Formerly big fan of AC. Should I buy Odyssey?

Silver47 · November 15, 2018

Although I've never been a huge fan of the Abstergo present-day story line, I really liked AC and saw my already high expectations surpassed by AC2 when it came out. Brotherhood also is the first ever video game I remember being really hyped for (after watching that amazing E3 trailer where Ezio and his band of Assassins ambush Cesare Borgias carriage).

But by the time Revelations came out I felt that I had seen it all before and AC3 just felt unfinished to me. So I stopped following the series after Black Flag, which I thought could have been an cool Pirates-themed action rpg, if it wasn't for the lackluster "Assassins vs Templar" story which felt completely out of place. And so it also left me kind of cold.

Now with Odyssey I wanted to get back into the franchise so I tried it at a friends house. Initially I was struck by how good the game looked and how well it played even on a Playstation, but soon my experience wasn't that positive anymore. Felt like your're constantly a good couple of levels too weak for the area you're supposed to go next, essentially forcing you to stop and grind levels after every other story mission. I'd consider myself somewhat of a DarkSouls/Bloodborne veteran at this point, a games difficulty level doesnt scare me off. But there is a big difference between being hard but fair and being just plain annoying and AC:Odyssey struck me as the latter.

After testing it out I gotta say I just hate the concept of a game existing not because a developer had a creative vision about a cool, intriguing story he wanted to tell but because quarterly sales forecasts had to be fulfilled and investors expectations about net profit had to be met. And thats the experience I had with Odyssey. I also hate that Ubisoft possessed the insolence of making a full-price game intentionally grindy to sell their f*cking loot boxes on top. Mind you on top of the at least 60$ base price a player has already shoved down Ubi's greedy throat. And then they implemented Denuvo so you can't even cheat your way around what is essentially a soft-paywall to make the game enjoyable. I mean I don't endorse or approve of cheating in general, but I should be able and allowed to do what ever the f*ck I want in a single-player game that I bought. (As long as I'm not ruining someone elses experience, e.g. Dark Souls)

What do you think, am I overthinking this? Should I just buy the game, enjoy what there is to be enjoyed and ignore the obvious milking Ubisoft is doing? Dont get me wrong, I really want to like this game...