assassins creed odyssey

[Witchblade77]

honestly as far as sidequests go, the thing that does bother me and I wish they would do the hell away with it - is the whole timed quests system. I HATE it and I wish those wouldn't be mixed in with regular old side quests. in origins you had basically... 2 of those? weekly trial of the gods quest and daily bazar quests. at least off the top of my head, i cannot think of anything else.

with Odyssey - there are just too many of those and they are everywhere, you don't have to go find them and the quest board for them is not marked as "timed quests" so they are sitting on my map everywhere, irritating me. but that's not becasue of microtransactions either - its they ridiculous "we want you to be playing Odyssey as if its a multiplayer game" thing they came up with. and those are completely and entirely NOT even remotely needed to be able to stay at level or above the campaign. I've been over-leveling the campaign without them

but.. again, i come from old school rpg's where you pretty much had to do a large chunk of side quests along with main quests, and there were no MT's to skip that.

[yasiru]

Heaven forbid if the game pushes you toward doing side contemt. I mean Ubisoft absolutely has to be pushing you to buy booster, right? There just can't be the chance that they actually want people to experience all of the work they put in the game, right? This just has to be a massive conspiracy yes? Sigh. If you play an open world video game it should be because you WANT to explore around and discover stuff to do. If not, why are you playing an open world game? Doesn't make sense...

But hey if you want to think ubisoft sucks because you think they force you to use MTs then by all means don't play. It's not like anyone here is trying to force others to change their mind and play it... Many of us actually enjoy playing the game though, which is all that matters. So at the same time don't think you are going to get me to change my mind either just because some youtube moron told you the game was terrible...

[RobertoCarlos]

Heaven forbid if the game pushes you toward doing side contemt. I mean Ubisoft absolutely has to be pushing you to buy booster, right? There just can't be the chance that they actually want people to experience all of the work they put in the game, right? This just has to be a massive conspiracy yes? Sigh. If you play an open world video game it should be because you WANT to explore around and discover stuff to do. If not, why are you playing an open world game? Doesn't make sense...

But hey if you want to think ubisoft sucks because you think they force you to use MTs then by all means don't play. It's not like anyone here is trying to force others to change their mind and play it... Many of us actually enjoy playing the game though, which is all that matters. So at the same time don't think you are going to get me to change my mind either just because some youtube moron told you the game was terrible...

I think its a bit of both.

Ideally a game would have no microtransactions. But lets be real, gamers are a gullible bunch, EA/Ubisoft didnt become giants of the industry without a bit of help.

At the same time I completely agree that you shouldnt listen to youtubers to form a judgement on a game, that is beyond idiotic. If the giant companies that produce these high quality games sneak through some shady shit it can be forgiven if the game is good enough and it doesnt cross into pay to win territory and dull the competitive edge of the game.

I dont personally see it as having to play side quests as a negative because if you're interested in playing the game that should be a given anyway.

I dont agree that main story missions alone should be enough to carry you through the game when current gamers get upset at anything less than 50 hours story time

[Guardian Bob]

Oh Im definitely not upset, I just find it ridiculous that you chose to not get a game, a very good game based on something that has zero effect on the game itself.

I make it a rule to avoid games that have micro-transactions as I'm setting myself up for a game that's grindy, and I hate grindy single player games. Also, if I payed $60, why is there micro-transactions? This isn't a free to play game where you'd expect micro-transactions.

Either way, microtransactions have zero impact on the game if you chose to not buy anything from it.

Clearly not the case with Battlefront 2 or Shadow of War, but I guess you choose to ignore those games. Look up the sales of those two games.

The games definitely not doing poorly and the reviews can speak for themselves.

What reviews? Besides Dunkey there's Angry Joe which he gave the game a 7/10 and he still didn't finish the game, and he down ranked it from an 8 or a 9 cause of micro-transactions.

https://youtu.be/b0FXMB64g8w

Then there's metacritic with user reviews giving it a 5.7 on PS4.
https://www.metacritic.com/game/play...-creed-odyssey
5.2 on PC.
https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/a...-creed-odyssey
And 5.6 on Xbox one.
https://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox...-creed-odyssey

Clearly the community isn't happy with something in Odyssey.

