Support NeoGAF

[PropellerEar]

this thread is NUTS

Looks like ColtEastwood co cosplaying with Tom Warren.

 

[Games of Today]

Ragnorok really blew it with, well, Ragnorok.

They spend the time setting up the World Serpent. How Atreus saves him as baby, the serpent grows larger than ever before, he fights Thor at Ragnorok and gets smacked back in time to the events of the first game.

This all sounded incredible. I had this entire God of War 3 style, unbelievably epic fight scene in my head where Kratos is involved and maybe running along the serpents back while fighting Thor, Kratos drops his guard for a second and just as Thor is about to slam the ever loving hell out of him the World Serpent gets in the way and you see him pop out of existence in slow motion. Atreus screams "No!!!" Something along those lines.

But did we get that? HAH! Absolutely fucking not. Just a quick background image of that happening.

And then a literal fucking God sized giant attacks and what do we do? Walk through a portal, the end.

Such a shame. It actually really upsets me because I enjoyed the rest of the game until that point.

 

[Hobbygaming]

I love the empathy tags you get on these kind of threads from people that cant understand when someone just doesnt think a game is that great.

Ragnarok really isnt that great, and the opinion is shared by just as much of the industry vets that I enjoy their opinions of as well. Then there isthe journalists that love to give these big games 10/10s and be apart of the hype cycle andd thoroughly enjoy them. It's just a difference in taste and not that big of a deal.

You can go to all of the different retailer sites like Best Buy, Target, Walmart, Gamestop and places like Amazon to see that GoW Ragnarok is generally loved by a lot of gamers

It typically gets 4 - 4.8 out of 5 stars. Maybe it's just not for you or it's just on the wrong console

 

[UltimaKilo]

So it gets a pass bwcause other games do it as well?

God of War new series is boring as fuck

I didn't give any developer a pass, I'm just stating the reality. The market seems to like these types of cinematic games, because they keep selling.

 

[Roufianos]

Ragnarok has some major pacing issues and some outright shit sections. I'll agree that's overrated, the original is a masterpiece, though.

 

[mrmustard]

I didn't give any developer a pass, I'm just stating the reality. The market seems to like these types of cinematic games, because they keep selling.

It's simply a matter of taste. Fortnite has like 400 million players so the market seems to like they types of games. Yet 90% of NeoGAF wants to puke if they hear the name.

 

[SlimySnake]

There’s a ton of set pieces in GoWR

There’s like 1 or 2 titan fights in gow3? And they are the lamest fights in the game

GoW3 is the worst in the series if we don’t include ascension

A ton? nah. I played the game 3 times back to back, and I can count on hand the number of setpieces and boss battles.

GOW3 is back to back boss fights, setpieces, titan fights. It's the perfect action game.

Paced to perfection. Ragnorak starts off with the Thor fight and then there is absolutely nothing in terms of setpieces or boss fights for the next 20 hours until you fight nidhogg. Then you get stuck in the Loki and Odin loop for the next 15 hours until you finally fight Fernir and Heimdall. There is a neat chase sequence after that but after that its end game time which we all agree was extremely underwhelming.

They keep doubling down on arena mini boss fights, but thats not what we want from GOW. If i wanted to play a zelda game id play darksiders.

 

[Drizzlehell]

I can’t wait for the same people who hate the latest GOW games to tell us how amazing Hellblade 2 is.

Full disclosure, I disliked Hellblade even more than the most recent God of War games. A lot of the sentiments that I shared here about the gameplay can be found in that game as well, except in Hellblade's case it's even worse. At least God of War had somewhat of an enjoyable gameplay loop, but Hellblade... Christ... it's the epitome of an artsy-fartsy video game with barely functional combat system and annoying puzzles as its only means of engaging the player.

The writing in that game was so overblown and the acting so labored you could almost see the vein popping on the developer's forehead from the effort to create the most pretentious game in the universe.

 

[Giallo Corsa]

This, it’s gonna be hilarious looking at the reactions to that game like they’re about to revolutionize gaming or something. It’s always with Sony’s titles lol. Hogwarts is a well-made game with an average story that has some really great combat but it is the most generic open-world I’ve played recently, didn’t see any threads complaining about too many icons on the map & “handholding” then, while Forbidden West (a much better game imo) got shit for this when literally every other publisher did the exact same thing.

