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[Ar¢tos]

I think I did none of the side quests yet, usually hold off on doing them till after the story so I still have stuff to do (and getting all collectibles is more fun/less of a drag).

The blacksmiths favors (side quests) are tied to main story progress, you should do those, the rewards of some of them are very useful.

 

[TimFL]

The blacksmiths favors (side quests) are tied to main story progress, you should do those, the rewards of some of them are very useful.

Alright, will do them once I return to the areas they are located in.

I assume I can max out everything? Or do I have to pick certain trees and e.g. ignore Atreus skill trees?

 

[nowhat]

I assume I can max out everything? Or do I have to pick certain trees and e.g. ignore Atreus skill trees?

Not 100% sure, but I suppose especially if you want to grind it out you can max everything - but you shouldn't ignore Atreus' skill tree. He can become really useful when you level him up.

 

[Ar¢tos]

Alright, will do them once I return to the areas they are located in. I assume I can max out everything? Or do I have to pick certain trees and e.g. ignore Atreus skill trees?

If you don't do side content, you can't max everything before ending the main story, but the hardest content of the game is optional/side stuff. I prefer using EXP on Atreus skill tree than on bare handed/evade skills (also rage L2 is crap and costs 13k or something like that. Eats up half the rage bar for little dmg). Maxed Atreus is the most useful sidekick I have ever encountered in a game!

 

[Danjin44]

I started another playthrough but this time in GOW difficulty. I was able to beat all Valkyries on "give me challenge" difficulty so I thought I can handle this but holly fuck this different beast entirely. I can't believe I'm dying so much in beganing areas.

 

[Ame]

I started another playthrough but this time in GOW difficulty. I was able to beat all Valkyries on "give me challenge" difficulty so I thought I can handle this but holly fuck this different beast entirely. I can't believe I'm dying so much in beganing areas.

The beginning areas on GOW difficulty are the hardest in the game. Everything hits like a truck and enemies will level up mid fight, making things even more insane. Once you start unlocking abilities, runic attacks and leveling up Atreus, things become a bit more manageable. As soon as you have enough XP, unlock the executioners cleave. It's a life saver.

 

[Danjin44]

The beginning areas on GOW difficulty are the hardest in the game. Everything hits like a truck and enemies will level up mid fight, making things even more insane. Once you start unlocking abilities, runic attacks and leveling up Atreus, things become a bit more manageable. As soon as you have enough XP, unlock the executioners cleave. It's a life saver.

I will do that, thanks for the tips and you are not kidding about enemies hitting like a truck!!! Once their eyes starts to glow I can't even launch them in the air.

Edit: oh god the the Valkyrie who summons bunch of enemies going to be real pain in the ass to beat.

Spoiler

maybe I won't fight that one until I get the Blades with grapple runic attack.

 

[CamelCloud]

I will do that, thanks for the tips and you are not kidding about enemies hitting like a truck!!! Once their eyes starts to glow I can't even launch them in the air.

Edit: oh god the the Valkyrie who summons bunch of enemies going to be real pain in the ass to beat.

Spoiler

maybe I won't fight that one until I get the Blades with grapple runic attack.

I actually found her to be one of the easiest, she's one of the few Valkyries I beat within 3 tries. GMGoW.

 

[jowell24]

I keep checking in on this thread, to see if after the hype died down, people would actually look at this game in a more objective manner, but I am still so surprised at the comments of how this is one of the best games or best combat systems people have played. Or maybe I'm just super out of touch.

I agree with a lot of what you said.
1) The difficulty is terribly balanced at the beginning if you want to try harder difficulties
2) There is a severe lack of epic moments in the game
3) Monotonous corridors and same-y looking forests aplenty - it hardly feels like a big open world with uniqueness
4) Side quests I thought were OK, mostly because the combat is good so I don't mind fighting different combinations of enemies
5) I actually just replayed Rise of the Tomb raider, and it handles this semi-open world much better. Better quest rewards. MUCH better puzzles (so satisfying and expertly crafted).

For those saying the combat system is amazing. I will say it is a competent combat system. It's fun but can easily get tedious. As someone who loves hack and slash, the close-up camera and general clunkyness of having to aim to throw the axe, kills it for me. ALOT of big compromises had to be made in terms of sucking the fun out of this game in favor of "cinematic" quality. The irony is that the epic moments from previous GoW games are just not here - so huge missed opportunity on "cinema". Where are the huge memorable set-pieces? The menacing bosses and rivalries? The game instead takes you out of the action to observe some mediocre to OK acting, carry a wounded pig, or pick some flowers in a garden. Or play dad with your son.

