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God of War Ragnarök G|OT|Y

mxbison

Member
I just started playing a few days ago, and I've just gotta ask: What the HELL is up with the "compass" in this game?! It's behaving like a neurotic bee, with markers jumping all over the place. I guess it's actually trying to guide you through waypoints leading to the location rather than the actual direction of the place? That's NOT how a compass works, but even if that's the case I find it almost impossible to actually follow it anywhere.

Yeah it's a bit weird, it shows the actual walking path on not direction.

I don't think the compass is necessary though. I put it on toggle via the touchpad and used maybe 3 times in the whole game.
 
Yeah it's a bit weird, it shows the actual walking path on not direction.

I don't think the compass is necessary though. I put it on toggle via the touchpad and used maybe 3 times in the whole game.

I wonder if everyone is using the same touchpad buttons, found out my bro and I do.

Up for UI and down for quick turn
 
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RoadHazard

Gold Member
I wonder if everyone is using the same touchpad buttons, found out my bro and I do.

Up for UI and down for quick turn

I didn't even know there was a quick turn lol. The game hasn't shown it in any tutorial tip from what I've seen. But I do remember it being in the original game now that you mention it. It's weird how the game never tells you some things. Not even that you can target enemies with R3.
 

Swift_Star

Banned
Is the lightning variation a feature from the game, not my TV? It was annoying but someone told me it's the game, not my set. Is that confirmed? It's a little annoying that the game goes from dark to bright.
Vanaheim
was really bad for it.
 

Boneless

Member
Is the lightning variation a feature from the game, not my TV? It was annoying but someone told me it's the game, not my set. Is that confirmed? It's a little annoying that the game goes from dark to bright.
Vanaheim
was really bad for it.

Not noticed this on my S95B. Sounds like a TV to be honest (e.g. auto brightness sensor on your TV).
 
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SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
I replayed GoW 2018 for the first time in 3 years to see if it held up the way I thought it did. There's no doubt that Ragnarok is a top 3 game released in the past couple years. But 2018 still feels like a near flawless masterpiece for me. Played it on PC for the first time and even after my 4th playthrough I can't help but feel like I enjoy it more than Ragnarok.

I find it difficult to put my finger on the exact reason. 2018 felt like a more personal story with more intimate animation and cinematography. Better pacing and written characters too imo.

With Ragnarok it's like they tried to expand on everything that 2018 had - but only on the surface level and not in terms of actual quality.
Ragnarok looks and plays better I think. The difference in graphical quality was really striking going back and playing a bit of 2018. But 2018 was certainly better written with a tighter, more focused, more personal story that landed its big emotional beats really well.

Ragnarok still had some highlights story wise and I really like how some of the characters were handled. Seeing Thor as the product of an abusive narcissistic father, seeing Thrud disappointed when he relapsed, it made these characters surprisingly relatable and real to me.

Some beats didn't land as well though. The third act twists felt a bit cheap for me and the ending itself rushed and incomplete. Those things keep it from measuring up to the previous game for me.
 

Interfectum

Member
I'm enjoying the story of this game but man I am getting fatigued on the amount of level puzzles they throw at you in-between fights. This game could be 20 hours total without those time sinks.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Beat the game last night. Absolute masterpiece. Probably the most impressed I've been with a game since Uncharted 2.

Pros:
  • Gameplay is absolutely sublime - vicious combat that when it clicks makes you feel incredible
  • Insane amounts of production values - set pieces, enemy encounters, bosses, side content.
  • Visuals on PS5 are top notch - Cross Gen be damned, this is the most impressive game on the market. Rock solid 60 fps, near 4K native, extremely rich texture detail, the best animation in the business. But the most important thing is the stunning artistic direction. Horizon FW is more technically impressive, but it does not have the artistic direction that is as strong as this, resulting in areas that don't feel as visually striking. I believe that the graphics on GOWR are highly underrated.
  • Really enjoyed getting to know the adversaries (Thor, Odin, Thrud etc) throughout the game. Felt the story overall really hit the highlights they were aiming to achieve with some surprising twists along the way

Cons:
  • Some inconsistent, meandering writing at times
  • Ending boss battles could have been a bit grander
  • Would have liked a return of the "Palace/Dungeon/Temple" type areas of the original God of War games with more intricate puzzles that don't rely on wonky mechanics like Sigil arrows.
  • Minor pacing issues early game but are quickly forgotten about as the game progresses
  • Combat has some minor issues to it that cause a lot of frustration. Could be better resolved with minor tweaks. Many deaths to the game's toughest fights are caused by game jank/animation or lack of i-frames

Where I'd like the series to go in the future:
  • I think they can achieve Open World similar to Elden Ring. Open World Area --> Wide Linear Hub --> Intricate Linear Dungeons
  • Egyptian mythology would be really cool to see, with a focus on Sci-Fi/UFO type beings

GOTY? Yes, GOTY.
Pretty much agreed on everything. Though id say this is the best game ive played since RDR2 and GOW 2018.