Requiem was another example & I liked both Plague Tales, it was a linear third-person title inspired from TLOU that was multiplat which was praised & called underrated here while TLOU2 having some of the most sublime gameplay I’ve seen to date got shit on mostly by those who didn’t even play the game.

I'll see your Requiem & Hellblade 2 and raise you Death stranding :
The same people that obviously didn't play the game and shat on DS and Kojima calling the game "walking sim lol" and Kojima a "has-been hack" for months on end are the same exact people that would jump from joy if Death stranding suddenly appeared on their plastic box of choice and its "best deal in gaming" subscription plan (on PC it did actually), or, if Kojima somehow made a couple of "non PS exclusives " wink*wink, then, all of a sudden, he'd be back to being "God-tier-genious author".

I mean, things/people are so transparent that has even stopped being funny after a certain point...
I've said it before but this kind of zealotry is a lose-lose situation for everyone.

 

[AGRacing]

glad that Chris Judge had his moment on stage,

That's what we're calling that now eh? A "moment"?

Jokes aside. I agree with the premise but mostly how it applies to Ragnarok. I think to be a 10 you've got to be revolutionary as well... And the second game isn't. Doesn't mean it's not excellent... But I have to admit the second one was a bit of a let down vs. the 1st.

 

[Gamerguy84]

OP didn't you just get done playing Bioshock infinite?

Anyway 2018 is a masterpiece, one of the best games I've ever played in my life IMO.

GOWR was very good but not as hard hitting as 2018. 2018 was always going to be hard to live up to. It had a chance up until the final few chapters where certain things were forced and brought it down a notch for me anyways. It's still very good though and gameplay/fighting is great to excellent.

Congrats on being gilded. Looking forward to your Horizon thread.

 

[AlteredForms]

You know what I used to love about God of War? The fact that as soon as I put the disc into my console, it greeted me with a title screen that immediately got my blood pumping:

Never played a single God of War game as I'm primarily a PC gamer. Though I must admit, when I saw that God of War III cover I was hyped as a motherf**ker!

 

[DenchDeckard]

You can go to all of the different retailer sites like Best Buy, Target, Walmart, Gamestop and places like Amazon to see that GoW Ragnarok is generally loved by a lot of gamers

It typically gets 4 - 4.8 out of 5 stars. Maybe it's just not for you or it's just on the wrong console

God of war ragnarok when it's doing well in its game is very much for me. I did platinum it. Huge god of war fan, its just the worst in the series for me. And many others seem to find it boring in this thread too.

Genuinely, Nothing to do with what console its on. Even though I know you wish it was that.

 

[Drizzlehell]

OP didn't you just get done playing Bioshock infinite?

Yep, and I'm still playing through the DLC right now.

What about it?

 

[Physiognomonics]

I really liked 2018 even with its flaws but was disappointed by Ragnarok, the latter being clearly overrated by the vast majority of reviewers. It's not anymore the story of Kratos which means the franchise doesn't interest me anymore.

 

[stn]

I loved both, personally. Yes, each game had a decent chunk of filler that could be removed, but I had a blast with both. I also had the benefit of beating them back-to-back for my first play through so the story was fresh in my mind. Had Ragnarok not been so hyped, I might have missed on it and 2018 (which I ignored for years).

I have a small list of games I want to platinum, and both of them are on that list.

 

[sainraja]

I could not be further on the other end of the spectrum here.

GOW 2018 and GOWR are a perfect sunset to the long and tired tale of Kratos.

After all the fighting, after all the killing and loss at the end he’s just a lonely old man that misses his wife and wants to live in peace, while protecting what little legacy he has left.

It’s a wonderfully refreshing story of how the endeavors of our youth can shape and even haunt us later in life.

If you can’t appreciate the beautiful narrative of… what was it? A testosterone filled power fantasy whose only concern is to make sure you had a raging power boner for the entire trip… to a journey with a man who just wants to enjoy being with his son with what little time they have left together? That’s on you. It’s a powerful overarching story.

If you only liked Kratos when he was balls to the wall and press X to rip and tear… I feel like that challenges the player right? Are you afraid of this character growing old and changing? Are you projecting your own fears of getting old and slowing down? Maybe you just don’t have the attention span for thoughtful storytelling.

TL;DR: Opinions are like assholes. Some of them are just wrong. And if you thought the combat was bad you clearly never fought any of the valkyries or berserkers.