So you've watched a video from a dude who's job it is to make fun of games and make them look bad for Entertainment purposes (because that's how he gets most of his views and thus Revenue) and think this is anyhow relevant? If you base off your opinions about games from YouTube channels like this, then I don't think that any video game is for you.

Even Angry Joe mentioned Dunkey's review and didn't disagree with Dunkey. But no, Dunkey doesn't crap on all games, just the bad ones. Guess which one Odyssey is? Not the Mario one, the Assassin's one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4umiOnu3wuk

Never have i seen a comment on the internet that has been more wrong. You are only fooling yourself if you think the game is made to force you to buy the shop shit. And you are robbing yourself of a great game, nothing more.

Why do I feel that some people here are Ubisoft employee's? You guys do a better job advertising this game than Ubisoft.

The game play itself, it's identical to Assassins Creed Origins. The hidden blade doesn't change the game play at all.

You serious? I liked the idea of walking around and killing two guys without immediately alerting the vicinity.

You can get skins for your horse, crew and skins for your boat, bow of Achilles, bow of Artemis, can traverse the labyrinth of the Minotaur and fight him, fight the Cyclops, and many many other pieces of ancient Greek mythology and history...I mean, the game starts out with you controlling King Leonidas in the battle of Thermopylae.

Is this main story or side quests? Remember, we're talking about side quests which you can pay to skip.

You're also out of your damned mind if you think those animals aren't steeped in and based on Greek Mythology... At least get your facts straight before trying to shit all over something.

Uh huh.

What you're doing is not criticizing the game, you're spewing your opinion about a game you haven't even played yet based entirely on someone else's review. What in this game would you consider lazy game design? How do micro transactions reinforce that view?

I have yet to hear from someone a side quest worth not skipping. Going out and killing a regular animal with a special name does not make for a good side quest. I wouldn't have an issue if the side quests were optional, but they aren't. You need to do a lot before you can progress in the main story quests. Ubisoft funnels you to do quests that nobody wants to do cause they're filler content meant to pad a $30 or $40 game into $60. But now we're paying $60 for a game where you have to do boring and thoughtless side quests to progress in the main and interesting story quest. What conflict of interest are you missing here?

Ask yourself this, why doesn't Ubisoft remove the need to level up to continue to progress? I have to give credit to Nintendo with Breath of the Wild cause that game allows you to do just about anything without restrictions. If I wanna kill the last boss without doing any of the main or side missions, I can do that. There's also no level up system besides increasing hearts. This is not the case with Odyssey where you are blocked by a level requirement. Why not just take out the level requirement? Dunkey shows a quest called Olive Wreath where you deliver something cause someone's midwife wanted him to have this. Please tell me that isn't a side quest? Being a delivery boy is not a fun side quest, and you gotta do this crap to progress in the interesting story.

[Extremities]

I make it a rule to avoid games that have micro-transactions as I'm setting myself up for a game that's grindy, and I hate grindy single player games. Also, if I payed $60, why is there micro-transactions? This isn't a free to play game where you'd expect micro-transactions.


Clearly not the case with Battlefront 2 or Shadow of War, but I guess you choose to ignore those games. Look up the sales of those two games.


What reviews? Besides Dunkey there's Angry Joe which he gave the game a 7/10 and he still didn't finish the game, and he down ranked it from an 8 or a 9 cause of micro-transactions.

https://youtu.be/b0FXMB64g8w

Then there's metacritic with user reviews giving it a 5.7 on PS4.
https://www.metacritic.com/game/play...-creed-odyssey
5.2 on PC.
https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/a...-creed-odyssey
And 5.6 on Xbox one.
https://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox...-creed-odyssey

Clearly the community isn't happy with something in Odyssey.


Even Angry Joe mentioned Dunkey's review and didn't disagree with Dunkey. But no, Dunkey doesn't crap on all games, just the bad ones. Guess which one Odyssey is? Not the Mario one, the Assassin's one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4umiOnu3wuk


Why do I feel that some people here are Ubisoft employee's? You guys do a better job advertising this game than Ubisoft.


