Half way through. I currently hate the main character after always pushing back against the law of Assassin's Creed.

Do I push through or is this just a continuation of the story right through until the end? The gameplay is enjoyable but the story has just lost me and I haven't touched the game in 2 days which is the sign I've lost all interest based on what I've experienced. It's gonna be another 30 hours of gameplay and at this point something needs to truly change for me to be keen.

Thoughts?

Previously, I posted a topic about the story opportunities and expectations of how the Siege of Paris expansion would ideally play out. Some of these expectations were based the actual historical events surrounding the almost year-long Siege of Paris. However, I have to say... I am summarily disappointed in not only how Ubisoft has once again made up their own story when history itself would have been enough, but that yet again another opportunity to build on Isu lore has been squandered, just like with Wrath of the Druids.

In fact, I would argue that the Siege of Paris expansion is actually worse than Wrath of the Druids for the following reasons:

WotD offered a new hit-list that led the player to explore the world looking for clues about the Children of Danu, whereas SoP surprisingly did not feature any official hunt for the Bellatores Dei, though a letter in Charles’ chamber at Amiens implied that they operated like the Order of the Ancients. There could have been a huge sub-plot with Charles requesting that Eivor help deal with the Bellatores threat in Francia (and elsewhere) to meet favorable terms with Sigfred (and Rollo), which would justify a hunt for members of the order.WotD introduced a game mechanic involving the manufacture and trade of Irish goods, yet SoP didn’t bother attempting to incorporate something like it. It would have made sense to include something as the Vikings needed to provision themselves off of Frankish land during the long siege. Yet, since Ubisoft decided to create an entirely new mechanic helping Pierre’s rebel resistance, there could have even been missions involving taking back areas that would then start producing trade goods for Eivor to ‘sell’ overseas, thus furthering the rebel cause and building a stronger relationship with the rebel Franks. Instead, the rebel mechanic behaved like a festival shop, where a fixed inventory of goods could only be bought with special currency, and such currency became useless after all goods had been purchased.WotD featured the wicked hallucinogenic fog that made gameplay and combat more challenging, and entertaining as the enemies looked more menacing (especially the werewolf!). However, in SoP, we got the absurdly annoying plague rats. Rats... that bite you to death... unless you leap across walls and hop over obstacles, or scare them away... or give them a dead body to fest on. Ugh...

Beyond that stuff, there are some environment issues I was irked by...

Why are there offering altars in Francia (even in Paris itself), but no hallucinogenic mysteries with mushrooms?Why have the player kill turtles and seals, while frogs and rats are invincible?Why are there no drinking games in Francia when people are drinking wine in a fair number of cut scenes?In England, there were world event mysteries for the Arthurian ‘Treasure of Britain’ tablets, which led to getting Excalibur. Why was there nothing similar for Charlemagne in Francia?The expansion has several references to Saint Germain of Paris. Why are there are no world event mysteries related to him like there were for Brendan of Clonfert in England and Vinland?What was the point of getting the legendary animal trophy when there’s nowhere to display it?Why was there no tattoo shop in Melun?Why does fast-traveling back to Francia after the first time always put the player at the Hidden Dock?

And lastly, some story issues I was frustrated by... spoiler alert...

History doesn’t explicitly record Sinric dying and Sigfred going on a rampage. In fact, history records Sigfred leaving the Siege of Paris in April of 886, but Rollo and his men stayed. Speaking of whom...Why wasn’t Rollo even in the story? He’s one of the most famous Vikings in history... the first leader of Normandy!The expansion presents an alt-history situation where the Vikings successfully invade and raze Paris in what feels like a matter of a few days... in reality, the Vikings tried to take Paris multiple times with different tactics over the course of eleven months, but were repulsed in each instance.History records Gozlin died from a plague during the siege, but in the game he presumably comes back from the ‘dead’ after getting a giant cross dropped on him and fights Eivor at full strength. This could have been a great tie-in for a Shroud of Eden.Ubisoft made no attempt to utilize any Isu artifacts to justify a successful Frankish defense of Paris... assuming they didn’t do the alt-history course of events in the first place. Seriously, I really expected to see the Isu Sword of Eden used somehow to repel Viking invaders... or even an Apple of Eden. Speaking of which...I was expecting an Isu artifact to explain Charles’ madness, but nothing turned up. I was also expecting ‘more’ from what was beneath Saint-Denis. Ubisoft had a real opportunity to make more connections to AC Unity and blew it.We haven’t seen any new ‘present day’ story updates. Why is Loki still exploring Eivor’s memories this far in?Following the historical Siege of Paris, the Viking raiders sack Burgundy before getting paid to depart by Charles in the Spring of 887. Why did Ubisoft have Charles be overly concerned about Sigfred attacking Burgundy when historically he was the one who wanted the Vikings to go there, as it was in revolt?

Okay, I’ll stop here... thanks for reading. Please feel free to add anything I probably missed.

Dark Ages Briton is just made to feel dull and boring which I suppose it probably was in real life but you don't need to adhere that closely to realism! Like its supposed to be this land that's being reforged by war and invasions but its just not interesting. A massive chunk of the game is spent running around to "gather alliances" but the depth of the story and missions in each region is paper thin at best. None of it feels like it has anything to de with the central conflict of the whole series i.e. Assassins vs Templars. Which is because it doesn't. Evior isn't part of the hidden ones. So there is no investment in hunting down and killing members of the order. The entire reason your running around England is to get some other guy his own kingdom who you bearly even see once you leave Norway. Which would be quite an interesting story except the game makes you feel like you're just being taken advantage of for your skills as a murder machine. Its like Sigurd is off on an Assassins Creed type adventure somewhere and you're one of the oblivious side characters making things happen for him. You're not even chasing the guy that killed your family because you do that in the opening of the game!

Also why is like every main character in this game the reincarnation of a Norse god?! Why? Like the whole Isu stuff should be waaaaay in the background. Like the conflict of the games should be about the ideological battle between the two orders that fight over the use of (extremely rare) isu technology to further their cause in whatever "present" they happen to be in. But the isu should only be a faint shadow in each game because they are effectively extinct. Not having reincarnation get togethers through the ages. Like the sage in black flag was done well. Who they actually were is a twist at the end of the game and doesn't hijack the the entire plot. Also Asgard fever dreams are dumb. If ubisoft want to do that sort of stuff make it into its own game.