DLC #223 - Assassin's Creed Odyssey - The Fate of Atlantis : Episode 2

After a lengthy stay topside in Elysium, the reward for serving the Gods so well? Being plunged straight into the Underworld to meet Hades himself.

The immediate slaying of Cerberus throws the Underworld into chaos. If you're into Greek mythology, you'll know of the three-headed guardian whose role is to gatekeep the Underworld from the living entering and the dead escaping.

Well, courtesy of an opening boss fight, he's now also dead and this gate is being breached both ways, which rewards you with an immediate audience with Hades in order to fix this problem - or else. The God of the Underworld cuts a sinister figure, and the ultimatum kicks off Episode 2 of The Fate of Atlantis as you quest through hell to find a new gatekeeper (4 of them to be precise) and restore order back to Hades' playground.

It's clear that more effort has gone into The Fate of Atlantis compared to Legacy of the First Blade. This second episode transports you into a newly crafted realm, albeit much smaller in scale than Elysium, and there are more freshly added gameplay features to compliment a brand new episode.

Tartaros rifts can be found dotted around the Underworld, and provide enemy souls with immunity from humans until activated. Stepping into them will make souls vulnerable to attacks and adds an extra element of strategy to clearing forts and enemy camps. You won't be able to kill certain enemies until you've activated the rift they're linked too, promoting a more tactical element about how you navigate certain areas. Closing a rift also awards an ability point, so the game continues to absolutely ply you with the chance to upgrade your skill tree significantly.

Similarly, Tartaros veils block off passage to certain areas of the Underworld until you acquire the 5 pieces of a special armour set needed to pass through it's foggy barrier. This does act as a blocker to questline progression, and acquiring this armour set is heavily focused on the main questline, but it does also conceal a few optional secrets to be found within the environment, promoting off the beaten path exploration.

The environmental design does take a bit of a step back from the colourful vibrancy of Elysium. I know we're meant to be in hell, and the glum demeanor reflects that accordingly, but would it have hurt to use something a little bit more creative than just varying shades of brown to depict the landscape?

Ultimately though, despite these differences, you're still mainly running around doing fools errands - Just on behalf of Hades rather than Persephone and her motley crew. At least the motives are much clearer this time round. You've caused a problem and you're being forced to fix it, and there aren't 4 different characters chasing you around and confusing the narrative, which was a big plot issue in episode 1.

I very optimistically predicted this to be a 130 hour package by the time all 3 episodes had reached their conclusion, and we're already pushing 140 hours with an episode still remaining. It's moderately interesting to delve into the new gameplay features and explore fresh surroundings, until the predictable questline kicks in and redresses the balance of tedium.

In terms of trophies, 5 more have been added as part of this episode, with a big emphasis on main questline progression this time round, with almost every trophy being at least partially linked to the ongoing story.

The package is bookended with story-related trophies. The opening fight with Cerberus awards the first and there is a hidden trophy at the conclusion of the main questline after a similar encounter. The former is not to be treated as a spoiler, as this isn't hidden on the list, so I'm only playing by their rules in regards to what I reveal here.

Progressing everything else in between will also serve towards unlocking the other trophies on offer here. It became a common theme within each Legacy of the First Blade episode to track down a new Cultist branch as an extension of the main game. I was reluctant to point out the fact that this had been abandoned in episode 1 of The Fate of Atlantis because my research gave me a hunch that this was merely a brief reprieve.

"The One" trophy, awarded for Defeating all of the Fallen, confirms that hunch to be true, introducing 11 new targets to identify and kill in order to fulfil the requirements of this trophy. Some of these are linked directly to progressing the main quest as Hades' orders to find 4 new gatekeepers are from this selection of targets. Others are either found in the wild or linked to side quests.

You'll also need to close down all the Tartoros rifts for another trophy, of which there are 17 to find across the Underworld, and discovering the 3 Keeper's Insights will net you another trophy as well as help you acquire some more ability enhancements, exactly how you had to in the first episode prior. Access to both rifts and insights are sometimes within locations that are blocked off by a Tartaros veil, so the best starting point is to acquire the 5 pieces of Fallen armour before anything else, as acquiring the full set will give access to all locations on the map. It makes things less confusing when cleaning up trophies.