The game was fun, and a good first stab at reviving the GoW franchise, but I'm just a bit shocked at how blind people are to its many flaws. Then again, many people think Uncharted 4 is superior to Tomb Raider, so for a rather large subset of core gamers and casual gamers, quality of cinema has become the dominant factor in gaming.

What I'm understanding from this is that you stay true to your love for Hack and Slash games, therefore this new direction for God of War is simply not to your taste. That doesn't mean this game is over-hyped or flawed to a point that people are raving about it because they're just too excited.

3) Monotonous corridors and same-y looking forests aplenty - it hardly feels like a big open world with uniqueness

Not going to comment on every point you made but I want to discuss this point. To paraphrase, you are saying that the game lacks a rich and (relatively) diverse environment and partly as a result, the game does not feel very "open world"? I'm sure that most who have played the game will strongly disagree. Objectively speaking - this game has some of the most diverse environments and architecture since The Witcher 3. And the developers have never touted the game as open world exploration. It's still a pretty linear experience to deliver their vision of God of War and if you had problems with that, then that's subjective.

... I'm just a bit shocked at how blind people are to its many flaws.

I agree that the difficulty at the beginning of the game is harder which can throw people off and also the over-use of trolls as boss fights (which I would point out is one of the most common criticisms I've seen from others). I'd like to also mention that for every one thing this game does wrong, it does 20 other things right. And that's probably not an exaggeration

 

[Hotspurr]

What I'm understanding from this is that you stay true to your love for Hack and Slash games, therefore this new direction for God of War is simply not to your taste. That doesn't mean this game is over-hyped or flawed to a point that people are raving about it because they're just too excited.



Not going to comment on every point you made but I want to discuss this point. To paraphrase, you are saying that the game lacks a rich and (relatively) diverse environment and partly as a result, the game does not feel very "open world"? I'm sure that most who have played the game will strongly disagree. Objectively speaking - this game has some of the most diverse environments and architecture since The Witcher 3. And the developers have never touted the game as open world exploration. It's still a pretty linear experience to deliver their vision of God of War and if you had problems with that, then that's subjective.



I agree that the difficulty at the beginning of the game is harder which can throw people off and also the over-use of trolls as boss fights (which I would point out is one of the most common criticisms I've seen from others). I'd like to also mention that for every one thing this game does wrong, it does 20 other things right. And that's probably not an exaggeration

A lot of my criticisms may very well be subjective, but I'm not exaggerating much when I say that the dungeons in God of war are generic, the linear corridors connected to the lake are nothing extrodinary, and in general there is a lack of uniqueness and memorable things about the areas you visit. The large statue and the mountain are the only ones that come to mind. Previous god of war games had you climbing different Titans, going to hell, and plenty of cool locations. The enemy variety and creativity is lacking too. Just take a single chimera from GoW 3 and IMO it's superior to anything I've fought in GoW (first balder fight was good, though).

The people who are raving about GoW are the same ones who loved Last of Us and Uncharted 4. Basically cinematic games with heavy emphasis on story where the gameplay is secondary. Santa Monica did not make its games that way, but for some reason decided to Last of Us-ify GoW, a genre based in epic battles (which were sparse at best in this iteration). It's a slap in the face in many ways to fans. Some soccer dads might enjoy the father-son relationship, but I found it cheesy and unnecessary.

Having said that, I enjoyed my time with the game and would give it around an 8 (which is great BTW). Knowing what I know now purchasing it at full price was a bit of a waste given my interests and expectations (shared by many lovers of action hack and slash games).

 

[partime]

Finished the game yesterday and although I had an amazing time, the last 4th of the game didn't grab me as much. I'm eager to get back into Dark Souls 3 and wanted to just rush through the final stages. It's odd that I hadn't received equal upgrades to my blades to the axe, but the pinnacle of the game was when I received them.

It's weird, for a combat system so involving and dynamic, why were there few epic battles compared with previous GoW games? Looking forward to what's next!

 

[Hotspurr]

It's weird, for a combat system so involving and, why were there few epic battles compared with previous GoW games?

Exactly. I imagine by the time they ran out of father son stuff to do, they realized they actually need to release the game, and compromises needed to be made. They should let Stig (director of 3) take a stab at the sequel. On reflection I think 3 is the better game (for me).

 

[Danjin44]

Exactly. I imagine by the time they ran out of father son stuff to do, they realized they actually need to release the game, and compromises needed to be made. They should let Stig (director of 3) take a stab at the sequel. On reflection I think 3 is the better game (for me).

I highly disagree with that. I love pervious games and I really do and I was very skeptical about this new God of War when it came to the combat but after playing the game and platinum it I can safety say this new God of War has much, much, much better and deeper combat than pervious games.

