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[8BiTw0LF]

So, I bought it on release day - went to a friends house and played it for 3 hours - left it at his house, so we could play it another day from where we left off.
Never happened and he moved to another country and took the game with him, lol.

When I got the PS5 on release I saw it was part of the game collection, but I've never been good at returning to games, so I just kept playing newer games.

Last week I saw the story trailer for Ragnarök and it got me hyped, so I went in! - and holy fuck the story is on another level, especially from Mimir begins to tell tales from norse mythology. The bond between Atreus (boi) and Kratos is genuine father to son complications and I had many laugh-out-loud moments through my playthrough.

Massive landscapes, massive bosses and massive rage! It's an experience to play GoW - and I can't say that about most games. The diversity in realms had me going exploring instead of fighting. Sadly the diversity in enemies could have been better - same goes for puzzles, but fighting and figuring out how to solve the "3-rune chests" still felt great. Having Atreus as a third weapon added a lot to the battles.

I just killed my first Valkyrie and are doing sidequests and collectibles to get platinum. Also I chose the Sindri armor set to get most Runic for late game / new game+

Just my LTTP 50 cents about GoW..

9/10

 

[SeraphJan]

Glad you enjoyed it, for me I still prefer the original 1-3

 

[Northeastmonk]

I loved throwing the axe. Activating rage mode, throwing a boulder, and then continuing to attack with special skills. I’m excited to see what happens next.

 

[EverydayBeast]

God of war is great.

 

[Roman Empire]

I am replaying it right now and I can't believe how much more I hate the number of times we have to fight the same fucking troll boss with a different color scheme or gimmick. It's by far the worst part of the game, followed by normal and elite enemy diversity.

Puzzles were never God's strong point, so I give it a pass (still worse than the original trilogy puzzles). For the rest, I love the story, the visuals, the cast, the environmental design, the exploration, and the gameplay. A solid 9.5 for me.

 

[ShaquilleOatmeal]

Really reinvigorated my love for God of War.

Admittedly, GoW 2 was kinda peak for me and I just wasn't all that interested in anything that came after it until 2018.

In Barlog We Trust.

 

[Ezekiel_]

Real tour de force from Sony Santa Monica to reinvent the formula and give Kratos some true characterization apart from "I'm mad and want to kill things"

 

[skit_data]

I remember it took me a while to acutally finish GoW 2018 because I found the part in Alfheim pretty boring and stopped playing. Luckily I went back and it get so much better after. I finished the main story and really liked it but accidentaly deleted my save so I had to start all over when going for the platinum and thats when I realized how good the game really is. The optional content in GoW 2018 is absolutely great and there are so many areas that you never visit doing the main mission.

Edit: There are few moments in gaming like the moment you get the Blades of Chaos. It’s pretty much unmatched.

 

[MALpractice311]

Dad of Boi was good, if a bit over-hyped. The combat system had real potential, but I feel like they spoiled that with the gear level requirements. You have to be within one or two gear levels of the enemies to do any damage. If you're more than 2 gear levels below an enemy, it becomes tedious trying to chip damage the enemies to death, while avoiding the instant one-hit kills. I think opening up the quick travel options earlier would have also helped my enjoyment of the game. I felt like there was a lot of boating filler to contend with. I also had to adapt to the camera, which I felt was overly zoomed in. The story was fine too. I was more interested in the lore of the world, like this team's interpretation of Norse mythology, and less interested in the actual "Kratos and his son have relationship problems because Kratos doesn't communicate well" plot that could have been resolved at almost any point if Kratos had taken the advice of literally every other character in the game who tells him to be honest with Atreus. I got the game for $16 and I got an appropriate amount of enjoyment from it. I'm sure I'll play Ragnarok at some point, but I'll likewise wait for it to be under $20 or come to PS+.

 

[adamsapple]

The reveal was amazing, best shows the importance of having big crowd events like this

 

[Roman Empire]

I remember it took me a while to acutally finish GoW 2018 because I found the part in Alfheim pretty boring and stopped playing. Luckily I went back and it get so much better after. I finished the main story and really liked it but accidentaly deleted my save so I had to start all over when going for the platinum and thats when I realized how good the game really is. The optional content in GoW 2018 is absolutely great and there are so many areas that you never visit doing the main mission.

Edit: There are few moments in gaming like the moment you get the Blades of Chaos. It’s pretty much unmatched.