This is a much shorter experience than that of episode 1, taking the save file to a total of 138 hours, which means this clocks in at around a 7 hour package. Much of the trophy list boils down to tracking the new group of assassination targets with different end goals, whether that be because they're required by Hades' to be new protectors of the Underworld, or because they're holding a crucial piece of armour required to complete the Fallen set, as examples.

Next up - The final chapter.

DLC #222 - Overwatch - Additional Characters 3

Oh, Overwatch. I'd be lying through my teeth if I said I'd missed you.

A 10/10 Platinum trophy back in 2022 courtesy of some of it's outrageously demanding character-specific trophies. One I ultimately had to concede defeat in and boost in order to finish, despite my best efforts to plough through to the end.

Overwatch is still a well supported game. The developers are committed to rolling out regular updates and the live roster now has 52 playable characters. Initially, new characters were accompanied with their own trophies to obtain, but this soon halted - seemingly for good - with this DLC pack signifying the end of this trend.

A blessing in disguise as far as I'm concerned. I'm not sure I could have stomached a trophy list that was willing to continually add more and more undoubtedly complex trophies every time a new season ticked over and we saw the introduction of another new character. I've already said I thoroughly enjoyed Overwatch, and re-visiting it was a nice dosage of nostalgia, but in equal measure, the reasons why I was ultimately glad to leave it on the shelf made themselves known.

My original criticisms of the game from a trophy-based perspective are still current today. The spectrum of difficulty for these trophies is wide and vast - ranging from a fair challenge to borderline impossible - and many of the game features are still very trophy hunter unfriendly.  Why do I still have to wait 10 minutes in a queue to get into a game because all I want to do is select a Tank character for the purpose of unlocking a character-specific trophy?! So frustrating.

This DLC pack adds 10 new trophies which cover 5 characters who were later added to the Overwatch roster before Blizzard decided to stop releasing new trophies with any other subsequent character thereafter.

There are 2 trophies attributed to each character, and these include Junker Queen, Lifeweaver, Kiriko, Ramattra and Sojourn, and the initial step was to spend a bit of time getting used to each of these new characters. It had been a long time since I'd last played Overwatch and the step to just get familiar with these new characters in a competitive environment was a necessary one.

Onto tackling the trophies. I was determined to commit to making as much progress on these trophies as I could, putting aside big sessions to see how far I could get. One of the biggest issues with these trophies is that some of them are hugely down to circumstance, and how things align for you, which is a highly volatile factor to achievement.

This was punctuated by unlocking the "Giving Tree" trophy, awarded for Restoring 1200 health with a single use of Lifeweaver's Tree of Life. Activating this ultimate ability on a payload the moment an enemy Hanzo had unleashed a Dragonstrike is exactly the sort of circumstantial luck I'm talking about. This is one of the tougher trophies in the list to earn, but also just shows that all you may need is a bit of luck to be in the right place at the right time to find your window of opportunity present itself.

In similar fashion, the "Taking Charge" trophy, awarded for Getting 4 killing blows with a single use of Sojourn's Overclock, happened for me in similar circumstances. Almost 5 hours after unlocking the prior trophy, and on the verge of giving up for the day, Zarya's Gravitation Surge sucked an entire enemy team in. Sensing the moment, triggering Overclock allowed me to easily get the 4 kills needed to pop this trophy. This is the rarest trophy in this particular list, and I had been actively trying to earn it within this 5 hour period, but the time I got it was when I least expected to. A timely Gravitation Surge - Which was always clutch for group-kill trophies - and then seizing that opportunity.

Ultimately, these trophies could, in theory, take forever. Perseverance will generally win the day, but it's not a guarantee, and those are the worst kind of trophies for me. They're out of your control and your best chances are down to luck. I had some here, but would also run out of it later down the line, and it's the primary reason I boosted some of the Overwatch Platinum trophies.

Before then, there is at least a nice blend of easier to earn trophies that don't require ridiculously improbable situations to present themselves. Why couldn't they all be like this? I'm not suggesting to dumb them all down, just to close the gap a bit and add some fairer balance to the trophy requirements that don't make you feel like you're fruitlessly wasting your time.

