Will it Ever End?

Recently I listed off all the Assassin’s Creed games I am playing concurrently despite the fact I have never played a game from the franchise before. I’ve completed Origin’s main story missions and the Hidden Ones DLC and have now moved on to Odyssey. Seeing that Odyssey rolls Black Flag and Origins together with a heap of Witcher 3, I may never have to return to any of those games. It depends on how long Ubisoft spews content. Right now Odyssey looks like a completionist’s nightmare but forturnately I am not one of those.

Ubisoft has taken a really interesting turn with Origins and Odyssey. They have moved away from multiplayer completely to single player with limited shared social features and mostly cosmetic microtransactions. Even loot boxes can be purchased with ingame currency. No luring children towards controversial forms of gambling here. No siree.

Origin’s stand alone discovery mode goes even further to buff up video games’ tarnished reputation. This looks like a smart play for the education market which in my opinion has been sadly ignored of late. Educational software is one of my major interests and I welcome this.

This also bodes well for those of us who fear for the future of single player games. Persistent revenue generating software as a service is understandably appealing to developers. Ubisoft’s model is a compromise I can live with as long as I can still enjoy the game offline.

Both games are shining examples of video game tourism. Origins quickly became my second favourite video game ever. I thought Odyseey might eclipse it but it hasn’t so far. Once I finish Odyssey’s main story missions I will of course be going on about that.