 

[Keihart]

The people who are raving about GoW are the same ones who loved Last of Us and Uncharted 4. Basically cinematic games with heavy emphasis on story where the gameplay is secondary.

Uncharted 4 has great TPS combat , mind you. The game is not arcadey enough to make it shine tho.

 

[Hotspurr]

Uncharted 4 has great TPS combat , mind you. The game is not arcadey enough to make it shine tho.

Uncharted 4 had OK combat. My problem with it is it did nothing on top of the original uncharted. I really enjoyed uncharted 2 but after that the series got stale. I recently played the most recent tomb raider game and it is superior to uncharted 4 in every way save for the graphics/art and the story. Uncharted 4 tried to add the rope swing or the climbing nail, but tomb raider has a far more fleshed out traversal system. Also the TPS in tomb raider feels much better because of how many options you have (stealth, melee, dodge+melee, bow (with custom arrows), guns). I would seriously challenge anyone to prove that uncharted 4 has more complex/refined core gameplay than TR. But back on topic, this is a god of war thread after all. I think people misinterpret my criticisms of GoW as saying it's a bad game. It's not by any means. I just don't feel it's revolutionary and think the reviewers oversold it, which is concerning for the industry as a whole, if people want to start riding hype trains, I recommend waiting on real player impressions before buying into ridiculously high review scores (which I did against my better judgement). Also in this case I am in the minority in that most people seem to think GoW is among the best games they've ever played. Perhaps my standard is a little different as I go out of my way to play most hack and slash games (while waiting for DMC 5 for a decade or so...)

 

[Keihart]

Uncharted 4 had OK combat. My problem with it is it did nothing on top of the original uncharted. I really enjoyed uncharted 2 but after that the series got stale. I recently played the most recent tomb raider game and it is superior to uncharted 4 in every way save for the graphics/art and the story. Uncharted 4 tried to add the rope swing or the climbing nail, but tomb raider has a far more fleshed out traversal system. Also the TPS in tomb raider feels much better because of how many options you have (stealth, melee, dodge+melee, bow (with custom arrows), guns). I would seriously challenge anyone to prove that uncharted 4 has more complex/refined core gameplay than TR. But back on topic, this is a god of war thread after all. I think people misinterpret my criticisms of GoW as saying it's a bad game. It's not by any means. I just don't feel it's revolutionary and think the reviewers oversold it, which is concerning for the industry as a whole, if people want to start riding hype trains, I recommend waiting on real player impressions before buying into ridiculously high review scores (which I did against my better judgement). Also in this case I am in the minority in that most people seem to think GoW is among the best games they've ever played. Perhaps my standard is a little different as I go out of my way to play most hack and slash games (while waiting for DMC 5 for a decade or so...)

i sounds more like you wanted something out of GoW this time that isn't trying to deliver, the new combat system made me think at first that it was triying to be a proper stylish action game at first but it quickly became evident that the game is not trying to fill that niche and instead is trying to juggle a lot of other things instead. If you play it expecting non stop action and fun like most of the games born from DMC1 legacy it's going to disappoint.

Somehow the game is kinda set up for disappointment if you go in with expectations of a specific genre. I'm kinda glad it did well because it really just does whatever they wanted it to do at any given time, be it story, exploration or combat at any moment and giving you the choice to engage with whichever you want at the moment you want.

And off topic, i do think that uncharted 4 combat is way better than Tomb Raider's, because what is there is impressively intertwined and lets you play with it in ways no other game allowed you before.

 

[Vtecomega]

Exactly. I imagine by the time they ran out of father son stuff to do, they realized they actually need to release the game, and compromises needed to be made. They should let Stig (director of 3) take a stab at the sequel. On reflection I think 3 is the better game (for me).

Yup, and the enemy variety is terrible. The entire game is literally you fighting against generic lava and ice enemies with the generic attack patterns, at least 9 reskin trolls with only slight variations to their attack patterns and handful of orgres and wolverines. Lets not mention the fucking god awful revenants and nightmares that no self respecting developer with half a clue about game design would add them in the first place. Add all this to slow pacing mid way through the game, a terrible hell level and abrupt ending. Good production values and visuals do not make a 10/10 game.

I did end up falling in love with the combat but just wish it was used against interesting enemies. This is coming from a guy with god of war tattoos and been supporting the game since 2005.

Its concerning for the game industry as a whole when a title as flawed as this one gets undeserving praise instead of constructive criticism to be able to improve future titles. I do know the reason why but will not mention here as I will be banned.

 

[Zimmy68]

I play about an hour a day and I am loving it.
But to continue on with the nits...
The crazy variety of rare craft items is infuriating. I went back to pick up a Talisman that I heard was one of the best.
But I had already upgraded the one I had been using.
To upgrade this one from level 1 to 2 they want something that sounds made up, like Wood Frost Sprinkles.
I would suggest that the loot levels up to your current level or close (when you pick it up).

