God of War reboot - now on PC

[Kem0sabe]

what i like the most about it was how "fun" they made the lore, with the boat stories, the dialogue, the talking head jokes and all that

you never feel loredumped

obsidian could learn a lot from this game

Yeah, it's a nice take on Norse mythology. Kratos boat education sessions with his boy, and mimir being the next best talking head to morte, makes the exposition quite unintrusive.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Welp finished the game and killed all Valkyries as well. That was some intense shit, especially the final Valkyrie. Took me many, many, MANY tries before I got her down. Now all that's left is to dive in Nifelheim (randomized dungeon) to upgrade all my gear for fun.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

that Joseph Anderson is complete moron. saw his DS critique where he complained about people having different experience fighting gargoyles with different builds. apparently its a bad game design if one player struggles with boss because he did not upgrade his weapon and the other one breezes through a fight thanks to his early black knight greatsword lucky drop.

seems like exploring levels to find blacksmith or taking risk in fighting high level mobs makes the game unfair

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

Correct me if I'm wrong since I never really bothered with any GoW game:

But isn't the primary appeal for GoW in that it's this big, cinematic, power trip "fuck everything up with gory fatalities" festival that starts the game off with huge climax and keeps that momentum going to the tops of Mt. Olympus?

So what the fuck am I seeing here? It appears like one of these bland action games that looks as boring as it probably plays, it has that close 'cinematic' third person camera and like it wants to kind of maybe sorta be like Dark Souls but doesn't quite commit. Maybe the idea going into this game would work for another franchise, but GoW always struck me as the grand dumb fun of action adventure games. It was a good excuse to do these ridiculous feats like killing Greek Gods and mythological monsters in grotesque ways that involved mutilation, dismemberment, beheading and the occasional repeated fist to face.

It just seems like a really bizarre shift, going from some Image/Darkhorse comics looking goofballery to wanting to be the new Last of Us.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[sullynathan]

when he complained that there's backtracking in Symphony of the Night

he did? I thought his whole thing was that Metroid did things better than symphony of the night

 

[Doktor Best]

Correct me if I'm wrong since I never really bothered with any GoW game:

But isn't the primary appeal for GoW in that it's this big, cinematic, power trip "fuck everything up with gory fatalities" festival that starts the game off with huge climax and keeps that momentum going to the tops of Mt. Olympus?

So what the fuck am I seeing here? It appears like one of these bland action games that looks as boring as it probably plays, it has that close 'cinematic' third person camera and like it wants to kind of maybe sorta be like Dark Souls but doesn't quite commit. Maybe the idea going into this game would work for another franchise, but GoW always struck me as the grand dumb fun of action adventure games. It was a good excuse to do these ridiculous feats like killing Greek Gods and mythological monsters in grotesque ways that involved mutilation, dismemberment, beheading and the occasional repeated fist to face.

It just seems like a really bizarre shift, going from some Image/Darkhorse comics looking goofballery to wanting to be the new Last of Us.

Whats it with all these Last of Us comparisons? The narrative theme is maybe comparable, but gameplaywise those two games share very little common ground.

And you still have grand scale epic battles with gore. Its just not that much over the top anymore.

 

[Belegarsson]

Oh man, I appreciate how they tried to make something different from the myth but it seems like they only acknowledged the basic concept of each god without delving further into their purpose and meaning for their existance.
About Baldr

Spoiler

He never works as a villain. The point of his character arc isn't to show how pure and perfect his soul is, his death marked the chain reaction that lead to Ragnarok aka an event that occured because the problematic nature of Aesir gods starts arising and conflicts happen, making Baldr's death as "pure water starting to get muddied". Baldr being a villain makes no sense, a dead bad guy makes zero different to the status of nine worlds. Why is his death more important than Tyr's for example? The game didn't make sense of this at all, it's just "Kratos broke a propercy or some sort" which is a cheap cop-out. They ruined the point behind Baldr's character arc IMO, making him a villian is the biggest mistake of this game.

in short: Baldr's depiction in God of War is something like putting chilli pepper in chocolate cake.
About Freya

Spoiler

This continues the tradition of mass media to paint Freya as the "queen of the Valkyries", she's not a warrior damn it. She basically plays the "powerful goddess" role who honestly feels too much like plot device at some points in the game and this is not okay, because her character arc in the myth is considered to be tragic and empathetic which is nowhere to be found in this game. I don't see this depiction being anything like the goddess of fertility and love, the latter part is hinted a bit at her overly caring attitude towards Baldr to the point that she cursed him with immortality but honestly this connection is just not convincing for me.

About Thor

Spoiler

I got these from wikia so don't quote me on that
"Thor was born as the son of Odin and Fjörgyn and brother to Tyr and half-brother to Baldur"
"Zeus condemned his father to die in the desert to let the sands rip his flesh, while Thor killed his own mother, a giant herself."
FRIGG IS A FUCKING JOTUNN?

