Bragr
Banned
My thoughts on the entire thing. I was conflicted throughout the game.
- So much to take in and see and do, the sheer adventure of the experience is the best part of it.
- I was very surprised at how long it was, took me around 28 hours, and I went solely for the story. That's rare outside of RPGs.
- The ending is a dud, I expected so much from the last few hours, but you just fight Thor and Odin and it ends with no interesting twist or turn.
- And the Ragnarok part, where you gather your army, just amounted to backdrops, it didn't feel like any real use to gather all the realms or create giant Surtr.
- The post-game content and the side content is really good and adds a lot of value to the game.
- I think Atreus is a mediocre character, he's vanilla, and Kratos is 10 times more interesting. I was not a big fan of the Atreus parts, apart from when he was in Asgard. That was alright.
- Also, I don't know why others don't feel like this, but I find it corny to play as such a young kid, even if he is a god, he's tiny, and he fights with flying kicks and somersaults. It's a bit cringe.
- I like the combat, I only played on normal, so I didn't run into the frustrations I know a lot of people did, but there are a lot of cool moves and stuff to experiment with, and it all looks awesome.
- A bit too much companion switching.
- Some great bosses, a lot more and better than the first game, although the Balder fight from the beginning of the 2018 game is still the pinnacle of these two games in terms of bosses.
- There was a lot of talk on how this was gonna be more brutal. It was a little bit I suppose, but I expected a lot more.
- The first fight you had vs Thor early in the game was a lot better than the ending one.
- I don't know what a fuck was going on with Odin. Weird portrayal.
One part I miss from the older games was these lavish cutscenes with the gods scheming. A part of me wishes they ditched the over-the-shoulder camera, ditched Atreus going to Asgard, and instead had some cool cutscenes of Asgard and the gods as a side thing, as Kratos and Atreus made their way through the game. This would also give the game more time and options to include and develop more gods, as now they are limiting themselves to always having the characters in view of the playable protagonist.
Now, the story, I'm gonna go more in-depth on this, as I was not very impressed.
Brok's death was a big turning point in the story. But I thought it was bizarre how Atreus completely broke down and Kratos had to take him hunting and get his mind on something else. At that point, Atreus had been fighting a lot and killed many a creature, I don't buy him getting that affected by it. In fact, almost no one died at all, almost everyone apart from Brok made it. It's fucking Ragnarok and everyone is fine, and even when Ragnarok is going on, they still lament that the worst thing that happened was Brok dying.
The entire part in Vanaheim with Freyr and Freya was one of the worst parts of the story for me. Freyr is the most boring, underdeveloped, and pointless character in the game. Freya and Freyr have sibling issues, and it's up to Kratos to "heal" their relationship as he spouts affirmations and quotes about family to Freya, as she learns to value the relationship with her brother. It ends with Freyr talking about how he was also hurt by Freya, and that Freya needs to understand that, as she cries and hugs her brother. This sort of melodramatic drama is infesting too much of the story. The game wants to be a character study and is out of touch with the setting.
I really don't know what a fuck the writers were thinking with this.
It's all over the game, almost every character arch ends with some philosophical drivel. The amount of stupidity that comes out of some of these characters' mouths blew my mind.
At one point, Atreus and Angrbooa fight a caldron held by a giant, and the whole thing ended with them refusing to kill the creature because "she is just lost". The absurd situation of trying to make this giant monster into a redeeming creature was the least God of War you can possibly get. The fact that she was lost IS why she is a monster in the first place. In fact, Kratos himself struggles with the humanity of killing gods and creatures throughout the entire game.
This is dumb, and this is not a portrait of human psychology, no character in this game is written or portrayed as realistic, and trying to force them to be through traditional character development is misplaced and creates a plethora of corny weird, and out-of-place moments. For example how Atreus is trying to help Thor with his family problems by being an armchair psychologist while you are fighting trolls and stone monsters in the middle of hell. The game is not self-aware.
It works best in Asgard. When Thor, Odin, and Heimdall just exist and walk around doing stuff and you just observe. It makes you get to know them without it being forced on you.
The game also features the most inelegant companion dialogue of any game I have ever played. Like always in these games, you walk into a new area and the companion starts to talk. But here, they do that with every companion non-stop. Every time you push over a log or go through a tight space, you know someone is gonna say something. It's too excessive. It feels desperate, it's like Uncharted on steroids.
Sindri and Brok both got their own little "arch". I thought that was unnecessary, another example of the game's extreme focus on traditional character arcs. They worked better as funny dwarf smiths and not dwarfs that needed "personal healing".
I can go on and on. There was so much that happened with the story, but I'll stop here. I thought it was a disappointing and clumsy story.
BUT. There is a lot of cool stuff to do and see, it plays well, and I generally like the game, even after all this bitching. To me, it's like a 92-ish game, not quite on the level of the first one, and not GOTY, but a great game nonetheless. Although I am terrified they are gonna do some Atreus-only game next time.
