2/5 ★ – fez219's review of Assassin's Creed: Odyssey - Legacy of the First Blade.

It's just more Assassin's Creed Odyssey with all the same flaws. If you simply want more content, here it is! Nothing here is on a new map, which is somewhat of a blessing and a curse. This means there isn't more samey copy-pasted locations to complete, but it also means you'll be in areas that already exist in the main Greece map, albeit that the story left pretty untouched in terms of questing. The quest design here is just as lame as ever, although there are a few hints of something better. One mission I really liked was literally just a talking mission (the penultimate "Herald" encounter), and was actually interesting despite not involving any combat unless you want to kill him. Another mission had you listening in on some characters to potentially avoid a larger fight, but it was so clumsily implemented into the existing systems that it's tough to be excited about it (as in you could run in and pick the fight early, or attack the character after waiting a bit while he was on the way to a fort). Another highlight had a character holding your kills over your head, and some clever dialogue would allow you to avoid killing innocents. Still, it was all within the bounds of the existing mission design, just stretched a bit to use it in clever ways. I'm frustrated that the mission design in this DLC continues to be the same boring objectives that might as well be sidequests; either kill some samey enemies or grab some loot, with bookends of cheap dialogue scenes with stupid options and lame characters and no overall consequences to characterization or plot outside of those missions. I seriously think every single AC game ever made has had better mission design, while this is MMO-level BS. Did they have to make serious compromises just to get an engine working for such a large world? Because this is what it feels like. Mechanically, nothing is new here. You don't get any new abilities, hidden blade, nothing outside of an extremely minor (but admittedly fun) flamethrower for your ship. Every DLC in any game is an opportunity to expand on the base game's mechanics, so its disappointing to see this DLC do so little. As to story, pretty much everything here sucks. A proto-assassin, Darius, is one of the main characters. He's fine, I guess; he's basically your old mentor assassin archetype, but barely gets any real characterization outside of being on the run from the proto-templars that he had a falling out with. He doesn't do anything interesting outside of being an assassin and having a hidden blade before any other assassin we see in-game (why does he have a hidden blade? He forged it himself, I guess. That's all the details we get!) You and Darius work together to hunt down the proto-templar organization that's totally different from the Cult of Cosmos yet works exactly the same way, with 3 bosses and a few lieutenants who get characterization while everyone else is just a random NPC with some lame clues and flavor text. Darius has a child that's the opposite sex from your character, and this character is a total wet blanket (at least the male, Natakas, was). They never do anything remotely interesting besides complain about how much danger their father put them in by betraying the proto-templars and forcing his family on the run. (SPOILERS) you're railroaded into romancing the wet blanket and have a baby. You're never given any reason to care about either the spouse or the baby beyond their connection to you, then you have a peaceful year or so with the spouse and Darius in an idyllic home. After a cutscene where the spouse tells you they finally feel safe with you, I think it's telegraphed enough what is about to happen. In a maddeningly silly yet predictable turn of events, the spouse dies, your baby is kidnapped, and you and Darius finish off the leader of the proto-templars that Darius tells you he once considered a brother, yet is never give any likeable traits beyond the typical Templar "we're monsters for the greater good" nonsense. You defeat him in a totally basic boss battle that might as well be against any heavy NPC that just happens to have quadruple health, and Darius carts the brat and his blade to Egypt to tie into Origins and show how the Assassin ideology and hidden blade made it there. Cool, I guess? The story just really sucks. The characters suck. I'm glad we finally get to see a stronger tie in to Assassins and Templars here, but it's all done in the most basic, boring ways. One thing I sort of like is that it ties into the Prince of Persia sidequest in an interesting way that calls Darius's judgment into question as well, as he wanted to kill a Persian scion who was actually a pretty good guy. But it's not really meaningfully explored and a lot of it is just completely hapless exposition. Like your baby was being cared for by that Persian Prince's son, and that prince is now king? OK? The game just randomly drops that information without exploring it in any way. Big picture wise, this stuff and these characters totally could have worked — but it's all handled in such a slow, mundane way and with characters that don't receive an ounce of quality writing. There's a few parts that are just so ridiculously awful filler MMO stuff, especially when you're supposedly at peace with your family, and it's crazy. There's a few moments that are somewhat emotional simply because Kassandra is likeable, but it all could have been so much better if there were less filler quests and more decent writing. I think a really emblematic moment of the problems this game has is on display with the main villain. It's revealed that he was a silly NPC you interacted with early in the dlc but like... so what? This character was a completely throwaway caricature that gave you a fetch quest and nothing else for you to remember them by. Kassandra acts like this is some sort of revelation that pierces the core of her being but... who gives a damn? Maybe if this character didn't look and feel like a random NPC this would mean something to the player too, but the game — like just about every aspect of Odyssey — fails to make the distinction and all feels like filler. This DLC certainly has an interesting premise — the origin of the hidden blade — but it's not fulfilled whatsoever. You get a bit of exposition and a character just has a big hidden blade. This doesn't live up to its premise at all. The legacy of the first blade needs to be more than a throwaway "I forged it myself" line by an NPC who never becomes more than a basic trope, and a twist ending that sees him flee to Egypt with your kid for... reasons I guess? This game is like Bilbo before his 111th birthday. It's thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread. This DLC could have had about a quarter of the content when you ditch the fetch quests that don't even tie to the real enemies, and it would have been far better.