^^ This. 100 times over.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Going Viking was an interesting strategy.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

A ton? nah. I played the game 3 times back to back, and I can count on hand the number of setpieces and boss battles.

Damn you must have really hated it

Yes, GoWR has more walk n talk slog, but the overall content in terms of enemies and bosses destroys gow3

 

[SlimySnake]

Damn you must have really hated it

Yes, GoWR has more walk n talk slog, but the overall content in terms of enemies and bosses destroys gow3

mini bosses and enemies, sure, but im talking about the setpieces and epic god vs god battles the series is famous for. Hence, my comment about staying true to the series roots. They went for quantity over quality and completely fucked themselves over when they ran out of time for the ending despite spending almost 5 years making this game.

And it was my GOTY. I just dont have any problem admitting it was overrated. Not everything is a 95 or 98 (ER, BOTW). This is a great 8/10 game. Last year was a weak year and it almost wins by default. People either picked elden ring or god of war. there was no third place.

 

[RagnarokIV]

Fake intellect games for lumberjack shirt wearing, latte drinking hipster poseurs.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Fake intellect games for lumberjack shirt wearing, latte drinking hipster poseurs.

 

[Drizzlehell]

This, it’s gonna be hilarious looking at the reactions to that game like they’re about to revolutionize gaming or something. It’s always with Sony’s titles lol. Hogwarts is a well-made game with an average story that has some really great combat but it is the most generic open-world I’ve played recently, didn’t see any threads complaining about too many icons on the map & “handholding” then, while Forbidden West (a much better game imo) got shit for this when literally every other publisher did the exact same thing.

Requiem was another example & I liked both Plague Tales, it was a linear third-person title inspired from TLOU that was multiplat which was praised & called underrated here while TLOU2 having some of the most sublime gameplay I’ve seen to date got shit on mostly by those who didn’t even play the game.

Hogwarts was essentially one giant victory lap for the vindicated fandom of a franchise and its author, who were under fire from deranged social media mobs for years prior. I haven't played the game myself but the general vibe I'm getting is that it's just an okay game but not enough to make me drop a laundry basket and run to the nearest games store to pick up a copy.

 

[elbourreau]

Fake intellect games for lumberjack shirt wearing, latte drinking hipster poseurs.

GoW 2018 was kinda OK-tiers. Ragnarok was trash.

 

[Madserb2023]

Ragnorok is overrated but 2018 was one of the best paced games I have ever played, something that Ragnorok was not able to emulate. Ragnarok was like Uncharted 3 relative to Uncharted 2. More bombastic, but less refined. Sometimes less is more.

 

[DenchDeckard]

I could not be further on the other end of the spectrum here.

GOW 2018 and GOWR are a perfect sunset to the long and tired tale of Kratos.

After all the fighting, after all the killing and loss at the end he’s just a lonely old man that misses his wife and wants to live in peace, while protecting what little legacy he has left.

It’s a wonderfully refreshing story of how the endeavors of our youth can shape and even haunt us later in life.

If you can’t appreciate the beautiful narrative of… what was it? A testosterone filled power fantasy whose only concern is to make sure you had a raging power boner for the entire trip… to a journey with a man who just wants to enjoy being with his son with what little time they have left together? That’s on you. It’s a powerful overarching story.

If you only liked Kratos when he was balls to the wall and press X to rip and tear… I feel like that challenges the player right? Are you afraid of this character growing old and changing? Are you projecting your own fears of getting old and slowing down? Maybe you just don’t have the attention span for thoughtful storytelling.

TL;DR: Opinions are like assholes. Some of them are just wrong. And if you thought the combat was bad you clearly never fought any of the valkyries or berserkers.

This is satire, right?

If real, glad you enjoyed it bruh

 

[GymWolf]

A ton? nah. I played the game 3 times back to back, and I can count on hand the number of setpieces and boss battles.

GOW3 is back to back boss fights, setpieces, titan fights. It's the perfect action game.

Paced to perfection. Ragnorak starts off with the Thor fight and then there is absolutely nothing in terms of setpieces or boss fights for the next 20 hours until you fight nidhogg. Then you get stuck in the Loki and Odin loop for the next 15 hours until you finally fight Fernir and Heimdall. There is a neat chase sequence after that but after that its end game time which we all agree was extremely underwhelming.