- So much to take in and see and do, the sheer adventure of the experience is the best part of it.
- I was very surprised at how long it was, took me around 28 hours, and I went solely for the story. That's rare outside of RPGs.
- The ending is a dud, I expected so much from the last few hours, but you just fight Thor and Odin and it ends with no interesting twist or turn.
- And the Ragnarok part, where you gather your army, just amounted to backdrops, it didn't feel like any real use to gather all the realms or create giant Surtr.
- The post-game content and the side content is really good and adds a lot of value to the game.
- I think Atreus is a mediocre character, he's vanilla, and Kratos is 10 times more interesting. I was not a big fan of the Atreus parts, apart from when he was in Asgard. That was alright.
- Also, I don't know why others don't feel like this, but I find it corny to play as such a young kid, even if he is a god, he's tiny, and he fights with flying kicks and somersaults. It's a bit cringe.
- I like the combat, I only played on normal, so I didn't run into the frustrations I know a lot of people did, but there are a lot of cool moves and stuff to experiment with, and it all looks awesome.
- A bit too much companion switching.
- Some great bosses, a lot more and better than the first game, although the Balder fight from the beginning of the 2018 game is still the pinnacle of these two games in terms of bosses.
- There was a lot of talk on how this was gonna be more brutal. It was a little bit I suppose, but I expected a lot more.
- The first fight you had vs Thor early in the game was a lot better than the ending one.
- I don't know what a fuck was going on with Odin. Weird portrayal.
One part I miss from the older games was these lavish cutscenes with the gods scheming. A part of me wishes they ditched the over-the-shoulder camera, ditched Atreus going to Asgard, and instead had some cool cutscenes of Asgard and the gods as a side thing, as Kratos and Atreus made their way through the game. This would also give the game more time and options to include and develop more gods, as now they are limiting themselves to always having the characters in view of the playable protagonist.
Now, the story, I'm gonna go more in-depth on this, as I was not very impressed.
Brok's death was a big turning point in the story. But I thought it was bizarre how Atreus completely broke down and Kratos had to take him hunting and get his mind on something else. At that point, Atreus had been fighting a lot and killed many a creature, I don't buy him getting that affected by it. In fact, almost no one died at all, almost everyone apart from Brok made it. It's fucking Ragnarok and everyone is fine, and even when Ragnarok is going on, they still lament that the worst thing that happened was Brok dying.
The entire part in Vanaheim with Freyr and Freya was one of the worst parts of the story for me. Freyr is the most boring, underdeveloped, and pointless character in the game. Freya and Freyr have sibling issues, and it's up to Kratos to "heal" their relationship as he spouts affirmations and quotes about family to Freya, as she learns to value the relationship with her brother. It ends with Freyr talking about how he was also hurt by Freya, and that Freya needs to understand that, as she cries and hugs her brother. This sort of melodramatic drama is infesting too much of the story. The game wants to be a character study and is out of touch with the setting.
I really don't know what a fuck the writers were thinking with this.
It's all over the game, almost every character arch ends with some philosophical drivel. The amount of stupidity that comes out of some of these characters' mouths blew my mind.
At one point, Atreus and Angrbooa fight a caldron held by a giant, and the whole thing ended with them refusing to kill the creature because "she is just lost". The absurd situation of trying to make this giant monster into a redeeming creature was the least God of War you can possibly get. The fact that she was lost IS why she is a monster in the first place. In fact, Kratos himself struggles with the humanity of killing gods and creatures throughout the entire game.
This is dumb, and this is not a portrait of human psychology, no character in this game is written or portrayed as realistic, and trying to force them to be through traditional character development is misplaced and creates a plethora of corny weird, and out-of-place moments. For example how Atreus is trying to help Thor with his family problems by being an armchair psychologist while you are fighting trolls and stone monsters in the middle of hell. The game is not self-aware.
It works best in Asgard. When Thor, Odin, and Heimdall just exist and walk around doing stuff and you just observe. It makes you get to know them without it being forced on you.
The game also features the most inelegant companion dialogue of any game I have ever played. Like always in these games, you walk into a new area and the companion starts to talk. But here, they do that with every companion non-stop. Every time you push over a log or go through a tight space, you know someone is gonna say something. It's too excessive. It feels desperate, it's like Uncharted on steroids.
Sindri and Brok both got their own little "arch". I thought that was unnecessary, another example of the game's extreme focus on traditional character arcs. They worked better as funny dwarf smiths and not dwarfs that needed "personal healing".
I can go on and on. There was so much that happened with the story, but I'll stop here. I thought it was a disappointing and clumsy story.
BUT. There is a lot of cool stuff to do and see, it plays well, and I generally like the game, even after all this bitching. To me, it's like a 92-ish game, not quite on the level of the first one, and not GOTY, but a great game nonetheless. Although I am terrified they are gonna do some Atreus-only game next time.
Last edited:
