Assassin's Creed Odyssey is a breathtaking sojourn through ancient Greece, no one's arguing with that. Between the gorgeous vistas, rich historical context, fluid combat and epic encounters with mythological beasts, there's no shortage of game here. The amount of content you're confronted with once you depart the comparatively tiny island of Kephallonia can be daunting, to say the least. And every inch of it is packed with adventure.

But hey, sometimes a little tough love is in order when it comes to these perennially occurring AAA blockbuster titles. And we'll be more than happy to dole it out. Whether you loved it or hated it, Odyssey certainly made big waves when it hit the shelves, as Assassin's Creed titles often do these days, with Ubisoft boasting its launch week as the franchise's best performance on this generation of gaming consoles.

But nothing's perfect, and the bigger the title is, the bigger the microscope used to examine it is going to be. We had a look through our own, and thought we'd share twenty-five things that both we and the community at large didn't quite love, but tried to ignore for the sake of playing through another awesome entry in the long-lived and much loved Assassin's Creed franchise.

25 Microtransactions (Double Helix) Are Still A Problem...

This one might lean a little towards the obvious, since no one's a big fan of micro-transactions. But they're becoming increasingly prevalent in single player titles at a rate best described as worrying.

Granted, Odyssey isn't the first Assassin's Creed title to do it, but still. Helix credits are here.

I guess if you really just hate the RPG side of the coin you can use your hard earned dollars to buy a complete set of legendary equipment and never really have to bother with quite a bit of the game's content, but then again, why did you even buy it if you don't want to play it?

24 The Orichalcum Option

Granted, this goes along with the Helix credit payola scheme, but it deserved its own entry. Orichalcum, for the uninitiated, is the "free" currency that you can use to access some equipment locked away in the Helix credit shop without spending cash.

You get the Orichalcum mostly from timed quests, and turn it into merchant fellow Sargon, who has a small stash of equipment that is heavily randomized. There's only a slight chance he'll be carrying anything from the cash shop. The odds in your favor aren't good, and as with most "freemium" currency solutions, it's an extreme grind to get anything specific. If anything, it seems geared towards frustrating you into spending your actual money.

23 The Choices... Aren't Great

Odyssey was billed on moral dilemma and a world that is completely reactive to player choice. We didn't exactly get what was described here in full. Sure, there are a couple of tough choices that result in a limited or aesthetic impact on Greece, and a handful that can alter the ending.

But really, the greater majority of them don't come to much. You get your first big decision in Kephallonia, during the game's tutorial and prologue, and it almost seems transparently misleading for the sole purpose of being subversive. We won't ruin it if you haven't played yet, but from there on in, the choices seem fairly arbitrary and pointless, regardless of whether they truly are or not.

22 Arbitrary Art Of War

The Conquest system had promise, and while the war can be a fun little distraction from time to time, it remains just that throughout the game's duration. The map changes colors, you get a few forgettable items to salvage for parts, and that's about it. We won't even touch how far off base the actual execution is from feeling anything like ancient warfare.

They're just massive slug fests rehashed from previous Assassin's Creed titles, with little to no variation.

It's also a bit strange that while you're known by name and title by both sides of the conflict, neither one really seems to care which side you're actually fighting on. You can hop back and forth to keep them in an eternal stalemate if that's your bag, and neither Athenian nor Spartan will so much as raise an eyebrow.

21 The Romances Are Bad

You sure do get a lot of romance options in Odyssey. And that may be a part of the problem. You really don't get any option to follow up on any of them after your initial fun time, and can really just sleep your way around the Mediterranean as you wish. And while that's not necessarily a bad thing, it's really the only solid note your character can hit here.

The dialogue and development of each one is also pretty awful. There are a few gems hidden here and there, especially the "reading can be..." line with Odessa, but for the most part, these folks are just throwing themselves at your feet after meeting you twice.

20 Greeks On Fire & Other AI Oddities

Going after the AI in a video game is always low hanging fruit, but seriously, the AI in Odyssey is sometimes just downright hilarious. You've got some of your usual stuff, like bad pathing resulting in enemies taking rather unique routes to get at you, or flatly not understanding how to get to you at all.

Then you've got the comedy gold, like NPCs regularly and repeatedly setting themselves on fire.

It seems to happen literally anywhere an NPC is posted near a brazier, campfire or other open flames. All you need to do is hang out and watch for a bit. Trust us, it's going to happen.

19 It's Barely An Assassin's Creed Game

Look, we've been headed this direction for a couple of titles now, but Assassin's Creed is starting to feel a lot less like Assassin's Creed, with an ever-increasing emphasis on RPG mechanics and grindy progression gimmicks, all while decreasing focus on stealth-based assassin gameplay.

Really, you can face down the majority, if not the entirety of it with in-your-face, unrestricted open combat.

While this doesn't necessarily make for a bad game, it can leave some questioning whether or not the Assassin's Creed franchise is beginning to experience some sort of midlife identity crisis in its attempt to keep up with the times. And this gives us a neat opportunity to segue into our next item.

18 No Animus Necessary

Is it just me, or would Odyssey have worked better if entirely removed from the context of an Assassin's Creed game? Really, just think about the game. Now remove all of the real world plot devices, the Animus, Abstergo, all of it.

Does the game actually look all that different to you?

Probably not. Except, y'know, it makes a lot more sense and is less combative of the Assassin's Creed lore. In fact, the only thing that's really impacted in the main body of the game is the mythos surrounding the Spear of Leonidas, which can pretty easily be explained in a way that isn't reminiscent of a really high budget production of Ancient Aliens.

17 With Your Shield, Or On It

Historical nitpicking is probably the very last refuge of the picky critic, but hey, any port in a storm. Anyway, not even having an option to use a shield when we're talking about combat in ancient Greece sticks out like a sore thumb.

I mean, everybody else gets awesome shields with cool designs. Why not us? Can't we just borrow one?

Even Ubisoft could've gotten behind this, as it would've been yet another excuse to cram in more micro-transactions for special, "premium" shields that have wildly out of place references to other Assassin's Creed titles painted on them. We're definitely not looking at the Evie Frye ship lieutenant, here. Not at all.

16 Quantity Over Quality (Lame Side Quests)

We did cover some of the awesome side quests in another article, but what we didn't do there is look at the other side of the coin - the fact that there are just as many lame, repetitive and altogether uninteresting side missions that feel more like filler material than anything else.

If you've ever had an issue with a game being overloaded with fetch questing, then man, are you in for an incredibly frustrating experience. Odyssey does indeed have hundreds of quests available, but a great many of them are paper thin, cookie cutter "get this and take it here to get some coins" type excuses to overuse the fast travel mechanic.

15 Just Stop Talking (Bad Voice Acting)

This doesn't blanket the entire game, as some of the voice acting is pretty top notch, particularly for twin protagonists Alexios and Kassandra. But a generous portion of them are either poorly delivered or overacted to a point that sometimes passes hilarity and lands somewhere north of annoying.

Just interact with literally any of the Spartan or Athenian captains that will let you into the conquest battles. Or, if you want a much earlier example, Markos. Just listen to Markos talk for a few seconds and tell me you didn't want to claw your headset off of your ears.

14 Okay But Stop Singing Too (Bad Crew Shanties)

Sure, the Greek singing is likely done for the sake of authenticity. And authenticity is appreciated. Well, it usually is. This one goes just a little overboard with the constant stream of uninspired droning emitted by your crewmen when you embark on your ship.

And honestly, I may be going out on a limb here, but the majority of players probably don't speak the language, and we've already taken the leap to localize all of the spoken dialogue, haven't we? Why not make the shanties just a little bit more enjoyable given how long those sea voyages can be?

13 Autosave Doesn't Automatically Save You

Sure, sure, I'll likely be nailed up for this one. But the autosave feature for this one is just completely awful. You also lose the ability to perform quick saves in any sort of remotely "hostile" territory, no matter whether you're engaged in combat or not.

This forces you to stop what you're doing and manually save with an annoying frequency.