I never do this anymore because these 60 hour campaigns drain me and bore to death with their repetitiveness but I am going to start another run today after i mop up some of the trophies. The game has so many memorable setpieces that I want to experience all over again immediately. I might just do a story run if the side content bores me but now that Ive realized that Strength and Defense stats are the most important stats, I kinda want to start it all over again. I am destroying everyone in the crucible with my 500 Strength build. The wolves go down in 3-4 hits. The boss rush challenge which was so damn hard the first time with my runic build is a breeze. 2 minutes for 5 mini bosses without changing weapons or using runic atacks. That Elf king I hate so much I wreck in seconds. Its hilarious. I want to know if I made the beserker fights harder for myself by rolling around in 250 strength and defense the whole game.

As for GOTY, i barely played like three games this year and this shits on HFW and is definitely more of my cup of tea than Elden Rings which felt unfocused and very ubisoft like. But i suspect Elden Rings will take most GOTY awards because SSM kind of didnt go that extra mile towards the end.
 
I'm almost 50 in and far from finishing.

Normal mode or ignoring sidecontent is my guess.
I'm almost 20 hours in and I have not med Thor yet! (kidding, but I don't feel the game is close to its end point story wise, and I still have to be careful with the spoilers).

This is the best game released in a long long time, it just plays so well.

I wish I could send my kids to their grand-ma for a week or two so I can play more hehehe
 
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GymWolf

Member
Maps and compass is this game are absolute trash, it is a pain in the ass doing backtracking to get all the stuff i left behind...

If you want to make a metroidvania structure, at least make sure that your map and compass are fucking on point.
 

scydrex

Member
Pretty much agreed on everything. Though id say this is the best game ive played since RDR2 and GOW 2018.

I never do this anymore because these 60 hour campaigns drain me and bore to death with their repetitiveness but I am going to start another run today after i mop up some of the trophies. The game has so many memorable setpieces that I want to experience all over again immediately. I might just do a story run if the side content bores me but now that Ive realized that Strength and Defense stats are the most important stats, I kinda want to start it all over again. I am destroying everyone in the crucible with my 500 Strength build. The wolves go down in 3-4 hits. The boss rush challenge which was so damn hard the first time with my runic build is a breeze. 2 minutes for 5 mini bosses without changing weapons or using runic atacks. That Elf king I hate so much I wreck in seconds. Its hilarious. I want to know if I made the beserker fights harder for myself by rolling around in 250 strength and defense the whole game.

As for GOTY, i barely played like three games this year and this shits on HFW and is definitely more of my cup of tea than Elden Rings which felt unfocused and very ubisoft like. But i suspect Elden Rings will take most GOTY awards because SSM kind of didnt go that extra mile towards the end.
After you said it. Decides to change to strength and defense to try it. Yeah the damage of the normal attacks in this most important thing in this game of course defense second one.
 
GOTY race was still pretty close for me until I reached The Crater.

It's over now.
Barack Obama Yes GIF by Obama


I was blown away from this completly optional area.

I really hope they'll do some dlcs with additional areas in other realms.

Vanaheim is great overall but other realms were way to short/small.
 
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But i suspect Elden Rings will take most GOTY awards because SSM kind of didnt go that extra mile towards the end.

Elden Ring is a far worse offender when it comes to end stuff. It really went downhill a lot in the last 25%.

God of War in comparison was still impressive just could have been a little more with the end boss.
 

Boneless

Member
Elden Ring is a far worse offender when it comes to end stuff. It really went downhill a lot in the last 25%.

God of War in comparison was still impressive just could have been a little more with the end boss.

The snow area was a bit lame, but I also blame that on the fact that I had already played 80 hours and all the other areas were so amazing.
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
So the HUD customization settings are broken yes? I want to set the compass to only be shown when I swipe up on the touch pad, but I DON'T want that to also show the rest of the HUD. All the other elements I only want to see when they're relevant, like when I'm in combat. This doesn't seem to work. If I set compass to "Swipe" but the rest to "On" (which I would expect to make them behave as default), I also have to set the HUD toggle, but that always toggles the entire HUD on and off, including all elements NOT set to "Swipe". So it seems like it doesn't matter if you set a certain element to "On" or "Swipe", they'll all be controlled by swiping either way. So, like, what?
 
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A.Romero

Member
I finished the main story last nigh and I think I got most of the favors down as well.

- Amazing art direction that makes me forget this is a crossgen game (I'm a PC gamer so I'm used to high end graphics but few games truly leverage what art direction can do).
- Personally I didn't feel annoyed by the hints. I didn't hear them that often or maybe I didn't pay enough attention. I wish I had some hints for some of the puzzles.
- Finding some stuff can be annoying. For example, I can't find one of the casualty of war favors.
- I liked the writing at the beginning for fell apart at the mid-end game. Will probably write something about it in the spoilers thread
- Gameplay is OK but I feel I enjoyed the 2018's more. I remember fighting the last Valkyrie and having to use everything at my disposal to survive. Haven't felt like that this time (although I have beaten only 1 berserker so far)
- Side quests are pretty good overall, really deepens the lore and are varied enough
- Big improvement on enemy variety
- I guess I was expecting more out of dualsense. Didn't seem like a radical new experience, just more rumble
- Great level design. Sometimes I thought I was branching from where I was supposed to go to explore but ended up where the quest wanted me to go. I found Vanheim a little bit annoying but it surprised me to open a whole new area that was unrelated to any main story quests


I'll play the next one for sure.
 