You serious? I liked the idea of walking around and killing two guys without immediately alerting the vicinity.


Is this main story or side quests? Remember, we're talking about side quests which you can pay to skip.

Uh huh.



I have yet to hear from someone a side quest worth not skipping. Going out and killing a regular animal with a special name does not make for a good side quest. I wouldn't have an issue if the side quests were optional, but they aren't. You need to do a lot before you can progress in the main story quests. Ubisoft funnels you to do quests that nobody wants to do cause they're filler content meant to pad a $30 or $40 game into $60. But now we're paying $60 for a game where you have to do boring and thoughtless side quests to progress in the main and interesting story quest. What conflict of interest are you missing here?

Ask yourself this, why doesn't Ubisoft remove the need to level up to continue to progress? I have to give credit to Nintendo with Breath of the Wild cause that game allows you to do just about anything without restrictions. If I wanna kill the last boss without doing any of the main or side missions, I can do that. There's also no level up system besides increasing hearts. This is not the case with Odyssey where you are blocked by a level requirement. Why not just take out the level requirement? Dunkey shows a quest called Olive Wreath where you deliver something cause someone's midwife wanted him to have this. Please tell me that isn't a side quest? Being a delivery boy is not a fun side quest, and you gotta do this crap to progress in the interesting story.

Jesus dude you have way too much time on your hands to sit here and bitch over something like this.

Yes the game has transactions, do I like it? Hell no but its a common thing in games now. Do you HAVE to buy anything? No. Avoid it, its that simple.

The game is an open world RPG, of course it's going to be grindy, that's the point of RPG's and open world games in general. If that style of game doesn't sit well with you than by all means don't play it but don't sit here and bitch at the game you have yet to play, yet to form your own opinion on based on your experiences PLAYING the game.

Again, you sound incredibly miserable dude. Take a glander at how much time you're spending on a forum complaining about a game you refuse to play because of something on the store that you DON'T have spend a dollar on. It's pretty concerning dude to be honest.

Reviews are like assholes, everyone has one. Angry Joe is ridiculous btw.

With how much time you're spending here on the forums making assumptions on things you have no clue on since you again refuse to play it, you could actually be taking that time and playing/enjoying the game but hey, it's your loss dude. Continue complaining here on the forums. It'll continue to do you well bud!

[Socialhealer]

people talking about the timed side quests they are endless and they are boring, they are also very unrewarding in experience, at level 46 they give me like 8k exp, i could do them non stop, but you're not supposed to thats why they're not very rewarding.

but the ones you want to do or i've found get done by playing the game are the ones that are not timed, they are ones like 0/3 leader houses, 0/5 ships sunk of 4 different types, loot nation treasure chests, kill strategoi, kill marksmen and more, i don't go out of my way to do them i end up killing these by playing the game and the reward is around 60k exp, and you can have multiple of these same quests so looting a spartan nation treasure chest completed this 3 times giving me 180k exp around 75% of a level, but no you do a endlessly repeatable side quest for 8k exp and complain how levelling is too hard and you gotta buy that MT's lol.

[RobertMugabe]

Jesus dude you have way too much time on your hands to sit here and bitch over something like this.

Yes the game has transactions, do I like it? Hell no but its a common thing in games now. Do you HAVE to buy anything? No. Avoid it, its that simple.

The game is an open world RPG, of course it's going to be grindy, that's the point of RPG's and open world games in general. If that style of game doesn't sit well with you than by all means don't play it but don't sit here and bitch at the game you have yet to play, yet to form your own opinion on based on your experiences PLAYING the game.

Again, you sound incredibly miserable dude. Take a glander at how much time you're spending on a forum complaining about a game you refuse to play because of something on the store that you DON'T have spend a dollar on. It's pretty concerning dude to be honest.

Reviews are like assholes, everyone has one. Angry Joe is ridiculous btw.

