God of War (2018)

You know I feel as if when playing this game I cannot help but compare it to many other games because

1: Not a single thing about this game is that original, it is burrowed from a more developed and established genre that concentrated on what it did rather than take bits and pieces from various games and try to be everything.

2: This is a tonally different game from the originals in every way which makes it seem as if it is ever trying more hard to be "Respected", it feels like it abandoned it's identity in favor for what's considered "critically acclaimed" nowadays. From the start you can feel it is pandering rather than actually wishing to be a fun experience, which you know say what you will about the first games, they were straight forward, they didn't go out of their way to try (and fail) to be a cinematic experience.

3: In the nature of it being a "10/10" game I have to compare it to other "10/10" games, like Red Dead Redemption 2, which came out the same year and is often more fondly remembered by many. Not only that but this was released 1 year AFTER Breath of the Wild which is considered "One of the best games ever made" so you have a high stake to beat if you truly wish to pretentiously be one of the "Best games ever" and follow up on the hype on being a "10/10" game.

Now of course spoiler alert, it doesn't, this is gonna end up being one of those games that aged terribly because it reeks of it's design choices that immediately date it, trying too hard to be the best game ever and doing way too much in some categories that by 2018 already felt overdone, I have yet to play Last of Us but from what I heard this game tries really hard to want to be the hack' n slash of The Last of Us formula, so it is trying to do something that has already been done, in a sense it feels like a MCU movie and playing it "safe", although I guess it is more entertaining than one, because the video game medium at least is not as sterile as the cinema industry.

Other "BEST GAME EVER" games such as RDR2 or BOTW proved is that you can't do this OVERLY PUSH FORWARD TO CONTINUE cinematic shit if you do not wish to alienate people who want a video game. And I won't get over how a lot of people complained about Red Dead Redemption 2 being overly cinematic when this game is a thousand times more and is constantly removing the control from the player for a cutscene or to just make the player hold up and move forward to continue to plot, no really this should be a genre, and Sony might be the main perpetuator to blame for it, a game where you just press forward to have the plot progress.

And yes, I still can't get over how a lot of this "10/10" game does is present things other games have done better, a lot of it is: imagine Resident Evil 4 but with way worse pacing, I can't help but think of Resident Evil 4 because some of the level design reminds me of it, and I guess Resident Evil 4 should be considered the grand father of over the shoulder third person combat games, Shinji Mikami is the guy who pioneered this whole genre, and it wasn't just him with guns, it was him with beat-em-ups too, Shinji Mikami also directed God Hand, which I heard some comparisons with this game (which was not wise since if I hadn't played better games the comparison already made it worse)

It is sad that the game at one point got compared to God Hand, because while the combat can be fun at times it is not as open ended as God Hand is, it's trying to be a combination of Metal Gear Rising and Batman Arkham though? I don't know if that is the way I should put it, the truth is that it's combat is fairly messy and kinda sluggish and hates the idea of you doing combos, so a large complaint from me for this combat is that it has no flow or rhythm, it is constantly trying to stop you from getting into the zone, God of War Bore is more about being "strategic". Don't believe me? the guy said it himself:

In terms of the game's combat system, please said that unlike previous games, which often relied on the player to use many combos in a sequential fashion, this game is "more about individual moves strung together in response to the assortment of enemies being fought."

Honestly this "style" sometimes works and sometimes it doesn't, there are certain pauses you feel throughout combat which can be genuinely annoying and actually make combat boring, it is like the game doesn't want you to feel good, ironically there are times where it is more button mashing than the last generation of God of War games because now it really is just attack attack attack, dodge, attack attack attack, parry, maybe throw your axe? You can go through a whole combat segment just by throwing your axe because sometimes the game doesn't know if it wants to be a beat em up or a shooter.

There is no inherent score system to when you are fighting too, there is no motivation to do a better job at what you are doing, you don't get more points or XP for going about something in one way, so if you want to play in the most optimal repetitive way, which is already boring, than wow, it is not gonna get as better as the first 2 hours of the game. There's not many new additions as you progress too, and if there is, the pacing is too bad about it, like by the point you have enough XP to afford a new ability, it barely means anything and doesn't add much to the slash slash, dodge.

Combat is dull, but it works, HD rumble is doing half of the work for this game honestly because every hit feels "chunky" somehow you unlock more abilities but it doesn't change the structure of having to hit and then roll, that is how, I mean, it comes to no surprise because the game would rather give you walking, climbing segments than just be combat all of the time, it isn't the most exhilarating. Either way to say the least the game is not as half as fun as God Hand was, it feels like a dumbed down version of gameplay for people who are not experienced with the beat em up or hack n slash genres, or whatever they call games nowadays with parrying.

Everyone is trying to be like Dark Souls with a roll/parry/attack hard attack but don't know what made it work, namely, the camera angle, the flow, the constant combat, the way the game is solid to it's own rules and doesn't bend to anything else. The actual item management that actually feels like you are doing something, there is a lack of variety in weapons, enemies, a tacked on RPG mechanics that doesn't really do anything.

I mean, you can't even jump or fall in this game, there is some invisible walls, and as beautiful as the game does look at times (I cannot lie) sometimes the places mesh because I feel as if Kratos would easily climb or jump some places, but the game only allows you to go where it wants you to go, if had an actually interactive area rather than a gutted map that only looks like you can explore but is just background... It offends this a lot more than Resident Evil 4 believe me.

I really do miss a good flow of combat, by the time you have another combat scene you've just been doing... Other things like watching a cutscene, it's like the game can barely breathe without being choked out by a cinematic moment or press forward to climb or press forward to carry something that slows you DOWN, this guy is a all powerful god, why is he being slowed down? It's deliberately slowing the game down.

Like at least in RDR2 you have a sense of control, you could ride a horse and dialog happened naturally during it, it didn't stop you, God of War wants you to have 0 immersion I feel, and it doesn't have much to say either in comparison to RDR2, RDR2 at least has a LOT of story to tell you, as shown by the amount of dialog, God of War is just. Dad go HMPH, TOUGH LOVE, Boy go WEH I AM GOOD at HUNT DAD!! And both are like: I MISS MOM.

By The Light of Alfheim you already forcing yourself to play through it just out of morbid curiosity because maybe, just maybe, the plot will get good and not just be a vague idea of plot will continue. Because that's why people even tolerate these cinematic experiences right, maybe in the end they'll be a good plot, and it'll be all worth pausing gameplay every 30 seconds to show something.

Until then, enjoy the combat being a lil bit hard to get used to because of the whole over the shoulder deal, where you don't know what that red indication means (is it a projectile or is it a guy? who knows, anyways you must dodge! Again just attack attack, dodge), it is probably influenced from Batman Arkham Asylum, but the thing about that game is that it had a flow like a rhythm game and it showed Batman from an camera where you could see everyone, it wasn't trying to be a survival horror game and have people attack from the side where you can't see them, it had a flow to it, not just Ok go in, attack, go back.

