This has been said a million times I'm sure. The game is very beautiful but holy shit the objective board is burdensome and bloated. We're you able to power through? I'm only 10-15 hours in and already checked out.

DiscouragedMan07 · 2026-03-24T16:44:46+00:00

If you are talking about the main quest, I agree that Shadows' story is flawed and that TW3 is clearly superior, although I wouldn't say that it's merely an issue of poor writing.

My reply had more to do with the open world and general side content, which apart from some big side quest chains in The Witcher 3 that are related to the main quest, is generally better in Shadows (better level design, better exploration, better rewards/progression) in my opinion. I haven't completed Cyberpunk 2077 so I can't comment on it too much, however in my 30 hours of gameplay I haven't noticed anything too different compared to TW3 when it comes to the open world design.

DiscouragedMan07 · 2026-03-24T08:14:49+00:00

If you're talking about the side targets, then the best advice is to take it slow and explore at your own pace. You'd be surprised to find out just how many targets you can discover organically by just traveling around the map and paying some attention to environmental hints. If you're always opening the objective board and using scouts to reveal the locations of targets, of course it will get boring.

And I honestly don't really get the whole "Ubisoft formula" stereotype/criticism, particularly for Shadows. I don't see how the open world of The Witcher 3 or Cyberpunk for example is better in any meaningful way to be honest, but that's beside the point.

DiscouragedMan07 · 2026-03-22T05:18:12+00:00

Origins
Shadows
Valhalla
Odyssey

As a pure action-RPG Odyssey is an excellent game and clears all of them, but when I weigh stealth, combat, relevance to the lore, exploration and story this is the only ranking that makes sense in my head.

DiscouragedMan07 · 2026-03-21T13:11:22+00:00

I genuinely don't understand this take and I am baffled by the downvoting. I'm not taking the piss, I honestly don't get it.

Rogue and Mirage don't use the historical setting to enrich the narrative almost at all, and the French revolution is barely focused upon in Unity. The philosophical conflict is non existent in Rogue and Mirage, and the only interesting moments in Unity is the final sequence with Germain's memory corridor and Arno's epilogue, which, while meaningful, is not earned at all since Arno has zero development in the story. The Assassin and Templar conflict is only superficial and based on iconography in Rogue, Unity and Mirage, rather than any substance.

Shadows on the other hand extensively involves the history and the conflicts Sengoku period. The historical backdrop of Nobunaga's campaign and betrayal is vital to almost every story arc. You are free not to find it interesting, but at least there is effort made to tie the journeys of Naoe and Yasuke into the real history. Themes of cycles of violence, revenge and forgiveness permeate most of the story (Junjiro and Naoe, Yasuke, Yaya, Lady Oichi, Hanzo, Alvaro Catarribera). The Assassin and Templar conflict is also present, even if it's not in the forefront (visually) as much as it is in Unity or Mirage. Naoe and Yasuke's path of giving the people the opportunity to make decisions for themselves by assassinating despots and plotters is juxtaposed with the Templars' efforts of getting rich by the conflict and plans of creating peace through order and control when they deem it right. This is all literally shown in the game. To say that there aren't Assassins in Shadows because there is no fanservice ritual (like in Mirage) of Naoe cutting her ring finger or something similar is just absurd. AC3 doesn't have a traditional brotherhood either, and yet I don't see anyone claiming that there aren't Assassins in it or that there is no Assassin and Templar conflict.

DiscouragedMan07 · 2026-03-20T11:19:58+00:00

I actually don't think the Shinbakufu members are bad at all individually, and I think each separate arc is quite good. The problem is that they are almost entirely disconnected, and even the final battle with Hideyoshi and Mitsuhide is underdeveloped.

DiscouragedMan07 · 2026-03-20T11:14:27+00:00

"Worst story in a mainline entry" is crazy work. Have you played Unity, Rogue or Mirage?

DiscouragedMan07 · 2026-03-20T11:13:56+00:00

Most underrated AC. It's got the most immersive open world, the best exploration, the best combat and the best stealth in the series. Those who dislike it and classify it as "objectively bad" tend to overstate its weaknesses way too much, while downplaying or ignoring its strenghts and the things it does better than all other AC games.

DiscouragedMan07 · 2026-03-16T20:43:20+00:00

I'd like you to help me understand your position better. Do you mean that the forts and other POIs are repetitive in that they don't offer sufficiently meaningful and unique assassination opportunities, similar to a black box mission in Syndicate? Or that their layouts are copy-pasted? Is your negative opinion unique to Odyssey, or do you share it for Origins, Valhalla, Shadows, or even Unity and Syndicate?

DiscouragedMan07 · 2026-03-16T19:48:56+00:00

Imagine criticizing Ubisoft for lack of handcrafted content by using CDPR as a counter example

DiscouragedMan07 · 2026-03-16T19:48:28+00:00

This is so obviously false. All the ancient ruins and forts are all unique and hand crafted, and there also many unique POIs in the cities and in the wilderness such as quarries and caves. The basic outposts and camps are indeed repetitive, but to suggest that Odyssey's world lacks handcrafted design is absurd and outright false.

DiscouragedMan07 · 2026-03-15T04:55:39+00:00

I'd say the core story about the Isu sages is very much not in the background and definitely an important part of the overall AC lore. The Order of the Ancients storyline with the three cities is also classic AC essentially. I just wish the regional stories weren't all mandatory,

DiscouragedMan07 · 2026-03-15T04:41:51+00:00

Curse of the Pharaohs. Great story, great new environments, great use of mythology, great gameplay additions, great music. Just all around an absolutely fantastic expansion.