With how much time you're spending here on the forums making assumptions on things you have no clue on since you again refuse to play it, you could actually be taking that time and playing/enjoying the game but hey, it's your loss dude. Continue complaining here on the forums. It'll continue to do you well bud!

Great post.

Also the irony of this dude is that he does play vanilla WoW private servers

[Witchblade77]

Great post.

Also the irony of this dude is that he does play vanilla WoW private servers

which is hysterical, since vanilla WoW is an epitome of having to actualy grind to get to end game, since there weren't enough actual quests to get to level 60. oh right, its becasue there are no microtransactions to skip it. grinding is fine when its unskippable via real money, or something? its confusing. becasue this person complains about having to do side quests to progress main story.. while playing the game that requires you to do side quests AND just plain old mob grinding... to progress the main story.

[Aoewy]

I have yet to hear from someone a side quest worth not skipping. Going out and killing a regular animal with a special name does not make for a good side quest. I wouldn't have an issue if the side quests were optional, but they aren't. You need to do a lot before you can progress in the main story quests. Ubisoft funnels you to do quests that nobody wants to do cause they're filler content meant to pad a $30 or $40 game into $60. But now we're paying $60 for a game where you have to do boring and thoughtless side quests to progress in the main and interesting story quest. What conflict of interest are you missing here?

Someone told you the chain quest that is totally optional, and take place on 2 islands, that you take part of a rebellion there. But you just refused to read it/acknowledge it.

Some side quests are meh, some are good, some like this one are great.

[Valeron]

Finished the game (other than a few quests here and there) at 80 hours of playtime. Not really a fan of the modern ending but loved just about everything else of the game. It's my favorite AC game I'd have to say (well maybe besides Brotherhood). I didn't use the cash shop at all, heck didn't even open that page up once. Not sure what the hubbub about it is.

[Tenjen]

Finished the game (other than a few quests here and there) at 80 hours of playtime. Not really a fan of the modern ending but loved just about everything else of the game. It's my favorite AC game I'd have to say (well maybe besides Brotherhood). I didn't use the cash shop at all, heck didn't even open that page up once. Not sure what the hubbub about it is.

The main thing is that the game has taken a hit because of the microtransactions. As good as it was (being more of your bog standard AC game) it would have been much better without the MT's influene the ingame progression, item and quest system. MT's made the game experience dryer than it should have been.

People dont see the issue because they dont realize what a game could have been without the MT's. Shadow of war had to be restructured after MT's were removed despite them saying MT's had no effect on the game.

"nothng is lost" if you don't pay is a meaningless arguement based solely on your own singular perspective. Congratulations you are not the target market for the MT's. Meanwhile others are dumping cash into such games and fueling worse game development behaviour before an industry crash occurs. The point is not that you dont have to use it, the point is they shouldn't be there in the first place! The entire system to incentivise buying them is artificial and reduces the fun and depth of the gaming experience as it would have been for the rest of us.

[SLSAMG]

Just got this I can't stop playing. Amazing game.

[rhorle]

The microtransaction and XP boost are just way overblown. Usually by people who have never played the game or have an ulterior motive (page clicks, review bias, principle, etc). If you play the game and explore, like AC games have been since AC3, you will have no problem meeting level requirements. Heck I am 46% through the game according to UPLAY and am level 47. It doesn't take a grind if you like playing the type of game Odyssey is.

And its not like time savers are anything new. Game Shark, Game FAQS, Prima Guides, etc were all founded on the principle of people wanting to save time and have things shown to them by someone else. WoWhead is a prime example of this. "Just google it" is a good example as well. Ubisoft is just offering it in-house so they can get a cut of the profits. And they do it in a way that it is optional.

My only complain is I can't buy a map pack with the 200 free helix credits. In origins I got one with the free credits even if I lost interest in Origins before I found everything anyways. Odyssey doesn't even have the endless perks if I understand correctly (not 50 yet) so the XP boost isn't really anything great. You only have so many options for ability points until you unlock your spear level. I wasn't spending any ability points until I got spear level 3 then spent 6 or 7 right away. People just hear xp boost for real money and feel the need to automatically hate with out understanding context or anything about the game.

