Official GOW thread (for those playing it - no spam)

[Voidler 1,675]

10 hours ago, -GD-X said:

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Odin 

Is so well-written and well-acted. I can totally see him being a master manipulator. 

I loved how well he was written

 

That archetype is normally written in such a cringe way it was surprising how well it was done

[Ike★ 2,906]

Just picked it up today. Had to wade through the neckbeard sheep all getting Pokémon today.

[-GD-X★ 7,729]

I really dug the mission with 

Spoiler

The norms. They are the ultimate trolls lol

Actually, the last several main missions have been great. 
 

I also think the game is now firing on all cylinders, on a narrative level. 

[-GD-X★ 7,729]

Holy shit. I looked up the quests to see how far I am. I’m only halfway done lol. 

[Twinblade★ 3,892]

45 minutes ago, -GD-X said:

Holy shit. I looked up the quests to see how far I am. I’m only halfway done lol. 

 

Im not that far after you but im 23 hours in. Game seems too long especially since im already sick of the combat and have most of the skills unlocked  

[-GD-X★ 7,729]

5 hours ago, Twinblade said:

 

Im not that far after you but im 23 hours in. Game seems too long especially since im already sick of the combat and have most of the skills unlocked  

Yeah, I wish it was shorter, or had less combat. Because I’m in love with the world and its characters. 

[Twinblade★ 3,892]

5 hours ago, -GD-X said:

Yeah, I wish it was shorter, or had less combat. Because I’m in love with the world and its characters. 

 

Yeah, there's some really good story moments & characters, and the production values are fantastic most of the time. But Its unfortunate there's so many issues with the gameplay design.

[-GD-X★ 7,729]

4 minutes ago, Twinblade said:

 

Yeah, there's some really good story moments & characters, and the production values are fantastic most of the time. But Its unfortunate there's so many issues with the gameplay design.

Agreed. 

[Twinblade★ 3,892]

Finished the game after 32 hours.

 

I have so many mixed feelings on it....there's no doubt that its lavishly produced and filled with a lot of memorable moments from a storytelling perspective. But man, the general gameplay becomes such a slog, especially in the 2nd half when you've seen pretty much everything it has to offer from a combat and 'puzzle' standpoint (had to put puzzle in quotes because i'd hardly consider most of them to be actual puzzles). Most of the levels just seem to go on and on and throw the same repetitive enemy encounters at you, sometimes it feels there's no more than 10 seconds in between fights, and they all just end up blending together. The boss fights were consistently entertaining though, I will say that much.

 

I could go on and on but ill keep it short as I doubt folks here want to see an essay sized rant. Overall I do prefer the first GoW and I think Ragnarok is a good example of why bigger isn't always better.

[-GD-X★ 7,729]

6 minutes ago, Twinblade said:

Finished the game after 32 hours.

 

I have so many mixed feelings on it....there's no doubt that its lavishly produced and filled with a lot of memorable moments from a storytelling perspective. But man, the general gameplay becomes such a slog, especially in the 2nd half when you've seen pretty much everything it has to offer from a combat and 'puzzle' standpoint (had to put puzzle in quotes because i'd hardly consider most of them to be actual puzzles). Most of the levels just seem to go on and on and throw the same repetitive enemy encounters at you, sometimes it feels there's no more than 10 seconds in between fights, and they all just end up blending together. The boss fights were consistently entertaining though, I will say that much.

 

I could go on and on but ill keep it short as I doubt folks here want to see an essay sized rant. Overall I do prefer the first GoW and I think Ragnarok is a good example of why bigger isn't always better.

