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I’ve achieved 100% completion in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, bring on Valhalla

540,000 seconds of my life. Totally worth it.

Assassin's creed odyssey
Image: Ubisoft

At least, I think I have. It’s a matter of connecting my Ubisoft Uplay account to see game statistics. But I’ve uncovered and completed every location. I’ve killed all the heads of state, murdered countless Athenian and Spartan soldiers. Slaughtered my fellow mercenaries. Killed my sibling. Completed every quest, side quest, and ancillary quest. Synchronized every synchronization point and explored every tomb.

I have never put this much time into a video game, much less an Assassin’s Creed game, ever. I maybe put 100 hours into Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and I know that I rage quit Skyrim after the game bugged out after 60 hours. But after 150 hours of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, I’m ready to click the ‘new game’ button and start over (with my level, weapons, and abilities intact). There’s nothing left to do, or there is everything left to do.

To this point, Assassin’s Creed games have been fun, exploring is always nice, but they’ve all basically been the same. Syndicate wasn’t much different in form from the first two games, save for locale and less climbing very high towers. There have been some stinkers in the bunch (Assassin’s Creed 3) but for the most part, it always felt like playing the same game. The art design was always fantastic though, with Assassin’s Creed 2 offering my favorite city scenes.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey changed the format though. While still third person (and I realize I’m talking about a two-year-old game) it wasn’t as small as the previous games. The camera was tighter, yet there was still plenty of the world to see beyond your character. It ran a bit more like an RPG, in that decisions made early in the game had an effect later in the game. So next time around, I’ll be making different decisions to see different outcomes.

For whatever joy I received playing the Just Cause series of games, it was heightened with Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Sure, there are some repetitive motions: taking down forts and outposts, destroying ships at sea, exploring tombs — but as you leveled up, so do the enemies. You have to choose what weapons and armor to upgrade and engrave with special abilities in accordance with your style of play. The same for spending ability points. Abilities can be assigned to a quick menu available during battle.

That last bit was important for me as I went through this game. One of my biggest gripes for previous Assassin’s Creed games was the controller layout (I play on Xbox One). If I remember correctly, running with the A button often resulted in assassinating a rando because it was the same button. No longer in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. There is no run button. Assassinations are much more controlled. Climbing is much, much less chaotic as well. I can’t recall randomly springing off the side of a structure when all I wanted to do is climb up.

The point of all this is that I’m really looking forward to Assassin’s Creed Valhalla

Before playing Odyssey I would have just shrugged at yet another Assassin’s Creed game set in some historical locale. It should also be noted that while the Templars were alluded to in this game, they never showed up. Your enemies were a cult (that eventually would be the Templars I guess) and the standard factions of soldiers, bandits, and weirdos. Valhalla might offer a similar-type storyline in which we get to feel like we aren’t once again just playing pawn to a greater story about the big bad Templars.

This helped create a much more immersive world where you could focus on the trees, mountains, and fabulously designed Ancient Greek statues, buildings, and temples. The fort design was inconsistent — which is a good thing. No two forts were laid out the same. Each one took a different strategy to attack (unless your strategy is run-and-sword). The visual appearance of your armor could be customized so you didn’t have to once again be a hooded idiot standing out in a crowd. And there was no spring-loaded arm blade. Instead, you have the broken spear of Leonidas.

From what I can tell, Valhalla is going to continue this type of gameplay and visual, which is getting me pumped for December (and also gives me plenty of time to play through Odyssey like 10 more times). Advance writings about the game have mentioned a changed combat system, but I’m wondering if that’s just in comparison to the games before Odyssey, since that combat system was unlike its predecessors. Regardless, if this is the direction that Ubisoft is going with its Assassin’s Creed series, I’m all in. Every extra second I’ve got.

What do you think? What is your favorite Assassin’s Creed title? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Defunct writer. Exhausted. Ephemeral existence for ephemeral times. Don't email me.

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