About Atreus, I actually like the kid's arc as

Spoiler

his purpose is to perceive the true nature of the Aesir gods which leads to Ragnarok, it fits Loki's role quite a bit. But my question is if he's Loki then who the fuck birthed the serpent???

Wow I feel like an idiot for questioning the writers of a popamole AAA game to have decent knowledge towards source material. Did they even fucking try?

 

[Hobo Elf]

Regarding Baldr

Spoiler

I agree it was a weak idea to make him the villain given his actual place in the Norse pantheon. They just wanted to have a character play the role of old Kratos whom they can pit against the new Kratos. They even gave Baldr blue tattoos which is what Kratos' original concept looked like before they gave him the red tat.

Atreus

Spoiler

Well they already said that time is cyclical and fuzzy so maybe he will give birth to the serpent in the future which wraps around back into the past.

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

God of war always had pretty cinematics but never was a game series that relied on them. Always was more about flashy action, and the most cinematic aspect of them were the QTEs.

Funfact: Cory balrog wanted to create the new God of war without cinematics http://www.newsweek.com/god-war-story-cutscene-cinematics-893314

God of War is shaping up to be one of PS4’s biggest hits in 2018. Near perfect scores on metacritic have pushed the hype into the stratosphere, as critics across the spectrum praise the narrative-driven campaign centered on the relationship between Kratos and his son, Atreus. But Game Director Cory Barlog’s initial vision of the game didn’t include the cutscenes and cinematics audiences have come to expect for a game so focused on story.

“For me the narrative is not the cinematics, the narrative is the world,” Barlog toldNewsweek. “The initial pitch was, not only do I want to have a no-cut camera, so it would be a single shot all the way through the game, but I also didn't want to have any cinematics.”

Found a hidden treasure map in “God of War”? This guide will show you where to find the buried loot.SANTA MONICA STUDIOS

Eventually Barlog realized it would be “too hard” to make a game without the aid of cinematics, but the spirit of keeping the audience immersed in the world, and the tale it tells, drove the game’s development. Designing everything around the father and son dynamic made it easier for players to immerse themselves in the world of God of War.

 

[sullynathan]

Whats it with all these Last of Us comparisons?

ask the devs. They're the ones that made a TLOU clone and compared their game to that

 

[Hyperpube]

Correct me if I'm wrong since I never really bothered with any GoW game:

But isn't the primary appeal for GoW in that it's this big, cinematic, power trip "fuck everything up with gory fatalities" festival that starts the game off with huge climax and keeps that momentum going to the tops of Mt. Olympus?

So what the fuck am I seeing here? It appears like one of these bland action games that looks as boring as it probably plays, it has that close 'cinematic' third person camera and like it wants to kind of maybe sorta be like Dark Souls but doesn't quite commit. Maybe the idea going into this game would work for another franchise, but GoW always struck me as the grand dumb fun of action adventure games. It was a good excuse to do these ridiculous feats like killing Greek Gods and mythological monsters in grotesque ways that involved mutilation, dismemberment, beheading and the occasional repeated fist to face.

It just seems like a really bizarre shift, going from some Image/Darkhorse comics looking goofballery to wanting to be the new Last of Us.

It has killing gods and monsters in grotesque ways. I don't remember if there are any things that would be technically considered beheadings or dismemberments, but there is mutilation (you rip fuckers apart) grotesque deaths and there is also fist to face stuff

 

[Kem0sabe]

The game looks so fucking great for the hardware of the ps4.

Took this clip yesterday from when you approach the summit.

 

[Jarmaro]

Can we agree that music delivered?

 

[HanoverF]

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Correct me if I'm wrong since I never really bothered with any GoW game:

But isn't the primary appeal for GoW in that it's this big, cinematic, power trip "fuck everything up with gory fatalities" festival that starts the game off with huge climax and keeps that momentum going to the tops of Mt. Olympus?

So what the fuck am I seeing here? It appears like one of these bland action games that looks as boring as it probably plays, it has that close 'cinematic' third person camera and like it wants to kind of maybe sorta be like Dark Souls but doesn't quite commit. Maybe the idea going into this game would work for another franchise, but GoW always struck me as the grand dumb fun of action adventure games. It was a good excuse to do these ridiculous feats like killing Greek Gods and mythological monsters in grotesque ways that involved mutilation, dismemberment, beheading and the occasional repeated fist to face.

It just seems like a really bizarre shift, going from some Image/Darkhorse comics looking goofballery to wanting to be the new Last of Us.

Whats it with all these Last of Us comparisons? The narrative theme is maybe comparable, but gameplaywise those two games share very little common ground.

And you still have grand scale epic battles with gore. Its just not that much over the top anymore.

Because of the kid? I don't know, doesn't seem particularly Last of Us to me. There is this video:



But the Last of Us assertion is one made by Gamespot, not the developer being interviewed in the video.

When I saw this new God of War one of the first thing I thought of was Knights Contract, since that game also puts your range attacks onto another character. Although here you've also got that axe.

