The game is jaw dropping-ly gorgeous (I’m using the 4k/HDR mode). The only title(s) that might compare are Uncharted 4 and Horizon Zero Dawn.
It’s also a game in which the combat, I think, doesn’t translate particularly well to videos. It’s a visceral, bone-crunching experience, and I find the controls to be fantastic. But, when you’re watching a video, I think it will just come across as frenetic button mashing. The strategy aspects to each battle (that I’m finding really compelling) are completely lost in translation, IMHO.
I’m having trouble wrapping my head around the combat. I’m dying a lot, and most of my successes feel like I had to grind them out a bit (which isn’t even accurate, I think I’ve only ever been killed by the same encounter like twice in a row). The axe is terrific, I just need to get a little more comfortable with the special moves (and get the last game I was playing out of my muscle memory).
I rarely get super hyped for a game, I’m just not a person that gushes. Right now I’d say God of War is very good verging on great in some areas, however I wouldn’t say that it’s revolutionary.
The two best aspects of the game are it’s combat and the kid. The combat feels different than most other 3rd person action games out there because it completely does away with the one-enemy-at-a-time style that most other games like to use. The enemies don’t wait their turn to attack and it’s a death trap to let myself get surrounded. It’s a game of constantly moving to manage the crowd so that the enemies are forced into a pattern where they are always running toward me.
I also like that the game forces me to pay attention to enemy types. Ice enemies are resistant to the axe because Kratos’s axe does ice damage, so it’s way more effective to go barehanded against them and there are a bunch of other types that game introduces, each one requiring their own strategy. This makes it impossible for me to settle into a set combat pattern and forces me to change up my strategy to fit every encounter.
The Kid in the game is exceptional in that so far this game is never has made me feel like I was on a long escort mission and the kid’s personality has rarely come across as annoying. If anything I feel like Kratos is the more annoying character and the kid deserves better. The game also makes the kid a legitimate partner that helps in combat, often times I find myself pressing the square button and ordering the kid to shoot at the enemies to either draw some of them away, help build or maintain an enemy’s stun meter, or just finish off an enemy from a distance that has a sliver of health left.
My only real issues with the game so far is that most of the regular enemies do look a lot alike and I feel the Zelda/Metroid style of gameplay is dated. Using power ups to gate the player’s progress in certain areas and making the player unlock the power ups in a linear fashion along the main quest line feels like a relic of past generations.
I’ve played through the first major boss … it really says something when the FIRST boss is one of the best boss battles I’ve ever played … without dying, but I was on the razor edge a lot. There’s no shame in playing it on regular instead of difficult.
The game is significantly more unforgiving. During the fight with the first troll I realized I was going to have to step my game up in terms of pattern recognition, placement, attack variation, etc., right from the get-go.
Unlike Bloodborne, however, it doesn’t have cruel save game mechanics and horrific grind-y resource gathering to ruin the combat experience.
I guess I don’t know what you’re getting at. Kratos was a dick with a horrible past and trust/vulnerability issues (especially regarding his family), so it’s a given his kid would have it rough having him as a dad.
Spoilers for the first hour or so of the game (nothing you havent seen in trailers or reviews)
Exactly. Ive played about 8-10 hours, and the whole game makes it clear Kratos, while not remorseful for his past actions, is still haunted by them, and has been left almost unable to have a normal, nurturing relationship with his son; he can teach him to fight and to survive but he cant connext emotionally with him, and it clearly tears him up inside everytime he attempts to make a fatherly gesture or emotional approach.
Its almost as if Kratos is suffering from some PTSD like trauma, and is fully aware of how broken and twisted he is, and constantly worries not to let it affect his son.
I mean, the scene where Kratos collects the ashes of his wife from the funeral pyre, as he suddenly pauses after closing the satchel containing the ashes…you can see in his eyes and expression that he is utterly lost and terrified that he is now all his son has, and that he has no idea what to do.