This is a great review. While I feel a lot of issues with the first game were fixed/improved, new problems have cropped up. The combat does become mind-numbing, no matter how much you tweak your skills. The NPCs giving you the solution to any obstacle = buzz kill. The boss fights, environments, characters and main arc keep me going. Did you end up skipping a lot of the side stuff? I’m 24 hours in and I’m only halfway 

[Twinblade★ 3,892]

8 minutes ago, -GD-X said:

This is a great review. While I feel a lot of issues with the first game were fixed/improved, new problems have cropped up. The combat does become mind-numbing, no matter how much you tweak your skills. The NPCs giving you the solution to any obstacle = buzz kill. The boss fights, environments, characters and main arc keep me going. Did you end up skipping a lot of the side stuff? I’m 24 hours in and I’m only halfway 

 

I did explore and at least triggered as many favors as possible, however most of them seemed to boil down to collecting some items or killing some enemies and just didn't seem worth doing.

 

There's a large optional area thats filled with more favors than the others, but most did seem to follow that same template so I pretty much ran just ran around to see the entire area but didn't bother with the majority of those quests because the gameplay just wasn't compelling enough for me.

 

It's a cool environment though especially since it seems easy to miss (you have to start a specific favor to get there).

[Remij 4,670]

Honestly, I hate certain aspects of this game sooo much.  I hate the stupid yappy NPCs, I hate now braindead the puzzles are because of it.  Honestly, some of the levels, while absolutely beautiful... are not that well designed and fun to explore.  When your side content is better than you main content, you have an issue...  As you guys have said, the combat gets old and doesn't feel as good as the first game.  I think some of the dialog is just terribly odd at points.

 

I think cramming as much into the game as they wanted to so they could finish off the story really hurt certain aspects of the game.  The story, and certain characters and interactions are great.. but it's all let down by everything else.  Also the visuals, while incredible at times... are just ok at other times.

 

God of War used to be about cool level design in grandiose levels.  Puzzle box type of progression, with little to no handholding.. as well as sctual platforming and cool combat attacks on enemies... and now it seems like those things are all just as automated and generic busy work shit they put you through until you can get to the next story beat.  Climbing shit isn't fun in this game.  There's no real platforming.  Characters tell you the damn solutions to things before you even get a chance to observe them...

 

It excels in story and presentation... but everything else misses the mark.  I'm giving it a 7.5/10.

[Twinblade★ 3,892]

59 minutes ago, Remij said:

Honestly, I hate certain aspects of this game sooo much.  I hate the stupid yappy NPCs, I hate now braindead the puzzles are because of it.  Honestly, some of the levels, while absolutely beautiful... are not that well designed and fun to explore.  When your side content is better than you main content, you have an issue...  As you guys have said, the combat gets old and doesn't feel as good as the first game.  I think some of the dialog is just terribly odd at points.

 

I think cramming as much into the game as they wanted to so they could finish off the story really hurt certain aspects of the game.  The story, and certain characters and interactions are great.. but it's all let down by everything else.  Also the visuals, while incredible at times... are just ok at other times.

 

God of War used to be about cool level design in grandiose levels.  Puzzle box type of progression, with little to no handholding.. as well as sctual platforming and cool combat attacks on enemies... and now it seems like those things are all just as automated and generic busy work shit they put you through until you can get to the next story beat.  Climbing shit isn't fun in this game.  There's no real platforming.  Characters tell you the damn solutions to things before you even get a chance to observe them...

 

It excels in story and presentation... but everything else misses the mark.  I'm giving it a 7.5/10.

I didn’t want to rate it yet but I was thinking hard on it and I think 7.5 is also about what i’d give it too. 
 
when it comes to the platforming, the part where you climb the wall in Asgard sums up the biggest problem I had with it. I was thinking back to a similar moment in Dying Light 2 when you had to climb a large tower, and I couldn’t help but realize just how much better it was. You had to analyze your surroundings to figure out how to proceed, you sometimes had to chain together different moves, and it would get progressively more demanding the higher you got. When I finally made it to the top, it felt like I had achieved something as the player and it was a satisfying moment.

 
On the other hand in Ragnarok you literally just tilt the analog stick in the direction of the symbols and that’s it. A few minutes of that and you’ve climbed this large wall, but when I reached the peak I didn’t feel any sense of gratification or like I had accomplished anything. Even Uncharted which was always criticized for its simple platforming did this kind of thing way better.