The Blades of Chaos scene with the Athena ghost hits differently for those who were there from the beginning of the series. It's a great homage to the previous saga.

 

[Shubh_C63]

Most amazing moments of GoW isn't combat or great landscapes. Its whenever Mimir opens it mouth or Kratos interacting with anything.

The dialogues in this game have weight in them.

 

[JimmyRustler]

Great game. My biggest issue with it is that (especially compared to the older titles) it has next to ZERO replay value. LOVED the game when I played it first but found it impossible to play it again. So much pandering at the lake. How would anyone not be bored to death playing this again?

 

[JCK75]

Loved it..
My girlfriend was over last weekend and we were looking for a movie to watch that we had not both seen and for some reason landed on "The House with a Clock in it's Walls",
That Tarby Kid was so familiar and it was driving me nuts where I knew it from and I had to look up his acting history.... and then it hit me.. he was Atreus.

 

[kyussman]

I missed the sex mini games......hope they return for Ragnarok.

 

[GymWolf]

The game that single handedly made me give more than 2 fucks about gow saga.

 

[SmokedMeat]

I love God of War, but this one didn’t really hook me until mid-game when more mechanics started opening up.

Looking forward to playing Ragnarok one day.

 

[TheGodfather07]

I remember thinking how the god of war formula was finished with ascension. Its crazy how they re invented the ip and grew it 2 times over what it used to be. The older games would top out at 7m sold, compared to over 20m now. That's how you manage and keep an ip relevant over a very long time.

 

[Azelover]

I am a fan of oldschool GOW. The 2018 game is awesome. Technically the quality is super high. It is very well designed, and incredibly polished..

Even then it aint my cup of tea. For reasons I cannot fathom. I just enjoyed the older ones more.

 

[RAIDEN1]

As I have never played ANY of the God of War games, this I will be getting into immeneitly I just have the small matter of dealing with the Shadow Broker from ME:2 to deal with...

 

[Interfectum]

Playing the PC port of this game right now, it's so good.

 

[kruis]

When the game came out in 2018 I played the game till I got to the Lake of Nine, The game didn't really grab me, I played some other game and I stoppd playing.

When GoW got a PS5 upgrade I picked up the game again because I felt I'd missed something in my first incomplete playthrough. So I played more and then the game clicked once I got to Alfheim and got more powers and possibilities. The story and gameplay grabbed me more and more. Once I was done I knew this was indeed a masterpiece and the internet was right (for once).

Game of the Generation.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

I may just do a New Game + run before Ragnarok tbh.
Now with the 60fps patch as well on PS5.

 

[RoadHazard]

The reveal was amazing, best shows the importance of having big crowd events like this

Yeah... But why are grown men who are supposedly journalists (you need press credentials to get into these events right?) acting like teenage girls at a Bieber concert (or whatever's hot with the kids these days, I don't know)? Lol.

 

[GymWolf]

I may just do a New Game + run before Ragnarok tbh.
Now with the 60fps patch as well on PS5.

Already did that when the patch dropped.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

Already did that when the patch dropped.

I tested the 60fps mode and it was amazing.

Only thing left for me to platinum the game was the last Valkyrie from back when i played it on PS4. So i put it on Easy Mode, defeated her on 1st try, put the game on Normal again and pretended that never happened.

Still, felt smooth as fuck.

 

[GymWolf]

I tested the 60fps mode and it was amazing.

Only thing left for me to platinum the game was the last Valkyrie from back when i played it on PS4. So i put it on Easy Mode, defeated her on 1st try, put the game on Normal again and pretended that never happened.

Still, felt smooth as fuck.

Yeah, way better than the original performance mode on ps4 pro.

 

[DelireMan7]

With the ambient hype for Ragnarok, I decided to finally try this game.

Around 1 year after the release, I was on the verge to take it but after checking some gameplay, I wasn't sure anymore and decided to not take it (can't really explain but I wasn't convinced by it).

For context : I haven't play a AAA game since Horizon Zero Dawn.

I am now 6 hours in, arrived in Alfheim (In "Give me a challenge" difficulty).
First the game is beautiful. I spend the last few years mostly played "old" game so the jump in graphics is phenomenal. Nice artistic direction.
While not being very knowledgeable on the franchise (Only played GoW 3 years ago), I appreciate the fact that it's not a reboot on the story and it kind of a sequel to the original games.
Story immediately made me curious and I like Kratos character so far.

But now I have to go into some stuff that bugs me quite a bit :

The camera. Making it really close to Kratos reduces significantly your field of vision of what happen around you. Out of combat it's already a problem for me. In combat, when facing a group of enemies (like 99% of the combat encounter so far), it's really problematic. I always get caught by enemies out of the camera. I would prefer a more distant camera and the removal of those "attack indicators" on Kratos. I should probably use the quick turn feature. I haven't touch it so far.

Lock-on system. The lock-on is really weird. You lock into enemy but the camera is still free and the enemy can easily move out of the camera, removing the lock... I really have difficulty with that. I have the feeling the lock is just for Atreus and easy Axe throw.

Enemy "damage sponge". All enemies have a lot of HP and take a long time to kill. I am not against tough enemies but here I feel it's too much. Might be due to the difficulty level but I tried once the Normal one and I didn't see much difference on enemies HP. I was doing slightly more damage and I definitely took way less damage.

Combat. This is a mixed point. At the same time, I like and dislike the combat. Due to my 3 first points, combats are sometimes really annoying. Enemies jumping in and out of the camera, ignoring the lock. Me seeing only what happens just in front of Kratos... And enemies surviving way too much in my opinion.
BUT on the other side, I like the visceral and brutal feeling Kratos fighting style has. And now that I have unlock several moves and runic attack, it feels great to mix everything in combat. Sometimes everything just flows perfectly, it's so good : Throw your axe to freeze an enemy, then punch another one, shield slam it, call back you axe, perform a AoE runic attack and then obliterate an enemy with the charged attack...
Also Atreus is a nice touch to the combat.
So currently I am always waiting for the next combat because it feels good, but at the same time I am getting frustrated by the camera/lock...
Also waiting for impressive boss, nothing so far was special. Stranger's fight had its moments I guess but nothing amazing for me.

"Interactive" cutscenes AKA " keep pushing your joystick to make Kratos slow walk during a dialog". STOP IT ! STOP IT ! It brings nothing to do that. Just put a cutscene. Making me pushing the joystick doesn't bring any immersion, even worse it makes me crazy to see my character suddenly unable to walk fast or run. I love story, dialog and cutscene and can easily watch hours of it but this really annoys me. REALLY !


I was a bit reluctant to the RPG elements with all the armour, stats (and not really engaging menus), etc... but now I find it interesting. I'll try some "builds" (interested to focus on "Cooldown" to use more the Runic attack).
Puzzles are nice. They are not too special but they are not super easy neither. I like them. Some have good idea, like the ones you have to use the "Call back" of the axe to hit some stuff.

So overall a nice game, but I am still not sold 100%. It has definitely amazing things but also some questionable stuff for me.

 

[01011001]

"Interactive" cutscenes AKA " keep pushing your joystick to make Kratos slow walk during a dialog". STOP IT ! STOP IT ! It brings nothing to do that. Just put a cutscene. Making me pushing the joystick doesn't bring any immersion, even worse it makes me crazy to see my character suddenly unable to walk fast or run. I love story, dialog and cutscene and can easily watch hours of it but this really annoys me. REALLY !

ABSOLUTE CANCER


I'll take a 2h Kojima curscene over 2min of slow walking any day

 

[DelireMan7]

I'll take a 2h Kojima curscene over 2min of slow walking any day

Basically my though when I wrote my post.

I really don't get it. If it would really brings interaction, it could be interesting (like interacting with the environment or depending on your behavior the cutscene changes).
But now it's just "Walk on this railed track without anything to do".

 

[01011001]

Basically my though when I wrote my post.

I really don't get it. If it would really brings interaction, it could be interesting (like interacting with the environment or depending on your behavior the cutscene changes).
But now it's just "Walk on this railed track without anything to do".

yeah, it's just a cheap way to make a cutscene without making a cutscene,
and at the same time it completely kills immersion because the game jarringly takes away your agency without any in-universe reason.

and God of War does this a lot sadly. and different degrees of it.

there's a part of a main mission for example where you can't throw your axe for no reaon other than the developers basically didn't want you to be able to throw it.
or sometimes you can't attack, but you can sprint... or you can not sprint but you can block, but not attack. stuff like that.

and it's infuriating how often modern AAA games do this kinda crap

 

[Vick]

The Blades of Chaos scene with the Athena ghost hits differently for those who were there from the beginning of the series. It's a great homage to the previous saga.