And I can't help but compare the level design to trying to be re4 but missing what made re4 straight to the point and have a better flow, and just... Dropped you into scenarios! Remember how God of War from the ps2 era praised itself for just immediately starting and just throwing you in scenarios? Me neither, carry a log or a boar or something. God of War has some moments where it gives you hordes of enemies which is just a small taste of what it used to be like in the first games, just to deliver you to a more weightless plot.

I still can't get over how it's like you know, 2018 or whenever this game came out, and developers still don't get integrated immersive moments will always be better than just cutscenes, this is all very ironic because I remember the times where games did have a cutscene issue, when cutscenes were truly new and you had 10 minute expositions, but I would rather have an exposition than keep pausing gameplay every so often.

Going back to Resident Evil 4: They could have just scaled enemies appropriately than just give me a different piece of clothing that raised my stats, half of the time I completely ignore it and all it makes me do is the extra chore of pausing to navigate menus. The thing about upgrades in action adventure games is that you would have to be given a selective specific enemy to notice the difference it makes, RE4 has good upgrade pacing and you can tell when common enemies fall in 3 shots rather than 4, you can feel the difference, god of war doesn't stick to a rhythm or pacing so the only thing upgrades do is change a number, you don't really feel that much of a difference (until half of the game, then the RPG mechanics just amount to broken).

Numbers GO UP, but the points don't matter! I don't feel anything! Or any scale, maybe it is because the game keeps introducing new enemies so it's not like- again just scale appropriately just take away the whole upgrade system it is so unnecessary. And again, another over the shoulder game will have things like inventory management, this game just dumps you stuff, nothing seems that extremely valuable, it will give you some random puzzles that are more of a hassle than a brain teaser, the kind of puzzles that make you have to be at a certain angle or run to a location in a certain time, environmental targets and stuff, and in Resident Evil, areas were interesting enough that warranted it, it wasn't you know, pausing to do a lazy bad zelda puzzle to have a zelda chest cutscene and get 1 of 3 pouches.

Ugh, listen don't pad your game with bad puzzles, if the puzzles are bad just skip them, you don't have to be a game that has everything and does everything in a mediocre manner, but more on that latter (spoilers: This game might be out to do everything in a mediocre manner rather than concentrate on one thing).

Like...Anyways rehash the Troll battle and make them have a lot of HP. And what are these enemies? Well they are enemies, they're just... There, honestly a lot of the plot of god of War is things happen and you're in the middle of it. You're not really an instigator, especially considering the main character is just a grumpy dad who is incredibly boring although extremely well voice acted.

Apparently people say the game gets "better" once you level up enough later on, so what I am getting at is that the best combat was the first 2 hours, but from what I understand from that point of view is that: The combat goes from mediocre, to broken to make you feel overpowered, yeah great, very complex, I mean I guess if you consider a button for shooting arrows every now and then to stagger an enemy is complex than ok! Also if there is anything I hate the most about God Of War's combat is: THE LOCK ON FEATURE DOES NOT WORK. It keeps turning off out of nowhere? Enemies keep leaving the lock on feature, let me LOCK ON.

ALSO going back on there is no point in variation in your playstyle because the game does not reward you for it, there is no point for finishers if the boss is gonna get back up, it isn't a "finisher" it is just derailing the flow of combat for a cutscene to play out, it is just a pause to have a little HD rumble (a thing in which this game loves and I won't lie, doing the lil thor thing is cool with the HD rumble but gets old once you've done it a thousand times), but finishers are not mechanically useful in any way, you can stun kill someone or regular kill them, whatever, finishing them doesn't give you a bonus like most games do, which is weird, most games do have a finisher bonus, like HP flows out like in Doom or Metal Gear Rising.

LOCATIONS, Yes the game looks pretty, and if there is anything this game wants you to know about: Is that it can render some big fantasy sights! And also a lot of boat segments in big open pools that aren't all that interesting, Resident Evil 4 did the boat thing once and I am so glad it did, it didn't feel the need to make the whole game connected by multiple pools of water just so that you can press FORWARD TO ROW THE BOAT and progress the plot, the boat segments are close to nothing and possibly a bigger offender to Half-Life 2 car segments, like I have complained a lot about Half-Life 2's buggie segments but these mindless press forward boat ones from this game take the cake, they are much much worse. A lot of boats, carrying, climbing, and sometimes autojumping onto a rock or two.

The graphics might be too good, now listen: This thought came to me when I was doing the whole "platforming" sometimes the areas look too good that you cant tell what is structured and what isn't, like there's too much detail that it is hard to tell what is somewhere you can autojump and somewhere that is just an invisible wall, not only that but the segments where you gotta find lil pieces to unlock a chest make it that you kind of wish the area was more clear cut so you could find things rather than confuse them as part of the background.

And after you get the puzzle, you get a very good prize! A piece of equipment to the pile of piece of equipment that you don't use, no really by the end of the game you are just with this clustered menu of items you will never use because you don't wanna change the one you are equipped, they are SO BAD WITH RPG MECHANICS I SWEAR, they need to like edit out half of the unnecessary shit in this game! Stop giving me 100 trinkets ever minute for every piece of equipment I wear! It barely does anything but 0.1+ damage! Actually give me meaningful items once in a while so I actually familiarize them rather than just dump them on me and make me guess what I should equip and stop the flow of gameplay. This game might be one of the most padded games I've ever played.

Ugh I still can't get over how the game halts it's flow of gameplay to make a walking segment, it is not proud of it's combat I think if it is doing these long segments to distance you from the combat, it's just pause. Pause. Pause, that one combat again. Menu management for NO GOOD reason, it is not even the good menu management, say what you will about games like Skyrim but in Skyrim I actually care about what I am looking at, it actually has an ok selection and pacing of items you get, although most items just become common place after a certain time, at least you can get rid of them.

Like, the inventory is arguably the worst part of this game, it gives you several items to equip and they become immediately useless as you level up later, like imagine getting a thousand level 1 items and you are level 10, that is how the inventory works in this game. The score just feels... Bland and forgettable, yes it is highly produced and there is the theme song with the EPIC CHANTING but everything else feels like stock hollywood film score that isn't necessarily memorable or doing something all that unique, it is your standard sad violins, it didn't really stick out at any point for me. Much like the plot.

Let's talk about the plot.

MOM DIES, DAD GRUMP AND STERN TOUGH LOVE CHILD, CHILD IS ANNOYED AND ANNOYING BY THIS, HE IS A CHILD! HE IS A CHILD AND MUST BE TAUGHT TO BE A HUNTER, WOW. THEY MEET CHARACTERS, CHARACTERS DO THINGS FOR THEM. A MOM-LIKE FIGURE WITCH, A SKIDDISH DWARF, A COCKY DWARF, the sons of Odin appear way later, there is not much of a personal connection to any of these things they just happen to be there. The story is more about the child coming to terms with being a god and respecting honor (something Kratos never originally had), to which they respond awfully to and people who were annoyed with him originally possibly stopped playing. Sadly you do not get the option to skip cutscenes.

