It really is. I like the idea of the area, and it's fun for a while, but if you're going for the Platinum it takes way too long. I eventually bumped it down to easy just to get through it quicker and it still took awhile.
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God of War |OT2| Mad Dad Redemption
- Thread starter More_Badass
- Start date
It really is. I like the idea of the area, and it's fun for a while, but if you're going for the Platinum it takes way too long. I eventually bumped it down to easy just to get through it quicker and it still took awhile.
Just hit the second realm and wow it had really blown me away. I don't really mind the lack of enemy variety while the writing so far is pretty decent. The production values are off the charts and it's like experiencing an epic saga everytime I play.
GoW1 had 3 major big bossfights but it was also ~8 hours long.
True. I'm just on the default difficulty. Maybe I'll try bumping it up one.
I'll just reply in spoiler tags:
Reusing trolls is a totally valid criticism. They could have at least changed each troll visually (i.e. give them all unique body and facial structures, totems too) to make each stand out more. In terms of combat, they were fairly varied with different attacks, but having the same body and primary means of attack really hurt it. I was especially disappointed when the guardian of Helheim's bridge turned out to be yet another troll. The others I was okay with, but that one really stung.
"Useless" is a ridiculous term to use for the context. You might want to check the word's definition.
The return to the summit was necessary to show the players what was going on with Atreus. Had you simply gone ahead to the Summit via Mystic Gateway, you would have encountered Baldur and Atreus would shoot Kratos and be disrespecting him, etc. without any proper buildup. Mechanically speaking, it was also showing us how Atreus was disobeying our commands and fighting all on his own, summoning runes and firing arrows whenever he pleased. Returning to Helheim was not a problem at all because it was an entirely different section. Fighting Hraesvelger (if that is indeed its identity) would not have made sense because it's not a malevolent being. This is not the Kratos of old that would just kill and kill. He has no reason to fight it. His priority was keeping Atreus safe and returning to Midgard. Making a boss fight out of it would feel forced and that would have felt like padding. Very cool padding, yes, but something forced and unnecessary.
The Nine Realms "structure" isn't a joke because that's simply Norse mythology. It would not make sense to not have all of them present as the Realm Travel Room is where you can travel to all the Nine Realms, nor would it make sense to have them all be part of the journey. The journey is about Kratos and Atreus spreading Faye's ashes, not exploring the Nine Realms. The only realms that needed to be visited were visited, and our visit to Jötunheim being so short is understandably disappointing, but once again, given the context, it makes perfect sense. Turning it into a fully playable realm with enemies to fight and quests to do would water down the meaning behind their goal and the answers revealed upon reaching it. Having enemies to fight there would have also been suspicious given the fact that Jötunheim has been missing for so long. If we didn't have enemies to fight, then what would quests there be for? You would have to introduce whole new characters to even have quests there because neither Brok nor Sindri could reach the place and would thus have no reason to look for anything there. Introducing new characters would mean going beyond Kratos and Atreus' goal of spreading Faye's ashes, and that's simply not something Kratos would care to do.
The boss battles were disappointing to a degree, and I was hoping for more too. I wasn't a fan of the boss battle with the Dark Elf King as that was just an extended battle with a slightly superior version of the Dark Elf Warriors. Hraezlyr was a visual spectacle, but mechanically boring. Both Baldur fights were great, but the second ought to have had more changes in terms of moveset. It's not that surprising that they failed a bit in this department because it's their first time with this type of God of War game, but I was happy enough with what they achieved.
There are no DLC plans because this is the entire package already. There is no need to muddle the value of the other realms by turning them into cash grabs. They want to create something meaningful and valuable, so they'll introduce those other realms and characters when the story necessitates them. None of them are vital to this game.
"Useless" is a ridiculous term to use for the context. You might want to check the word's definition.
