Set of add-ons "Legacy of the First Blade" For Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey turned out to be a disappointment: no new locations, no normal story, a dull love story and only three new abilities. You can go through all this not without pleasure, but I wanted something on a larger scale. Fortunately, "The Fate of Atlantis" corrects some of these shortcomings – the addition, also divided into three parts, sends the player to three completely different regions, fills him with unusual skills and even introduces some original mechanics.
The beginning of the journey
To access the DLC, you must complete the main storyline and the “Heiress of Memory” quest, which was added to the game after release. In it, we, playing for Leila Hassan, meet with a representative of the Isu named Aletheia and try to open the gates to Atlantis by exploring three tombs. If you haven’t gone that far yet, you can take a pumped-up character in the main menu and immediately launch the add-on, but in this case, achievements will not be issued.
Leila (and with her Kassandra and Alexios) is trying to learn the power of the Rod of Hermes, which she received at the end of the game. And this power sometimes negatively affects Leila’s condition – she begins to literally rush at people, injure them and behaves in such a way that her assistant doctor stops the simulation over and over again, just so that the main character does not do anything stupid. For trying to make the present tense plot meaningful Ubisoft can be praised, but it still seems superfluous and uninteresting, also because of the boring, one-sided Leila.
Luckily, you won’t have to spend too much time with her. In the first part of the add-on, we go to Elysium – a completely new location that is in no way connected with the main map. Since this is not Ancient Greece recreated from textbooks, artists and designers could create whatever they wanted. Elysium turned out to be a fairly large area, divided into several regions, and consists of scattered islands that are located at different levels. To avoid having to spend five minutes climbing each time, Wings of Hermes were added to the game – pillars of light that teleport Kassandra to the upper or lower platform.
They don’t give me peace
This is not the only change – the opponents here are different from the soldiers from "Odyssey". Elysium is ruled by Persephone, who is not happy about the appearance of strangers in the world she created, especially when they are living people. Therefore, she has an army of Isu warriors in her power, ready to go into battle at the first opportunity. The main feature of these enemies is the ability to influence the player’s adrenaline gauge, freezing it or taking away cells one by one.
Fights turn out to be dynamic, especially when enemies call lightning and you have to run away from red circles on the ground. Also next to these warriors there are colossi – they stand like statues and do not react to anything (even if you run right in front of them) until a fight starts – then they come to life and attack. It’s better not to anger them – the colossi can teleport, and shoot out severely wounding rays.
In other words, playing stealthily here is easier than running into the center of the location and waving your sword. Colossi remain motionless if they see you stabbing someone from behind, and when quietly clearing out another outpost they won’t even blink an eye. But if you are still discovered, new skills will help – or rather, enhancements of old ones. My favorite move of hitting the ground and throwing all enemies to the sides is upgraded to Ares Madness – within 10 seconds you hold the spear of Leonidas in your hands, deal massive damage and become immortal. Even elite opponents fall apart before their eyes from these sweeping blows, so the skill turns out to be very useful. “The Power of Artemis” is also not bad – a hail of arrows in a radius of three meters, causing four times the damage to the hunter and stunning everyone for five seconds.
It’s a shame that the gameplay doesn’t https://casinosnotongamcare.co.uk/review/spin-time/ offer unusual situations in which to use these skills. Instead of a bunch of original tasks, here you are asked to reduce Persephone’s influence in three areas (that is, eliminate guards, burn supplies, search chests and do other similar things that are boring in normal "Odyssey"). Another mission is to free a couple of dozen warriors. To do this, you need to stun them (that is, fight with your bare hands) and press L3 over each of them, which is also not very interesting to do.
However, most of the missions are still exciting, and the story is more or less a success – when Persephone, Adonis, Hermes and Hecate are involved in one conflict, it’s difficult to make a mistake. Friendship, love, betrayal – different topics are raised, and thanks to the unusual characters, some mistakes in the script (either the characters talk nonsense, or the choice does not affect anything) are easy to forgive.
But the open world raises questions: the locations here are incredibly beautiful, and it’s difficult to get out of photo mode, but everything is somehow dead – except for rare deer, no one runs around these luxurious fields, nothing happens, and there is nothing to do in between missions. Perhaps destroying statues of Persephone, but that can hardly be called entertainment.
Down to Hades
The situation changes in the episode "Torture of Hades", where Cassandra enters the kingdom of the dead. The mercenary system returns here, only we hunt for fallen veterans, cultists and guards. Unfortunately, they didn’t add evidence or subtle hints – as soon as you kill one of them, the location of the next one is immediately indicated on the map. And since most of them are not associated with interesting quests, you simply come to the appropriate location, fight a strong opponent, kill him and move on to the next poor guy.
