thicc_girls_are_teh_best
Member
I took some time to re-watch the Laufey stuff and just isolate my general disappointment in the state of modern gaming "events" from it all, and that's given me some room to balance my perspective.
In general, off the bat I tink the actual graphics are awesome. This is probably the best-looking PS5 game headed to market in the next year, at least from a technical POV. Artistically that argument's more subjective, but outside of some awkward characters (like the pet lizard whatever-TF-it-is) the general character designs look good. Those of the two new (possibly?) antagonists look great. Feye herself looks fine; she's not supposed to be something you beat off to by instinct. She's like Jurassic World-era ScarJo, not MCU Black Widow-era ScarJo.
Outside of that tho, I have concerns. Believe it or not a ResetERA user brought up a good point about the writing: that a lot of the dialog in the trailer has a pseudo-MCU/modern day colloquialism feel to it. The characters sounding more like modern people who happen to be in a fantasy setting with some gods & goddesses of olden eras. A way of speaking that undercuts the weight & gravity of tension, and at times making things feel more like window dressing rather than really setting you in a faraway fantasy realm where things are truly different from our modern lives. I've noticed this as a big problem in lots of modern Western fantasy not just in gaming but also TV shows (Rings of Power, Netflix She-ra etc.) and films. The recent Willow series was TERRIBLE with this and among other issues, so bad even Disney had to remove it from their service, and that's saying a lot.
My other concern is that Laufey is going to be the Predator: Badlands of GOW. I said this a couple days ago, and IMO Badlands is a good sci-fi film but a bad Predator movie. It misses what made Predator and even Predator 2 (despite being worst than the 1st) actual Predator flicks. It Disneyfied the Predator franchise, but I'd say it got off better than the absolutely awful, rancid, batshit terrible sack of crap that was Alien: Earth and how that bastardized the Alien franchise (despite a decent start and good early writing for Morrow & Kirsch. And Sydney Chandler was good as Wendy tho the character was poorly written). So far GOW Laufey's already got the cute Grogo-like pet sidekick/spirit guide (?). It's got a talking ribbon and a talking cube.
I get it. It's a fantasy game. But GOW's generally always been "grounded" in its fantasy. More bombastic & fantastical than something like Hellblade for sure, but grounded in the context of a mature, somewhat gritty space. A good balance of high fantasy & low fantasy, and a palatable form of dark fantasy mixed with Hollywood action blockbuster. There's been bits of humor in GOW games, but more understated or inferred, with elements of dark comedy done for a smirk or light chuckle at most rather than burst-out laughter. Things like talking cubes or MCU-like quips get into the overt humor territory, it's too close to gag humor for a GOW game IMO.
Last thing, and another reason I brought up the Predator: Badlands comparison is that, yes, whether you want to admit it or not (I sure as hell don't), there are inferences of a "certain" gender dynamic at play in the game from what they've shown so far. None of the male characters revealed so far have any sense of independence or leadership qualities, and they all seem subservient to a woman in some way. I'm not saying you need one or several male characters to be gum-chewing alpha chads or make the women in any way docile. We've had plenty of fantasy games going back to the 1980s with strong female characters who have their own agency and aren't simply there as sex appeal objects; go look back at some of the old Ultima games for example.
That said, the way the gender dynamics have been shown in Laufey so far are very intentional, and seem pressed to establish without shadow of a doubt that "the women are in charge here!". I wouldn't expect much from any of the main male characters on the good side, for instance, beyond a "best friend/supportive friend" trope type, for example. You know the type I'm talking about. There's been nothing shown in Laufey so far that's as bad in this department as what Predator: Badlands had, but I'd just keep a casual eye on if it appears over time. Kratos not being (that much) in the game might help avoid such a situation from occurring.
Overall, I'm cautiously optimistic about GOW: Laufey. It's not the disaster console warriors, culture war grifters and ass-hurt PC gamers upset over a rumor want it to be. But it's not the "slam dunk" type of thing many of SIE's other 1P AAA cinematic games have been in the past, either. IMO it's in an awkward middle space, and that's not a great place to be. I think the anticipation for Balrog's next game that's built over the years leading to just "another GOW", one without Kratos as the lead, is also contributing to some of the lukewarm reactions. And I blame that largely on SIE; if they were more communicative with what titles were being worked on, some of these "insiders" wouldn't have been able to generate a bunch of hype over stuff that eventually turned out to be false.
But this is a new SIE under new leadership who more often than not, appear further out of touch with their core legacy fanbase and content than ever before. So in a lot of ways I can't say what's happening with reactions to GOW Laufey is that surprising.