The return to the summit was necessary to show the players what was going on with Atreus. Had you simply gone ahead to the Summit via Mystic Gateway, you would have encountered Baldur and Atreus would shoot Kratos and be disrespecting him, etc. without any proper buildup. Mechanically speaking, it was also showing us how Atreus was disobeying our commands and fighting all on his own, summoning runes and firing arrows whenever he pleased. Returning to Helheim was not a problem at all because it was an entirely different section. Fighting Hraesvelger (if that is indeed its identity) would not have made sense because it's not a malevolent being. This is not the Kratos of old that would just kill and kill. He has no reason to fight it. His priority was keeping Atreus safe and returning to Midgard. Making a boss fight out of it would feel forced and that would have felt like padding. Very cool padding, yes, but something forced and unnecessary.
The Nine Realms "structure" isn't a joke because that's simply Norse mythology. It would not make sense to not have all of them present as the Realm Travel Room is where you can travel to all the Nine Realms, nor would it make sense to have them all be part of the journey. The journey is about Kratos and Atreus spreading Faye's ashes, not exploring the Nine Realms. The only realms that needed to be visited were visited, and our visit to Jötunheim being so short is understandably disappointing, but once again, given the context, it makes perfect sense. Turning it into a fully playable realm with enemies to fight and quests to do would water down the meaning behind their goal and the answers revealed upon reaching it. Having enemies to fight there would have also been suspicious given the fact that Jötunheim has been missing for so long. If we didn't have enemies to fight, then what would quests there be for? You would have to introduce whole new characters to even have quests there because neither Brok nor Sindri could reach the place and would thus have no reason to look for anything there. Introducing new characters would mean going beyond Kratos and Atreus' goal of spreading Faye's ashes, and that's simply not something Kratos would care to do.
The boss battles were disappointing to a degree, and I was hoping for more too. I wasn't a fan of the boss battle with the Dark Elf King as that was just an extended battle with a slightly superior version of the Dark Elf Warriors. Hraezlyr was a visual spectacle, but mechanically boring. Both Baldur fights were great, but the second ought to have had more changes in terms of moveset. It's not that surprising that they failed a bit in this department because it's their first time with this type of God of War game, but I was happy enough with what they achieved.
There are no DLC plans because this is the entire package already. There is no need to muddle the value of the other realms by turning them into cash grabs. They want to create something meaningful and valuable, so they'll introduce those other realms and characters when the story necessitates them. None of them are vital to this game.
This was perfectly fine until you mentioned the Draugr and Nightmare. The Draugr come in a large variety, from regular ones to the heavy ones, shield-wielding and dual-wielding, speed and ranged, etc. Visually, it would have been boring if they were all we had, but from a gameplay perspective, they were varied and already a lot of fun. The Nightmares also come in a good variety, with some shooting out poison or launching themselves at you with a kamikaze attack, Hel variants freezing you, and so on and so forth.
You're right about the ancients, though. I still had fun with them, but they were all pretty much the same. The trolls were mostly the same, but it would be incorrect to say they had the same attacks. They all had the basic totem slam and thrust attacks, but the rest of their attacks were unique. Fire trolls threw lava, frost trolls created ice spikes, others had blinding attacks and so on. If they just changed the visual design of each troll and not kept the same body, face, and totem, then I think people would like them a lot more.
Well damn. I'm loving this game but I have two young children so I don't get to play much without sacrificing sleep. I may just have to suck it up so I can finish this game in a reasonable amount of time.
This line made me audibly say "WHAT"?? But then reading the rest of your post it becomes clear you mean casting not the actual voice acting haha.
I'm guessing the attacks you are referring to are during the second phase of the fight. The first one is when Magni sticks his sword in the ground which causes a big AOE explosion. This one is easy to avoid - just run away as far as you can. The other attack is when Magni throws Modi into the air and when he lands he causes this huge AOE explosion - you can't run away from this attack most of the time. You can tell when they are about to do this attack because both of them will go into this animation where they have a small lighting explosion that will knock you back. When Magni throws Modi into the air, throw your axe at Modi. The timing on this is a little tricky, because Modi will kinda float up and then fall with a lot of momentum. Try to aim your throw at a point in his arc as he's going up. Good luck!
Is there any consensus on the best armor to craft for the last 20% of the game on Normal? I'm currently rocking Travelers, and trying to determine which I should work towards next between Musp/Mist/Valks/Sindri's that can take me to the finish line.
