Generic
Member
If they improved the combat and enemy diversity then I will give it try, it's on PS+ anyway.
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LTTP: God of War Ragnarok (PS4)
- Thread starter EverydayBeast
- Start date
Gaiff
SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
The enemy diversity is greatly improved. That's one of the highlights of the game in my opinion. You often encounter new enemies with completely different movesets and behavior and each faction has its own mini-bosse(s). The most fun enemies to fight in 2018 were the Travelers. Outside of them, most regular mobs didn't pose much of a threat. In this one, you have Wyverns, Raider Chieftains, Einherjar Captains, Grandugr, and so many more.
kiphalfton
Member
Did not read lol.
GoW 2018 was fine, but no way in hell could I play through what is essentially the same game again.
The old god of war games all played the same, but at the very least they were like 8-10 hours long.
GoW 2018 was fine, but no way in hell could I play through what is essentially the same game again.
The old god of war games all played the same, but at the very least they were like 8-10 hours long.
CompleteGlobalSaturation
Member
None of the characters in the sequel were likeable.
God Of War (PS2 title, 2005) had far greater depth to it's story, writing, and characters. The narrative was much more compelling.
Ragnarok felt like it was written by amateur hacks.
CompleteGlobalSaturation
Member
The old God of War games felt like an absolutely amazing adventure. The puzzles were also more fun and interesting. The games were the very definition of an 'epic journey', from beginning to end.
DenchDeckard
Moderated wildly
94 Metacritic. Think about that. Absolute insanity.
Send all these journalists a free axe and they jizz all over your game.
Send all these journalists a free axe and they jizz all over your game.
ElFenomeno
Member
A masterclass in how NOT to make a game.
Insanemaelstrom
Member
Personally loved the game but did feel it didn't live upto god of war 2018. Not just expectations but as a game I consider it a bit worse than god of war 2018.
Combat: it is vastly improved from 2018 but the game doesn't do a good job of presenting what those changes are properly, imo. A lot of people on forums seem to be trying to play it like 2018 and then get frustrated because it makes the enemies appear as bullet sponges. I like the changes, just wish it was communicated more clearly.
Story: the biggest step down from 2018. 2018's story while simple, shined due to how well it was told. Every story beat was measured and delivered spectacualy, with none of it out living it's welcome. God of war Ragnarok tries to tell too much yet not enough at the same time, the story feels like it is all over the place. It also ends up affecting the characterization with players left wondering as to why a particular character is even there. Kratos's story arc in the main game sucks. There just isn't much to it. I wish they had the balls to stick with their original plan and kill kratos at the start( kratos had anyways died in every single god of war game set in the greek trilogy). Valhalla was the only shining light and actually replicated 2018 in how well it tells it's story.
Spectacle: This category is important because it is what represents every god of war game. Even 2018, even though enemies were smaller, they still retained the spectacle. You felt as if you were fighting gods and outworldly beings. In Ragnarok, besides the initial thor fight, while the fights were mechanically sound they were sorely lacking when it comes to spectacle as a element. Take odin boss fight as an example, surely they could have done better.
Ragnarok shows that the team still has the talent. It just seems as if the decision to turn 2 games into one arrived too late and also a case of mistaken priority. Too much time spent on the wrong things( ironwood section, for example) and too little on what was important( making boss fights more breathtaking, kratos having a proper arc, etc).
Overall, I still liked the game and will give it a 9/10 ( crater section in particular was amazing and peak god of war along with Valhalla). But it is far more flawed than 2018. Hope they turn things around in their next game
Combat: it is vastly improved from 2018 but the game doesn't do a good job of presenting what those changes are properly, imo. A lot of people on forums seem to be trying to play it like 2018 and then get frustrated because it makes the enemies appear as bullet sponges. I like the changes, just wish it was communicated more clearly.
Story: the biggest step down from 2018. 2018's story while simple, shined due to how well it was told. Every story beat was measured and delivered spectacualy, with none of it out living it's welcome. God of war Ragnarok tries to tell too much yet not enough at the same time, the story feels like it is all over the place. It also ends up affecting the characterization with players left wondering as to why a particular character is even there. Kratos's story arc in the main game sucks. There just isn't much to it. I wish they had the balls to stick with their original plan and kill kratos at the start( kratos had anyways died in every single god of war game set in the greek trilogy). Valhalla was the only shining light and actually replicated 2018 in how well it tells it's story.