The word "BOY" is overused to a memetic point in which I have no idea if they were trying really hard to make it a thing, either way it is not like Dutch's catchphrases and actually gets overbearing and the game commenting on it makes them aware how much of a dull character Kratos is. Everyone feels like a one-note character and the game is self-aware of this, why say big words when few word do trick? Well why say anything atall? Half of the dialog in this game feels empty and unnecessary.

And the boy is just as dull too, and it isn't necessarily because he is annoying, that is a common complaint many people have and I don't think the kid is as annoying as many think them to be, I mean sure he is but he is just your run of the mill kid character, maybe the character trope is so old to me that it doesn't come off as annoying, just generic

It is arguable that the kid is just as monotone and just does random things, it is the most kid kid there is, there is nothing that special about the kid, the characters are kinda of cookie cutter and I don't feel any trait I can describe of them besides their tropes, it's just that it's a kid-written character. Also: This is not an emotional story at all, all of the hype is 100% fabricated I believe or by people who haven't experienced much, you know if you just watched Marvel movies I guess this is a cinematic masterpiece, but everything is just mindless loose connected tasks, I feel as if even the original PS2 games are more emotionally invested than these simple minded plots.

Oh and another thing about the characters is that they're so distant to the integrity to the plot as well, spare for the 2 main ones that are just... Going through a Disney tour of Norse mythology to the mountain and Kratos going "Yeah you see all of this stuff going on? The lil war happening between 2 species, Yeah don't worry about it, doesn't concern us at all" and it's true, everything happening is so disconnected and SUPPOSEDLY the Kratos we play is the same from the original games?

HOW? That is just a LIE, this is a full on reboot don't even try to say that. The main villain of the game is just SOME DUDE with A DUMB PROBLEM and the Witch (freya) is dumb for being so against her own murder, even the kid knows this, and that is enough for Kratos to go about doing Marvel-level stuff and you know not talk it out, which is the most in-character thing for Kratos honestly, hadn't it not been for the rest of the game that doesn't follow the premise lead out by the start. It's not like there has been that big of an event to even develop these characters. They're all just constantly moody. THAT'S THE WHOLE PLOT!

FINAL THOUGHTS: There are a thousand mediocre games that are at least doing what God of War does but being less pretentious about it and fixing some aspects and accomplishing them whilst not being pretentious about it. They're a thousand times better, so I can't bring myself to give God of War a 4/5 I'm down grading it to a 3/5 because it would be disingenuous to all of the other 3/5 games I have played. Here's a list of games I've rated 3/5 which I consider much better than this: Bastion Nier Automata Mass Effect Final fantasy 9 (ok in my defense I gave it 3 stars because it just doesn't have enough post content and it doesn't have as much customizability but it is many people's favorite Final Fantasy) L.A. Noire and probably many others

Honestly God of War puts me in a fucking conspiracy mind mentality, it makes me go back to like those kind of thoughts gamergate people have, the one that ah yeah the fuckin "game journalist media is all CONTROLLED by these people who don't value gameplay and only think of cinematic experiences", cause how the fuck is this a 10/10 game, every single person I talked to, even the ones who love this game complain about how the game doesn't want you to have a good experience, it's like half of the game could be edited out easily and completely and nothing of value would be lost.

And then everyone's like "Oh no this is a perfect game" CMON GUYS... 2017, BREATH OF THE WILD WON GAME OF THE YEAR, MOST CRITICS SAID "THIS IS THE BEST GAME EVE BECAUSE GUESS WHAT, IT GIVES YOU THE FREEDOM TO DO THINGS AND IT DOESN'T STOP YOU IN YOUR TRACKS" and then suddenly 2018 comes and the game of the year is god of war and it completely goes against everything we established years prior, it's not even a new type of game either.

It really does put me in a conspiracy mode to say that all video game journalists seem to not know what they are talking about and everyone gave this a high score because all they cared about was cinematics and that's all you need to do to be considered a perfect game, you just need cinematics and the IDEA that you are doing a lot of things, when all of the other games did the aspects better.

Again it's not a terrible game and some sections are ok but by god it is mediocre and I got annoyed by it's repetitiveness (not even the good kind, it doesn't follow a flow, tempo of enemies keep changing constantly that you can never really feel 100% satisfied, it the hack n slash version of edging until the game just breaks all of itself through lack of balancing) and forgettable story about patricide that I actually had to stop playing it, I am not kidding, I could not care about the dumb story about how the witch's (freya) son wants to kill her but she wants him to kill her because whatever, I would rather replay another game than want to climb, walk slowly or boat again, and it just kept giving me boat segments over and over.

...Also what does any of this god parent drama have to do about War... God of War at least started with how the GOD of WAR be responsible for all wars... Why LOKI? LOL WHAT KIND OF STUPID RETCON IS THAT

Until I got this game for free, the most I knew about God of War was it was about a roided up angry dude with a revenge boner for the Greek pantheon. I played a few levels of one of the games, but not enough to know any of the story. It just seemed like a power fantasy that was more interested in blood, gore, and boobs than story, but I’ve heard good things about this soft reboot.

The Norse world you travel is beautiful. It captures the landscapes of Scandinavia in all it’s glory. From the snowy hills, steep mountains, and forests. The game is pseudo-open world. You have a lake that serves as your hub and little rivers that shoot off as your spokes, along withe Bifrost that lets you visit a few other realms. The other realms are the right amount of otherworldly to show you aren’t in Kansas anymore when you walk through their gates. The world is the perfect size; big enough that I was eager to explore all the nooks and crannies, but small enough that I never felt like it was a chore. There’s very little music in the game, which is on purpose. It makes the rowing around the lake coldly atmospheric in that surreal Scandinavian way.

I always think of God of War having very stylized, over-blown character designs, like Rob Liefeld style characters. If that’s true, the developers decided to go with a more grounded style this time around. You meet a few gods in this game and they look like regular Viking people. You meet Thors’ sons, and one of them is a 9ft tall uberman, but the other just looks like a dude. Baldur, the main bad, looks like a hobo. I like the grounded look of the gods. I’m still not totally sold on Kratos’ new look though. I think it’s just the big bushy beard looks out of place on him. To reinforce the personal story, the cinematography is stylized as a one-shot. You never leave Kratos during the whole game, until the very end where we linger over to Arteus for a few shots.

As this is a game about Kratos, the godkiller, the story spends a lot of time setting up their version of Nordic lore. When most of people’s knowledge comes from Marvel, I know mine started there, God of War takes a unique spin on it. You don’t meet many gods, but you hear a lot about Thor, Odin, the Giants, Tyr, etc. This game could, humorously, be called pro-giant propaganda, as it very much paints Thor as nothing more than a violent mound of muscles with a hammer & Odin is a self-obsessed king. AC Valhalla tackled Odin’s dangerous pursuit of knowledge to change his fate in a more sympathetic manner, but God of War holds no punches. Honestly, the best way I can sum up God of War’s take on the gods is they’re kinda “Viking White Trash”, in both appearance and their Jerry Springer-esque family drama.