I totally agree that meaningful boss fights are much better than random boss fights, but let's be honest here the dragon fight and half of the troll fights in this game are pretty much all just random boss fights that could have been replaced by more unique creatures.
I know from the podcasts Cory want this game to focus on Kratos and Atreus, that's why we didn't see a bunch of characters and gods, which means this is the best game for them to thrown in a bunch of ''nobody'' monsters as bosses, not the sequel, a missed opportunity if you ask me.
I mean, they could have done some Ascension boss fights in this game, remember this one?
For a ''non-character'' boss fight this is cool as hell and adds more flavor to the journey, and certainly better than just another reskinned troll.
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I don't think the quests are THAT grindy once you factor in the selling of those resources to Sindri. I was expecting something that took hours and hours the way people spoke about it, but there are worse grinds in many other games.
Yeah, I used the Travelers set for most of the game. When I upgraded it was to Mist Armor. The bottom-most of the three sets on the blacksmith menu.
Having finished the game two times already i prefer a boss heavy expansion instead.
won't happens, i know :(
Man, i hate that tease at very end of the game ''hey, we did not had enough time to put more great bosses, but be excited, sequel will improve on that''
Man, i hate that tease at very end of the game ''hey, we did not had enough time to put more great bosses, but be excited, sequel will improve on that''
I feel like Give Me a Challenge was difficulty this game should have been played, even some guy from SSM here recommended it. It's a little tough until you get few upgrades, after that it becomes easier than any Souls game. Talking about Souls, Demon's almost crushed me back in the day, when i went fully blind haha.
Why does the game tend to use so much depth of field in the background? It doesnt look realistic at all and it certainly makes the game look worse than it actually does.
The weird thing is that when you enter the boat the depth of field effect is removed and everything in the distance is sharp and beautiful as it should be.
Furthermore when you use photo mode you can remove the effect completely and appreciate just how good certain location look without blurrying the background.
I really wish there was an option to allow the effect to be removed completely from the game.
I honestly dont find a reason for it to be there. I initially thought it was for performance reasons but after checking that during the boat rides and photo mode it is removed with no issues, i am pretty sure that is not the case.
Give us the option Cory!
The weird thing is that when you enter the boat the depth of field effect is removed and everything in the distance is sharp and beautiful as it should be.
Furthermore when you use photo mode you can remove the effect completely and appreciate just how good certain location look without blurrying the background.
I really wish there was an option to allow the effect to be removed completely from the game.
I honestly dont find a reason for it to be there. I initially thought it was for performance reasons but after checking that during the boat rides and photo mode it is removed with no issues, i am pretty sure that is not the case.
Give us the option Cory!
I beat the game on GMGOW with Sindri's set. Cooldown and Runic are the most powerful stats in the game, IMO.
Just finished the story, good game with an amazing first half that slowly declines towards the end. Glad I stopped doing the side quests at some point because they were a bit too tedious and time consuming. Exploring the mountain for the first time it felt like a 9-10 game for me, but all in all I'd give it a solid 8.
Im not sure about the whole "declines towards the end" .. I found it intense tbh
In my experience, being a semi-linear game, it's a better aproach to focus first on the main path (with little dives into the optional content) and then move on to side quests, end-game, etc.
I got distracted more than a few times and coming back to the story was harder than expected. Though I think the game is not at fault here. It's the player who must be aware of how deep the hole runs, before getting stuck in.
And on the subject of mini-bosses, I value their attack patterns being diverse, over any cosmetic similarities. By the end of the game, the trolls you encounter are on a whole new level, compared to the one we met at the start.
It's another example of what the game does so well: introducing layers of content and adding to them new elements.
I got distracted more than a few times and coming back to the story was harder than expected. Though I think the game is not at fault here. It's the player who must be aware of how deep the hole runs, before getting stuck in.
And on the subject of mini-bosses, I value their attack patterns being diverse, over any cosmetic similarities. By the end of the game, the trolls you encounter are on a whole new level, compared to the one we met at the start.
It's another example of what the game does so well: introducing layers of content and adding to them new elements.
Muspelheim Impossible trials on GMGOW are a real pain in the ass, I wish they hadn't solely decided on making time trial variations the only activity to do in end-game.
