judge me ?

Full auto-aim makes using the bow a more viable option. I am also actively going cult & mercenary hunting, which is fun as I get to explore a bit more now.

 

7 hours ago, Eremoto said:

 

A lot of the criticisms you gave are actually true. Auto-scaling can roll up and die; one of the best part of RPGs is going back to previous areas and absolutely demolishing enemies that used to gave you trouble when you were low level but having all normal grunts keep up with you in levels pretty much erases that feeling of growth that's fun in RPGs. I get that to some the story was awful but I think it was ment to reflect one of those cheesy yet overly-dramatic greek tales and be very different to Origins, I believe that was the point. Sure, you have the Deimos situation and you can pretty much slaughter your family but then it hits you with Atlantis, mythical creatures and putting the crystal eye of a thug inside a goat's ass and it's just like those old greek tales were Zeus would cut one of his balls and then from that cut ballsack another god would be born. Silly, yet taken seriously.

 

 

I don’t mind having the auto-scaling option, I am sure some people prefer it. I wish Ubisoft would make it a choice though with the ability to turn it off. The reverse of what they did with Origins (where they added optional auto-scaling later on, yet allowed you to keep it off as default).

 

The not so serious story I don’t really mind. I am still curious enough to know where it leads. And I’m still doing filler side quests without any objections ?

 

6 hours ago, maiathewinners said:

Early levels I felt the same getting into combat a lot of times but once you start upgrading the game just clicks, it was like that for me

 

Cool. That’s good to know ?

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Origins actually brought me back to the franchise. I hadn't played any AC game since 2, but the trailers for Origins made me decide to go back to the series. Absolutely loved Origins. Really like Odyssey as well. They both have positives and negatives. I won't go into that here as my positive may be someone else's negative and vice versa. But I liked both and will agree that stealth is pretty nonexistent in Odyssey, especially considering that the franchise as a whole is very stealth oriented. Looking forward to achieving 100% in Odyssey so I can take a break from the franchise for a while.

 

Side note: Ubisoft has been too overly focused on Assassin's Creed that they've left my man Sam Fisher on the sidelines for far too long. ?

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I enjoyed both Odyssey and Origins and getting the platinum on both was very enjoyable. But I would recommend that players who want to play both is not to do them after each other. I'd play one then play something else and come back to the second. You could get burnt out. For example I played Witcher 3 inbetween. Everything you dislike in Odyssey I actually like but we all have different tastes. If you feel the game is becoming tedious try played something else and come back to it

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Origins has a much interesting setting and atmosphere. Each tomb felt beautifully crafted, while Odyssey has caves that feel copy pasted. Sure, it's a much larger game (I got about 98h on Origins, while 178h on Odyssey); but Origins feels way better. Hell, even those desert areas with nothing but sand were awesome. I also think that Odyssey handles combat and boss fights better at the cost of left a longing for my predator bows. The stealth damage is underwhelming without an Assassin build, so later on you'll need to focus on one type of damage instead of being a jack of all trades like late-game Bayek.

 

The story however, I thought it was not compelling at all. I was so tired of the fetching and delivering, that I've lost track of my goals at some point and just went full Terminator on boss fights. Kassandra/Alexios at least have some interesting personalities and voice acting, but point to Origins again.

 

Wrapping up, I wouldn't recommed someone play them one after another, because they're huge games. And none of them strucked me like the almighty Black Flag.

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Personally, I liked the story/setting of Origins more but Odyssey was more fun to play for me. Has a slightly more arcade feel (like the no fall damage etc) which I got on a little bit more with.

 

Not going to happen, but would rather take another Syndicate style next time over both though.

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On ‎7‎/‎13‎/‎2019 at 3:25 AM, Sifferino said:

2. Difficulty. I loved the RPG elements introduced in Origins, I hate auto-scaling enemies. Look, I put all this effort in this, can I please enjoy my superpowers now? Nooooo... even dump grunts are now near your level. This is like rubber banding in racing games, stop it! I roamed the world, spent a millions hours fighting & exploring, can I now please kill those early level guys just by looking at them funny? At least give me that option (again, like Origins did), allow me to play the game like I want to play it, don’t force auto-leveling on me. But it does of course. 

 

Most of your argument I disagree with but this is true. I love Odyssey for the most part but enemy scaling has made me not care at all about levelling up, not care at all about completing areas to earn extra XP because I gain nothing from being a higher level. If I'm at level 5 or level 50, there is absolutely no difference in difficulty.

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I must admit: things are picking up. I am at level 23 now and the upgraded abilities are finally allowing me some real options to take down enemies by stealth (ranged & assassination), not just brute force. This is more like it. So far I am not lacking in things to do and don’t yet feel like I need to do filler stuff just to level up enough to continue the story. I am doing it voluntarily I guess ?

 

Much better now. Still think Origins is better, but this game is growing on me. 

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Haven't played either and probably don't plan to as I didn't like the clunky controls and inadvertent parkour within AC Black Flag (although I did like sailing the seas and the ship battles).  And I found it tedious to break out of stealth at the end of a sequence only to "desynchronize"  and have to restart to follow a pre-determined path but I prefer the theme of Odyssey (ancient Greece) over Origins (ancient Egypt). 