The main story focuses on Kratos and his BOY taking his wife’s ashes to the top of a mountain to spread them. It’s an epic journey across the magical land where you learn that your wife had some secrets that she wanted to show you by giving you this quest. That plot is straight from an episode of the Simpsons. You meet few friendly characters as the journey is mostly a character study of Kratos and his relationship with his son, Arteus. Of course the two dwarven blacksmiths are stand out characters for their comedic relief. You also get a talking encylopedia in Mimir who serves as both the brains of the group and sometimes as Kratos’ angel on his shoulder.

Kratos’ story is well told and very human. Kratos is not a good father. He was gone for most of Arteus’ life, only spending more time with him after his wife’s death. Kratos gives off big ‘stepdad’ energy, that I half expected a plot twist to be that he wasn’t the BOY’s actual father. He’s very much a hardass that is tough on his son and doesn’t show much emotion. When he gets called out for some of his crappy behaviors, he just threatens someone. In game it makes sense why Kratos is such a hardass and cynic, but in real life he would be the worst kind of person. That dude who shares pictures of Peaky Blinder characters with edgy text on Facebook, that’d be Kratos.

It was a bold choice to also make Kratos sort of a buzzkill. He does not have any interest in exploring the world or helping anyone that doesn’t benefit his own mission. If not for Arteus, this game wouldn’t have any side missions. On a meta level, Kratos and Arteus could be personifications of the two types of gamers. Kratos is the power gamer, he doesn’t care about the lore, story, or characters, just getting the best gear to get the biggest numbers to make defeating enemies that much easier. Arteus is the narrative gamer, like me, who wants to talk to everyone, complete the side quests, understand all the lore.

Of course, as the game progresses Kratos learns to open up to his son and you see his inner turmoil as he comes to terms with his former life. Towards the end Kratos gets more interesting and there are earnest moments of a father-son relationship; giving a boy his first knife, letting him have his first dirnk of alcohol. Those little moments felt good. There were also lots of cute moments thanks to Arteus. He mocks Kratos for telling stories poorly, until the very last story Kratos tells. Kratos hid his godly lineage from Arteus, and when he finally learns his first question is “Can I turn into a wolf?” because of course that’s where a child’s mind would go after learning that. There’s also a point where Arteus starts acting like a punk and Kratos just let’s him do it without trying to put any stop to it till it’s too late.

The combat in this game is not super dense, but it is fun enough that it never gets stale. You’ve got your axe and shield that can be used like a shield and axe are used. There’s also some magical ice attacks your axe can use. As you fight through Midgard, you gain xp to upgrade your skills and finding new armor and weapon pieces makes you able to take and give more damage. It’s a solid system if not revolutionary. This game actually feels like a composite of a lot of other games. The combat is sorta Dark Souls-y, especially with how some of the later game enemies fight cough cough Travelers cough. The story also has a bit of Last of Us in it, but I wouldn’t call this game derivative of anything in particular. I had also heard that this game was light on bosses, that basically after the 1st fight with Baldur all your fought was the same troll, recolored. That’s not actually true. You do fight lots of reskinned trolls but there are also a few other god fights and a fight with the Dark Elf King.

All in all, I greatly enjoyed this game. Their take on the Norse gods is an interesting one and they nailed the father-son story. I’m now more likely to get the sequel as I liked most all aspects of this game. Given the theme of “we must be better” I do hope the sequel isn’t just a gauntlet of slaughtering gods left and right, but “I do not know.” I’m also curious how they’re going to factor in the mythology of Loki, given the route they’ve taken.

Funny how this came out on my dad's birthday and his son hates a game about a father/son relationship.

God of War 2018, in my opinion, is the most overrated video game, period. It tries to distance itself from being a game first as far away as possible to prove a rotting corpse that "ViDeO gAmEs cAn Be aRt!" Instead of pushing the genre, it dumbs down from its own series and derives from other successful games. If this were a new IP, fine, but this is a sequel to GoW 3 and a soft reboot for newcomers. A "video game" in a video game series, perhaps. Well is the gameplay, at least, better, more challenging, expanded?

Let's get into what I liked before we get dirty. I found Artreus to be fine. People may find him annoying and he is insufferable at one point (which does make sense for the story even though it is a low point). I didn't mind him too much. I find it a neat idea how he is an extension to your toolkit, but he becomes overpowered once you get the shock arrows. The comedy got some laughs out of me. Especially with a character that joins your party later on. He is also a fun way to present the lore and worldbuilding to the player. For as much as I despise the camera, it is used to great effect in one and a half boss fights. And that's the first major one and the first reprise of said boss. I like the characterization of Kratos now that I have a basic knowledge of the Greek God of War trilogy. It's a good way to keep the series fresh and advances his character after the remorse he felt at the end of 3.

Now let's get down and dirty. Ready? The gameplay is shit. I said it. It is. And I have soo much to say about it. The feel of playing God of War is somewhat good, but the systems surrounding it suck. My biggest issue with God of War's gameplay is the removal of the jump button. This is a huge detractor, especially it is removed from a series of games that let you jump. Like I said, if this was a new IP, it wouldn't be as bad. An example would be The Last of Us for as basic as that game's gameplay is since it is more grounded, but this is a game about magic and gods. I see no reason to remove a jump. How does removing a large factor of 3D games push the genre, let alone the series forward? It guts depth of combat, platforming, puzzles, arena design, and enemy variety. Jumping in combat. Remember that? It was in nearly every action game and one of the most fun things about watching combos was all of the juggling in the air, added layers of offense and defense and ways to approach encounters, made for good downtime to read the room, let arenas add verticality to them instead of them being flat? Remember that? What about platforming and level design? Well you don't worry about that if every jump, every climb is automated. No margin of error to find here. I'd take platforming sections than walking and climbing any day of the week since it at least has challenge instead of it being a bore. Enemy variety. It is severely lacking. A majority of them make up of humanish enemies and they look, feel, and play so similarly to one another that it makes the game feel padded and drawn out. You can approach them the same way as you do every other enemy and it gets boring. Puzzles. They're boring. They're too similar with make Artreus drop the chain, throw the axe, shoot the arrows. If there's going to be a jump in the sequel, don't treat it as if it were a monumental innovation like with TLOU Part 2.