Anyone have any tips for doing them? I would like to plat the game but the only trial that was somewhat enjoyable on Impossible was the "fast regen" one, all the time-limited ones just suck. (especially the "kill enemies within rings" one, where almost every execution attack flings the enemy outside of the ring...)
Anyone have any tips for doing them? I would like to plat the game but the only trial that was somewhat enjoyable on Impossible was the "fast regen" one, all the time-limited ones just suck. (especially the "kill enemies within rings" one, where almost every execution attack flings the enemy outside of the ring...)
I'm surprised by the sentiment. I found the last half to be the better part of the game, easily. The story ramped up and I was excited to see how it would go down. In contrast, I was really down on the game for a couple of hours after the first boss fight - seemed a little bit slow and plodding with not a lot going on. It sure turned around though.
I don't understand it either, for me it started as an 8/10 game and I was getting skeptical about the hype.
Then combat becomes amazing (if you decide to invest time in understanding it) and the story kicks into high gear until the end and it's an incredible ride.
After the end some of the side quest are awesome and you get you ass kicked by the Valkyries and have to work hard to get good, only to get you rear handed to you again by the queen in super intense fights. I got better and finally kicked her ass while yelling at the screen like a mad man.
Then started a second playthrough and enjoyed the whole thing even more, except for Niflheim.
And, I'm just waiting for NG+ to jump in again..
So, for me it was an 8/10 game that became one of the best hames I've ever played in my life, and I'm no spring chicken.
I must say, 2 of my friends didn't like it that much, and both completed the game on easy by tapping R1 through then whole thing trying to rush it to go back to fifa. I understand why they didn't like it that much.
The biggest disappointment in this game is definitely the lacklustre boss fights. Found the majority to be underwhelming — and even more insulting were the Valkyries who were really interesting to fight. Shame they didn't make that part of the main experience.
They are a part of the main experience. They were just side bosses which doesn't take away the fact its still main exprience
Unless you wanted them as main bosses, I think it will be too much since they're 9.
Trolls and ancients aren't really bosses, they're just an ordinary enemy type that sometimes has a unique name. All in all I believe there are 16 unique enemy types in the game, each with multiple skins and varients, making for a total of around 44 total standard enemies including the variants, which generally (but not always) have unique movesets, AI and attack patterns. This is not including main bosses and Valkyries.
That would have also gotten old, if they did that. The identical "rip wings off" kill sequences are already immersion breaking. It would have been dramatically improved if they all died in unique ways that reflected their gimmick.
Hopefully the next game has more unique bosses.
A few things to improve the sequel:
- A wider variety of finisher animations, at least 3x.
- A wider variety of enemy types.
- Talking dragons - Fafnir is a must. He is what inspired Smaug the Magnificent.
I feel the same way. The fights themselves were very good and surprisingly varied but it was a let down that they all die in the exact same way.
Axe Runics
I recommend Charge of the White Bear for light runic attack. This is a essencial runic because you're protected while you dashing. Ideal for desesperade sittuation. For heavy runic you can choise between Ivaldi's Anvil or Blessings of the Frost. I use Ivaldi's Anvil because he frozen everyone, deal a great damage and sometimes knockback some enemys into lava/edge, but if you're not a fan you can use the blessing because add frozen damage to your basic attacks.
Blade Runics
The light you can choise your preference. I use Nemean Crush because they have a long range cast. Useful for safety damage. For the heavy attack I sugest Gift of Apollo for sustain. The tip here is use Gift of Apollo, a light attack and wait until your blades get fire and than use rapid short attacks for max sustain.
For armor I can't really recommend, just use the armor who give you the level up. The BOY armor I can. Use the legendary BOY armor with give you sometimes health stone. Don't forget use the eletric arrow + wolf summons.
If you could, use and max the level of Surtr's Grip of Flame pommels. I highly recommend this pommels because the effect are the best on entire game.
Blades are not my favorite weapon, so you can use
valk pommels
Make sure to use the
Infinity Gauntlet Easter , http://www.ign.com/articles/2018/04/30/god-of-war-includes-avengers-infinity-war-gauntlet-easter-egg
Other tips.