I'd go on to achieve another 5 trophies fairly trouble-free, but most of these had fairer requirements. A nice balance between challenge and the sense of feeling that they were actually achievable. It's draining sinking hours into something that still feels like you could end an entire session without any further progress. However, we eventually hit that wall...

Purified - Cleanse 5 negative effects with one use of Kiriko's Protection Suzu in Quick or Competitive Play.
Life Weaving - Prevent 3 deaths using Lifeweaver's Life Grip without dying yourself in Quick or Competitive Play.

These 2 trophies were the ones that made me tap out and concede to boosting the remainder of this list.

The "Purified" trophy, awarded for Cleansing 5 negative effects with one use of Kiriko's Protection Suzu in Quick or Competitive Play is fully dependent on matching up against players who have picked a character who has the ability to deal out negative effects.

This list is very limited, and with such a crowded roster, if you're actively attempting for this trophy, you'll need to hope that the opposition team selects a specific character. Realistically - and it's important to bear in mind that you need to cleanse 5 negative effects in one go - there are only a couple of heroes that make this viable.

Mei's Blizzard ultimate is the recommended window of opportunity for this trophy. It has a very wide area of effect, and the gradual freezing damage counts as a multi-cleanse for some reason. This means you won't need your whole team caught up in it.

Junker Queen also has a multitude of attacks that cause bleeding damage, and can again, be linked together to apply to multiple enemies at once. The problem with Protection Suzu is that this is a very small area of effect, so you also need to have your team very closely bunched together and locked into one space. This is why Mei's Blizzard also works so well.

I gave this one an honest go, but just gave up after getting into game after game without the opposition team selecting the correct characters that would allow me to obtain this trophy. Way too much trial and error just to have the opportunity to earn the trophy, let alone earn it.

The "Life Weaving" trophy, awarded for Preventing 3 deaths using Lifeweaver's Life Grip without dying yourself in Quick or Competitive Play, is another trophy built in the same vein as above.

The Life Grip is an ability that pulls a teammate away from a certain death incident, but this is a great example of the unrealistic requirements that come attached to some of these trophies. To do this 3 times AND without dying in the same game is a real stretch, and on top of this, the specifics behind triggering a "life save" are also incredibly cloudy.

There is actually a statistic in-game that tracks the number of life saves you've earned from the Life Grip ability, but these do not correlate to the trophy. I actually had this counter up at 5/6 multiple times without achieving the trophy, and it's very much up for debate what the actual requirements are to unlock this trophy properly.

The theory that makes sense is one that suggests only attacks that were due to kill your teammate count as an actual save. Attacks that fall into this category as good examples are Tracer's Pulse grenade, which is an insta-kill with a stick, and Hanzo's Dragonstrike, which will kill anyone who stands in the way too long. D.Va's self-destruct is also another good example, but much harder to get the timing right for, due to the fact if you pull your teammate away too fast, it won't count.

Either way, you're not just reliant on matching up against opponents who need to select a specific character, but the trophy is just an unclear, buggy mess. Again, I just gave up after an honest plug at this one and decided to call time on something that I just wasn't prepared to waste my time on.

Even boosting these final 2 trophies felt like hard work to get this all finished. Matchmaking 2 groups together is an arduous chore, and the first session I attempted ended after 2 hours of not even being able to pair 2 groups of 6 players together in order to get into the same lobby. Even on the second try a few days later, we had to persist even longer before getting into the same lobby, but once you're there, it's easy enough to manufacture the situations you need to earn any trophy.

I don't like boosting, and I've rarely ever resorted to it. I'll always give any challenge an honest shot before conceding defeat, but the developers really need to re-assess the logic behind some of these trophies. I know Overwatch is a constantly evolving beast, and some of these trophy requirements have changed over time as characters and their move-sets have been tweaked, but some have remained almost impossible to achieve. Maybe that's a hook to keep people playing?

Anyway, never say never, but I think this one's finally on the shelf for good.

DLC #221 - Assassin's Creed Odyssey - The Fate of Atlantis : Episode 1

Deep within the isle of Thera, a secret. A vault discovered by Pythagoras leading directly to the underwater city of Atlantis.

Beating a series of trophy-related side quests in the main game will take you to the discovery of this vault and the possibility to explore the lost city.