"But person writing this review, the camera wouldn't work with jumping in mind so how is the camera in this game?" It is a literal war crime to melee action games and the fact that the sequel is keeping this is an even worse war crime. It is so tight and closed in you can't easily get a good look at what is going on. It feels so restrictive. Being in a corner is a terrible situation to be in as you can only see Kratos and not much else. Had it zoom out when entering encounters like say Batman Arkham, it would've made this a million times better. You'd still have your third person shooter camera and it'd work for those walkie-talkie moments and then zoom it out when fighting and you still have a better feel of the game while still keeping that one take gimmick. The one take thing serves no purpose if you're switching menus and fast traveling. There's no thematic reason, there's no story reason. The one take gimmick just exists, giving the gameplay a vastly worse feel than the majority of action games, made as an artificial selling point as a way for Santa Monica to be begging for praise. It breaks that feel of it if you're spending minutes upon minutes goimg through menus to put on a shitty piece of cloth. If you want the game to be replayable, do something like fucking Cyberpunk 2077 of all things by having a skip button that speeds the game up until the next piece of dialogue or skip it entirely. Speaking of which, by god is the game barely replayable as an action game in the veins of Bayonetta, Devil May Cry, DOOM Eternal, and even its predecessors. Hours of walking and talking that barely add flavor, you can't skip cutscenes on the first playthrough. Climbing is worse than even Uncharted since you can't even die or make any errors when climbing. It's just a vertical form of walking. God of War has been praised for its walking moments. There are so many moments that are questionable where you walk as slow as possible while holding something and it feels so dissonant. You're telling me Kratos walks slow when holding a crystal, but he is strong enough to flip a goddamn temple? Let him be smug about his godlike strength. What reason is there for him to not sprint? There are so many of these downtime moments that make this game feel like a slog. There are puzzles in between combat, story, and walking and they also suck. They are so simplistic and all blend in with one another.

Many have criticised how much God of War derives from other games. The gaming tropes that God of War derives from feel so tacked on for the sake of baiting for awards and praise rather than a vision shining through. Open world design? Check. Uncharted-like climbing? Check. Looter and gear system and RPG elements? Check. "But what about the execution? That's how you know something is good rather than looking at just the concepts of the tropes." These are executed in the most half-baked way possible. The open world isn't interesting. The small islands blend in with one another and rarely stand out. Exploring them feels more like ticking boxes off of a checklist rather than seeing a place that catches your intrigue. The sidequests are all for the gear. So the gear. God of War shouldn't have had this at all. This is the most tacked on system in the game. The gear is so uninteresting, so incremental that the gear isn't what matters, the numbers that it adds to Kratos do. Just the skill tree and upgrades through story progression could've been fine, but nooooooo. Santa Monica Studios had to bloat the game with this worthless junk. It breaks that one take camera shot if you stick to looking at menus changing and upgrading your gear. Just the stuff that Santa Monica Studios puts into GoW makes it feel so manufactured.

How's the story since lots of people seem to love it? It's slow. It is bloated. Some moments were fine, but it never moved me or made me feel much. That's because of how much God of War is trying so damn hard to follow the success of a recently released game: The Last of Us. This is a story about a father/child relationship (Joel/Ellie and Kratos/Artreus) about overcoming loss (Sarah and Faye). The games are slow burns with some emotional highs and lows with setpieces to spice up. God of War takes way too long to pick up. Like 7 hours until it picks up with a new character joining your party and many more hours later until you get a new weapon but even when they pick up, the game gets old. It's also annoying the amount of roadblocks the main quest has, sometimes roadblocks within roadblocks. Sure, some do serve a purpose to progress the story and worldbuilding(Kratos having to admit that he can't escape his past, Kratos having to tell the truth to Artreus after he falls ill, Kratos having to bring Artreus down from his arrogance), but they still task you to go somewhere else to get a thing to get through a roadblock and it gets tiresome and I keep groaning, waiting for the journey to be over with. Arguments exitst between charactersto strengthen the dynamic. Like The Last of Us, arguments ensue between the 2 main characters but unlike TLOU, they don't really flow. My favorite example being Alfheim where Kratos tries to get the Macguffin and learns that Artreus favored Faye all along, afterwards when he gets out, Artreus says that he wasn't there for him and we're given no time to mellow out. And move on like nothing happened. The shift happens so suddenly. Come on. It has some of the most poorly executed scripted setpieces that I have seen in a AAA 8th gen Sony game. They look exciting, but they do not give the player any control aside from some QTE's which breaks the immersion of these fights since you're focused on which button to press. At least Spider-Man had QTE's correlate to the main controls. At least Uncharted still put you in control. If these are the type of moments that don't put the player in control, then just let me watch the action instead so I could be immersed.

Now combat is where my focus is. I love my combat heavy action games like DOOM Eternal, ULTRAKILL, and Devil May Cry. It was disappointing to see what God of War's combat was like and I am glad that Devil May Cry 5 was released a few months later to prove that there is a market for games that don't follow modern AAA formulas. The sense of weight from the combat feels visceral, but the camera, lack of a jump button, and the lack of motivation for the player to use their entire toolkit at once make this game a tedious experience. God of War has all of these mechanics, bumping enemies into one another, pushing them off the arena, bumping them into walls, freezing an emeny and then kicking them to a wall for an instakill, but one thing I strive to see in action games is why? Why should I use all of your moves at once? Why should I be careful with what I do? If the game answers my questions, then it pushes me into getting better and getting into the fun zone. However, God of War has no answer. With the lack of enemy variety, fighting them boils down to hacking, parrying, dodging, runic attacks. Though we got some literal DmC: Devil May Cry ideas here with enemies only being vulnerable to a certain weapon. You know, the worst part about that game's enemy design since it is so restrictive and situational. Bosses are mostly misses. Either they are moments of spectacle that don't require much thought or they are repeated minibosses. I can count with the fingers of my 2 hands how many times the troll has been reused throughout the main game. Have fun seeing the same animation of Kratos smashing them with their pillars because you will see it a lot. The Valkyries are fine bosses for challenge, but you still fight them the same way. I wish that one of them would be introduced throughout the main game to give the player the challenge to make them play better and then give them the intrigue and option to fight the rest. Does the game reward you for playing well? Well you don't have to be careful with your health for the next fight since you can 1. regain your health from the stones after the fight or 2. die to the next one to gain all of your health back. The XP that you get from fights is arbritrary, meaning that no matter how good or bad you play, it doesn't impact how much XP you get, lacking any reason for experimentation. All the combat boils down to is using the most powerful strategy possible over and over, making the game very stale since it lasts 20-30 hours.

Everything about God of War feels like if Illumination was a game developer; a dumbed down, derivative, manufactured game meant for mass appeal. The sequel looks like its more of the same and not a next gen game showcasing what the PS5 could do so I barely any hope for improvements if a stripped down, yet bloated mess is going to be seen as the highest standard of action games. I'm going to be entirely honest here, I hate God of War. I hate it because it reeks of smugness despite being derivative of other games. I hate how it pushes to be an interactive movie rather than a video game to prove that they can be art. This is as "awardbait" as awardbait can get and playing through a game like this makes me want my time back. I have definitely played worse, but God of War is the game that I hate the most. Video games are art, but this was not the way to prove it.