Spectacle: This category is important because it is what represents every god of war game. Even 2018, even though enemies were smaller, they still retained the spectacle. You felt as if you were fighting gods and outworldly beings. In Ragnarok, besides the initial thor fight, while the fights were mechanically sound they were sorely lacking when it comes to spectacle as a element. Take odin boss fight as an example, surely they could have done better.
Ragnarok shows that the team still has the talent. It just seems as if the decision to turn 2 games into one arrived too late and also a case of mistaken priority. Too much time spent on the wrong things( ironwood section, for example) and too little on what was important( making boss fights more breathtaking, kratos having a proper arc, etc).
Overall, I still liked the game and will give it a 9/10 ( crater section in particular was amazing and peak god of war along with Valhalla). But it is far more flawed than 2018. Hope they turn things around in their next game
SmokedMeat
Gamer™
OP’s trying to atone for making that Xbox thread.
ChatGPT write me up a God of War Ragnarok advertisement.
ChatGPT write me up a God of War Ragnarok advertisement.
Hari Seldon
Member
Funny enough I just started playing this game this past weekend. I'm up to the part right after you play as Atreus and go to the ice world to find Freya. I bought this game at launch and tried it for 1 hour and noped out hard because I was still too fatigued from 2018. I'm loving the combat, but I can definitely see why people don't like it. As someone said earlier in this thread, the single camera design is the source of most of the issues with this game. You have to walk everywhere instead of cutscening around, meaning they have to fill the walking with something interesting: writing and collectables. The writing is highly inconsistent, and the collectables are Ubi-crap level fatiguing. If I didn't need to collect this shit for player power I would skip it.
diffusionx
Gold Member
Gameplay had some good improvements over the original, but the story was a total disaster and the devs chickened out at the end and decided to make some horrible Marvel style ending instead of doing what the story was obviously leading to.
Not quite as disappointing as SM2 but still in the ballpark.
Not quite as disappointing as SM2 but still in the ballpark.
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Yes it felt safe… and everyone was so nice and almost polite suddenly. Like a sitcom version of gow 2018
The level design is also very ps4 era (obvious tech limitations)
Still i enjoyed it so 8/10 would be fair
Lunarorbit
Member
I'm not excited for the wolverine game at all and as much as I liked the spiderman and miles morales games they felt very similar.
I just wonder if Loki is on people’s and developers lips, him tricking humanity is a disgusting approach we saw in the marvel movies, how will they spin adult Loki anyway? Is a Loki game people want?
This could be great but you need the right writers. In that sense why marvel doesn't hire Johnathan hickman to write stuff outside comics is weird. Hes one of several great writers at marvel the last decade that i don't know get any other chances
EverydayBeast
ChatGPT 0.001
Wolverine game you're dealing with other incredible characters of the x-men universe. Would you love or hate seeing the TVA (time variance authority) in a Loki video game? To many the TVA is kinda the matrix, red pill of the hero world. I think they would change things, I think the TVA in the show did a good job, the crazy timelines and Loki manipulating them was just a joy.
EverydayBeast
ChatGPT 0.001
What made god of war 2018 so incredible? Mimir, baulder and yet you did not see the likes of Tyr, Odin, and also Thor like in god of war ragnarok.
What is going on with this ChatGPT accusations? An incredible AI service? And thanks for bringing up the xbox thread buddy. Anyway, the god of war ragnarok neogaf hate is crazy, you guys need to snap out of it, ragnarok is a good game, as long as you stick to the main objectives, all the noir chests are fun, lashing out at collecting? Collecting what? Whatever you collect is exchanged for better armour, health, upgrades. I think hacksilver is everywhere and literally every game today has collecting. Odin's ravens you can collect but I feel like they're avoidable, the favors like freeing the giant squids in the elf desert were great. In fact each realm only has 5 or 6 favors and I grew up with games like Majoras Mask, some game that has tons of side quests. Having just completed ragnarok I feel like I skipped the squirrel's quests.
Wolves hunt in packs
Member
Like the gameplay (mostly, the Atreus parts was much overdone), didn't like the story and characters, Thor hanging out with Atreus after he killed his son.. yeah right.
Kratos "can't we all get along" attitude.. yeah right.
Odin only care about the mask.. has no other part in the story except that.. ok.
There were also good parts.. like the Kratos seeing he will be loved god was kinda touching, and overall things you do in game like getting the spear story was cool, but main story sucks.
