GOW 2018 was maybe the most disappointed I've been with a game proportionate to my hype for its release. I adore Norse mythology and loved the old GOW games and was more than ready for a more seriously toned take on Kratos and his story, and while the beginning of the game was very strong with the first Baldur fight I feel they didn't have nearly as many highs throughout to compete with the strength of the intro.
Fights in turn felt more repetitive and grindy as a result with the lack of set pieces, and I didn't feel like the environmental design was varied enough outside of Alfheim. Many of the explorable areas in the main hub run together in my memory aside from where you meet Freya.
I get they were trying to go with a more restrained approach and wasn't expecting the insanity of GOW 3 but they still could've added more variety like more unique enemies and bosses, instead of the umpteenth slightly differently modeled/colored troll.
I was expecting more of a sense of grand adventure and while the mountain ascent was great at telegraphing the feel of a journey across a wide area a lot of the other regions felt either too samey throughout and left me with an impression of not really doing much or exploring a real sense of place. The main point being the individual areas could've had more unique landmarks, encounters, puzzles, etc. Because of this it kinda felt like playing a 360/PS3 game with a next gen coat of paint.
Hopefully the sequel is broader in scope and with more visual variety not only for enemies but environments as well.