If you're facing the 100 challenge, keep in mind they appears in waves, so if only one enemy remain attack him using the 'hold button' attack. Keep holding the button until you active the pommel effect. You can heal yourself just doing that.
Some challenges have 'LAVA' or 'EDGE'. Just run and press the heavy attack of simple use the light runic attack to knockback him until fall.
If a Ogre appears, use everythink you got on him and when he get stun use him to kill everyone.
Revenant are annoying, trust me, The Ice Revenant is a living hell. Focus on her.
The stun challenge its not so hard, if you can use the axe or punchs to get a high stun bar. The eletric arrow give much stun bar too.
Ignore 'finish moves' on 'kill before time runs out' challenges.
Watch out when they level up. They gain some resistance to the knockback.
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Cool, thanks for the great writeup! i'll go ahead and give it another go. :D
Just finished the game, and I quite liked it. It's not a 10/10 masterpiece like a lot of people are saying, but it's definitely is the best god of war game. Although, its very different.
I often thought if Kratos wasn't in this, it would be easily a completely different IP. I finished it on hard mode... which was quite tough. I died a lot. Mostly the game was fair and the checkpoints allowed me to keep playing with a good side of challenge with a lack of frustration. As an aside - there is no hard mode trophy, which sucks as I like getting it at the end.
First off some pros:
- It's a beautiful game. Base Ps4 here too.
- Loved the Norse mythology, and how it didn't shy away from it... in-fact embracing it. Obviously shoehorning Kratos in there is gonna make it different, but they handled it well.
- I loved throwing the axe. I spent that first 30 minutes looking at how it cracks the wood and stone, how it takes longer to return the further away it is, the way it makes that satisfying thump when it hands into Kratos hand. The attention to detail here is great.
- The updates to the tired god of war gameplay are welcome.
- Actually creating a relatable character out of the forever angry Kratos. The father son dynamic works well here, you can see they are going after The Last of Us kind of vibe.
- It was long! over 30 hours of gameplay. Some nit-pics about this below, but the game really delivers in spades.
- Enough cannot be said about a 30 hour story driven single player game without a hint of multiplayer or DLC or micro transactions. These guys get it, thank you.
- Loads of post game content !
- Unexpected level system with lots of options.
- The ending was good.
And the things which annoyed me:
- Atreus voice acting really annoyed me, I felt he sounded too modern if that makes sense. Not like a child from that time. Very whiney. Now, before you quote me saying that is a stupid complaint, it's just something that irked me.
- The main story progression kinda annoyed me, it was constantly dangling a carrot in front of you. Oh, you finally reached goal A ? well guess what, the princess is in another castle and now go to goal B ! x 10 times.
- The game can be cheap. The elves making the whole room dark, with no way to figure out whats going on (that I know of). Being stunned by something off screen and then falling into another attack with no way to stop it and then dying because of it. This was happening way more times than I would like.
- The controls are a bit confusing. Even at the end, I was still accidentally using my special attacks instead of throwing the Axe. Triangle for Axe, left for unarmed, and then left for blades ? huh ?. I know it's left, right on the dpad.. but triangle is much easier to access the axe. The blade should have their own button too.
- How did Kratos get to Midgard ? how did he survive the sword impalement from the end of GOW3 ? maybe this will be explained in the sequel. I noticed he has a scar on his abdomen, but apart from that I didn't see anything referring it.
I quite enjoyed the game, and will still continue to play it for the post game content. Overall, 8/10.
(I would have liked a stats screen showing hours played, time died etc)
I often thought if Kratos wasn't in this, it would be easily a completely different IP. I finished it on hard mode... which was quite tough. I died a lot. Mostly the game was fair and the checkpoints allowed me to keep playing with a good side of challenge with a lack of frustration. As an aside - there is no hard mode trophy, which sucks as I like getting it at the end.
First off some pros:
- It's a beautiful game. Base Ps4 here too.
- Loved the Norse mythology, and how it didn't shy away from it... in-fact embracing it. Obviously shoehorning Kratos in there is gonna make it different, but they handled it well.
