Back in the day, when one finished a great game, there was often this accompanying sadness that it was over. All the content that the game had was enjoyed, every side quest checked off, and one could walk away from the game knowing that the world left behind was completed and wrapped up in a nice bow. But sometimes, one wanted more.
I've played three nearly perfect Ubisoft open world games over the last year - Assassin's Creed Origins, Farcry 5, and now Assassin's Creed Odyssey, and each one started out as fun, but by the middle or so I was burnt out on the endlessness of the game world and was ready to move on. At that point, I would ignore everything but the story quests and race toward the end.
Am I complaining about too much content? No. Am I saying that the excessive content was bad? No, but some of it is very cookie-cutter and repetitive. I'm saying that, it's not Ubisoft's fault, but it seems my own gaming priorities and my desire to eventually experience other games is incompatable with a three month commitment to a videogame version of ancient Greece that probably has more content that actual ancient Greece.
Rushing through to the end worked well in AC Origins, as by the time I was burnt out, I was levelled up enough to finish. Farcry 5 was a slog, though, as there were unavoidable triggered boss fights that were not that much fun. The first time one occurred, I was somehow drugged and kidnapped while alone and flying a helicopter, forced into one of a series of overwrought cutscenes and weird time limited escape scenes, wrapped up with an unwelcome boss fight. As soon as the first one occurred I was done with any and all of the game’s story or characters and blasted my way to the end.
I was done with AC Odyssey, however, before I was levelled up enough to finish. So I spent days and play sessions scraping for content that I could enjoy enough to get there. There were some stupid player-made side missions that helped with that, but at the end I'm asking myself why I even cared enough about finishing at all.
Well that ones's on me too. My own gaming ethic requires me to finish a game if I can, and it bugs me forever when I don't before moving on. I hope to return to some of them in the glorious retirement I envision starting in 2036. Will I return to a finished game with unfinished content, though? My character in Assassin's Creed Odyssey sits there, on a rooftop forever, wondering if I will come back and get on all those unfinished side missions.
I cannot say if I will do that, because if I want to scratch the Assassin's Creed itch, there is already another installment in the series that just came out, featuring Vikings and such. At this moment in time, I can safely say that it will be years before I pick up another one of their gigantic open worlds, and if i do, it will probably be Watch Dogs Legion anyway.
To sum up, Assassin's Creed Odyssey is as good as the real critics say. As long as you're not burnt out on the Ubisoft open world games, you will enjoy it as the testament to annual mass-production open worlds that it is.
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