The Fate of Atlantis DLC starts with the obvious question. What lies beyond? The answer is Elysium. A realm depicted in Greek mythology to form a portion of the afterlife. Gifted to Queen Persephone by her husband Hades, God of the Underworld.

Mainly occupied by the dead as a paradise for those who died in honourable circumstances, Alexios finds himself trapped inside in full human form after inheriting the Staff of Hermes from Pythagoras - A tool used to keep the vault shrouded in secrecy from outsiders.

The story is fundamentally based around Alexios identifying a means of escape from Atlantis, but it was never going to be as simple as just turning round and walking back through the same way you came in. An intertwined story featuring Elysium's occupants unravels, all of whom lay claim to being the key to Alexios' way out of the realm. If you're into Greek mythology, there are some very recognisable names here.

The plot, yet again though, leaves much to be desired. I feel like I've given Assassin's Creed Odyssey the benefit of the doubt with it's guff-filled story telling, but even The Fate of Atlantis reaches dizzying new heights on it's lack of clarity. The main characters make themselves known very early on and it's at least clear they all have different motives. However, the quest structure is really messy and contains objectives that completely conflict Alexios' loyalties to each of the 4 main characters in all of this.

If I side with one character, that should surely change how the others perceive me, and maybe even impact the questline? Nope. Alexios will just do as he's told and everyone will overlook the fact he's pimping himself out to anyone who asks the question, despite the obvious tensions between the main characters and their motives.

So the lore and storytelling is as confusing as ever, but the package does at least freshen up the experiences with some additions and changes. One of the biggest is the new environment. A desperately needed refresher after spending over 100 hours traipsing across Ancient Greece. Elysium is bright, vibrant and simply just a necessary change of scenery at this point. It's sheer verticality is a little bit intimidating, and the terrain is awkward to transverse at times too. However, it's still a welcome change. You do have the ability to teleport vertically through the new Hermes gates teleportation pads, once you get bored of the flowery, water-drenched landscape.

You'll also experience some new enemies in the form of Isu Soldiers and Colossi, who protect the Elysium grounds. Their attacks block adrenaline and prevent the use of special abilities, changing combat dynamics drastically. Colossi are especially dangerous, but will remain dormant until open combat is engaged, so despite their power, they're easy to avoid and prevent engagement with.

Abilities have also been tweaked slightly too. You can now unlock enhancements for all abilities that can be upgraded to 3 levels. Once you hit the third, you'll be able to apply an ability point to enhance that ability, which essentially just buffs it further. Experience rewards for beating quests have been significantly ramped up, so you'll level up and acquire ability points at a much quicker rate. You'll need to find Keeper Insights to unlock them - Special tablets dotted around the world that'll grant you access to these enhancements. There's a trophy dedicated to finding all 4 within this first episode.

Speaking of which, there are 5 trophies added to this ever-growing list, and most of these trophies can be earned through simple progression of the story arc.

There are 3 trophies awarded for beating every quest within Elysium, whether that pertains to the main story arc or the various side quests scattered around the landscape. Participation in side quests only influences story outcomes, so whilst many of them are optional, the less you do will provide less options towards the sort of ending you experience.

However this doesn't make any of these trophies missable, and you can still unlock these 3 trophies without any concerns of not fulfilling certain quests. The side quests which lead towards trophies are mandated, as some are heavily linked to main quest requirements, so you can bypass content without the worry of any detriment towards trophy progression. This is important to note because this was an unexpectedly lengthy package.

The "A Growing Perception" side quest, briefly mentioned above, pertains to finding the 4 Keeper Insights that will allow you to access ability enhancements, as well as the "Gathering Strength" trophy, awarded for Collecting all the Keeper's Insights in Episode 1.

The "Give 'Em Hades" side quest, where you have to reduce the influence of Persephone on Elysium, is linked to the "No More Rulers" trophy, awarded for Killing all Overseers in Elysium. By far the quickest way to reduce the influence of each region is by killing the regions Overseer and destroying their fort, so I'll count these tasks as mutually linked.

Finally, the "Free Their Minds, the Rest Will Follow" side quest, where you have to rescue 8 enslaved mortals from each of the 3 territories Elysium is broken down into will eventually award you with "The Conqueror" trophy at the very end of the episode.