Also, I feel I am finally at the point where I can take on higher level purple enemies with my upgrade skills.
What do they do?, throw in some lackeys and Nightmares to cheap shot you as you try to take down the big guy.
Once in awhile, if the enemy is a higher difficulty, let me take them on, one on one. Once in awhile.

 

[Nymphae]

...the game does not feel very "open world"?

Not in the sense most of us use it these days. I found the game felt very sectioned off and each area had VERY clearly defined paths, to the point where Kratos isn't even allowed to jump down 4 feet to an easily viewable area because he's not at the ACTION BUTTON PROMPT SPOT. The entire world gave me this invisible walls everywhere, please go the one correct way feeling (not so much literal invisible walls but just very strict corridoring). Decidedly not very open world feeling to me. Just because the game has no camera cuts and masks loads, doesn't make this an open world.

And the developers have never touted the game as open world exploration.

I haven't read dev comments. But the reviews, previews, and boatloads of impressions mention 'this game is HUGE! such a big world and so much to do and see!!, tons of sidequests and a long quest" My impression, going off of other people's week 1 impressions, was that this was going to be a pretty stellar open world 3rd person character action game.

To me, this is open world done wrong. The map blows pretty hard to the point of complete uselessness, no real fast travelling until post game, sidequests are not really all that engaging. I mainlined the story and only got a handful of sidequests. Finished the game, and I could only find like a couple more Dwarf favours, it feels like there is a huge lack of sidequests. And the issues I mentioned with the world design and corridor stuff really don't make me want to go back looking for more stuff. A few collecathons (holy shit yawn) and the valkyries aren't cutting it for me.

 

[jowell24]

Not in the sense most of us use it these days. I found the game felt very sectioned off and each area had VERY clearly defined paths, to the point where Kratos isn't even allowed to jump down 4 feet to an easily viewable area because he's not at the ACTION BUTTON PROMPT SPOT. The entire world gave me this invisible walls everywhere, please go the one correct way feeling (not so much literal invisible walls but just very strict corridoring). Decidedly not very open world feeling to me. Just because the game has no camera cuts and masks loads, doesn't make this an open world.



I haven't read dev comments. But the reviews, previews, and boatloads of impressions mention 'this game is HUGE! such a big world and so much to do and see!!, tons of sidequests and a long quest" My impression, going off of other people's week 1 impressions, was that this was going to be a pretty stellar open world 3rd person character action game.

To me, this is open world done wrong. The map blows pretty hard to the point of complete uselessness, no real fast travelling until post game, sidequests are not really all that engaging. I mainlined the story and only got a handful of sidequests. Finished the game, and I could only find like a couple more Dwarf favours, it feels like there is a huge lack of sidequests. And the issues I mentioned with the world design and corridor stuff really don't make me want to go back looking for more stuff. A few collecathons (holy shit yawn) and the valkyries aren't cutting it for me.

Fair enough. I understand your points and reasoning.

I didn't have the same expectations as you from what I saw of the previews and gameplay, as I expected a relatively linear experience with some open world elements of exploration.

I honestly believe that Sony Santa Monica did not tout the game as "open world" in terms of gameplay genre but were more likely trying to express how some things like the close third person camera give the game a big sense of scale through perspective, different to how previous God of Wars have done it.

 

[NovumAngel]

https://gamerant.com/god-of-war-sequel-not-open-world/

https://gamerant.com/god-of-war-not-open-world-948/

Cory Barlog kept trying to make a point that it wouldn't be open world but I guess his use of the word "open" in general got misunderstood along the way for some.

I expected mostly linearity with some extra hidden paths to explore and what we got was a semi-open experience similar to the reboot Tomb Raider games, which suited me since you could explore as little or as much as you wanted, the best of both.

 

[Nymphae]

https://gamerant.com/god-of-war-sequel-not-open-world/

https://gamerant.com/god-of-war-not-open-world-948/

Cory Barlog kept trying to make a point that it wouldn't be open world but I guess his use of the word "open" in general got misunderstood along the way for some.

I expected mostly linearity with some extra hidden paths to explore and what we got was a semi-open experience similar to the reboot Tomb Raider games, which suited me since you could explore as little or as much as you wanted, the best of both.

