Is 'Assassin's Creed Odyssey' Too Long?

'Assassin's Creed Odyssey'Credit: Ubisoft

A number of reviews have taken Assassin’s Creed Odyssey to task for being too long and Paul Tassi here at Forbes has presented several cogent reasons why one might agree. When it comes to games, I think length, like beauty, lies in the eye of the beholder, and I’d like to suggest that the people who review games have reason to view length quite differently from the people who play them for enjoyment.

Long games can make reviewers cry.Credit: Ubisoft

Length and the reviewer

Game reviewers are often given complimentary codes for new games so they can play the game and write a review that’s timed to coincide with the game’s release. The code is provided under an embargo that stipulates the review cannot appear before a specified date and time.

It’s widely perceived that the earliest reviews get the most web traffic, and the traffic pays the bills for the website hosting the review. This is why a flood of reviews for high-profile games all appear within seconds of each other the minute the embargo lifts.

This system can put a great deal of pressure on the reviewer. Reviewers are generally expected, or in some cases required, to finish the game before they write the review. Sometimes the time between when the code is received and when the embargo lifts is sufficient to give the game a fair play through and sometimes it isn’t. However, the reviewer is expected to get the review out when the embargo lifts whether or not they had enough time with the game. This is especially true for high-profile games like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.

'Assassin's Creed Odyssey'Credit: Ubisoft

It’s easy to see why the length of a game can be a problem for the reviewer in a system like this. All games are repetitive. Game designers strive to ensure the repetitive elements in their games are ones the players enjoy. However, when games are long and time is short, repetition that was an enjoyable challenge can become a tedious chore.

The pressure to publish a review when the embargo lifts can suck the fun out of a game in other ways. For example, reviewers may begin to play a game on normal or hard difficulty settings but switch to easy mode in order to finish the game on time. Combat oriented games like Odyssey can be significantly less enjoyable when combat isn’t challenging and intelligent character building is unnecessary. You don’t have to think, just button mash and move on. Jamming through a long game on its easiest setting can be spending a lot of time doing something that’s not a lot of fun.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is a very big game that undoubtedly put a lot of reviewers under pressure to finish and write their review before the embargo lifted. These reviewers have good reasons to be unhappy about the length of the game. However, many of those reasons stem from how they were forced to play Odyssey, not from the game itself.

'Assassin's Creed Odyssey'Credit: Ubisoft

Length and the player

Players have none of the time constraints that beset reviewers struggling to finish before a deadline. They can take as long as they like to finish a game. If they’re having fun, players will spend weeks, months and sometimes years with a game, not the days given to the reviewer. They can play the entire game through on the hardest difficulty settings if they enjoy the challenge. If you’re enjoying playing a game and you’re not playing under time constraints, having more of it to play isn’t a problem, it’s a bonus.

An argument can be made that from the player’s point of view a game can’t be too long. I don’t finish most of the games I play. Does that mean the game is too long? I don’t think so. It means I didn’t find the game interesting or challenging enough to spend more time playing. But it’s not all about me. Other players may have loved the game and been sad when they finally finished 10, 50 or 100 hours after I quit. For me, the game was as long as it needed to be to reach the point where it was time to quit because it was no longer fun; for the others, the game was too short.

Sometimes I find myself mindlessly grinding through content to get to the next bit and the one after that. I’m not having fun and when it happens I set the game aside and play something else. Does this mean the game is too long? I don’t think so. It usually means I’ve played too much in too short a period of time. If I was really having fun before I fell into the grind groove, I’ll come back to the game later and be captured by its magic all over again. There’s no such thing as “too long” for a game like this.

'Assassin's Creed Odyssey'Credit: Ubisoft

Is Assassin’s Creed Odyssey too long?

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is an enormous game that stressed a lot of reviewers who had to meet a deadline. I understand why these reviewers complain the game is too long. They have to finish the game. They can’t take a break and come back to it later. There’s too much of it to do in the time they have to do it and finishing in time to meet the embargo may force them to play in ways that engender tedium rather than enjoyment. Reviewers have many reasons to think Odyssey is too long.

Is Odyssey too long for players? Some people need to finish the games they start. There aren’t many players like this as evidenced by consistent reports that the overwhelming majority of games are never finished. However, for the players that need to finish, Odyssey will be too long if they stop having fun long before they wrap up the game’s main story. For everyone else, Odyssey might be too short, but it’s hard to see how it could be too long.

Odyssey would be too short for players who decide it’s no fun and not worth the cost after a playing for a brief time. That’s a problem, but it’s not a problem about how long the game is.

Odyssey would also be too short for players who enjoy the game so much they do everything there is to do, or at least all the things they like doing, finish the game and want more. Ubisoft’s ambitious plans for post-launch content should make these players happy.

For those who play until it’s no longer fun, interesting or challenging, Odyssey is as long as it needs to be for them to thoroughly enjoy themselves. Getting as much enjoyment as you can from something isn't a problem. The question to ask about Assassin's Creed Odyssey or any other game isn't "is it too long?" but rather "is it long enough to give most people enough time to max out their enjoyment?"

If you're interested in video games, here are some articles you might enjoy.

Let's block ads! (Why?)