3/10

The game is totally awesome. Perfect. It's fun, challenging, addictive... Sure, it is not a hack n slash as the previous ones. The game is more paused, slow, tactical and you don't need to push buttons insanely. You need to think about the button you need to press and you need to do it at the right moment. If not, you die.

I played on hard difficulty and the beginning is really tough. Once you get the gameplay, techniques (and you upgrade your equipment and Atreus) the game becomes more accessible.

About the argument: Kratos leaves Greece and moves to Scandinavia, where you will meet new North Gods and creatures. This is just perfect, maybe because I like this north culture but it feels really cool. The world is mysterious, dark, and full of beautiful places. Moreover, there is not only one realm. There are Midgard, Niflheim, Muspelheim, Alfheim, Helheim and Jotunheim. You can travel between these realms as you wish. There are some missing places that I assume that ¿will be available in the next game?

About performance, I played on the PS5 and it works just perfect.

But the game is not perfect. There are only a few things to say:

• At some points of the story, the world level rises up and it is really frustrating because you suffer until you have new upgraded equipment. I think it should be more linear.
• Some battles are really difficult because of the scenario (sometimes is really small or some objects exist and make Kratos to get stuck).
• Muspelheim and Niflheim challenges are really a pain in the ass, repetitive. Luckily they are optional but.... if you want to do 'some things' you need to suffer these challenges. Especially if you want the Platinum. In my opinion, these achievements should not be nested (or make the challenges less repetitive and large).

So.... the game is almost perfect. MUST PLAY.

What hasn't been said about this game, it is, and I don't use this word lightly, a masterpiece! It succeeds on a story level, characters are extremely well written, the pacing is amazing, and the action is addictive and diverse. The game feels complete and a none stop rollercoaster from beginning till end. It also succeeds in immersing you in the culture and mythology while not overwhelming you too much. This is all without taking into account how beautiful graphics are with its environments and enemy designs. The music is also stellar as every realms and region feels completely different from each other. I rarely do this but I was so into the game and its world that I gathered all collectibles, finishing all quests, discovered everything. Saying I loved this one would be an understatement and the sequel is one of my most anticipated titles ever, especially with the twist we saw right at the end. God of War and Kratos really evolved from the old trilogy to this new one and I am beyond happy about it.

Not every video game reinvents, innovates or surprises. Sometimes craft and solid design can make even the most derivative games pleasing. This is not the case with God of War (2018).

Every part of this game is pulled off competently which somehow makes GoW19's lack of imagination even more offensive. Everything from the story to the art direction to the level design feels focus tested to the point of blandness. Unlike other derivative games, none of these elements are remixed in any surprising way.

Playing this game reminds me of when I was dating this hot dude. He was really hot. I dated him for two whole months because he was hot. He was smart too. But not as smart as he was hot. I broke up with him after two months, not because he was boring, but because he was nothing. He elicited no emotion from me. His very presence numbed me.

That's how I felt in GoW19 when the lake exploded into turbulent waves and a gigantic serpent rose from it's depths. I felt like I should have been impressed. But I wasn't. Obviously I'm in the minority here. This game has garnered critical praise and sold millions. It has a score of 4.5 on this very website. Most agree this is a good game. But it makes me feel numb.

This game reminds me a lot of Plague Tale, another Naughty Dog-wannabe that was far less refined. I loved Plague Tale though. It had frothing hordes of rats and a palpable sense of desperation from a studio with nothing left to loose. God of War has wave after wave of humanoid enemies from a studio with all the time and money in the world.

This must be one of the best games I have played in a minute. I had already seen some review trailers before playing it and so I was pumped, and the game lived up to all my expectations!

It's a beautiful story of change, finding oneself, and choice that breathes new life into Kratos. If you remember him from the first three games as the ever-angry, unchanging God of War consumed by vengeance, then you will find these traits in this new Kratos deep under the surface (unless he unleashes them to protect him and his son). Kratos is a seemingly changed man, tried and tested throughout the duration of the game. Will he erupt? Will he choose to be different?

Kratos and his son Atreus are a formidable pair. Their story is both emotionally riveting and infuriating. The world is awe-inspiring and chock-full of Norse mythology. There's something new to discover around every corner. And it's so much fun to discover these things!

The story is a great mix of action and emotion and the voice acting of all the main characters is stellar. The game is a roller-coaster of moments spent with Kratos and his son, discovering and deepening their relationship, as well as moments spent in challenging and action-filled fights. Kratos' signature weapon in this game is a blast to play with and will leave you craving for more in between fights.

All in all, I can only recommend this game to anyone. You don't necessarily have to have played the other three games, but it's certainly a plus to understand Kratos' drives and motivations a little better in this game. In any case, BUY THE GAME AND ENJOY THE HELL OUT OF IT.

"We must be better," an older, quieter Kratos tells his son Atreyus several times throughout God of War, and its a refrain that Santa Monica Studios seems to have taken to heart. From 2005 to 2013, six God of War games were released, almost all of which confused adult themes for maturity. Often buried deep underneath these games was the story of Kratos, a man who through his own arrogance and pride, pledged allegiance to Ares, which led to Kratos killing his own wife and child. At times, this often felt like a MacGuffin to give Kratos license to murder his way through game after game, occasionally stopping for a threesome along the way.

I recently played these six original games, worried that the childishness of the extreme violence and sex would age these games poorly. With the exception of God of War: Ascension, this didn't happen to be the case, yet this was still a franchise that pretended to have an emotional core, yet often did absolutely nothing with it. Again, the plentiful glee taken in Kratos's actions proved that just because you have adult themes, doesn't actually mean you're an adult game.

God of War - a reboot of sorts, that also works as a brilliant sequel - works because it is in many instances, the exact opposite of what those original six God of War games were. It's obvious simply from the look and stature of Kratos. Before, he wore just a loin cloth, full of rage, almost on all fours, ready to attack at a moment's notice. This Kratos covers his face with a beard, his loin cloth just barely noticeable underneath his other clothes, as he stands tall, yet with his shoulders slouched. This is the adult Kratos I had been hoping for. The Kratos who realizes that the past six games of revenge and brutality provided the exact opposite result that he wanted. The blood that was on his hands and remained there for years. This is the adult Kratos, the one who sees the foolishness of his ways, and regrets every action that we've seen him take since 2005.

It's important that God of War starts with Kratos losing his wife again, as it shows the complete change in Kratos. The last time he lost his wife, Kratos went on a violence spree. Now, he quietly chops the trees for her funeral pyre, and as he states later in the game, he grieves in his own way, quietly and respectfully. The death of his wife also leads to your new companion and son, Atreyus. Again, this immediately shows an immense change in how we control Kratos. He's always been a loner - which has remained a weakness that closed him off from those trying to help him - and now, he is forced to have a companion at all times. The way Kratos interacts with Atreyus is absolutely beautiful, especially as he opens up over the course of the game, and the slightest signs of care towards Atreyus are immensely moving. With the exception of a few moments in the original PSP games, we’ve never seen Kratos as protector, only as destructor.