That moment was when I realized what a stroke of genius was to give Kratos this more mature and developed backstory and personality, because you understand that the insane, rage fueled warrior of the previous games didnt end up as some hero, monster or god, but as a broken man haunted by how his quest for vengeance, in the end, left him with nothing but his own broken and damaged self, and that his new wife and son had allowed him some respite and humanity to return to him…and now he is being dragged back into the world of violence and death he thought he could leave behind, and he has to protect his son from it.
Basically, the Kratos from the games was the classic mythical asshole from greek legends, like Heracles and so on, but the Kratos from this game is essentially a greek tragedy protagonist; haunted by the past and the consequences of his actions and hubris.
The game could easily had been called God of War: Catharsis.
There is a mini game in Chains of Olympus that requires you to push your daughter away after they meet again in Elysium, all because he hated the gods SO DARN MUCH.
From what I’ve gathered so far, it seems like he doesn’t want Atreus to become like him.
Also, because if he didnt leave the Elysium fields, light would had never returned to the world as well.
Hell, Kratos eveb gains the power to alter destiny and travel in time at the end of God of War II, and what does he do?
Brings the Titans back to help him destroy Zeus and Olympus.
You know, instead of saving his wife and daughter, or himself from making that deal with Ares.
Also, because of his actions in GOW: Ascension, Kratos is free from his own conscience and guilt, because he battled and killed the Furies there, who were the embodiment of guilt, kinslaying and revenge.
Exactly; the genius here is that instead of making another game were Kratos slaughters another pantheon of gods because it will be Fukkin Awesome, the developers took a good look at how much gaming has evolved and matured as interactive narratives, and did their research of greek mythology, literature and culture…and essentially gave us a tragic hero Kartos here; not the warrior hero from myth and song, but the man after the battles and bloodshed.
The game fully acknowledges that Kratos’s whole quest for vengeance was futile in the end; he killed the gods and avenged his family, but he also gained nothing from it, not even redemption or peace of mind; just like the heroes of greek tragedies, it doesnt matter if your cause is justified or moraly good…you end up broken, damaged and even dead if you give in to bloodshed, hatred and revenge.
And when this game starts, Kratos has lost his wife, who is clearly established as someone who managed to give him peace of mind, purpose and humanity back, and he is now left alone with a son he fears to hurt and damage just from being his father.
This is a game that absolutely acknowdledges and gets that not only gaming, but also the fans of the series are more mature, grown up and complex than near a decade ago, and thus evolved to match them emotionally and intelectually.
That alone is nothing short of a huge achievement.
As a result, the impact of playing the previous one’s as a dumb, young adult (mirroring Kratos’ own immaturity) versus a fresh-faced father with a larger perspective makes it all resonate on a whole new level, smacking me right dab in the Feels Department.
Exactly; I loved the PS2 games, but by III, I was already bored and repulsed by Kratos and his whole character.
I started this, and saw Kratos caressing the hand print his wife had left on a tree, and then start chopping said tree with the anger, frustration and sadness of a grieving husband rising with every blow, and I was hooked by the game.
In less than a minute, the game made me saw Kratos in a whole new light, and with no dialogue whatsoever.
That speaks volumes of the game’s narrative and technological achievements.*
*Hell, Kratos’s eyes and subtle facial expressions still astonish me; with little to no dialogue, the game portrays a level of emotion I havent seen in years in a game or animation.
The reason why I said “If anything I feel like Kratos is the more annoying character and the kid deserves better” was because I wanted to assuage any fears people may have about the kid’s role in the game and emphasize how well written and acted the kid is. The kid is so far removed from the typical videogame stereotype of “annoying child” that Kratos’s character gets on my nerves way more than the kid’s character. Kratos is in fact so harsh at times that I feel I’m taking the kid’s side in most of their arguments.
I agree this is an intentional move by the developers and it works well for both of their character arcs.