Interesting. I'm not even bummed that it wasn't open world necessarily. I would have liked that better I think, but I was fine with playing a linear character action game when I bought it. I just really didn't like a lot about nearly every single system and major design choice in this game, outside of the combat (which I also have major problems with, but it was the one part of this game I found engaging and fun - I wanted more mobs during the quest, I felt the enemies were pretty sparse overall)

 

[jowell24]

A lot of my criticisms may very well be subjective, but I'm not exaggerating much when I say that the dungeons in God of war are generic, the linear corridors connected to the lake are nothing extrodinary, and in general there is a lack of uniqueness and memorable things about the areas you visit. The large statue and the mountain are the only ones that come to mind. Previous god of war games had you climbing different Titans, going to hell, and plenty of cool locations. The enemy variety and creativity is lacking too. Just take a single chimera from GoW 3 and IMO it's superior to anything I've fought in GoW (first balder fight was good, though).

The people who are raving about GoW are the same ones who loved Last of Us and Uncharted 4. Basically cinematic games with heavy emphasis on story where the gameplay is secondary. Santa Monica did not make its games that way, but for some reason decided to Last of Us-ify GoW, a genre based in epic battles (which were sparse at best in this iteration). It's a slap in the face in many ways to fans. Some soccer dads might enjoy the father-son relationship, but I found it cheesy and unnecessary.

Having said that, I enjoyed my time with the game and would give it around an 8 (which is great BTW). Knowing what I know now purchasing it at full price was a bit of a waste given my interests and expectations (shared by many lovers of action hack and slash games).

Just to elaborate on your last point - Does that imply that a game would have to be a 9 out of 10 for you to feel like you would get your money's worth when paying full price?

There's nothing wrong with the more cinematic experience that the Last of Us and God of War offer. Movies, games and other forms of media are forms of escapism so it's not surprising to see games introduce film-like qualities to their stories.

Some soccer dads might enjoy the father-son relationship, but I found it cheesy and unnecessary.

The father-son relationship was introduced in this new God of War because of Cory Barlog's vision to make Kratos a more intricate and matured character as explore the new direction they are taking the game. I think it succeeds in developing Kratos' character and to say that "some soccer dads" found this aspect enjoyable disregards the vast majority of people who saw no issue with this "trope" in delivering a good gameplay and narrative experience - including many old God of War fans.

The developers have stated that they knew for sure that some long-time fans of the series would be upset with the direction they are taking it and it's unfortunate but understandable that this game doesn't appeal to your tastes, despite your 8/10 scoring.

 

[bhunachicken]

Finished the game last Friday. I absolutely loved it! For me, it's definitely the best God of War ever made and will in all likelihood be my GOTY. Making Kratos a single dad was an excellent way to humanise him and make us see a new side of the angry man. The journey wasn't as emotional as I was expecting it to be, but there were certainly some standout moments that came close. Also, some of the things said between Kratos and Atreus were great.

Went back to cleaning things up after the main quest was done, but I've only managed to beat one of the valkyries so far. Taking a break for a little while and will get back to them later

 

[Hotspurr]

Just to elaborate on your last point - Does that imply that a game would have to be a 9 out of 10 for you to feel like you would get your money's worth when paying full price?

There's nothing wrong with the more cinematic experience that the Last of Us and God of War offer. Movies, games and other forms of media are forms of escapism so it's not surprising to see games introduce film-like qualities to their stories.



The father-son relationship was introduced in this new God of War because of Cory Barlog's vision to make Kratos a more intricate and matured character as explore the new direction they are taking the game. I think it succeeds in developing Kratos' character and to say that "some soccer dads" found this aspect enjoyable disregards the vast majority of people who saw no issue with this "trope" in delivering a good gameplay and narrative experience - including many old God of War fans.

The developers have stated that they knew for sure that some long-time fans of the series would be upset with the direction they are taking it and it's unfortunate but understandable that this game doesn't appeal to your tastes, despite your 8/10 scoring.

Paying full price for a game for me is warranted if I want it to bypass my backlog. This is generally reserved for certain franchises or if the reviewers rating are so astronomically high that it cannot be ignored, and god of war was one of them. I think many people with backlogs understand this point, but perhaps you don't play many games.

I apologize if my comical reference to soccer dads triggered you. I just didn't think Kratos and Atreus were that deep, nor found the story emotional. To me many things were cheesy and unnecessary. Very rarely do games pull off deep and believable characters (eg. Drake and Elena), this game gave it a good effort but didn't do it for me.

You don't have to explain to me that I have different preferences. I get that. I just want people who are trying to figure out if this game is worth getting to know that the hype is misguided in many ways, especially if they are god of war fans looking for an exciting epic adventure rather than Santa Monica's attempt at dramatic cinema and story telling.

 

[Keihart]

Never play games based on reviews or meta scores, rarely it will live up to the hype, rather follow reviewers that you think might have similar tastes to you.
Personally, i just play whatever looks interesting enough for my current mood, as i do with movies or any other media, i try to not go in expecting anything in particular other than good execution.
My backlog is huge mind you, in the hundreds, impossible to play everything really, gave up a long time ago.