They keep doubling down on arena mini boss fights, but thats not what we want from GOW. If i wanted to play a zelda game id play darksiders.

A random encounter with 4 random enemies in ragnarock is mechanically better and more challenging than 95% of those setpieces and boss battles tho.

As an action GAME, ragnarock piss on gow3 from such a great height is not even funny.

I know people love giant boss battles but those battles are UTTER SHIT compared to the fights against strong humanoids in gow2018 and ragnarock, they are all spectacle and zero substance.

 

[SmokedMeat]

I'll see your Requiem & Hellblade 2 and raise you Death stranding :
The same people that obviously didn't play the game and shat on DS and Kojima calling the game "walking sim lol" and Kojima a "has-been hack" for months on end are the same exact people that would jump from joy if Death stranding suddenly appeared on their plastic box of choice and its "best deal in gaming" subscription plan (on PC it did actually), or, if Kojima somehow made a couple of "non PS exclusives " wink*wink, then, all of a sudden, he'd be back to being "God-tier-genious author".

I mean, it arguably is . It’s more walking sim than games that get labeled as walking sims, because there’s thought behind it like terrain and balance.

Anyone using it as a negative to console war is simply ignorant. I found myself more engaged with DS, than most other games.

 

[Skifi28]

What a coincidence, all the games I don't like are also overrated!

 

[diffusionx]

I'll see your Requiem & Hellblade 2 and raise you Death stranding :
The same people that obviously didn't play the game and shat on DS and Kojima calling the game "walking sim lol" and Kojima a "has-been hack" for months on end are the same exact people that would jump from joy if Death stranding suddenly appeared on their plastic box of choice and its "best deal in gaming" subscription plan (on PC it did actually), or, if Kojima somehow made a couple of "non PS exclusives " wink*wink, then, all of a sudden, he'd be back to being "God-tier-genious author".

I mean, things/people are so transparent that has even stopped being funny after a certain point...
I've said it before but this kind of zealotry is a lose-lose situation for everyone.

Death Stranding is literally, LITERALLY a walking sim.

 

[Fess]

No I just personally think it’s idiotic to prioritize an “immersive” camera over visibility of enemies in an action game. But okay sexy

Yeah this is a serious issue. And is found in like 95% of all third person action games now.

Old God of War is actually one of few action games that did this right, by zooming out when facing big enemies for example.

Ragnarök, Elden Ring, Returnal, Resident Evils 4, Gears, Tomb Raider, Uncharted, they all have a bad camera for their action.

But to be fair in Ragnarök they actually tried to fix it with different types of lock-on mechanics, none that worked well but I’d give them props for trying at least, it’s more than other devs has done.

The hardest boss in Elden Ring isn’t Malenia, Radahn, Maliketh, Fire Giant or Elden Beast. It’s the camera. It’s my #2 best game of all time, but the camera is shit.

 

[samoilaaa]

They are a bit too cinematic, but modern games have all gone in that direction and away from gameplay (except Nintendo, honestly).

i dont understand why are people laughing at ur comment , its true , you cant even play 1 full hour without being interrupted by a cinematic

 

[BennyBlanco]

I liked GoW 2018 well enough but I don’t think it’s a masterpiece either. Combat was good. All the walk and chats were a total drag. They need to let that shit go. It’s actively making your game boring and not worth replaying. Once I heard Ragnarok had the same pacing problems I just didnt buy it. I still like 2018 tho.

 

[SlimySnake]

A random encounter with 4 random enemies in ragnarock is mechanically better and more challenging than 95% of those setpieces and boss battles tho.

As an action GAME, ragnarock piss on gow3 from such a great height is not even funny.

I know people love giant boss battles but those battles are UTTER SHIT compared to the fights against strong humanoids in gow2018 and ragnarock, they are all spectacle and zero substance.

Well then we are fans of the series for different reason. Ive been through these arguments with DMC, Ninja Gaiden and Bayonetta fans who trash GOW 1-3 and even the latest GOWs as wanna be action games. Couldnt care less. GOW to me did setpieces better than any other franchise and its why that series was so beloved. That and kratos' brutality. Both of which were nerfed in Ragnorak.

 

[The Stig]

just kidding OP. I take your point. God of War has indeed changed.

 

[HazukiSensei]

Cool

I love the fact they are genuine adventures with a mix of gameplay, exploration and puzzles now instead of purely linear hallway action games

The old god of war games werent that either...especially god of war 2. Did you fricken play that game?