The scene with the jar and drinking wine afterwards were simply masterful as well.

This game had the best narrative from a Sony produced game on last gen to me, the best non-open-world game structure on any Sony produced game, and the very best and most satisfying third person combat of any game I've ever played. It's pretty much impossible to beat.

On PC maxed out looks fucking glorious as well with the additional shadows. Just obviously forget to play it on mouse and keyboard if you want to get more than 20% at best of the combat.

 

[Three]

yeah, it's just a cheap way to make a cutscene without making a cutscene,
and at the same time it completely kills immersion because the game jarringly takes away your agency without any in-universe reason.

and God of War does this a lot sadly. and different degrees of it.

there's a part of a main mission for example where you can't throw your axe for no reaon other than the developers basically didn't want you to be able to throw it.
or sometimes you can't attack, but you can sprint... or you can not sprint but you can block, but not attack. stuff like that.

and it's infuriating how often modern AAA games do this kinda crap

Completely disagree here, there is absolutely no point in making those rare 2min walking segments cutscenes. There is no reason to take away player agency for 2 mins to hear dialogue or talk with NPC characters when you can maintain that agency. If however you want to tell a story that needs the player agency to be removed entirely or a different place then by all means show cutscenes.

I'm curious to know where you couldn't throw your axe. The only frustrating part I remember was when running back to the witch in a hurry to save him he wouldn't run very fast when approaching the house but I suspect that was a hidden loading screen. GoW aimed for no loading screens and a single unbroken shot camera. It does it beautifully I think.

 

[01011001]

and the very best and most satisfying third person combat of any game I've ever played. It's pretty much impossible to beat

so you basically never played any other character action game?

 

[01011001]

Completely disagree here there is absolutely no point in making those rare 2min walking segments cutscenes. There is no reason to take away player agency for 2 mins to hear dialogue or talk with NPC characters when you can maintain that agency. If however you want to tell a story that needs the player agency to be removed entirely then by all means show cutscenes.

limiting your movement and abilities out of nowhere and without any in-universe reason is a complete immersion break.
immersion is loosing yourself in the game, you can't do that when the game basically tells you very directly "you are not in control, you can't do that now, all you do now is walk! even tho your character has no reason not to be able to attack right now you still can't do it because we don't allow it!"

absolute no go, and IMO one of the worst modern gamedesign trends by far

I'm curious to know where you couldn't throw your axe.

I think it was relatively towards the end. I last played it years ago, so I'm not remembering every part of it. but I think you had to either run up or down a spiraling path inside some really big structure

(imma look in a YT longplay if I can find that part real quick and will edit here)

 

[Vick]

so you basically never played any other character action game?

Yeah dude I know, you hate this game (and every single one produced by a particular publisher for that matter) and never missed your chance to shit on it for the last 4 years.

If you think mine is a sort of controversial opinion, you're nuts.

"It's about the skills, because alot of the time in DMC or Bayonetta you kind of button mash your way into victory, you can't do that with God of War. It's very much about the precision of what's going on around you, and because it's so tightly controlled, because it's so well designed, you're able to maintain that control the entire way through, and it's just absolutely brilliant."

"You can craft new sets of armors, and within each of those they all have their own different stats that can actually unlock different play-styles if you want it. If you want to specialize in your abilities being really low cooled down that's what you can do, if you just want to punch and kick shit to death, there's an armor set specifically for punching and kicking shit to death. Like there's build diversity in a GoW game ffs, that's how good it is and it's not just token, it's really meaningful differences in how you play this game based upon how you chose to gear yourself.
So those are the gameplay systems and you might think of what I just said and being "yeah okay that sounds okay".. i can't explain to you how good this gameplay feels." - SkillUp

Combat is so fucking good it allows you do to stuff that makes people believe you hacked the game.




Ian Cassady
The combos are amazing BUT the combos with the speed of how he’s transitions weapons is what really is blowing my mind. How his attacks don’t have any break at all. Completely flawless.......

GodsBattle
@ lan Cassidy I dont even think is possible anyways, he cheat the games somehow like that dude with camera, you cant to them transitions like that, he skipping the animations somehow ive tried a lot of times and cant do that because there are animations goin on he hacked the game.