For defeating some of the fallen, they are given pieces of armor, without a full set of which it is impossible to pass through the so-called curtains of Tartarus – the borders between the kingdom of the dead and Tartarus. As a result, the entire addition turns into a run from one marker to another: you need to kill the fallen, collect armor, and find four guards for Hades who will prevent the dead from entering the world of the living.
In terms of quests, this episode was the biggest disappointment, and the new mechanics in it are not the most interesting. For example, when clearing locations, some enemies look like invulnerable holograms, and to eliminate them you need to find the Tartarus rift, upon interaction with which Kassandra’s health is halved. The more armor of the fallen is worn, the less “lives” are taken away, and this is some kind of completely worthless idea that does not change anything in the gameplay.
But the story here is unusual – since we find ourselves in the kingdom of the dead, it was logical to add some heroes from the main plot here "Odyssey", who died for one reason or another. The meeting with some characters was quite unexpected, and the most memorable were the moments with references to events that happened long ago. They didn’t manage to reveal Hades in such a short time, but there are no complaints about everything else. Perhaps his brown-gray kingdom is tiring after the fantastic scenery of Elysia, but this is the kind of contrast that the artists probably sought.
If the second episode is better than the first in one way, it’s that legendary weapons are given out in large quantities – what is the cursed bow of Hades with increased fire damage and burning spreading to neighboring enemies?. Among the abilities, “Flight of Kronos” stands out, in which a whole series of events occurs: first, all opponents are stunned, then you rise into the air, time stops for three seconds, you use the hunter’s abilities with critical damage, and after all this you take a leap of faith and hit the ground hard. It looks as cool as it sounds. For bow lovers, it is possible to turn arrows into traps that are triggered when the victim approaches.
Ticket to paradise
After the not very outstanding second episode, playing the third is especially pleasant – we finally find ourselves in Atlantis, the most fantastic location in the entire game. Everything here is located within one circle, but how much has been added here and how alive everything looks against the backdrop of Elysium: somewhere musicians are playing instruments, somewhere doctors are rushing around with the sick, somewhere in the port workers are working hard. Poseidon appoints us as a dicaste, a kind of judge who makes the final decisions in any dispute.
The quests in this DLC are the most original: a botanist is trying to restore the flora and asks to redirect the rays of light, a girl is accused of murder, and we help solve the crime, a boy is looking for his missing parents… The endings of these quests are sometimes unexpected, and some of them are closely connected with the ending, which turned out to be beautiful, spectacular and well-directed. True, then we return to Leila again and watch a couple of absurd scenes, but even this cannot spoil the impression.
Atlantis is full of activities that will make you spend more than one evening here. Firstly, there is an Isu knowledge scale, which you fill as you clear palaces and archives in search of data, artifacts and codes. Without the first, second and third levels you will not be able to enter some rooms. Secondly, for eliminating the five polemarchs of Atlantis, you will be given a set of dicast armor, wearing which you can automatically activate the Isu boost for 15 seconds when receiving damage in battle. The armor at this moment becomes stronger, and the weapon becomes stronger. Thirdly, nine adamantine ingots are hidden in the archives of Atlantis – by collecting three of them, you can forge a unique weapon with a special engraving in the forge. How about, for example, a mace that deals damage to nearby enemies from regular arrows??
In addition, you can get final powerful abilities in the add-on. Those who like to play the game stealthily will definitely like Kronos’ Punishment, with which you create your own copy and use it to perform a sneak attack – and the enemy is eliminated, and no one notices you. “Wrath of Ares” is also worthy of attention – the character thrusts a spear into the ground, creating a circle with a large radius that slows down enemies caught in it and after some time causes them huge damage.
Overall impressions of "The Fates of Atlantis" remained mostly positive. The game is missing some of the elements that made it amazing Odyssey, but it’s difficult to tear yourself away from the second expansion (which, if everything is completely cleared, will take about 30 hours) – there are plenty of activities, the stories are mostly interesting, and new abilities make battles more fun. If the third episode definitely deserves the highest score, then the first and second turned out to be commendable and passing, respectively. Overall, the DLC can be called very good, but imperfect. If you miss the game or are interested in the history associated with ISU technologies, it is definitely not recommended to skip this add-on.
Pros: three new large locations; a large variety of activities; too powerful new abilities that it would be a shame not to use; original opponents, because of which you have to change your usual tactics; new armor sets and unusual weapons enrich the player’s arsenal.
Cons: boring assignments like freeing two dozen soldiers and reducing the influence of rulers; Episode 2 is disappointing with mission design and isn’t as pretty as the others.