Outside of this, there is a hidden trophy that produces a nice little Easter Egg revelation, and this is also linked to another side quest involving the recruitment of rebels to overthrow Persephone, and you'll also need to track down 18 Marble Maidens - Statues scattered around Elysium that'll need to be destroyed for the "Blasphemer" trophy. A small handful of these are very well hidden within underground caves and water systems, so some reasonable level of exploration is required.

I did touch upon the fact that this piece of DLC had an unexpectedly lengthy time completion, and this jumped my save file from 119 to 131 hours, so a circa 12 hour experience. This was a little bit surprising given the fact the previous episodic DLC consistently clocked in at around 3-4 hours on average per episode, so this first episode alone is already just as long as the entire Legacy of the First Blade combined. The general tedium of conducting the same actions within quests still lingers, but the injection of freshness from a new environment, as well as some new gameplay features does help.

It certainly makes my prediction of the whole thing being around 130 hours all in completely wide of the mark, but crucially, we're one more step further to the end.

DLC #220 - Assassin's Creed Odyssey - Additional Feats

Ubisoft really wanted to squeeze every last bit of life out of Assassin's Creed Odyssey, didn't they?

Just incase 6 episodic pieces of DLC weren't going to be enough, the idea was manifested to keep plying the game with a bunch of side quest content - presumably to keep the appetite at bay. You almost have to admire the brazenness of the belief that the one thing everyone who played 80-100 hours of Assassin's Creed Odyssey's main game wanted more of was generic stocking filler content.

"Additional Feats" or better known in-game as The Lost Tales of Greece, are simply a collection of side quests, released steadily beyond the main game - Delivered to tide players over between each episodic release of it's story-driven post-game DLC.

They're a bunch of short stories centered around a host of different characters. Some new and some existing, each with their own predicaments or situations Alexios is naturally required for his assistance on. I didn't do much side questing at all throughout my main experience with Assassin's Creed Odyssey, simply because I didn't need to in the end, but side-questing in open world games is so predictable, I'll generally avoid it until I have good reasons to indulge. Like when there are trophies on offer.

There is a little Easter Egg theory that each of the quests relates to a Greek God/Goddess and what they were most known for in Greek mythology. Cool, if true, but that's about as interesting as it gets. Each quest, despite who you may run into or where they may take you, simply just boils down to running around doing silly errands for someone - Something Assassin's Creed Odyssey has become way too comfortable with at this point.

The odd quest is somewhat intriguing, and there is a way this sort of content could have proven more useful. However, I don't need the experience points any more, the weapons/armour rewards are made redundant by the fact I'm comfortably scaled and the lore doesn't really add anything a story that has long concluded. Fetch this, kill them, discover that. It's classic stocking filler, and for something that was designed to tide players over between episodic DLC, it's only made me further desire the moment I can finally shelve this one for good.

There are 13 trophies added to the package as part of these additional feats, and each trophy relates to the completion of an individual quest.

They're quite lengthy and make up an entire questline built up of multiple quests in most instances, with the majority of these trophies taking between 1-2 hours to achieve each, especially if you're taking in the dialogue and lore, of which there is plenty.

There are 2 trophies linked not to questline completion, but taking down mythical creatures that roam the land, and these are slightly shorter as a consequence, but the longer-winded nature of the majority of these quests serves only to make them feel more like a chore to full completion. They just feel way too similar to one another, despite different story angles, and it makes Assassin's Creed Odyssey just feel more exhaustive each time you pick it up. 

Even the quest structure is predictably rigid. In very noticeable fashion, most questlines are broken down into groupings of 3. Speak to 3 people to trigger a quest for each person or visit 3 different locations to complete a quest within each of those areas - Usually a wolf-ridden cave or snake-infested tomb. I was mostly sleepwalking through this content at the sheer predictability of it's nature.

I tackled everything in mostly random order, and the exercise itself is a fairly straight-forward one with no surprises to completion along the way. Beat one questline, unlock the trophy for it and move onto the next until the list is complete. It's very self-explanatory. Just a quick note on a couple of the trophies;

• The "Every Story Has an Ending" trophy did require a few additional hours of pre-requisite questing. I had some outstanding questlines to complete before I could unlock this one. It ties up a few lose ends regarding a couple of main story characters.
• The "Heir of Memories" trophy requires you to begin the build up and opening portion of The Fate of Atlantis DLC and you'll experience the entire opening sequence to this content before seeing Atlantis itself on your way to unlocking this trophy. Both trophies leaned towards the higher end of 1-2 hours per quest guideline mentioned above as a result.