In general, off the bat I tink the actual graphics are awesome. This is probably the best-looking PS5 game headed to market in the next year, at least from a technical POV. Artistically that argument's more subjective, but outside of some awkward characters (like the pet lizard whatever-TF-it-is) the general character designs look good. Those of the two new (possibly?) antagonists look great. Feye herself looks fine; she's not supposed to be something you beat off to by instinct. She's like Jurassic World-era ScarJo, not MCU Black Widow-era ScarJo.
Outside of that tho, I have concerns. Believe it or not a ResetERA user brought up a good point about the writing: that a lot of the dialog in the trailer has a pseudo-MCU/modern day colloquialism feel to it. The characters sounding more like modern people who happen to be in a fantasy setting with some gods & goddesses of olden eras. A way of speaking that undercuts the weight & gravity of tension, and at times making things feel more like window dressing rather than really setting you in a faraway fantasy realm where things are truly different from our modern lives. I've noticed this as a big problem in lots of modern Western fantasy not just in gaming but also TV shows (Rings of Power, Netflix She-ra etc.) and films. The recent Willow series was TERRIBLE with this and among other issues, so bad even Disney had to remove it from their service, and that's saying a lot.
My other concern is that Laufey is going to be the Predator: Badlands of GOW. I said this a couple days ago, and IMO Badlands is a good sci-fi film but a bad Predator movie. It misses what made Predator and even Predator 2 (despite being worst than the 1st) actual Predator flicks. It Disneyfied the Predator franchise, but I'd say it got off better than the absolutely awful, rancid, batshit terrible sack of crap that was Alien: Earth and how that bastardized the Alien franchise (despite a decent start and good early writing for Morrow & Kirsch. And Sydney Chandler was good as Wendy tho the character was poorly written). So far GOW Laufey's already got the cute Grogo-like pet sidekick/spirit guide (?). It's got a talking ribbon and a talking cube.
I get it. It's a fantasy game. But GOW's generally always been "grounded" in its fantasy. More bombastic & fantastical than something like Hellblade for sure, but grounded in the context of a mature, somewhat gritty space. A good balance of high fantasy & low fantasy, and a palatable form of dark fantasy mixed with Hollywood action blockbuster. There's been bits of humor in GOW games, but more understated or inferred, with elements of dark comedy done for a smirk or light chuckle at most rather than burst-out laughter. Things like talking cubes or MCU-like quips get into the overt humor territory, it's too close to gag humor for a GOW game IMO.
Last thing, and another reason I brought up the Predator: Badlands comparison is that, yes, whether you want to admit it or not (I sure as hell don't), there are inferences of a "certain" gender dynamic at play in the game from what they've shown so far. None of the male characters revealed so far have any sense of independence or leadership qualities, and they all seem subservient to a woman in some way. I'm not saying you need one or several male characters to be gum-chewing alpha chads or make the women in any way docile. We've had plenty of fantasy games going back to the 1980s with strong female characters who have their own agency and aren't simply there as sex appeal objects; go look back at some of the old Ultima games for example.
That said, the way the gender dynamics have been shown in Laufey so far are very intentional, and seem pressed to establish without shadow of a doubt that "the women are in charge here!". I wouldn't expect much from any of the main male characters on the good side, for instance, beyond a "best friend/supportive friend" trope type, for example. You know the type I'm talking about. There's been nothing shown in Laufey so far that's as bad in this department as what Predator: Badlands had, but I'd just keep a casual eye on if it appears over time. Kratos not being (that much) in the game might help avoid such a situation from occurring.
Overall, I'm cautiously optimistic about GOW: Laufey. It's not the disaster console warriors, culture war grifters and ass-hurt PC gamers upset over a rumor want it to be. But it's not the "slam dunk" type of thing many of SIE's other 1P AAA cinematic games have been in the past, either. IMO it's in an awkward middle space, and that's not a great place to be. I think the anticipation for Balrog's next game that's built over the years leading to just "another GOW", one without Kratos as the lead, is also contributing to some of the lukewarm reactions. And I blame that largely on SIE; if they were more communicative with what titles were being worked on, some of these "insiders" wouldn't have been able to generate a bunch of hype over stuff that eventually turned out to be false.
But this is a new SIE under new leadership who more often than not, appear further out of touch with their core legacy fanbase and content than ever before. So in a lot of ways I can't say what's happening with reactions to GOW Laufey is that surprising.
nighty night!