[mauserr]

You'd have to be a massive fucking retard to pay for an XP boost while you can download a free trainer that allows you to change the XP multiplier to your liking.

[Tenjen]

People dumb enough to buy MT's for a single player game deserve to be conned, if you're not a moron with your money, why care?

I dont see disregarding people who fall for this as a point that holds any weight in your favor.

Listen. each part of what i said doesnt exist in its own vacuum. its all together. Picking and choosing one bit to post about is cheap. These companies are raking in 50+ Billion dollars over an unsustainable model that is reducing the quality of what a game could be and keep demanding higher profits with each season until the devs go under.

I dont get why people are defending this shitty behaviour. Don't people want a better game untainted by this rubbish?

With the way the market is behaving. People buying the games are the product and the shareholders are the customers.

[RobertMugabe]

which is hysterical, since vanilla WoW is an epitome of having to actualy grind to get to end game, since there weren't enough actual quests to get to level 60. oh right, its becasue there are no microtransactions to skip it. grinding is fine when its unskippable via real money, or something? its confusing. becasue this person complains about having to do side quests to progress main story.. while playing the game that requires you to do side quests AND just plain old mob grinding... to progress the main story.

Yup.

Also one of the 2 main vanilla private Servers has a cash shop where you can buy characters (you can buy a fully geared Level 60 char for Money), and the other one has been exposed for collaborating with Gold sellers, Boosters etc.

The thing about Odyssey side quests is that the side quests are actually really nice and they often have their completely own storyline (such as the side quests on Euboea or Crete). The other AC games indeed had only generic and irrelevant side quests, so that's a huge step up.

And yeah vanilla lol... I mean I'm looking Forward for vanilla, but 90% of the quests are kill X furbolgs and collect their poop and farts (I think that's in redridge mountain) and yup many subzones were specifically designed for just grinding.

- - - Updated - - -

I dont see disregarding people who fall for this as a point that holds any weight in your favor.

Listen. each part of what i said doesnt exist in its own vacuum. its all together. Picking and choosing one bit to post about is cheap. These companies are raking in 50+ Billion dollars over an unsustainable model that is reducing the quality of what a game could be and keep demanding higher profits with each season until the devs go under.

I dont get why people are defending this shitty behaviour. Don't people want a better game untainted by this rubbish?

With the way the market is behaving. People buying the games are the product and the shareholders are the customers.

Yeah Micro transactions are stupid and have no place in a single Player game. But it also isn't true in this specific case that the game was designed in a shitty way, so that you're kinda forced to buy something (like some users here are saying). The Point of AC and any RPG is to explore and do all Kinds of activities. There's no Point in this case to just rush to max Level.

Overall I don't know exactly why the gaming Industry is pushing so hard on Micro transactions, but one reason might be that These studios cannot afford to sell their games for the base price only. It's pretty much a de facto standard at this Point that an AAA game has to cost either 60 or 70$, which is really bad when you consider that These Prices have been the same for at least 10 years despite Inflation, high expectations etc. Personally, I wouldn't mind it if the games where just more expensive, but this would definitely cause a shitstorm.

[Witchblade77]

Yup.

Also one of the 2 main vanilla private Servers has a cash shop where you can buy characters (you can buy a fully geared Level 60 char for Money), and the other one has been exposed for collaborating with Gold sellers, Boosters etc.

The thing about Odyssey side quests is that the side quests are actually really nice and they often have their completely own storyline (such as the side quests on Euboea or Crete). The other AC games indeed had only generic and irrelevant side quests, so that's a huge step up.

And yeah vanilla lol... I mean I'm looking Forward for vanilla, but 90% of the quests are kill X furbolgs and collect their poop and farts (I think that's in redridge mountain) and yup many subzones were specifically designed for just grinding.

- - - Updated - - -



Yeah Micro transactions are stupid and have no place in a single Player game. But it also isn't true in this specific case that the game was designed in a shitty way, so that you're kinda forced to buy something (like some users here are saying). The Point of AC and any RPG is to explore and do all Kinds of activities. There's no Point in this case to just rush to max Level.

