I got sidetracked from when I started Origins back in December (got married, got back into Breath of the Wild, both pretty serious undertakings) but now I’m back on Origins.
Is there no longer a menu anywhere that breaks down your overall progress? % of missions complete, synch points found, locations discovered, etc? I find it almost impossible to see everything on the map, the ? icons frequently blend into the terrain at the viewing distance from my couch.
This game is tooooo looooooooong and boring.
Pretty sure I have access to the point-of-no-return mission for the end of the game, and there was still a solid third of the map I’d never set foot in. Maybe I’m wrong about that mission that seems to be pointing to the end?
Now granted, in the time I’ve spent continuing to explore and ignoring that mission, I’ve found several unexplored regions were empty desert. But there are still densely populated areas in the northwest it seems the game might never have introduced me to. What’s up with that?
I’m also weary of the side missions. I think part of it is the narrative choice that reminds me of the worst of the GTA games—I’m just a chump who will do anything any stranger asks, with no questions asked. I’m a medjay, I have to help!
Perhaps it’s selective memory on my part and past AC games were more guilty of this than I remember. But even when the mission activities weren’t that diverse in past games, it felt like I was still slowly taking over the map, liberating it, recruiting it into whatever my conflict was, etc. Here I bump into a stranger who asks me to go free this captive or kill this warlord, and it frequently involves turning around and going back to clear out the very outpost I just came from, now repopulated as if I was never there.
The side missions here largely have zero bearing on the narrative, and zero connection to my progress in the game. I’m just an errand boy for strangers.
This has not been a satisfying grind in the way many previous AC games work for me. I’ve already decided I’m taking a break with something else (maybe Horizon Zero Dawn) before I move on to AC Odyssey. I don’t think I can take another AC game immediately after this; it’s turning into my least favorite in quite some time.
Sounds familiar. For me in Ubigames, part of your early decision making is around which parts of the game you should just ignore. Crafting, the economy, the online coop… and not very good sidequests fall into that bucket sometimes for me.
Odyssey is more varied than Origins, but I too would take a break :)
Do they have some achievements tied into doing all this extra stuff, or is it just your compulsive need to do it, or just that you did it for all the older AC games so you want to do everything in this one too? It sounds like they just put a lot more content in this one, and didn’t actually expect people to do every quest, kind of similar to Kingdoms of Amulur, though different.
You aren’t quite as close to the end as you think you are, but you’re in the home stretch.
Stop doing them?
Your memory is correct, Origins represents a major shift in the structure of the game toward an RPG-lite format rather than the somewhat more unique creature that past AC games were. It’s a mixed bag. There’s a lot I like about the new ones, but several things I really miss from the old ones too. Territory control is a big loss, as is some of the old stealth options (disappearing in a crowd and such).
I’d recommend at least a year between the two, honestly, especially considering how tired of the format you seem to be.
I played Odyssey then Origins, not being an AC fan from way back or anything. I found the former to be more fun than the latter, definitely, and I agree that Origins gets a bit sprawling and disconnected. Neither game has particularly amazing side missions, or for that matter main missions, as the plots are contrived to say the least. But the mechanics are spot-on, and the worlds in general are very cool.
To answer the question a couple of you have asked, in past AC games, I’ve found a sort of “comfortable tedium” in methodically clearing those notoriously icon-rich Ubisoft maps of objectives and collectibles.
I don’t necessarily get all the trophies/achievements, but I often try to 100% the animus progress trackers (strangely absent in AC Origins).
I’m flexible with the goals I set for myself, and have at times written off certain activities in different games. I’d have trouble articulating a consistent logic to what I’ll skip and what I’ll follow through with. But I don’t think I’ve ever skipped out on side missions or map exploration.
I think I’m burning out on Origins for the specific reasons in my previous post, but it could also simply be the scope of this game. I did get every last thing in Syndicate, but maybe I would’ve bailed on those same goals/missions if the map was as large as Origins.
I felt the same way about Origins. Keep trying to play it, but it’s just a checklist of stuff to do… just way too much, an overwhelming amount.
Started playing Odyssey; this one feels better due to Kassandra and the story telling, but that’s about it. Haven’t gotten too far in it though, so maybe I will be pleasantly surprised, but so far, so AC.
The only AC games I’ve played that REALLY hooked me were AC II and Syndicate (still haven’t played Black Flag). Those were just FUN in a way the others I’ve tried haven’t been.
I actually liked the initial parts of Origins better; the setting in the desert, the son, the framing and the time period and the cultural and architectural settings.
But like all AC games they seemed to try and match the story to the game world and they drug on and on its narrative and twists until it just felt tiring rather than exciting. I think the Museum Mode is better in Origins though. Archery is much better in Odyssey. I feel like Origins is a much more dramatic and interesting setting - sometimes Odyssey can be lovely and sometimes it feels like a game world too intensely.
Origin would have been more interesting for me if it had been set much earlier, which I know isn’t possible due to the game series’ timeline. Late Ptolemaic Egypt isn’t as interesting as say the Middle Kingdom, but obviously the AC lore doesn’t work for that.
Origins has been my first AC game. I tried the original AC, hated it so never went back. Trying out Odyssey got me buying Origins and I love it. So much to do, and I just love Bayek. I’m on a break from it due to a bit of burnout, but I’ve put more time into it than many other games, which with my ADHD is saying something.
Yeah I just realized with only one section of the map still blacked out I’m still missing like 20 sync points!?
Also checked the clock and I’m at about 63 hours. Just hit level 45. Soldiering on.
Ok that made me laugh. Both those games are pretty much identical in gameplay design, they are all errand boy/girl simulators.
Wrapped up the main game right at 70 hours. Yeesh. On to the DLC, I guess?
Yes!!! I found the DLCs to both be pretty good.
There were a few side missions that showed up after the main story (but not part of the DLC, afaik). In running around on those, I stumbled upon what turned out to be a single map location I missed.
So that’s nice, but honestly I can’t believe I didn’t miss more with how difficult it is to see map information against the detail of the terrain, and the lack of region or game-wide progress tracking elsewhere. Such an annoying step back for the franchise.
All DLC done. 91 hours. Too much game.
Yep, while my favorite of the new revised AC series, its still too damn long.
Like a good movie, maybe open world games like this need a new role on the team of an editor. Her job is to cut cut cut all but the best content until, at the very least you do an editor’s cut of the game in a separate game mode that distills the game down to what’s most important in the eyes of that editor.
Travel in this was probably 20+ hours alone for me.