The Fire Fades
@ GodsBattle He has multiple videos explaining how he does it. But I still don’t know how he cancels animations. But he isn’t the only one that’s been able to do it.

@ The Fire Fades swear i tried so so many times, is not working man, and im not a noob, im playing games since nintendo famicom

@ GodsBattle Yeah I’ve tried too, it’s difficult.

SkirowX
@ GodsBattle the issue with trying to accomplish what you see in this video (may hours of trial and error) is that the button inputs must be extremely fast and precise. It is in fact possible to do every combo you see in this video. But you must play for hours upon hours to achieve that speed and be very comfortable with the controls. Keep trying! You’ll be a god of war soon!

Thanos
@ GodsBattle It's either you're doing the combos too fast or too slow. If you had listened to GBG about the timing between the combos you'd be able to pull it off. Just because you're unable to achieve this doesn't mean no one else can, that just goes to show that GBG is on a completely different level compared to everyone else


I'll keep sharing this video till i reaches a million views, Jason McDonald deserves it for what they achieved:

 

[Three]

limiting your movement and abilities out of nowhere and without any in-universe reason is a complete immersion break.
immersion is loosing yourself in the game, you can't do that when the game basically tells you very directly "you are not in control, you can't do that now, all you do now is walk! even tho your character has no reason not to be able to attack right now you still can't do it because we don't allow it!"

But I'm not seeing how a cutscene would help there. That removes all agency. A 1-2 min cutscene of Kratos carrying a boar back while talking to Freya wouldn't make me feel more immersed it would make me feel like I'm watching Kratos carrying a boar back rather than me feeling like I'm carrying the boar while talking with Freya. It would be less immersive for me.

I think it was relatively towards the end. I last played it years ago, so I'm not remembering every part of it. but I think you had to either run up or down a spiraling path inside some really big structure

(imma look in a YT longplay if I can find that part real quick and will edit here)

Thanks. Was it maybe when you are under the world tree? I don't remember a spiral staircase.

 

[DelireMan7]

there is absolutely no point in making those rare 2min walking segments cutscenes

Not the person you quoted but on that point :
So far (6 hours in), it's not rare, it's extremely frequent.

There is no reason to take away player agency for 2 mins to hear dialogue or talk with NPC characters when you can maintain that agency. If however you want to tell a story that needs the player agency to be removed entirely or a different place then by all means show cutscenes.

I agree on letting the choice to player to talk to NPCs but here it's the NPC who talk to me and I have no other choice to follow him on a defined track, with limited movement. I don't see any good reason to let me the control of my character (that is just limited to walk slowly forward).
In addition, sometimes it even removes the control for few seconds (for cinematic purpose) and give it back to me to slow walk again. As after the Stranger's fight you have to walk back, injured and really slow, to your house then suddenly midway it switched to a "mini cutscene" where Kratos stops and says something with a specific camera movement and then it goes back to the slow walk.
I really don't see any pros for that. Just make the whole thing a cutscene. By that I mean just remove the obligation for the player to move the joystick and show me the same stuff.

 

[01011001]

Yeah dude I know, you hate this game (and every single one produced by a particular publisher for that matter)

I actually really like this game... but ok.
I know if you like a game on this forum it automatically has to be a MASTERPIECE™ and just thinking it's "good" is basically considered hating it. and arguing against people that act like this game (and other Sony games) are the second coming of christ is a big no no here

I know I know.

the combat is serviceable, but not even in the same league as DMC3 for example let alone DMC4.
and animations have weird impact phases that are (I think) trying to mimic freeze frames that games like Ninja Gaiden use, but it simply doesn't have the same impact.

 

[Assaulty]

Really couldn't get into it at the beginning. Then got the tip from this forum to just ignore all of the boring side stuff for at least the first 10 hours and the game clicked. The gameplay is great, graphics are on another level (playing on PC with everything on Ultra) and the story and characters are great.

Enemy veriaty could be better, but it doesn't really bother me. That's how good the combat feels in this game. I am currently in the latter quater of the game and decided to do a bunch of side quests anyways because I don't want the game to end. Great game for sure. Would I put it in my personal top 5 of all time? Probably not, although certain aspects of the game are certainly up there.