 

If there is a sequel to Black Flag, I'd play that.

Edited by djb5f
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1 hour ago, djb5f said:

Haven't played either and probably don't plan to as I didn't like the clunky controls and inadvertent parkour within AC Black Flag (although I did like sailing the seas and the ship battles).  And I found it tedious to break out of stealth at the end of a sequence only to "desynchronize"  and have to restart to follow a pre-determined path but I prefer the theme of Odyssey (ancient Greece) over Origins (ancient Egypt). 

 

If there is a sequel to Black Flag, I'd play that.

 

You should know that both games are very much different from previous AC games. You could definitely argue that they are linked in name only. 

 

In short, none of your concerns are necessary. There aren’t any sequences even. Do give either a chance. 

Edited by Sifferino
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2 hours ago, Sifferino said:

 

You should know that both games are very much different from previous AC games. You could definitely argue that they are linked in name only. 

 

In short, none of your concerns are necessary. There aren’t any sequences even. Do give either a chance. 

 

 

So less reliance on stealth?  That is good (for me).  Black Flag felt like every other non-ship mission was stealth only and that got quite repetitive.  I tend to enjoy games like Uncharted or Far Cry where you can use stealth to your advantage but if you get spotted, there is not an arbitrary reset where you have to start the mission over.

 

Sounds like you are also saying the controls (climbing, navigating) have improved too.

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8 hours ago, djb5f said:

So less reliance on stealth?  That is good (for me).  Black Flag felt like every other non-ship mission was stealth only and that got quite repetitive.  I tend to enjoy games like Uncharted or Far Cry where you can use stealth to your advantage but if you get spotted, there is not an arbitrary reset where you have to start the mission over.

 

Sounds like you are also saying the controls (climbing, navigating) have improved too

 

Definitely! In fact, the major point of criticism on first Origins and next Odyssey is how different they are from other AC games. It’s nothing short of a complete re-think. There is a large minority of ‘loyal’ AC games who were not pleased at all with the changes. I never enjoyed older ACs, so I paid no attention whatsoever to the series until the Egypt setting in Origins and gave it a shot. Loved it, precisely because it is not ‘old AC’. Origins & Odyssey have much more in common with Far Cry than older AC titles. In fact, with Far Cry: New Dawn (admittedly a flawed title) they added some RPG elements to make AC & Far Cry even more similar. Do keep that in mind: Origins & Odyssey are RPG games, unlike FC3, FC4, FC5. Other than that... a lot of missions and even clearing out locations is very much like FC. No resets if you get spotted, just wonderful chaos ?. 

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I felt Origins was the better game story-wise, but Odyssey is more refined in mechanics. 

 

Odyssey's biggest downfall for me is the reliance on choice. Ubisoft changed a very fundamental aspect of the series by introducing the feature of choosing a story. I think there are 4 endings you can get? It's not like the previous games where you can skip the optional objectives and still achieve the same outcome. This is further ruined by a specific scene I won't get into due to how major it is. 

 

I've seen tons of people complain about the lack of stealth, and that's all their fault. There is a bloody skill tree dedicated to it. If you're not being stealthy then don't bitch about the lack of stealth. Every AC game can be swords swinging and in the previous games it was easier to rack up kills with chain-killing. This game has even more ways of regaining a stealth approach for you to clear areas by hiding and assassinating. The stealth element is very much alive but not many people like using it compared to annihilating strongholds with a hunter build, going full on God of War by becoming OP, or being a godly tank where even on nightmare you can stand in front of Cerberus and be his chew toy until the end of time and see very little damage done to you.

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On 7/17/2019 at 2:38 AM, Sifferino said:

 

Definitely! In fact, the major point of criticism on first Origins and next Odyssey is how different they are from other AC games. It’s nothing short of a complete re-think. There is a large minority of ‘loyal’ AC games who were not pleased at all with the changes. I never enjoyed older ACs, so I paid no attention whatsoever to the series until the Egypt setting in Origins and gave it a shot. Loved it, precisely because it is not ‘old AC’. Origins & Odyssey have much more in common with Far Cry than older AC titles. In fact, with Far Cry: New Dawn (admittedly a flawed title) they added some RPG elements to make AC & Far Cry even more similar. Do keep that in mind: Origins & Odyssey are RPG games, unlike FC3, FC4, FC5. Other than that... a lot of missions and even clearing out locations is very much like FC. No resets if you get spotted, just wonderful chaos 1f642.png

 

This sounds great, I watched some video reviews and have added to my wishlist.  I will start with Odyssey as I like Greece and the naval stuff.  Not sure when I get to it as I have a pretty long backlog and wishlist (including RDR II) as it is but these look like games I’d enjoy.  

 

And yes, I am aware of the vocal displeasure of longtime AC fans.  But like you said, that might work out in our favor.  Not sure I understand the RPG system, are you basically talking about skill trees and crafting, getting better weapons, etc. or something else?

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