This change in heart over the years is also obvious in the combat, and works well with the new perspective change for the camera. Kratos is no longer reveling in his murders, he’s trying to be quick and effective. There’s nothing Kratos wants less now than to be in a fight, which makes his way of fighting more to the point. God of War in the past was all about killing and making it look cool, whereas here, it’s all about getting the fight over with. Again, as Kratos says in the game, fighting is about survival, and as we’ve seen in his previous games, that’s how it should be.

The amount of growth from God of War: Ascension - a clear low point of the series - to this is tremendous to me, and following Kratos and Atreyus’s story, and seeing Kratos open up gradually into the man he should be was absolutely wonderful to me. This might be the most I’ve connected to a story, and been obsessed with playing until the story’s end since The Last of Us. The older I get, the more I feel like I need a strong story to draw me in with games, and this absolutely hit my sweet spot of what I need.

The weaknesses of God of War are mostly just aspects I felt were strong, but I wish they had been done slightly different. For example, I never quite connected with the upgrade system. The clothing upgrades were never more than “just pick the best one, stats-wise” and the upgrading of moves made it easy for me to forget how to actually pull off my new moves. My lack of interest in these aspects might be because I sort of flew through the instructions on these segments, and never quite caught up, but it could also just be my personal preferences.

This is also incredibly nitpicky - and I think I’ve said this in my reviews before - but I appreciate it when a game lets you unlock its secrets. Games like Assassin’s Creed or Sunset Overdrive (I only mention this because I recently played it) will allow you to purchase maps to the game’s secrets, and I would’ve adored something like that for God of War. While I found most of the secrets I would’ve wanted to find (I finished all story-based missions, found all the dragons), I still think this added element would’ve added about 10 hours or more to my gameplay.

God of War is exactly what this franchise needed to become, by doing the exact opposite of what it had done for years. God of War finally realizes the promise of this franchise, by focusing on the heart, rather than the brawn and brutality. After playing all six of the previous games, this is the perfect place for this series to go, a game that makes you question your brutal choices of the past, and reflect on them in a powerful way. God of War needed to grow up, and as Kratos put it, “be better,” and it’s hard to be much better than this.

Comenzaré con una posición algo controversial:

God of War no es un juego 10/10. Dista mucho de ser un juego perfecto y me es absolutamente incomprensible que tantas publicaciones lo estén considerando así.

Yo se que tengo fama de ser “Anti-God Of War” por mis posiciones respecto a los anteriores juegos de la saga, especialmente el vil God of War III. Pero mi rechazo a estas notas no tiene nada que ver con eso. De hecho este nuevo juego me parece absolutamente fantástico, una mejora en casi todos los niveles sobre los anteriores juegos... pero “perfecto” no es.

Pero pasemos a lo bueno. Lo que más me gustó de este juego es que de verdad supone una reflexión sobre su protagonista. Kratos era un villano y a veces creo que ni sus mismos creadores se dieron cuenta en su afán de hacerlo parecer “badass”. Aquí por fin enfrentan ese pasado, y aunque probablemente Kratos sea irredimible si permiten ver más profundidad en él, incluso arrepentimiento y temor de que su hijo siga sus pasos... Pero también encuentro fallos en la aproximación que toman (aunque insisto en que es muy buena), sobre todo en que últimamente la violencia característica del fantasma de esparta es la solución para todo, incluso cuando se trata de sugerir fuertemente que no lo es, y esto se presta a que el final del juego fracase un poco en su mensaje (además, ya es hora de que esta saga también mejore en su presentación de personajes femeninos. La bruja del bosque casi es un paso en la dirección correcta. Casi).

El combate también me parece algo irregular. Es muy estratégico y variado, pero ofrece tantas opciones tan mal distribuidas que termina siendo abrumador y es probable que la gran mayoría de jugadores se apeguen a unas pocas habilidades y terminen ignorando la mayoría de opciones, que solo los más dedicados y quienes busquen terminar el juego en la máxima dificultad van a aprovechar realmente, y aún así la variedad de enemigos no es TAN alta como para justificar diferentes aproximaciones a las peleas (es decir, si la hay, pero a grandes rasgos se limita a controlar distancias, precisión de esquivar y cambiar de elemento en ocasiones). Esto es peor al momento de hablar de los jefes, pues aunque los que hay son excelentes, los mini-jefes son muy repetitivos.

¡Oops! Se supone que estaba hablando de las cosas buenas. Continuando con los temas de la historia debo decir que me encanta el humor creado por el contraste entre la seriedad y estoicismo de Kratos con la curiosidad y amabilidad de su hijo Atreus (y con la picardía de Mimir), por lo que los diálogos siempre son entretenidos. Me gusta mucho también que se aprovechen las side quest para ahondar en estas relaciones y en el lore del mundo. De hecho, las side quests son en su mayoría excelentes, ofreciendo nuevos escenarios para explorar que aprovechan muy bien la estructura “metroidvaniesca” (o nu-tombraideresca) del mapa y ofreciendo nuevas armaduras y hechizos para Kratos... la mayoría de ellos no tan útiles.

Y es que si debo elegir un defecto principal de God of War es sin duda este. El manejo del inventario es terrible. Aunque en teoría la idea de personalizar las armas y armaduras de acuerdo a estados y perks es buena, se vuelve demasiado engorroso y aburrido de manejar, además esto sumado al sistema de progresión de niveles no deja nada claro cómo funciona realmente la mejora del personaje. El tener que equipar una armadura para poder retirarle los hechizos es absurdo.

Como pueden ver, aunque considero que God of War es un juego excelente y un paso adelante en la saga, sigue teniendo demasiados defectos que aunque no arruinan la diversión si hacen que se distancie de ser un juego perfecto.

No es un 10/10

Pero es muy, muy bueno.

I remember wanting to get the first God of War game back in 2005 but somehow it never happened. I'm so glad to be jumping on the bandwagon now. This is one of the more fun games I've played in a few months.

I've seen this series often described as "hack and slash," and the combat mechanics live up to the description. The controls are pretty clear and simple, but allow for combos, new abilities, and powerful moves. I never just mashed the button to attack, but I never felt overwhelmed by the abilities either. The game was balanced really well to make combat super fun.

That said, God of War is not just a fighting game. I was actually surprised that I was often required to solve puzzles to move through a dungeon, or to strategize against a tough boss, rather than simply cutting my way through everything. I appreciated having to bring strategy into the game and that really helped this game exceed my expectations for it.

One of the best things about it though is the story. In this installment, Kratos and his son Atreus are attempting to fulfill the final wish of Faye, their wife/mother--to have her ashes spread at the highest peak in the nine realms. As the journey begins, they are attacked by the Norse god Baldur and dragged into an ages-long conflict among the gods.