The one thing I do find interesting are the parralels you can make towards Microsofts "GOW". I feel like Gears 5 and GOW 2018 suffer from the same problem. It feels like the "open world aspects" (Aka the sled/boat sections) are so shoe horned in and don't feel natural to me. 75% of the side stuff is also mundane as hell when compared to even the most recent Assasin's Creed games. Although I think it was presented way better in God of War over Gears as it's very easy to just stick to the main path and it really isn't forced on you.

Payed 40 euro's for the game and that was absolutely worth it to me, which is rare as I usually buy games on discount and only pay full price for multiplayer or high profile open world games. I do think 70 euro's for +- 20-25 hours of gameplay is a bit much. but the quality is high enough to warrant the price.

 

[Vick]

the combat is serviceable, but not even in the same league as DMC3 for example let alone DMC4.
and animations have weird impact phases that are (I think) trying to mimic freeze frames that games like Ninja Gaiden use, but it simply doesn't have the same impact.

Yeah and that's your personal, extremely flawed and quite hilarious opinion. If combat in this game is "serviceable" than 99% of games on the market have no combat.

Enjoy your memorized order button mashing 100 feet away from your character with thousands of numbers and fonts of screen made to give you the impression of accomplishing something, I'll take feeling like a God of War thanks.

 

[01011001]

But I'm not seeing how a cutscene would help there. That removes all agency. A 1-2 min cutscene of Kratos carrying a boar back while talking to Freya wouldn't make me feel more immersed it would make me feel like I'm watching Kratos carrying a boar back rather than me feeling like I'm carrying the boar while talking with Freya. It would be less immersive for me.

a cutscene is way less jarring, you switch from gameplay to basically a movie, and movies can also be immersive.

but forced slow walking segments and segments where abilities get arbitrarily limited are in a whole nother sphere imo.
to me that's almost like the uncanny valley of media.

the uncanny valley is when something looks really close to human, but is just off enough to make you feel uncomfortable. that's often seen when 3D animated characters try to be super realistic looking and animated... but your brain isn't having it and will basically see it as jarring and you will be weirded out by it.

this doesn't happen tho when the character is completely unrealistic, like a cartoon character that's clearly not human.
such characters feel way less jarring and creepy to us.


and for me something similar is the case with forced slow walking.
you are in control, yet jarringly you now can't run, or roll... or attack etc. sometimes none of them sometimes you can do one but not the other.

but when you are switching to a cutscene it's not nearly as jarring because you don't expect to have control now, you are now watching the narrative.

in my analogy here Full Control is like a live action movie, looks real and your brain accepts it as real.
if you are in full control you don't think about it, the game just flows as you get more and more used to the controls.

arbitrarily limited controls is like a CGI character that wants to seem real but isn't and your brain is like "that's off, something isn't right here". you expect to look at a real human but your brian tells you that you clearly aren't.
you got used to the controls, you expect something specific to happen when you press certain buttons, but jarringly it doesn't happen this time. something you expect to work in a certain way suddenly doesn't and for no in-universe reason.

and a cutscene is like a cartoon character, clearly not real but you don't expect it to be real and your brain accepts it as an abstract representation of something.
you don't expect to be in control now, you expect to watch your character advance the story in that way. it's a clean cut from gameplay just like a super cartoony character is a clean cut from live action, it isn't jarring.

thanks. Was it maybe when you are under the world tree? I don't remember a spiral staircase.

all I remember is tha you walk on a spiraling path (I think it looked like a natural rock formation) inside of a larger structure.
and I think you can see enemies flying in the middle of that big structure you're in, which is I think how I noticed that I can't throw my axe, because I tried to snipe one out of the air or something.

 

[Three]

all I remember is tha you walk on a spiraling path (I think it looked like a natural rock formation) inside of a larger structure.
and I think you can see enemies flying in the middle of that big structure you're in, which is I think how I noticed that I can't throw my axe, because I tried to snipe one out of the air or something.

No idea where that is . Only thing I can remember resembling that is maybe escaping the hive but you can throw your axe there so you're probably talking about another place.

 

[01011001]

Yeah and that's your personal, extremely flawed and quite hilarious opinion. If combat in this game is "serviceable" than 99% of games on the market have no combat.

I mean if we are talking western developed games then yeah, what most of them call a fighting system is basically a QTE, so in that sense it's amazing compared to those

enjoy your memorized order button mashing 100 feet away from your character with thousands of numbers and fonts of screen made to give you the impression of accomplishing something, I'll take feeling like a God of War thanks.

