Saturday, December 14, 2019

Modern Assassin's Creed

Assassin's Creed Origins is really really cool ya'll. I'm a big fan of this series when they can stick to the fundamentals and avoid microtransactions / things like Facebook connectivity to Facebook Live or Facebook Just Collectin' Information or whatever. Also featured here: Assassin's Creed Odyssey. With new updates for 2019.


Been looking forward to playing this one for over a year, and the Egypt setting does not disappoint. This is sort of a "reboot" to the series, making it more like The Witcher III than the previous games.

The visuals here are astounding. The gameplay is a little harder to get used to and more of a challenge than previous games in the series, and deaths abound early on.

We got moonlight and water and MY GOD IT'S SO GOOD LOOKING

There are all kinds of historical locations to visit here, like the Library of Alexandria and the Pyramids of Giza.

Here's the most historical of historical locations, the Sphinx. It's intact here... and it's a lot smaller than I would have thought, standing only a few dozen feet.

Speaking of which, here's the Library itself. IT'S! SO! GOOD-LOOKING!

The attention to detail in this series is astounding. It's hard to believe they make one almost every year.

The main characters are Bayek and Aya, who may or may not end up being the founders of the Assassin's Order. They also have sex like, all the time.

Speaking of sex, here's Cleopatra, who does a lot of opium and torments the men around her with proclamations that she'll sleep with anyone who agrees to be put to death the next morning. DECISIONS?

Yes, Cleopatra is a bit nefarious. Dem hips, however.

He...HE LET THE WINE GO TO VINEGAR.

There's a lot of swimming and some ship-to-ship combat in this game. It's a welcome, small amount, compared to the other games in the series that heavily-emphasized ship-to-ship combat (generally, the games in the middle). This series is hit-or-miss with these things.

This game is at its best when you play as Aya, seen here leaping over flaming boats. Unfortunately you don't get to do that very often, though she's playable more in later parts of the game.

Yeah, it would have been great to have Aya playable for the entire game, even though Bayek is cool.

Moving on, we're switching from Egypt to Greece as I check out Assassin's Creed Odyssey...

This game isn't as good as Origins...to its credit it DOES let you play a female character for the duration though. Alas, the game borrows HEAVILY from other media, and case in point: Kassandra is basically Wonder Woman in terms of look and character. Though later she gets Iron Man armor and fights a guy who looks like Loki. She also helps a guy who looks like Aquaman, and a guy who looks like Luke Skywalker. And the guy who runs The Continental from John Wick. I don't know if the players are supposed to chuckle at all of these references but it comes off as derivative.

While Origins has the Sphinx, Odyssey has giant Greek lion statues. Check out the detail on those pillars.

Trading in camels for horses and trading in the gorgeous desert environment for a somewhat plainer Greek countryside. It's still really nice though. And unlike Origins, you get thunderstorms in this game.

It's also a bit derivative of games like Horizon: Zero Dawn and modern Tomb Raider. A lot of this can be forgiven easily when it's so good-looking though.

Here's a clip I recorded of the waves coming in from the ocean. I've never seen nicer waves in ANY video game.

Even though I'm glad she's playable, Kassandra isn't as interesting as the Origins MCs. She's more of a mercenary than someone particularly driven by anything. A blank slate if you will.

Both of these games do light and shadow REALLY well. I was impressed enough by the visuals of these games to do a post and show these images off.

While I'm at it, here's a new tribute to the last few games in the series that I cobbled together.

And here are the last two boss fights of the final Origins DLC, Curse of the Pharaohs:

First is Ramesses. This fight transpires in an amazing setting.

Here's King Tut himself, who has an iconic look.

And now for some Assassin's Creed Odyssey fights:

THE CYCLOPS

THE MINOTAUR

Phila the Tempest. Odyssey has some formidable female villains which is appreciated.

Amorges, the Tusk of Persia - DLC fight. There are two DLCs for this game and they're more like separate games. Each one is longer than an old-school AC game.

The Ghost of Kosmos - Spoilers here. Another formidable female foe. Well, "formidable" in a different way.

Hades, who is dressed like Loki for some reason

Hecatonchires, the final boss of the final DLC. Looks like a Bloodborne enemy. Not sure how I feel about this game having monster-foes like the Minotaur/Medusa/Cyclops and this thing. The series always skewed towards realism in the past, at least in terms of the enemies being human.

Storming the Underworld - One last Odyssey video. When storming any fortress in this game, use Bird Radar first to suss out the locations of everything. Then sneak up to the bonfire and disarm it to prevent ridiculous numbers of reinforcements. Then sneak around taking people out. Or do what I do and take a few people out, then go "F it let's just do it" and go nuts.


4 comments:

  1. I'm just glad the sites back online! You ever play Enslaved: Odyssey to the West or last generation's Prince of Persia reboot?

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    1. I played Sands of Time, but that's it. I actually covered it on here: http://www.coronajumper.com/2013/04/prince-of-persia-sands-of-time.html

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    2. I've played that one too, gotta try the 2008 one or Enslaved if you ever come across a copy.

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