As you progress through the game, you learn tons and tons of backstory involving the gods and the nine realms. Once again, this is a well-balanced piece of the game. Though you might think at first this story will become about something else, it doesn't. The game is always about your first goal, to spread Faye's ashes at the highest peak. The lore you learn only adds to the story and the setting. They intertwine to make something more enriching and complex than they first appear. And the ending itself is very touching, and feels well-earned by the time you get to it.

Of course, not everything mentioned in the lore of the game is fully explored. There are several gods you learn tons of backstory on but never meet, and three of the nine realms are not even available to explore. However, the game does a good job of making it clear that this is for a sequel, so it doesn't come across as unfinished. I was a little annoyed at first, but now I would say I'm content to wait for the next one.

If I had to pick one thing to criticize, however, it would be the difficulty. I started the game on medium and struggled a lot, dying multiple times against the first boss. I switched to easy and had more fun that way, but after that I often thought things became too easy, especially at the end of the game. I think it could have been balanced a little better, but not enough to take off a star.

Amazing game. I have no clue how this feels for veteran players but if you've never played and you're thinking about it, I highly, highly recommend it.

I tried to keep this review as spoiler-friendly as possible

God of War is a great looking game with polish and high production value. It features a decent story that does a fair job at rehashing the stoic-protagonist-whose-heart-eventually-melts and weak-sidekick-that-is-far-more-invincible-than-they-should-be stereotypes. It’s a well-paced adventure that keeps the variety up between combat, exploration, light puzzling and travelling, with a bit of recourse gathering for good measure. The combat works and feels good.

But God of War is also a game that - although refreshing in the series - is quite stale. It’s like a best-of album, a “now that’s what I call games”. And it does a fair job at melding these components together. A Souls-inspired semi-open world with shortcuts that can be opened from one side (yet here have no real incentive to ever use again). A skill tree for combat that every game has these days (which is acually more in the way of pleasing combat encounters, where upgrading your skill tree doesn’t feel like your getting stronger, but actually feels like you’re getting less handicapped). And at some points it seems to buy so heavily into its own best-of character that it adds gameplay elements that seem to be there just for the sake of being in its inspiration material. Long climbing sections are in all those triple-A games these days right? Let’s put that in. Is it fun though? Not really, but hey, every game does it. And this goes for slowed down walking parts too. Combined with the joy of unskippable cutscenes thanks to the no-cut-camera, this really downgrades the replayability people praise this game to have. The series might have evolved, but it’s not an evolutionary or revolutionary step in gaming. It just went from being ‘inspired’ by Devil May Cry to being inspired by a handful of other games. It doesn’t introduce us to new ways of gaming, it doesn’t do surprising new things with the formula, it’s a well put together game, certainly, but all the key components are borrowed.

So, the game does not break new grounds, but maybe that wasn’t the ambition. Does this game excel at anything, is there an aspect of the game where it feels like it reaches new heights? The character dynamics might be a bit better than those in the Last of Us, but not really noteworthy. The graphics are really good and maybe the best I’ve seen, but nothing like a leap forward, and not a unique style. The combat works, but the enemy variety is lacking and enough games have done a better job at combat. The world is well spaced and interesting, but Bloodborne felt even more concise and full of discoveries around every corner. Immersion? Lore? Feel? Music? Just about everything in this game feels “I’ve seen it all before”. Whether that was in Hellblade, Bloodborne, The Last of Us, Uncharted, lots of games have done the things available in this game, just not all at once, and that’s to the game’s credit. It’s a fine game, but nothing close to the masterpiece it is made out to be. This isn’t the game that showcases that the medium has ‘grown up’. It is, however, a good showcase of the triple-A gaming of this era, a cross-section of current big budget game design. Just like those best-of albums that show what music was hot and happening that particular year. It does however, feature a single aesthetic to wrap it all up and make the bundle actually tastier than just mashing all the elements together would have been.

Other thoughts:

The one-shot camera is a nice idea, but it doesn’t really work in practice when you have a multi-page menu that you will visit a lot. The implied immersion it should give is broken every time you want to upgrade a skill or equip another piece of armor. Also, nobody is going to finish this game in one sitting.

Kratos and Atreus aren’t really that likeable, they take turns in being an annoying prick to the other until very late in the game, which is fine. I don’t care for likeable characters and I can see the ebb and flow as some form of character progression, but as this was source of praise in multiple reviews I read, eh. I’m not a fan of the plot structure. Having a clear goal is great, but having these artificial setbacks every time you get to said goal is frustrating and feels like length padding. It examplifies itself in the first real boss fight, and I know this was intentional, you’re probably meant to feel frustrated, but it still feels cheap. Final boss felt quite anti-climaxic as well.

A lot of the story thrives not because of good writing, but because of well thought out interpretation of the rich source material available. That’s not a bad thing though. The writing and plot just weren’t as amazing as some people make it out to be. It’s good, certainly. It does a few nice things, but it’s mainly ‘Hollywood blockbuster’ good, not much more.

Some animations were really great, with nice little details that I’m amazed people actually thought of. It gave a sense of reality and character to it.

The Leviathan axe is really an amazing weapon that feels great to use, and has huge potential in puzzles. I think they used it pretty well, although I feel it could’ve gone even further. Still, I think my favourite thing about the game is how the main weapon is used in both puzzles and combat, and both in a satisfying way. Which is why I didn’t really like the additional weaponry, which also made a lot of combat encounters later on feel much easier than they were before.

The puzzles themselves are decent, but get repetitive very soon, they’re usually just slowing you down, hardly ever need to think about it for longer than a few seconds (although there are a few clever ones in there), but that’s probably why it isn’t a puzzle game.

Exploration in the first bit of the game feels off, there’s a pretty straight path the game expects you to follow, and gives urgency to do so, yet rewards going off the path, and you probably won’t be coming back to this part of the game.

On the other hand, afterwards the exploration parts make a lot of sense, and are also addressed in actual conversation between the characters.

Something that really annoyed me was the way the game kept throwing hints at me, the second it thought I was taking a bit too long. Watching a the patterns of a boss to figure out the best strategy? Here, have a hint pop-up on the screen, so you won’t have to do any thinking. That’s just flat out terrible. I couldn’t find an option to turn it off, maybe they don’t appear on hardest difficulty setting.

The side content is really good, not of lesser quality than the main content. Challenge bosses were the only things in the game where I actually felt challenged, but they were a great challenge.

That troll mini-boss was in there a bit too often for me. It was interesting the first time, but when it gets introduced the sixth time over in a slight reskin, it gets pretty old.

The health bars in this game in general are just too large to me. Both the player’s and the enemies’, making every single combat encounter take a bit too long.

Mímir is a really fun character, he has the best written lines in the game, and it finally feels like comic relief done right.

Was that a bit of Egyptian pantheon foreshadowing in there?