 

[Danjin44]

Paying full price for a game for me is warranted if I want it to bypass my backlog. This is generally reserved for certain franchises or if
You don't have to explain to me that I have different preferences. I get that. I just want people who are trying to figure out if this game is worth getting to know that the hype is misguided in many ways, especially if they are god of war fans looking for an exciting epic adventure rather than Santa Monica's attempt at dramatic cinema and story telling.

I personally big fan of pervious GOW games and I really loved combat in this new GOW and if you saw my pervious posts before this game came out I was very skeptical and harsh towards the game. Also one of your complains is that this new GOW is cinematic, I say so was the pervious games. remember when Zeus takes Kratos powers away with blade of Olympus and after that all you can do is slow walk and barely able to fight.

 

[mckmas8808]

Never play games based on reviews or meta scores, rarely it will live up to the hype, rather follow reviewers that you think might have similar tastes to you.
Personally, i just play whatever looks interesting enough for my current mood, as i do with movies or any other media, i try to not go in expecting anything in particular other than good execution.
My backlog is huge mind you, in the hundreds, impossible to play everything really, gave up a long time ago.

It lived up to the hype for me. It stayed in my head while I was at work, driving home, at the mall with the wife, etc.

 

[manuvlad]

Spoiler: Platinum!

I loved the game. The best GOW game IMO. And I'm a huge fan of the franchise. Excellent work, Santa Monica!

 

[jowell24]

Paying full price for a game for me is warranted if I want it to bypass my backlog. This is generally reserved for certain franchises or if the reviewers rating are so astronomically high that it cannot be ignored, and god of war was one of them. I think many people with backlogs understand this point, but perhaps you don't play many games.

I apologize if my comical reference to soccer dads triggered you. I just didn't think Kratos and Atreus were that deep, nor found the story emotional. To me many things were cheesy and unnecessary. Very rarely do games pull off deep and believable characters (eg. Drake and Elena), this game gave it a good effort but didn't do it for me.

You don't have to explain to me that I have different preferences. I get that. I just want people who are trying to figure out if this game is worth getting to know that the hype is misguided in many ways, especially if they are god of war fans looking for an exciting epic adventure rather than Santa Monica's attempt at dramatic cinema and story telling.

Text hardly conveys sarcasm or hyperbole and discussing on a forum like this, people are going to take your words literally. Nice of you to call my response "triggered" though, as I don't mend to offend.

I just want people who are trying to figure out if this game is worth getting to know that the hype is misguided in many ways, especially if they are god of war fans looking for an exciting epic adventure...

God of War is a categorically good game as shown below and I know that you think it's pretty decent too. If you re-read people's positive opinions of the game, you'll see that no-one is decreeing that it is a revolution or innovation in game design. But simply that as the sum of its parts, it delivers a thorough and well executed game that is deserving of praise. It's certainly not perfect and you among others have highlighted valid criticisms (enemy variety, difficulty balance, etc), which I concur but for most people (again, fans old and new alike) they truthfully enjoyed the father-son relationship, story and new direction of the game.

As someone has already mentioned here, you came into the game with expectations that were not met in the end and already possessed a stigma towards a cinematic art and visual style employed in The Last of Us, which the GOW Director mentioned as inspiration for the story of his game. So ignoring the fact that you are fan of the existing series and a bigger fan of hack & slash games, this game was likely to rub you the wrong way regardless.

... rather than Santa Monica's attempt at dramatic cinema and story telling.

Very rarely do games pull off deep and believable characters (eg. Drake and Elena), this game gave it a good effort but didn't do it for me.

And that's your opinion, but don't try to preach it as a truth to others.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but based on the thoughts and reviews of critics and real players (as you put it), you are certainly the minority.

 

[Keihart]

I fucked up with only 7 enemies to go in the 100 challenge on GMGOW, 24 minutes fighting, kinda of a marathon that challenge.


Since i increased the time that share is recording, i sometimes get time skips, is this a normal bug?

 

[WaterAstro]

Doing the extra stuff now, in the realm...

Spoiler

Niflheim. This Mist Echoes farming totally sucks!

 

[Danjin44]

Doing the extra stuff now, in the realm...

Spoiler

Niflheim. This Mist Echoes farming totally sucks!

It's pain in ass at fist but later on it becomes much more manageable, especially if you get that armour that makes the timer go slower.

 

[Ar¢tos]

Doing the extra stuff now, in the realm...

Spoiler

Niflheim. This Mist Echoes farming totally sucks!