- I loved throwing the axe. I spent that first 30 minutes looking at how it cracks the wood and stone, how it takes longer to return the further away it is, the way it makes that satisfying thump when it hands into Kratos hand. The attention to detail here is great.
- The updates to the tired god of war gameplay are welcome.
- Actually creating a relatable character out of the forever angry Kratos. The father son dynamic works well here, you can see they are going after The Last of Us kind of vibe.
- It was long! over 30 hours of gameplay. Some nit-pics about this below, but the game really delivers in spades.
- Enough cannot be said about a 30 hour story driven single player game without a hint of multiplayer or DLC or micro transactions. These guys get it, thank you.
- Loads of post game content !
- Unexpected level system with lots of options.
- The ending was good.
And the things which annoyed me:
- Atreus voice acting really annoyed me, I felt he sounded too modern if that makes sense. Not like a child from that time. Very whiney. Now, before you quote me saying that is a stupid complaint, it's just something that irked me.
- The main story progression kinda annoyed me, it was constantly dangling a carrot in front of you. Oh, you finally reached goal A ? well guess what, the princess is in another castle and now go to goal B ! x 10 times.
- The game can be cheap. The elves making the whole room dark, with no way to figure out whats going on (that I know of). Being stunned by something off screen and then falling into another attack with no way to stop it and then dying because of it. This was happening way more times than I would like.
- The controls are a bit confusing. Even at the end, I was still accidentally using my special attacks instead of throwing the Axe. Triangle for Axe, left for unarmed, and then left for blades ? huh ?. I know it's left, right on the dpad.. but triangle is much easier to access the axe. The blade should have their own button too.
- How did Kratos get to Midgard ? how did he survive the sword impalement from the end of GOW3 ? maybe this will be explained in the sequel. I noticed he has a scar on his abdomen, but apart from that I didn't see anything referring it.
I quite enjoyed the game, and will still continue to play it for the post game content. Overall, 8/10.
(I would have liked a stats screen showing hours played, time died etc)
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Guys what do you think about the recent negative threads and posts about GoW we see more of lately?
Do you think it's a "honeymoon phase is over" kind of thing and now people are just more objective and "aware" about this game "true quality" or is this a case of the usual vocal minority almost every critically acclaimed game has and the vast majority love it just like before and they still think it's a GOTY material game?
Do you think it's a "honeymoon phase is over" kind of thing and now people are just more objective and "aware" about this game "true quality" or is this a case of the usual vocal minority almost every critically acclaimed game has and the vast majority love it just like before and they still think it's a GOTY material game?
What negative thread? People have been trying to downplay the success but most of the threads which are negative have been weak and it's a vocal monitory who feel that there opinion is right because the people who love it are in the honeymoon phase
Happened last year with so many games.
It's a game in the end. You pay for it and you enjoy. I really don't think a forum opinion should matter anyways lol
This. So much. Earlier builds seemed to have different Draugr execution if I recall correctly. Shame they didn't make the cut for whatever reason. I hope we get contextual animations, such as Kratos bashing a Draugr's head into a wall, or kicking them off Spartan style, etc.
What negative threads? There're dumb people that wants to downplay the games huge success but its not working
So I just finished the story today, exactly one month after release. I'd been pretty close to the end for a while now but I wanted to defeat all the Valkyries before I finished the story, and I've been stuck at Sigrun for maybe 2 weeks now. I'd say outside of the first 2 or 3 the rest where pretty easy, and the last 3 I even defeated in my first try. It seems I was mostly under-leveled for Sigrun since a lot of people mention Level 8 and 9 on her, while I was just at the smallest sliver of Level 7. I used my Sindri's Dwarf armor since I loved the protection it granted during Runic attacks, and the Cooldown options - which helped massively with the previous Valkyries that were basically a walk in the park for me.
Either way I loved this game, probably best of this gen, definitely top 3. Loved the journey, and all the emotional beats we go through. The most fascinating thing was the actual risk that it was to make a shift like this and that it actually worked out for the best. I was in awe the whole time.
Either way I loved this game, probably best of this gen, definitely top 3. Loved the journey, and all the emotional beats we go through. The most fascinating thing was the actual risk that it was to make a shift like this and that it actually worked out for the best. I was in awe the whole time.