Unless you're just that big of a fan of losing hours' worth of progress over one missed step, one buggy parkour maneuver or an incredibly ill timed dodge. Personally, I'm not, so this goes onto the list.

12 Mercenary Mania

At a glance, the mercenary system is actually pretty cool. It's an odd but satisfying mashup of Grand Theft Auto's "wanted" system and Shadow of Mordor's "nemesis" system, but Assassin's Creed style. Initially, it sort of works and adds a neat bit of emergence to the game.

However, for each "level" one additional mercenary will be dispatched to hunt you. They can sometimes out level you as well. While this isn't a bad thing by itself, having five powerful mercenaries actively tracking you can make it nearly impossible to accomplish anything without it necessarily devolving into an incredibly lengthy slugfest devoid of any stealth options.

11 Call Of Assassin's Duty

This may be more of a generalized complaint, but it's definitely a pressing factor here. Ubisoft seems to be settling into the "Call of Duty" rhythm of release scheduling, with Assassin's Creed titles popping up yearly to maintain a steady cash flow.

It's hard to argue that it isn't a successful business strategy, but the fans end up paying the real price here. Outside of burning out on the franchise, even though Odyssey saw most of three years in development, the tandem development cycle alongside other Assassin's Creed titles doesn't really give Ubisoft much breathing room to work off of player reception and feedback to truly innovate. And it has definitely shown with Odyssey.

10 All You Need Is A Bow

Whether this was intentional or a bit of an oversight, the bow can be an incredibly, even ridiculously overpowered implement with the right build and equipment. Aiming isn't difficult, headshots are easy, and stacking the right damage bonuses can make you an outright monster incapable of being engaged via melee.

Even with the almost crazy differences in power between levels, simple kite strategies will allow you to handle foes well beyond what you should be able to engage with successfully at a given level.

9 Photo Trolling Mode

Photo mode adds just a hint of online, player to player interaction in a world that can feel a little lonely without it. And once in a while, you'll get to glimpse a snapshot of something truly cool, funny, or just plain beautiful.

Of course, as with all online interactions, it can also get intensely annoying.

Whether on purpose or by sheer dumb luck, people will without a doubt drop photos on top of key mission areas or fast travel points, forcing you to jangle your cursor around until you manage to hit just the right spot. And for the record, taking a snapshot of Zeus' "anatomy" stopped being funny the 1,000th time around.

8 "Leveled Up, Better Replace Everything I Own"

Aw, yeah! Who doesn't love hearing the level up fanfare? Time to go over your statistics and assign an ability point. And then promptly notice that you're starting to hit like a flea.

"Like a flea" might seem a little extreme, but still, when you level up, you definitely feel it. And not in a good way. This is because your enemies, for the most part, keep a pretty even pace with you when you level up. This is usually a good thing, but the scaling and level differences are so tight in Odyssey that you will feel the need to either swap or upgrade your equipment at every single opportunity you get, and there are a lot of those.

7 An Inch Goes A Mile (Crazy Enemy Level Scaling)

In RPG terms, taking on something a few levels beyond your own should be dangerous. It should be a challenge. But it probably shouldn't be as much of a drag as it ends up being with Odyssey. When they specify a level range for a region or quest, they really, really mean it.

If you go after something three to four levels beyond your current level, you're going to wish you hadn't, and the game will purposefully put you into situations where you'll need to sink a considerable grind before progressing. It's not that the combat is particularly difficult, it's that the bad guys will have health and armor statistics that will absolutely drag every fight, even against common enemies, out to an incredible and unrewarding time sink if you don't.

6 Black Flag Part Two, Electric Boogaloo

Open world sailing is back with a vengeance. If by "vengeance" you mean that it's largely unchanged from the previous hallmark iteration in Black Flag, anyway. And really, it is largely a lot less exciting.

Naval combat with Odyssey quickly grows stale, and is likely already stale for you if you played through Black Flag. Nothing's really changed besides chucking spears and arrows instead of cannonballs and a few extra slots to "equip" lieutenants for various small bonuses.