Digital Playground
February Edition by Rivers

Things Change…

I grew up on gaming consoles. It all started with the Atari and from there I had every console that came out until somewhere in my teens. I got distracted somewhere between roleplay and boys. What can I say. The Playstation 2 [I know, this was a long time ago] was probably the last console I was super active on [my favorite game was Area 51] until I came back around maybe ten years later. I had once been pretty adept at gaming, and I thought for sure it was something that I could just jump right back into. But listen. Games changed a LOT in a decade! I suddenly couldn’t figure out how to look around and how to move and how to fight and I got mad and threw the controller aside and didn’t touch it but here and there over the next few years.

Well hello there…

Aside from the intermittent attempts at different games, I was primarily a backseat gamer to others. I’d watch, I’d be interested, but if I took the controller I was lost. Then came Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. I was terrible y’all. I died to much. Like. Every two seconds. I couldn’t accomplish anything. Fuck boars. But somehow – it didn’t matter. The game was beautiful and I connected with it and couldn’t put my controller down. It’d been so long since I was hooked on a game I had completely forgotten that feeling. Often times I’d be asked, ‘hey rivers, what are you up to?’ and I’d respond ‘playing Kassandra!’ which is where I’d be for hours.

Over the course of the pandemic I continued playing, right through all the DLC and eventually beat the entire game. It was actually the first game I ever completely finished. I loved everything about it [even the things I didn’t love weren’t that big of a deal] – the story, the characters, the graphics – I’m certainly no video game connoisseur but to me this game had everything. I literally miss it. It is my absolute favorite game, ever, hands down.

The only negative that I found was the side quests were largely pointless to the main story and the grinding while utterly necessary for leveling and progressing was so distracting that at one point I literally forgot what the main story was.

The best thing was hunting cultists and I was sorely disappointed when the last one was killed.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the story attached to the Legacy of the First Blade DLC. It was very forced, there was no way around a series of events that I felt were unfitting for the main character – however, it does play in to Origins which is kind of cool. The best thing in this DLC was a new set of cultists to hunt down! I loved the Underworld DLC [have you seen my Underworld room? its based on this! shameless plug!] the design and story was absolutely perfect and I was disappointed to have to move on to Atlantis. Preceding the Underworld was Elysium which I felt indifferent about. It was beautiful, but the story was lacking and felt like a means to the end to reach the Underworld. Atlantis was beautiful as well and the story was a bit more compelling than that of Elysium.  

The map on Odyssey is incredibly expansive and I’m fairly positive you could lose days just sailing around the islands. The graphics on the water are stunning and the songs the crew sing are much better than in previous AC games. Battles on the sea are lots of fun and I have to admit I would get distracted hunting down pirates and cleaving their ships in half!

After Odyssey I went back to Origins but didn’t get the same ‘feels.’ I moved on to Valhalla – and while it’s a stellar game it doesn’t give me the same vibe either. There’s just something about Odyssey.

I’m told I’ll always have a soft spot for the game that got me back to gaming. And now I’m clumsily maneuvering my way through new games – still dying a lot – but occasionally making a badass move [often by accident]. Thankfully the people I play with are patient and enjoy the comic relief of my not-so-epic deaths. Even with the multitude of failures – I have found I really love grabbing my controller at the end of the night and playing for a while to unwind. Its okay to be terrible! Speaking of terrible – next time, I’ll tell you about the Phasmophobia nights!