Overall I don't know exactly why the gaming Industry is pushing so hard on Micro transactions, but one reason might be that These studios cannot afford to sell their games for the base price only. It's pretty much a de facto standard at this Point that an AAA game has to cost either 60 or 70$, which is really bad when you consider that These Prices have been the same for at least 10 years despite Inflation, high expectations etc. Personally, I wouldn't mind it if the games where just more expensive, but this would definitely cause a shitstorm.

technically the games ARE more expensive via DLC costs. yes, I'm counting DLC price separately becasue they are sold separately from expansion in vast majority of case. but... they are causing a shitstorm as it is, not everyone buys those and base game prices haven't changed in a while. as long as micro-transactions are not super intrusive (like various cosmetic shinies), i don't mind them. that leveling boost is pushing it a bit, but at the same time, it doesn't feel required to me, when playing normally and avoiding those horrible boring timed quests, so while I'm side-eyeing it, I'm not at this point angry about it existing.

and its definitely not even remotely the same as the shit EA pulled with BF2 and locking away characters behind massive grinds, while also limiting those grinds practically pushing people into MT if they wanted to play as iconic characters. in Odyssey, this is not the case, so... meh.

[rhorle]

I dont get why people are defending this shitty behaviour. Don't people want a better game untainted by this rubbish?

AC Odyssey with out Micro transactions is the exact same as with Micro transactions. If you are going to bash people for disagreeing with your view at least make sure your view aligns with the product being discussed. And if the companies keep raking in billions of dollars then the model is not unsustainable. That is a very sustainable business model for a company.

[yasiru]

I make it a rule to avoid games that have micro-transactions as I'm setting myself up for a game that's grindy, and I hate grindy single player games. Also, if I payed $60, why is there micro-transactions? This isn't a free to play game where you'd expect micro-transactions.


Clearly not the case with Battlefront 2 or Shadow of War, but I guess you choose to ignore those games. Look up the sales of those two games.


What reviews? Besides Dunkey there's Angry Joe which he gave the game a 7/10 and he still didn't finish the game, and he down ranked it from an 8 or a 9 cause of micro-transactions.

https://youtu.be/b0FXMB64g8w

Then there's metacritic with user reviews giving it a 5.7 on PS4.
https://www.metacritic.com/game/play...-creed-odyssey
5.2 on PC.
https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/a...-creed-odyssey
And 5.6 on Xbox one.
https://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox...-creed-odyssey

Clearly the community isn't happy with something in Odyssey.


Even Angry Joe mentioned Dunkey's review and didn't disagree with Dunkey. But no, Dunkey doesn't crap on all games, just the bad ones. Guess which one Odyssey is? Not the Mario one, the Assassin's one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4umiOnu3wuk


Why do I feel that some people here are Ubisoft employee's? You guys do a better job advertising this game than Ubisoft.


You serious? I liked the idea of walking around and killing two guys without immediately alerting the vicinity.


Is this main story or side quests? Remember, we're talking about side quests which you can pay to skip.

Uh huh.



I have yet to hear from someone a side quest worth not skipping. Going out and killing a regular animal with a special name does not make for a good side quest. I wouldn't have an issue if the side quests were optional, but they aren't. You need to do a lot before you can progress in the main story quests. Ubisoft funnels you to do quests that nobody wants to do cause they're filler content meant to pad a $30 or $40 game into $60. But now we're paying $60 for a game where you have to do boring and thoughtless side quests to progress in the main and interesting story quest. What conflict of interest are you missing here?

Ask yourself this, why doesn't Ubisoft remove the need to level up to continue to progress? I have to give credit to Nintendo with Breath of the Wild cause that game allows you to do just about anything without restrictions. If I wanna kill the last boss without doing any of the main or side missions, I can do that. There's also no level up system besides increasing hearts. This is not the case with Odyssey where you are blocked by a level requirement. Why not just take out the level requirement? Dunkey shows a quest called Olive Wreath where you deliver something cause someone's midwife wanted him to have this. Please tell me that isn't a side quest? Being a delivery boy is not a fun side quest, and you gotta do this crap to progress in the interesting story.