God Hand has a way better fighting system and you are right in front of your enemy, you craft your own combos and juggles, and you don't have an overly generous parry either

 

[gaming_again]

Most overrated game of recent years by far. None of my IRL friends could stop gibbering about if for ages. I don’t get it.

The combat is clumsy and it’s full of pointless skill trees etc. which just overcomplicate things. The armour is annoying. The puzzles are sub-original Tomb Raider level. The much-vaunted story is as deep and complex as an episode of Paw Patrol. But most of all - and this is why I play games - it’s not fun.

If I want to look at something pretty I’ll go on PornHub. Give me gameplay.

 

[01011001]

No idea where that is . Only thing I can remember resembling that is maybe escaping the hive but you can throw your axe there so you're probably talking about another place.

I don't think it was the hive no...
it's not like you couldn't throw it for the entirety of the section I'm thinking of, just during some moments of it and I remember rolling my eyes when that happend, literally, not figuratively rolling my eyes

 

[DelireMan7]

So I made quite some progress.

It's funny you are on rail most of the time. You have to jump where the game tells you to to, you can not drop a ledge if you're not on the good place, can't fault over stuff outside designed place...

The only freedom you have is how to fight in combat and in bit in the exploration of the world (outside of dungeon).

It's not a bad thing per se. I was excepted this and it was a reason I choose to play a modern AAA. It feels relaxing.

I got the flow of combat now that I have many options unlocked. It feels pretty good.
The camera is still bullshit and the reason I died most of the time. I don't get this choice.

And finally I got my first "God of waresque" boss : a dragon.
Basically a cinematic fight, with little freedom on how you fight it (even the game tells you what you have to do to block his attacks and how to kill him) but this is the stuff I want in my God of War.
Epic fight !

So my feeling is better than at the beginning. I get the complaint of "walk simulator" or "interactive movie" but not necessarily a bad thing depending on your expectation and desire. I went into this game expecting (and wanting) this so it's fine for me.
Only bad things are the camera and some annoying "forced slow walk" sections

 

[Represent.]

Man, these "on rails" complaints are just weird to me. Its not an open world game. What did you expect? The freedom to go anywhere you see in the world? The game is not designed to be open world. Thats not a flaw.

As for combat in comparison to DMC and other Japanese action games.... This game makes you FEEL like a fucking God of War. Its heavier, harder hitting, looks better, feels better. Not to mention theres not a bunch of ugly ass numbers/fonts on top of enemy heads. Those games feel weak and outdated in comparison. And theres a ton of button mashing.

Ragnarok will be right up there with Ninja Gaiden 2 as the best combat ever in a character action game. Book it.

 

[DelireMan7]

Man, these "on rails" complaints are just weird to me. Its not an open world game. What did you expect? The freedom to go anywhere you see in the world? The game is not designed to be open world. Thats not a flaw

Personally I don't think it's a flaw. Just a design choice.
It's not link to the game being open world or not. I could say the same from Horizon Zero Dawn (which I loved).
By "on rail" I mean all the indication the game constantly gives you about what to do and where to go. Especially the jump and climb being restricted to specific spot. Aloy and Kratos can do crazy jump or parkour at dedicated spots but are completely blocked by a tiny obstacle not higher than their knees.

For example, in God of War I saw an item behind some rocks. I turned around the rocks and clearly see the item but there was a tiny wood beam in front of me than any normal being could have vault over it. But no. The game wanted me to throw axe to the explosive pot near the rocks to break them instead of letting me vault over this tiny beam.

It's "on rail" in the sense the game doesn't let you a lot of liberty and guide you, in an very obvious manner, most of the time.

 

[angrod14]

The initial fight with Baldur was one of the peak moments from last gen to me. Very impressive. Although the game is kind of formulaic and safe on its proposal ("Oh, let's play the TLOU card with this series for dem feels and sell a shit ton"), I think they did it alright. I like it far more than the previous entries, it had an easy platinum, it didn't overstayed its welcome, and I respect the fact they didn't do any bullshit DLC.

I rate Santa Monica as a way better studio than Guerrilla, but below Insomniac and far, far below Naughty Dog. I think they're exciting in the sense that I feel we still haven't seen the best of them, and we might not see it unless they're willing to take some serious risks.