Meanwhile In Sparta

We're now 178 hours and 56 minutes into Assassin's Creed Odyssey and at Level 58 (in a game we had thought only went up to Level 50), and earlier this week we thought that we had actually completed the game.  One of the main storylines in the game involves your character, the misthios (mercenary), trying to reunite their family during the ravages of the Peloponnesian War. We finally accomplished that the other night, followed by a homey scene in which our now-reunited family (mother, father, son, and daughter) finally has a meal together in their old ancestral homestead.  That was followed by a quick quest where we meet up with Socrates (who became an  ally/mentor earlier in the game for some reason) and we waxed philosophical on whether or not it was all worth it (is the loss of lives of a few worth the benefit to the many?), and even visited a graveyard to reflect on some of the colleagues we had lost in the course of the game.

That seemed like an apt and even slightly poetic ending to the game, but as it turns out that was only the end of one of several "odysseys" you play in the game.  We still have yet to complete The Hunt for the Cult of Cosmos, and we still have at least one major mythological beast to slay to complete Between Two Worlds, a somewhat convoluted storyline about Archimedes and Atlantis and, well, slaying mythological beasts (don't ask).  There might be more odysseys still in the works, and there's still a lot of undiscovered islands and mainland locales to be explored.  It's going to be well over 200 hours before we get through this game.

It's too early to think about what we're going to play next.  We like to play one game at a time - sort of like reading a novel, where you don't read a chapter of one book and then skip to a chapter of another.  We've been told (check out the comments to prior posts) and confirmed on line that the game Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is a difficult game and a real challenge, and frankly we have our doubts about whether we have the patience and skill to learn the difficult fighting techniques apparently necessary to thrive in the game.  Ideally, the designers of a game should make it difficult enough to provide a modicum of challenge and give you a sense of accomplishment when you defeat a boss baddie, but not so difficult that it becomes tedious and frustrating.  In other words, it's okay if your character dies one or twice in game during a battle, but not 10 times.  The designers of Sekiro may have overestimated the skill and patience of this old player.

What else?  We've seen trailers that indicate Borderlands 3 will be coming out soon - that should be good, mindless fun.  We loved Borderlands 2 and miss Tiny Tina.  Also, rumor has it that the wild-west game Red Dead Redemption 2 might be coming to PC later this year, so that's something to look forward to.

But we're pretty sure that we know what's on deck to play next.  The other night, we took advantage of a promotion and downloaded a free copy of the 2002 game Morrowind: The Elder Scrolls III.  It's a bit dated, 17 years is an eternity in game time, but having completed Skyrim: The Elder Scrolls V, it's kind of a "must-play."  Again, going back to the literary analogy, it's kind of like reading an earlier novel in an espionage series that you've enjoyed, and after completing TES: III and TES: V, it also almost assures that at some point we'll be playing Oblivion: The Elder Scrolls IV.

However, we don't think we'll ever go back any earlier than TES III; anything  released earlier than Y2K is hopelessly outdated and may not even run on today's computers.  It's kind of like if the earliest novels in that espionage series were still on papyrus, in Latin, and located somewhere on the bottom of the Dead Sea.  Not gonna happen.

Anyway, the Games Desk was quiet for a while and their patience was rewarded with this little post.  We'll be back to unpacking Big Ears again shortly.