Kratos "can't we all get along" attitude.. yeah right.
Odin only care about the mask.. has no other part in the story except that.. ok.
There were also good parts.. like the Kratos seeing he will be loved god was kinda touching, and overall things you do in game like getting the spear story was cool, but main story sucks.
Yes the story went full PG13 when the last game indicated this would be more brutal.
kiphalfton
Member
There's lots of filler in the new GoW game.
There must be some psychological thing associated with collecting stuff, as it's in almost all games now.
Pretty sad when puzzles were replaced with that (not saying I love puzzles, but at least it was stimulating your brain, and a good use of breaks in gameplay).
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BbMajor7th
Member
Got bored halfway through and put it down. The game somehow managed to do both too much and not enough. I was left with the odd feeling of it being too safe and too close to God of War, whilst being overstuffed and laborious.
Strategize
Member
Sure, it's only journalists that think this game is amazing, right? I guess journalists rigged this entire backet aswell then?
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CompleteGlobalSaturation
Member
"Exploration" is the most overrated thing in a video game.
I just want to kick ass - not fumble around like a headless chicken.
CartesianMan
Member
The game is bland as F. I really can't remember anything from it besides the fact that the level design consists of corridors, like in the first Doom.
Walls were everywhere, and when I happily discovered more open space—bam, another wall, but this time invisible!
I could barely understand what Kratos was saying and had to turn on subtitles—dude was so freakin’ backseated in the narrative, I think his voice was coming from the trunk!
Walls were everywhere, and when I happily discovered more open space—bam, another wall, but this time invisible!
I could barely understand what Kratos was saying and had to turn on subtitles—dude was so freakin’ backseated in the narrative, I think his voice was coming from the trunk!
PatientGamer
Member
Loved every minute of it. You can tell who has actually played it by the comments online.
EverydayBeast
ChatGPT 0.001
Mibu no ookami
Demoted Member® Pro™
I think you really misunderstood the game and I think a lot of people get distracted by the idea or reality that they don't like Atreus, who is a decently written character.
Let's hit point by point. I think Ironwood is a poorly paced sequence, I think that's one of the biggest reasons why people don't like playing as Atreus and don't like Angraboda (outside of other reasons). They should have trimmed this sequence down and I can't imagine this didn't come up during playtests.
Thor isn't "hanging out" with Atreus. He's doing as he is told. Odin is in charge, Odin wants Thor to work with him to get the mask, which we'll get to in a bit.
Kratos does not have a "can't we all get along attitude." Odin offers him peace in the very beginning of the game and Kratos turns him down flat. Kratos warns Odin multiple times that if he doesn't leave Atreus alone he has no issue taken things to another level. You're confusing Kratos trying to prevent Atreus from being involved in a war which could get him killed or worse turn him into something like him and Kratos being koombaya, which is never the case.
Maybe you don't know much about Odin in Norse mythology but he's obsessed with knowledge. He like Zeus finds the prophecy that he is destined to die and is trying to do whatever he can to avoid that (who wouldn't?) and he believes the mask is key to telling him all the answers, including a way to prevent the prophecy. What did Zeus care about in the original games that you think separates him from Odin here? Also, Odin is quite busy the whole game, not sure if you missed that part.
How Santa Monica weaved together this story and Norse mythology was pretty brilliant. I think people are generally more critical of games today and less knowledgable about norse mythology than greek mythology and miss how much detail and thought went into God of War 2018 and Ragnarok.
Mibu no ookami
Demoted Member® Pro™
Only 3 characters die in the first game and in Ragnarok 5 die on top of several minor characters. Not sure what else you were expecting.
jburdick7
Neo Member
Massive disappointment for me.
It’s not a *bad* game in a vacuum but it is a pretty bad God of War game and a terrible sequel to GOW 2018. The combat mechanics are better but the game is so bloated, the story so meandering and pointless, and some of the characterization is so unlikable that the improved gameplay is overshadowed.
I’ve played through 2018 twice, platinuming it at launch and then 100%ing it on Steam last year. Playing it after Ragnarok really just highlighted the things I didn’t like about Ragnarok; 2018 is just so much tighter and well written. GoW:R simultaneously manages to feel like it’s plot doesn’t have room to breathe and yet plodding at the same time. Add in the dialogue sounding like it came out of California and it as a whole just did not work for me.