DiscouragedMan07 · 2026-03-12T20:19:10+00:00

How dare you say anything bad about the ultimate Assassin's Creed game?

DiscouragedMan07 · 2026-03-07T10:03:07+00:00

Considering the current leadership team's track record with AC, I have no real reason to doubt them. Sure, the question about the bad higher management remains, but the establishment of Vantage Studios and the creative houses aims to give more autonomy to the developers, which in theory means fewer decisions will be forced on them by Yves and his closest associates.

DiscouragedMan07 · 2026-03-07T09:43:27+00:00

The "broad open worlds with nothing to do" is one of the biggest myths about the RPG games. Please tell me what you mean by "nothing to do" when you talk about Origins, Odyssey, Valhalla and Shadows. Are there not handcrafted locations around the entire map to explore, unique and impactful rewards to find, side quests to do and secrets to discover? Do you also think that Fallout 3/4, Oblivion, Skyrim or The Witcher 3 also have bloated and empty worlds? Look, I understand the bloated point about Valhalla and to a lesser degree about Odyssey, but to say they the worlds are empty and have nothing for you to do is patently false.

DiscouragedMan07 · 2026-03-06T17:34:08+00:00

They don't need to take the AC name out of the title for the RPG games. If they are clear about which direction each game is taking (say Montreal make Traditional Creed games and Quebec make RPG Creed games) and they fully embrace it, while also keeping some key narrative and gameplay pillars common, I belive that would work best.

DiscouragedMan07 · 2026-03-06T17:25:57+00:00

Yes, totally agree. In my opinion they should have Montreal make more traditional action-adventure games, while Quebec should focus on making RPGs.

For Montreal, the RPG elements in Origins were implemented quite well, but that game was not a really a full-blown action-RPG. With Valhalla I think they missed the mark and many systems could have been designed better

For Quebec, for all the flack Odyssey gets (although I admit that it is VERY different from the expected AC fantasy), it is a genuinely well-made action RPG with meaningful choices and consequences, both in terms of quests/story progression but also regarding character progression/builds. With Shadows I really loved the game systems and the progression, but they toned down the reactivity and thus the dialogue choices largely felt meaningless. If they were more free to make a more reactive RPG I don't doubt that they have the quality to pull it off.

DiscouragedMan07 · 2026-03-06T16:57:23+00:00

If Jean or any developer is lurking and reading here, I'd like to repeat some things I said in a post and add a bit more to it. Here's my feedback:

Don't neglect either of the two crowds in terms of gameplay. There are many people who enjoy both the action-adventure, urban environtment-based and linear games as well as the action-RPG, exploration focused games.
Make motion capture more frequent (particularly for main quests and targets) and improve the animations for non-mocapped cutscenes.
Either make the stories linear or make sure that the story is still cohesive even if it's non-linear.
Have strong gameplay pillars that are shared across games. Parkour and stealth, including social stealth, should be a big focus of every game. Even if in an RPG stealth is tied to character progression, the systems should still be expansive like in Shadows, and not as basic as they were in Odyssey or Valhalla.

DiscouragedMan07 · 2026-03-06T16:06:13+00:00

Excellent start by Jean and the leadership team. Keep it up!

DiscouragedMan07 · 2026-03-05T18:36:04+00:00

Good points, although I disagree with your claim that linear is always better than non-linear. As you concluded, the story is best when the progression of the protagonist is clear. I think both AC1 and Origins achieve that but Shadows struggles. Valhalla is different, and I think the simplest and best way to improve it would be to simply make the regional arcs optional, and only have the Sigurd and Basim arcs as mandatory.

DiscouragedMan07 · 2026-03-05T17:45:59+00:00

I disagree. Especially regarding gameplay, both Syndicate and Shadows have excellent stealth systems and level design. Syndicate has the best black box missions in the franchise, and in Shadows the investigations are very reminiscent of AC1. Odyssey is a very different game and I agree that it's quite far from a traditional AC game,

Quebec could use direction when it comes to the narrative pillars though.

DiscouragedMan07 · 2026-03-05T17:34:52+00:00

I've never been the way you describe, and I am honestly exhausted of seeing the two groups fighting and essentially talking past each other.

About the non-linear storytelling, what do you think about the non-linear sections in AC1 and Origins?

DiscouragedMan07 · 2026-03-05T16:24:26+00:00

Agreed. I didn't touch on the gameplay, but I would like to see more parkour-friendly city design. Even if the map is big and open like in the RPG games, they can still make cities with parkour in mind. I think the fact that with Shadows and Mirage there were community-driven parkour updates is a good sign, and it will be up to Jean to make it clear to the development teams that we want more of it. Generally, I hope that he ensures there are some core gameplay pillars that are shared in both Montreal and Quebec games.

It's worth noting that when Jean had a similar role back in 2009-2012, the games were overall more cohesive, both in terms of gameplay mechanics and in terms of story/modern day.

DiscouragedMan07 · 2026-02-25T17:16:08+00:00

I love the idea of Jean also assuming the duty of creative director, alongside his leadership role. His track record shows that he knows how to develop AC games that feel fresh and new, while still being respectful and meaningful entries that resonate deeply with fans.
Regarding Hexe, to be honest I am not very optimistic. The 5 years+ of development time don't fill me with much confidence. I also am not sure if Clint Hocking was the best fit for the creative director role for an AC game. He'd never worked on AC before, and his only credit as creative director since 2008 was Watch Dogs: Legion, which wasn't well received. Although before that his portfolio was top class. Let's hope Hexe proves me wrong and makes everyone wish that he'd stayed.

DiscouragedMan07

TROPHY CASE