[Remij 4,670]

1 hour ago, Twinblade said:

I didn’t want to rate it yet but I was thinking hard on it and I think 7.5 is also about what i’d give it too. 
 
when it comes to the platforming, the part where you climb the wall in Asgard sums up the biggest problem I had with it. I was thinking back to a similar moment in Dying Light 2 when you had to climb a large tower, and I couldn’t help but realize just how much better it was. You had to analyze your surroundings to figure out how to proceed, you sometimes had to chain together different moves, and it would get progressively more demanding the higher you got. When I finally made it to the top, it felt like I had achieved something as the player and it was a satisfying moment.

 
On the other hand in Ragnarok you literally just tilt the analog stick in the direction of the symbols and that’s it. A few minutes of that and you’ve climbed this large wall, but when I reached the peak I didn’t feel any sense of gratification or like I had accomplished anything. Even Uncharted which was always criticized for its simple platforming did this kind of thing way better.

Absolutely.  It's brain dead.  Hell even Uncharted offers better climbing mechanics than this game.  There used to be actual platforming in God of War... sure it wasn't ever anything special, but it was a lot better than what's here.

 

And remember what you said about how they've essentially made it brain dead obvious with glowing markers where anything interactable is?  It really is just very bad in this one.  There's no other way to say it.  They don't have any confidence in your ability to try things and be wrong about things, and risk you getting frustrated.  They're trying to keep you moving on at a steady pace because it seems that if you're tested to think JUST A LITTLE BIT... you might just get bored and not want to continue...

 

That's a real problem with their design on this one.  Stupid glowing shit that completely stands out like a sore thumb pointing you in every direction you need to go.. and NPCs that become frustratingly annoying at times.  It's not fun.

 

I hate saying that, because obviously there's a lot of incredibly awesome stuff here.. but the glue that should hold the whole thing together is just not good.. and it suffers because of it.

[-GD-X★ 7,729]

I agree with all of the posts above. I thought the hand-holding was initially there to guide new players, early on. I didn’t expect it throughout the whole game. 

[-GD-X★ 7,729]

I got the 3 wolves summon. Someone was clearly inspired by Elden Ring lol. 

[Twinblade★ 3,892]

I was thinking about remij’s comments about the writing and I was just listening to a podcast where someone said that the dialogue feels like something from a Marvel production, and I think that sums it up well. The quip-y, joke heavy nature of it does feel at odds with the world and tone they’re trying to present a lot of the time.

[-GD-X★ 7,729]

Just now, Twinblade said:

I was thinking about remij’s comments about the writing and I was just listening to a podcast where someone said that the dialogue feels like something from a Marvel production, and I think that sums it up well. The quip-y, joke heavy nature of it does feel at odds with the world and tone they’re trying to present a lot of the time.

i like a lot of the writing. some bits of dialog do feel inconsistent. however, when all cylinders are firing, it's pretty fantastic stuff.

Spoiler

odin

is excellent.

[Remij 4,670]

45 minutes ago, -GD-X said:

i like a lot of the writing. some bits of dialog do feel inconsistent. however, when all cylinders are firing, it's pretty fantastic stuff.

  Reveal hidden contents

odin

is excellent.

Yes, that character I think is great.  Awesome stuff.

[madmaltese★ 2,549]

I think you guys are being highly highly critical. Game has some issues but is overall incredible. The realms and level design are light years better than the first, the combat whether you are a fan or not is a marked improvement over the first, this overall cast is better than the first (Odin, Thor, etc are so damn good), the side content much better than the first and so on. Also I don't really understand the dialogue gate tbh, sure there is an overabundance of it especially when travelling the world and some little jokes but to call it Marvel-esque is a bit ridiculous imo. Forspoken trailers are Marvel-esque dialgoue, there isn't a single thing to that level in this game and everything main story related is excellent dialogue. Kratos and all the Asgard stuff especially.