I am perhaps...eight hours in on
Odyssey. So far, this game is fantastic. The characterizations are better than I expected, but still not on a level with
Witcher 3. As far as story is concerned,
Witcher 3 is going to be tough to beat. It's clear these developers liked
Witcher 3, as they "adopted" many of the systems wholesale from CD Project Red's masterpiece.
Meanwhile, a game that uses these systems while also injecting all the sneaky stealth elements of the best AC titles is just loads of fun. The game world itself is pretty much ridiculous. From what i can tell, it's absolutely massive. The natural lighting engine is spectacular, and I have already had several moments where I just stop and take it all in. Waves crash on the beach, wildlife wander the forests, and townspeople go about their daily lives doing a variety of tasks. I understand that this game goes on for perhaps a bit too long, and that the tasks eventually become a bit repetitive, but so far, things have been varied and fun. Did I mention the game looks amazing?
The setting is right up my alley, which has me playing along in an all-out war between Athens and Sparta. I am just getting into the conquest stuff, but what I have done so far seems fun. Oh, that reminds me...
Exploration Mode: Why, oh why, haven't games been doing this the whole time? All the people that make RPG's need to steal this mechanic right now. No more quest markers. You actually have to get directions from people, and then go explore areas to find the places and things you are looking for. It's automatically more immersive in that you have to both listen more carefully to NPCs, as well as actually pay attention to your surroundings. Great idea!
Mercenary system. I see you Ubisoft. Not only did you lift a bunch of great ideas from CD Project Red, but here you are grabbing up the Nemesis system from
Shadow of Mordor. Since I enjoyed that aspect of
Shadow of Mordor, I am also liking it in this game.
In closing, although the developers have clearly borrowed heavily from other games, they have created a genre mish-mash that is epic in scale, broad in scope, beautiful to look at, and so far, extremely fun to play.