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God of War (2018) Feels Hampered & Incomplete
- Thread starter DmckPower
- Start date
People with hot takes could elaborate on their hot take. Hot take purpose is to attract attention and the op got it with the thread title. His elaboration is not that great either, there is the word count but not the substance.
Agreed on these points. The storyline with the elves also felt like it was cut up/edited poorly. Some will say "wait for the sequel" but it just didnt feel good anyway, or realized.
I did not like Baldur. He just felt lame, and the boss fights overall were just not good. The trolls were tiring. It was disappointing going to hell to fight the guard whose heart I needed to save my son, only to realize it was a reskinned troll.
Dragon fight was the only one I enjoyed, as well as the 2 sons.
I also did not like Freya and how her whole arc played out in the end. I do not care at all about any of the characters besides Mimir, Kratos, and Son. I am hoping that the sequel has better characters as it focuses more on gods like Thor and family.
I very much did not care for Baldur and Freya and they both felt grating as it became clear they were the games final focus.
The enemy variety was fanatic, sure they have alot of the same type but they all have different moves and functions which changes things up.
This is a thing most Rpgs does.
God of War actually has puzzles and well designed levels that are fun to explore, it's not just a straight hallway that leads you to the next encounter or cutscene. It also does a good job of giving you a more open area with exploration and side missions. Obviously it's masking loading zones sometimes but that parts of the games direction, zero cuts. It works well.
This game is also about 5x longer than the previous God of War games, it's not going to have as many boss fights, it could have had zero boss fights and i still would probably call it the best game of the generation.
This game is also about 5x longer than the previous God of War games, it's not going to have as many boss fights, it could have had zero boss fights and i still would probably call it the best game of the generation.
Uhhh, no, the enemy variety is one of the few things with the game that almost everyone can agree it was objectively lacking in. Especially considering this is an action game, or the variety in previous games in the series, enemies beginning to repeat themselves halfway through was a big problem.
Picked your quote by mistake, edited it soon after.
So essentially you have no counter-argument, and just rely on other people to form your opinions for you?
Ahh no I dont agree with that I still confused at people saying this.
I agree with the enemy variety comments, they're pretty lackluster and you face the same giant trolls way too many times for my liking.
I think you're totally wrong about the level design. While they aren't exactly huge sandboxes of things to do, there are secrets to find, puzzles to solve and no, there are not doors to open "every two feet." Yes, I know you're exaggerating to make a point, but your point is wrong.
I'm mixed about your cutscene comments. Brok and Sindri are awesome, two brothers who hate each other because they both blame the other for creating what is essentially the atomic bomb (Mjolnir). Baldur is not great; he feels like a redneck who rounds up his brothers to beat up some visual minority. Even his relationship with Freya felt stale. Mimir, while hilarious, feels really out of place in this game. I wouldn't call Thor appearing at the end to be "shameless," but necessary. His sons are dead, of course he's going to make an appearance.
I'm surprised you went that whole post without talking about the terrible camera angles during combat, it's my absolute biggest gripe about that game.
OP
OP
Its definitely hampered by the hardware.
Maybe should've waited for next gen so the game could breath easier while pushing the visuals.
I agree with some points: The enemy variety is poor, Baldur is not interesting or developed, the world traversal is really bad and it feels intentionally slow...
And I agree that the game deserves a 8 and no more.
The first hours of the game are amazing, but the bad story pacing and boring traversal made the last hours pretty boring.
And yeah the slow walk sections are... slow...
GoW is a good game but not great, is another example IMO at how Sony's first party single player games attempt to be cinematic and have "interesting characters" making the games slow with lots of cinematics and slow walking sections.
I'm pretty fed up with this approach to single player games TBH, and even if I enjoyed GoW I feel like I've played a really bloated game that doesn't have any substancial plot development besides some cutscenes at the start and the end.
And I agree that the game deserves a 8 and no more.
The first hours of the game are amazing, but the bad story pacing and boring traversal made the last hours pretty boring.
And yeah the slow walk sections are... slow...
GoW is a good game but not great, is another example IMO at how Sony's first party single player games attempt to be cinematic and have "interesting characters" making the games slow with lots of cinematics and slow walking sections.