Dunky

Member
Can anyone tell me how far I am into the game


Just beat the giant wolf that you fight in helheim
 
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SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
- Gameplay is OK but I feel I enjoyed the 2018's more. I remember fighting the last Valkyrie and having to use everything at my disposal to survive. Haven't felt like that this time (although I have beaten only 1 berserker so far)
lol come on man.

Some of the beserkers will break you and they arent even the hardest enemy.

Be careful what you wish for.
 
Can anybody help a brother out? What are you supposed to do with the little Lizard guys that burrow if you try to attack them or get to close. The non-aggro ones. I'm sure there's a trick to them since they show up all over the place but I can't figure it out
 

A.Romero

Member
my-child-oh-my-child.gif


There is a new valkyrie queen you can fight which is even tougher than Sigrun.
Oh shit, that sounds cool.

I'll try to find it later tonight.

Thanks for the heads up. I heard the name but I turned it off as soon as I finished.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Can anybody help a brother out? What are you supposed to do with the little Lizard guys that burrow if you try to attack them or get to close. The non-aggro ones. I'm sure there's a trick to them since they show up all over the place but I can't figure it out
You need kill them from behind, if you do it gives you materials.
 
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Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Oh shit, that sounds cool.

I'll try to find it later tonight.

Thanks for the heads up. I heard the name but I turned it off as soon as I finished.
First focus on killing Berserkers and their king, the Valkyrie Gna is gonna be tougher than any them.
 

Sleepwalker

Member
Can anybody help a brother out? What are you supposed to do with the little Lizard guys that burrow if you try to attack them or get to close. The non-aggro ones. I'm sure there's a trick to them since they show up all over the place but I can't figure it out
Usually theres a way to kill them from behind or drop something on their heads
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
Gow 2018 was a tour de force. An epic game. I'm 20 hours into ragnarok and it's just not quite there at all.


There's some great stuff but I am actually heartbroken it was a ps4 game and thinking of what this game could have been.


The boss fights have been brilliant and exciting but all the other combat just feels like I'm in a small bowl with enemies coming in packs of three or 4 total. Or the other arena is a small area at the bottom with a couple of bits you can swing across.


I actually miss the trolls. God of war has always had large enemies like cyclops etc but this game just has little small enemies in small packs fighting in bowls.

There is a lot I am really enjoying about this game. Its an absolute solid 8 out if ten for me so far abd I'm only 20 hours in of which I know is a large game but I am having some issues.

Overall great but seems to be suffering from Sony sequel itis . I don't think it quite knows what it wants to do, feels a bit messy compared to 2018 which just felt like they had a perfect vision and mastered it.

Excited to see what the rest of the game holds and hopefully I get some more fights that aren't just bowl type arenas and small enemies. I am hoping some big guys turn up as like mini bosses more often and for more epic boss fights.

Great game, just far from 2018 imo.

I think Cory just knew exactly what he wanted the team to do.

I'm really surprised this has reviewed the way it has.

Copy from the review thread. Without spoilers can anyone give me some awesome news that more mid tier sized enemies turn up etc? I want some big fatty mini bosses etc like all old god of war games use to have like cyclops and minotaur.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Copy from the review thread. Without spoilers can anyone give me some awesome news that more mid tier sized enemies turn up etc? I want some big fatty mini bosses etc like all old god of war games use to have like cyclops and minotaur.
There are plenty of them. just keep playing.
 

Kirkio

Member
I know these posts are prob getting annoying but can anyone tell me roughly what percentage I am through the game, I explore everywhere and do as much side content as I come across before doing another story mission.. Think I've done around 30 hours, GOTY so far for meI just got the spear
 
These dual berserker fights are just horseshit. I took down the one in Aflheim and my god, what a pain in the ass. Felt like pure luck just being able to survive long enough to take one of them out first

Also sucked that I had a health bar glitch, it disappeared, so I was fighting them without knowing how much health they had left (or if they somehow glitched with infinite health).
 
I know these posts are prob getting annoying but can anyone tell me roughly what percentage I am through the game, I explore everywhere and do as much side content as I come across before doing another story mission.. Think I've done around 30 hours, GOTY so far for meI just got the spear

I would say about 65% through. There is a massive end-game area that opens up that is about as long as Uncharted Lost Legacy is in its entirety lol.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
These dual berserker fights are just horseshit. I took down the one in Aflheim and my god, what a pain in the ass. Felt like pure luck just being able to survive long enough to take one of them out first
I also really hate multiple berserker in one battle, especially that berserker with two sisters was such pain in the ass to fight. This game’s camera is just not made for this type of fight. Getting hit by projectiles off screen is not fun, it just frustrating.

Both King Hrolf and Gna Valkyrie were much harder fights but they were fun rather than frustrating.
 
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