This package took my overall save file completion time from 107 to 119 hours, meaning an estimated overall completion for the package to be around 12-13 hours. With 3 more episodic DLC packs still remaining, we're pushing towards, at least, a 130 hour experience in total. 

That's alot for any game, and I would question the true value this content added to the experience. Some people will always want more, and that's fine, and I have said before that more of the same isn't always necessarily a bad thing. It has to be the right thing to do though. Releasing drip-fed quests into the game designed to be tackled in bitesize chunks isn't a bad idea on paper. However, it doesn't translate well for those that have to complete it all in one go and just ends up dragging.  

At least it was free though, but it's left me almost on my knees praying for The Fate of Atlantis DLC to be the deserving conclusion we're desperately after at this point.

DLC #219 - Grid Legends - Winter Bash

Drifting. It straddles the fine line of serious racing discipline and party mode - but it's always been a common fixture in racing games, including being the chosen theme to put the lid on the Grid Legends experience.

The aptly named Winter Bash celebrates the end of road for Grid Legends. We've explored a variety of different themes in this post-game content, but the final piece of DLC puts a focus on the art of drifting, with one last series of additions to the game.

One final chapter of new events closes out the Grid story. The BMW 2002 TII Race Car, Bugatti Bolide and SRT Viper GTS-R make the cut at the last checkpoint and the interesting decision to introduce a downhill racing drift track for use in drift events completes the meatier side of the package.

I was a little bit critical of the Enduring Spirit pack, for the simple reason that I didn't feel as if it actually leant into it's Endurance theme enough. The same can be said here too. Most of the new story chapter events are just standard circuit races, and only 3 of them are actual drift events. Even the pass objectives for the story events are based on "party" goals such as executing a certain number of barrel rolls and overtakes mid-race, furthering the stance that drifting is generally considered to be included as a party-esque, arcade mode of racing.

A final 10 trophies are also added to the main list, with the template remaining just as consistent throughout.

The new story branch adds 8 new events, and 3 of the 10 trophies are awarded for natural progression within this. You can technically stretch this to 4 trophies, for an additional trophy that requires you to execute a barrel roll. The chapter 3 pass objective is to execute a couple of barrel rolls during the race, which effectively makes this progression-related too.

The remainder of the list is the usual collection of miscellaneous trophies, including alot of interaction with the new group of cars added to the collection. You'll need to win 5 drift events in the SRT Viper GTS-R and 3 time attack events in the BMW 2002 TII Race Car for 2 additional trophies, both of which can be fulfilled within the race creation tool.

There are also 3 additional trophies related specifically to the Bugatti Bolide. You'll need to set a hot lap on the Strada Alpina (Circuito Stradale) course, reach a 265MPH speed and accumulate an unnecessarily large 200 miles. The full Strada Alpina circuit is roughly 7.5 miles, meaning you'll need to execute around 27 laps of this course. The Bugatti Bolide is quick, sharp and hard to control at times, and the hot lap trophy requirement is 3:03, which means you'll need around 2 hours just earn these trophies alone, assuming you achieve the hot lap trophy prior to accumulating 200 miles of distance. Make sure you've acquired all of the tier 3 upgrades for the Bolide - It makes the time requirement much more achievable. It does make more sense from a time perspective to just lap the oval, especially with the speed of the Bolide, but I took a bit of time to get the hot lap trophy, so felt it made sense to just keep lapping this circuit to reach all 200 miles.

By this point, the route to completion had become a very familiar one. Progress the new story branch, jump into the miscellaneous trophies and clean up. The decision to move away from trophies tied to sponsor objectives was a good call too - We didn't need those to persist any longer than necessary, and it made the packs less time consuming going forward.

Winter Bash should take somewhere within the region of 3-4 hours to complete. The race creator will allow you to knock out the events with the minimum requirements quickly, and despite needing the majority of around 1.5/2 hours dedicated to some slightly grindy tasks for the Bugatti Bolide, you should still be able to fit within the completion timeframe easily.