Once you get used to it, it becomes fun. You can run through the whole place in 10min and get 10-15k Echoes per run.

 

[Danjin44]

Once you get used to it, it becomes fun. You can run through the whole place in 10min and get 10-15k Echoes per run.

Lets see how fun it is for him once he gets that

Spoiler

Realm tear that has 3 god damn revenant that also summon bunch of nightmares

Fighting those fuckers in "Give me Challenge" was really tough, I don't know how the hell I'm gonna do in GOW difficulty.

 

[AltogetherAndrews]

Love the game, but I will say that I think Hellblade pulled off the Norse theme better. Both in mood and in terms of story(telling).

 

[DeadmanPhoenix]

You complaining about the way GOW does side quest then you go saying Horizon spoiled you!!? Are shitting with me right now!!?

My bad for lumping them together like that. I actually think that Horizon did not have much going on in terms of side-quests. I mentioned it in this sentence mainly for it's sweaty-palms combat and varied environments that IMO translated the sense of scale well.

 

[xviper]

i played for more than 20 hours now and it's safe to say that God of war has dethroned The last of us as the most overrated game of all time, ever since i saw the videos and the reviews i knew that there is noway the game is as good as the scores, but that's normal because it's a Sony exclusive, i still haven't finished the game yet and i doubt it's gonna get any better, my current score is 8\10, 94MC my fucking ass

 

[WaterAstro]

Once you get used to it, it becomes fun. You can run through the whole place in 10min and get 10-15k Echoes per run.

Well, it's that you have to do something that feels similar several times, so it feels grindy. I did base my frustration off of calculating how many echoes I was getting, but I didn't factor in the loot I could sell. It was a lot faster than I expected once I sold my loot for essence.

Lets see how fun it is for him once he gets that

Spoiler

Realm tear that has 3 god damn revenant that also summon bunch of nightmares

Fighting those fuckers in "Give me Challenge" was really tough, I don't know how the hell I'm gonna do in GOW difficulty.

Those realm tears are actually pretty easy for me. I have a runic/cooldown build, and my runic attacks just do so much damage. I literally could kill one of those dudes in one go with an atreus stun arrow volley.

I was pretty much decked out since Nilf was the last thing I had to do.

 

[Ar¢tos]

Well, it's that you have to do something that feels similar several times, so it feels grindy. I did base my frustration off of calculating how many echoes I was getting, but I didn't factor in the loot I could sell. It was a lot faster than I expected once I sold my loot for essence.

Those realm tears are actually pretty easy for me. I have a runic/cooldown build, and my runic attacks just do so much damage. I literally could kill one of those dudes in one go with an atreus stun arrow volley.

I was pretty much decked out since Nilf was the last thing I had to do.

I enjoy doing Nilf runs to try different combos. I have finished the game 2x now and I'm still discovering new combos. The combat i really amazing in this game! Combining both offhand and bare hand combos together with Axe throws is just endless fun!

 

[WaterAstro]

I enjoy doing Nilf runs to try different combos. I have finished the game 2x now and I'm still discovering new combos. The combat i really amazing in this game! Combining both offhand and bare hand combos together with Axe throws is just endless fun!

Man, I don't even bother with combos. I mash whatever. I heavily rely on the runic attacks because they do insane amounts of damage.

A lot of the stuff in Muspelheim were dying in one runic attack.

 

[thelastword]

I beat Sigrun at "give me challenge" difficulty and I found the fight pretty fun. I know most her pattern before hand thanks to my fights with pervious Valkyries. It just came down to me not make mistakes and oh boy I died bunch of times because of it.

Sigrun was one of the best boss fights I've had in a minute, even when I died, I was never frustrated, it just felt good to fight her........

If, she was such a formidable foe though....

Spoiler

I wont want to see what the real Valkyrie Queen "Freya" brings to the table in GOW2, she's getting her wings back, so she will rain down some hurt for sure in the sequel.....

Can't wait......

 

[Justin9mm]

I'm nowhere near finished I think, I had been doing a lot of the side quests as I went along with the story.

Spoiler

I'm somewhere past the part where you are in Helheim(I think) on that boat that you use the sail to fly.

For me the only real criticisms are lack of Enemy variety and Boss fights. I think the rest of the game in general is excellent. I'm playing on a Pro on my 70" 4K TV and have thoroughly enjoyed the experience so far. I watched a recent YouTube vid on Corey Barlog and the 5 year development struggle and what was involved to convince the development team of their vision and how hard it was to overcome some of the obstacles and how they almost gave up when it was too hard like taking out Atreus and still after 4 years did not have him working right in the game. It made me really appreciate the game a lot more. When you realize the blood, sweat and tears and how some of the things they did were thought not possible, I think it's hard to be picky, we are lucky to get games like this and should not be taken for granted.