It’s not a *bad* game in a vacuum but it is a pretty bad God of War game and a terrible sequel to GOW 2018. The combat mechanics are better but the game is so bloated, the story so meandering and pointless, and some of the characterization is so unlikable that the improved gameplay is overshadowed.
I’ve played through 2018 twice, platinuming it at launch and then 100%ing it on Steam last year. Playing it after Ragnarok really just highlighted the things I didn’t like about Ragnarok; 2018 is just so much tighter and well written. GoW:R simultaneously manages to feel like it’s plot doesn’t have room to breathe and yet plodding at the same time. Add in the dialogue sounding like it came out of California and it as a whole just did not work for me.
Wolves hunt in packs
Member
IIRC Kratos in both boss fights with Heimdall and later on with Odin and Thor, tries to solve it without fighting, with Heimdall.. after he beat him he warns him, old Kratos would cut him open and be done with him. and he so much cared for Thor in the end that he didn't want Odin to kill him, sorry didn't care for it, doesn't seems logic to me that Thor will babysit this who killed it's son, and please mate don't push the you didn't get the plot, i did get it and didn't connect with it, there are parts i did like, the main story i liked less, the whole Ragnarok sequence in the end also didn't felt good enough, so yeah great game still but 2018 is much better.
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Mibu no ookami
Demoted Member® Pro™
That's because Kratos isn't the aggressor here. The Asguardians are, especially Heimdall and Thor. As I said, Kratos is trying to get through this without escalating things, but he doesn't hesitate with Heimdall. He tell Thor he's only there for Odin.
He isn't old Kratos. He's a father trying to do right by his son. If you fundamentally struggle with that concept, God of War probably isn't for you anymore, but what you're trying to paint isn't an accurate description of events.
You definitely didn't get it. You even struggle to understand the relationship between Thor and Odin and why Thor is "babysitting" the one who killed his sons. I think you struggled to understand Thor altogether, even as established in the first game. Thor beat the shit out of Modi and beat him to within an inch of his life because he allowed Magni to be killed. Thor is a drunk and isn't a great father and is shit on constantly by Odin, which is why he shits on Magni and Modi. Do you know who doesn't care about Magni and Modi? Odin, who establishes that by... checks notes... saying he doesn't care about Magni and Modi, but that Baldur had value.
Your inability to understand the characters are why you think it's not logical for Thor to work with Atreus. You ignore whats been established in the game and simply conclude, Thor would want to kill whoever killed his sons. Even if the beginning of the game when you fight Thor, Kratos mentions even in death you put your son last. At the end of the fight Thor says the blood debt has been paid. All things you ignore because you think Magni and Modi were more important somehow.
Wolves hunt in packs
Member
Got it, doesn't change my mind and i don't care about you making this personal, i said what i feel about the game, while you constantly saying "you don't get this and don't get that", have your opinion about it and let me have mine, that's about it.
Xbox 360 slim
Neo Member
Originally released in 2022 at the end of the pandemic.
It’s a perfect game, real balanced and for those who don’t know our Spartan, Greek god, Kratos is now a Norse “Champion” with a legitimate life in Scandinavia and there are some that believe they’re just profiting off the Viking narrative but you’re getting a new view on incredible characters like a young Loki, Thor, Odin and the events of Ragnarok.
Like many games today the maps are interfered with objective bloat and I urge developers to let maps be maps.
God of war has always been super linear, todays open world games give you 100% freedom on where to roam, that open world feel is here but it’s somewhat linear and not being able to go into every dwarf home or climb every cliff might be a hard pill for some to swallow.
Kratos here is still that crazy mother fucker, cracking puzzles, the melee combinations (axe, blades, spear, shield) with little conversation but this time he’s supported with allies like young Loki, and Freya. Young Loki received a lot of pushback and it’s sad, give the kid his own game.
I love beating the crap out of Odin’s enemies, various beasts in this game. Fighting through hoards of enemies is amazing thanks the weapons Kratos is equipped with.
To me the essence of god of war is very much here, Kratos is scary and even makes a god like Thor look like a coward (interesting Thor design btw), you have areas where to travel, giants, cutscenes with commitment to Norse lore and it shows the god of war charm is still present.
Overall god of war Ragnarok was a pleasure to play over its 18 chapters, almost 50 hours of gameplay, I think Odin represents a good, power hungry main boss and the actor delivered an all time performance.
Ragnarok deserves a play in my opinion, what did GAF think of God of War Ragnarok?