First off, when he mentioned the MT having no affect on the game, I believe he was talking specifically about Odyssey. There's no question Battlefront/Shadow of Mordor were atrocious.

As for your reviews, it's funny that you skipped over the 80s and 90 metacritic also listed for the critics reviews. I would guess those are from reputable critics too, which munkey and angry joe are not.

Regarding your hidden blade comment about killing two guys....in this game you may as well say you have a "hidden blade" as the spear of leonidas basically allows you to chain kills like that also as an assassin if you spec the right skills. I can chain my kills like that to three guys, not just two.

Now let's get to the greek mythology regarding beasts. Don't have a clue why you posted a random game pic. What point does that prove? Let's start with the first one, the Calydonian Boar. This beast was called the Calydonian Boar because it was sent by The Goddess of the Hunt, Artemis, to destroy the region of Calydon. That's just one example. There are lots of famous, named beasts in greek mythology. Obviously you haven't read anything about their mythology or you would know...

Yes, I will agree with you that the game probably has quite a bit of bloat with a lot of these "side quests" you mention. I like to call these "optional" quests though as a better term because these delivery quests, kill this mob quest, etc are all over and are more optional than anything. The beast quests, the rebellion quests, etc that have already been mentioned are what I would call side quests.

There are really three types of quests, and they are all easily identified, so you can easily skip the bloated timed/delivery quests. Different types of markers pop up on the map: if a quest has a gold diamond with exclamation point this is a story driven side quest. These side quests have narratives, cut scenes, dialogue options, etc that flesh out the game. Black diamond quests are side quests that pop up now and again based on choices you've made thru the game, that sort of thing. The other quests sort of have a little hourglass icon and these are the ones you would call the boring fetch/delivery type quests. I'm like 70% of the way through the game and only did a couple of these at the start of the game to see what they are like. Otherwise i have not had to do any and I do not have any boosters or bought anything from the store, with the exception of a sword i picked up for free with Ubisoft club credits, which I haven't even used since I was lvl 5.

Just to go back to the review things. Considering games are expensive these days (even without MTs) and there are quite a lot being made, I understand reading/watching reviews before buying a game. I get it and I am not innocent of not doing that myself. But I've still learned that no matter how good or bad reviews are for a game is no guarantee of me liking/disliking a game. People have gone on and on about how good Skyrim is, even in this thread, but I found it clunky and boring as hell. Reviews don't necessarily mean they will address you as a person. My advice to people these days is go rent the game and try it out for yourself. Then if you like it, buy it. Don't listen to all the fanboys and/or haters of a game to make a decision...

[Mister K]

The microtransaction and XP boost are just way overblown. Usually by people who have never played the game or have an ulterior motive (page clicks, review bias, principle, etc). If you play the game and explore, like AC games have been since AC3, you will have no problem meeting level requirements. Heck I am 46% through the game according to UPLAY and am level 47. It doesn't take a grind if you like playing the type of game Odyssey is.

And its not like time savers are anything new. Game Shark, Game FAQS, Prima Guides, etc were all founded on the principle of people wanting to save time and have things shown to them by someone else. WoWhead is a prime example of this. "Just google it" is a good example as well. Ubisoft is just offering it in-house so they can get a cut of the profits. And they do it in a way that it is optional.

My only complain is I can't buy a map pack with the 200 free helix credits. In origins I got one with the free credits even if I lost interest in Origins before I found everything anyways. Odyssey doesn't even have the endless perks if I understand correctly (not 50 yet) so the XP boost isn't really anything great. You only have so many options for ability points until you unlock your spear level. I wasn't spending any ability points until I got spear level 3 then spent 6 or 7 right away. People just hear xp boost for real money and feel the need to automatically hate with out understanding context or anything about the game.

You hit the nail on the head. It would be different if this was an online game and these packs would affect with overall gameplay and other players.

It kind of cuts out trainers you would use otherwise to "cheat"...