 

[WaterAstro]

I'm nowhere near finished I think, I had been doing a lot of the side quests as I went along with the story.

Spoiler

I'm somewhere past the part where you are in Helheim(I think) on that boat that you use the sail to fly.

For me the only real criticisms are lack of Enemy variety and Boss fights. I think the rest of the game in general is excellent. I'm playing on a Pro on my 70" 4K TV and have thoroughly enjoyed the experience so far. I watched a recent YouTube vid on Corey Barlog and the 5 year development struggle and what was involved to convince the development team of their vision and how hard it was to overcome some of the obstacles and how they almost gave up when it was too hard like taking out Atreus and still after 4 years did not have him working right in the game. It made me really appreciate the game a lot more. When you realize the blood, sweat and tears and how some of the things they did were thought not possible, I think it's hard to be picky, we are lucky to get games like this and should not be taken for granted.

I think there weren't a lot of enemy models, but there were enemy variety. Even though they are reskinned, you have to keep in mind that your frost axe doesn't work on Helheim dudes, and frost is better against burning dudes. I think it's interesting enough. More bosses would be nice though, but I think we'll see a shitton of bosses in the sequels as we wipe out the entire Norse Mythology.

 

[xviper]

finished the game

Pros:

- amazing combat
- lots of end-game content

Cons:

- no large bosses other than that one, which was my concern since the reveal trailer and i was right
- lack of enemy variety, in previous gow games there was a huge amount of enemies that are different from each other and not just a different color and most of them are zombies with swords
- enemies design sucks
- lack of QTE, i know many people dislike QTE but GOW series is the only game that i can think of that did QTE absolutely fucking right and they ditched that in GOW 4
- lack of bosses
- lack of weapons
- story is boring
- the worst travelling in any game, you open fast travel to any gate more than halfway through the game, and it takes a very long time to travel from a gate to gate, not to mention travelling through worlds, this makes obtaining everything and exploring the world a dull experience
- lack of puzzles
-lack of gore, no more blood, when you kill an enemy you get lava coming out of them and Kratos doesn't perform amazing executions like before( that might be understandable due to Kartos's character development in this game)


Final score: 8\10
no matter what sony games are, they will always be overrated, and GOW 4 is a perfect example of that, it's a good game but it's no fucking masterpiece like the reviewers claim it is

witness how Days gone and Spidermen getting praised when they come out even though they will probably be mediocre

 

[Ar¢tos]

The biggest issue I have with the game is the lack of life. Aside from animals there is only the 2 dwarves and Freya (and humanoid bosses) (the other talking being is more of an accessory) . The only realm with some life is Alfheim, but the very short moment you get to be near them, they just ignore you like you don't even exist. The other games had many humans that you could choose to attack or not, even if you couldn't attack them here, there should be humans, villages. The world feels empty because of that.

 

[Zimmy68]

I had a question if it isn't a spoiler. I'm at point where I would like to slow the game down and back track a little.
Is there something I need to do to open up the fast travel gates?
It's gets frustrating to arrive at gate after gate but they are all locked.
They don't adequately explain why they are locked or what you need to do to use them.
Now there is a single place I can go.
Does it open during the main mission? If so, I'll just keep going until then. Much easier to backtrack when I can fast travel.

 

[Well_Of_Souls]

I had a question if it isn't a spoiler. I'm at point where I would like to slow the game down and back track a little.
Is there something I need to do to open up the fast travel gates?
It's gets frustrating to arrive at gate after gate but they are all locked.
They don't adequately explain why they are locked or what you need to do to use them.
Now there is a single place I can go.
Does it open during the main mission? If so, I'll just keep going until then. Much easier to backtrack when I can fast travel.

You don't need to do anything. The fast travel gates are made available to you later in the game.

 

[Bluecondor]

I find it interesting that this has been described as a "linear" game and is not "open world." I am only part way through the game. but I already enjoy how the game's light RPG elements give you many reasons to go back to areas in the world you visited before, as progressing your character and the storyline gives you the ability to reach chests and entire new areas that you couldn't access earlier in the game. Like in any compelling open world game, you have reasons to go back to parts of the world that you have already encountered.

So - it might not technically be "open world," but it captures some of the best elements of "open world" by giving you a reason to pay attention to the world and the possibilities all around it.

The 18 realm tears in the game, alone, are a nice example of this. Now that I am leveling-up, I am looking forward to going back to a few of the realm tears from earlier in the game that were way above my level when I first found them.

This is easily going to be a 100+ hour game for me.

 

[Ame]

Beat my second playthrough on GMGOW last night and you get a couple of cool shield unlocks.

I instantly equipped this.