And god of war 1, 2, and 3 had better puzzles that actually integrated the combat into gameplay. For example you have to figure out new powers like gorgon head to freeze enemies on a trigger to open a door. But they didnt spell it out for you, like figuring out in 3, that you needed to latch on to a harpee mid fight to avoid spikes from the ground that would come up.

Not every game is better because it has "exploration" thats what casual gamers who think they are hardcore say about everything these days.

Also you have to have some experience to notice that the pacing is to formulaic.

Heres how the new god war went: cutscene time!, combat encounter time! puzzle time! Interaction time! Rinse repeat, they didnt know how to blend it together like in the old games. But basic gamers will NEVER notice that shit.

 

[GymWolf]

Well then we are fans of the series for different reason. Ive been through these arguments with DMC, Ninja Gaiden and Bayonetta fans who trash GOW 1-3 and even the latest GOWs as wanna be action games. Couldnt care less. GOW to me did setpieces better than any other franchise and its why that series was so beloved. That and kratos' brutality. Both of which were nerfed in Ragnorak.

Yeah, i never cared about the setpieces, they are spectacular but gameplay wise they are crap.

 

[Diddy X]

It is a great game but that slow pace makes it kinda boring.

 

[Drizzlehell]

This pretty much sums up what I think about GOW 2018 and modern take on GOW in general:



I haven't bought Ragnarok and haven't played it. I know it's better somewhat, but also even worse and very simmilar to 2018 in some aspects. I'm considering trade in a few games to get it, but it's far from being on the top of my priority list right now.

Man, this guy gets it. Great video.

 

[Giallo Corsa]

Death Stranding is literally, LITERALLY a walking sim.

Diffusion, c'mon man, you know exactly what I mean - "walking sim" being used as a derogatory term , as in, games in which your only interaction with the game world is pressing forward on the analogue stick/W and reading memos/text like dear Esther, gone home etc etc.

If games like Death stranding were a dime a dozen and not the exception, the term "walking sim" would be way more adequate compared to the "games" which the term was coined for.

So, technically, DS is indeed a "walking sim " since just like SmokedMeat said, there's actual thought put behind its gameplay systems - but not for the (petty) reasons some users use it for when trying to describe DS.

 

[Badlucktroll]

I hope they make an older style actiony one that takes place in egypt (or mayan) mythology next

 

[Ulysses 31]

Man, this guy gets it. Great video.

So does this guy

 

[diffusionx]

Diffusion, c'mon man, you know exactly what I mean - "walking sim" being used as a derogatory term , as in, games in which your only interaction with the game world is pressing forward on the analogue stick/W and reading memos/text like dear Esther, gone home etc etc.

If games like Death stranding were a dime a dozen and not the exception, the term "walking sim" would be way more adequate compared to the "games" which the term was coined for.

So, technically, DS is indeed a "walking sim " since just like SmokedMeat said, there's actual thought put behind its gameplay systems - but not for the (petty) reasons some users use it for when trying to describe DS.

I know - I love DS, I hate "walking sims", but also DS is literally a walking sim. I just think it's funny.

 

[Arachnid]

I'm with you OP. Pretty mid tier gameplay overall. It gets boring. Story is nice, I guess.

I sure as shit never called OG1-3 boring.

 

[ÆMNE22A!C]

Played the first for a hour or 3. Didn't buy it's sequel. It's a me thing I guess.

 

[Majukun]

they are gow games for people that didn't actually like gow.
personally i left the first one for boredom after a while...i always plan to go back to it but new games get bought and the game is still there

 

[AngelMuffin]

Not just overrated but “way overrated”

I really loathe these overrated/underrated posts. Just because you didn’t care for something that the overwhelming majority did doesn’t make the thing overrated. Same goes with something you love but most do not…doesn’t make it underrated. They’re rated exactly as they should be as judged by the masses.

 

[Drizzlehell]

As an action GAME, ragnarock piss on gow3 from such a great height is not even funny.

 

[M1chl]

Yes, but I didn't want to make a thread. I didn't like it felt pretty boring. It looks good at gifs with that axe and shit, but then you are doing similar moves for 20 hours and simply I didn't like it as much as others, but hey I can definitely see it being on top of people's list, it just didn't make it to mine.

 

[GymWolf]

At least you have good taste for movies