 

[Ezekiel]

The only review I've watched. He basically exposes everything I feared about this bad camera. And yeah, removing the jump was a numbskull decision. And yeah, this isn't Kratos.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

The game looks so fucking great for the hardware of the ps4.

Took this clip yesterday from when you approach the summit.

It's really one of the best looking games ever. Each area is carefully detailed and really feels unique. It has probably the best graphics ever made. The game is colorful, varied, detailed, impressive. It has really amazing setpieces, like venturing next to a corpse of a giant. It gives me Icewind Dale vibes. Gameplay is great. Story is serviceable.

The only review I've watched. He basically exposes everything I feared about this bad camera. And yeah, removing the jump was a numbskull decision. And yeah, this isn't Kratos.

Jump complaints are idiotic. You can't jump in hitman games, you can't jump in dark souls, you can't jump in the prince of persia sand's of time trilogy, you cant jump in assassin's creed, the witcher 1 and 2 you can't jump, you can't jump in god hand. This game is a reboot in gameplay only, you'll never miss a jump button. Well, you could jump in previous entries, but this new GOW is another kind of game. It is a metroidvania, or an action-adventure game in the vein of legacy of kain, or darksiders. With chests and items locked up by different things that can be opened when you get the appropriate item. It's better than make a clone of previous entries. I played GOW: ascension and it was boring and forgettable.

Camera is not bad at all. But then again, I can get used to any camera in 3rd person games. No game ever made me angry because of camera.

The combat is nice, impactful, brutal. In the beginning it is dull, because you start with very basic moves. But upgrade Kratos, he becomes a skilled killing machine. It's challenging but not frustratingly difficult as in dark souls (bosses have in battle checkpoints, and you never have to do long sequences as in a dark souls game). And midgame, you get to use the good old blades of chaos. I feared the gameplay was made to rely mainly in the Axe combat, that when I got the blades I thought it would be just an easter egg, but it is a fully fledged weapon with various moves and combos, and it works perfectly in this game, something I thought they wouldn't focus. Oh, and there's very little QTE events, and they're just the kind of mashing buttons (which you can change into a hold-button in the option menu), and they're never the kind of "time" limited.

Comparison with other games: The last of us is just because you have a kid as a companion, and the storytelling is similar. But Last of Us is linear, and this god of war is a backtracking game. Other game I can compare it to is the witcher 3 (a really influential game in this modern era). Enemies have different levels and if they're way above you there's an icon of a skull by their health bar. The difference is that leveling takes time and it works by upgrading you armor, weapons and items, and the level cap is probably about 10. Also from the witcher, is the detailed sets of armors, which you can craft and upgrade, and also the lore codex, bestiary. There's a great amount of sidequests, and some puzzles common to games of this kind.

The boy is never annoying, since it's no escort mission: He is like a tertiary weapon, and he evolves in the game as well. And they only banter in sequences where you're just wandering around. The story is nothing special, but it's presented in a good way. You want to know what happens next.

The thing is: the game is fun. It's long, and sometimes you look what you may face ahead and think it you get boring, but it rarely, maybe never, gets boring. It even has humour... WTF? I'm talking about the dwarfs and the mimir's talking head.

About this guy not being Kratos... well I disagree, but if he is not, he is better than the previous one.

My only complaint is the menu fonts are really small, even after the patch when you can double it's size, but it is still small. Sorry I lie. there's another complaint: no sex and boobs in this one.

Oh, I didn't finish the game yet, but I'm having a blast.

EDIT: The music: It's by bear mccreary, so it's great. Though it follow the epic style.

 

[Egosphere]

Whats it with all these Last of Us comparisons? The narrative theme is maybe comparable, but gameplaywise those two games share very little common ground.

And you still have grand scale epic battles with gore. Its just not that much over the top anymore.

Because TLoU was profound, and irrefutably proved that games are ART. It had an emotional, mature, engrossing, deep, penetrating, profound storyline about a 50 year old man bonding with a 10 year old girl. This relationship is the most emotional one ever presented in any artistic medium ever, leading TLoU's review scores to transcend the real line and go straight to the complex plane ( although even here, the scores can never match the complexity of the depth of the profundity of the emotions of tlou's story ).

 

[Ash]

The only review I've watched. He basically exposes everything I feared about this bad camera game And yeah, removing the jump was a numbskull decision. And yeah, this isn't Kratos.

Thanks for posting. Ah it's that DMC guy. It's so refreshing to see a true gamer -- 90% of his vid is gameplay analysis, and he actually knows wtf he is talking about on the matter and has numerous points of reference.

"The story is encroaching on the gameplay"

As was easily predicted in the first few pages of this thread.

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

you can jump in Oblivion

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

 

[HanoverF]

Favorite out of context moment

Kratos: Boy... before... what you... saw

Boy: I didn't see anything.

Kratos: You did not see me with someone? An old man?

Boy: I saw nothing.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]