I'm pretty fed up with this approach to single player games TBH, and even if I enjoyed GoW I feel like I've played a really bloated game that doesn't have any substancial plot development besides some cutscenes at the start and the end.
It's meant to be a wide linear game. It's not meant to be an open world. No matter when it was made, it would always be like this.
Nah, there was nothing that felt incomplete to me. There probably could've been more bosses, but that's it.
The game technically had a fair amount of enemy variety, it's just not enough of them required you to change your approach in any meaningful way apart from the annoying projectile spammers. Then again, that's a problem the original games had as well, where everything was fought by just wailing on it until you needed to dodge cancel or something. The new one is actually better in that respect since it feels like each one of your attacks is actually doing something (rather than only the last hit of the chain) and you have to commit to attacks more. But it's undermined by how most of the enemies kind of all look and behave the same. It needed more stuff like the Wulvers and Snake like creatures, and fewer straight humanoid types.
I didn't actually finish the game, I got pretty close I assume but the story had kind of ground to a halt, descending into that "your objective is to get here, but every time you get there we throw a wall in your way and make you go somewhere else in a tangent 3 times in a row thing" that I hate. That combined with the fact I hadn't seen anything new combat wise for ages meant I just didn't go back to it one day.
I didn't actually finish the game, I got pretty close I assume but the story had kind of ground to a halt, descending into that "your objective is to get here, but every time you get there we throw a wall in your way and make you go somewhere else in a tangent 3 times in a row thing" that I hate. That combined with the fact I hadn't seen anything new combat wise for ages meant I just didn't go back to it one day.
I think his elaboration makes enough sense and is substantiated enough, it doesn't have to be an overly argued master's thesis like so many threads on this site. And I don't see how this thread is any more of a hot take than all the 'God of war is the greatest thing since sliced bread' threads I've seen here, which attract just as much attention.
And to be clear, I Don't even agree with OP. I think the game is complete, it just feels uninspired on every level of story and gameplay beyond the axe boomerang.
I forgot this one.
The close and personal camera works well to make the player feel more like Kratos, but during combats with many enemies or enemies that can move fast, the camera is really really bad.
Played it on normal difficulty for my first playthrough. Then on Give Me God of War for my second. I plan on playing it again once New Game plus is added.
I mean, Mankind Divided and the original Deus Ex aren't open world either but they're massively more reactive than God of War is.
Throwing the axe around demonstrates just how few objects have any physics to them and how Kratos can touch and interact with almost nothing in the environment.
And of course, Kratos being unable to climb or jump up 10-15 foot walls and having to do a long detour happens at least like 6 or 7 times in the game.
OP
OP
I hate empty open world design ,and that's not what I wished for the game to be like.
But this isn't great wide linear design.
Its hyper linear narrow design.It harkens back to last gen's hyper linear hallways.
It's the most complete AAA game I've played all generation.
I'd like some recommendations from you OP since you seem so wise.
I'd like some recommendations from you OP since you seem so wise.
IMO it's the opposite.
I enjoyed my time with the game from the beginning to Alfheim a lot, from there to the end the slow pacing really hampered my enjoyment.
Even so, a really good game, finish it.
Actually scrap that, I don't want any recommendations from you. You're straight up trolling at this point.
Wait, you think the level design of that game is a hardware limitation and not a design choice?
Sounds like you were disappointed Thor wasn't in the game and tried to find other things wrong with it.
long ago for an opinion like op's to no longer count as a "hot take"
Because God of War is not a systemic immersive sim like those two?
Like- "Kratos can't interact with most things in the environment", this is true for most games. There are very few games that allow for undefined interactions with the environment.
Now we're moving into the territory of opinion. I'll just say I disagree and leave it at that.
Or when there are enemies behind you that are belting you with long-range attacks and you have to close in on them, but when you turn around, you get dicked on by melee enemies you were fighting and pelted with long-range attacks.
It sucks. I get that it's a huge departure from the combat of the other games, but there's a reason people liked the combat of the other games.
Yeah, take Metroid Prime or Resident Evil 4 for example.
Even if the two games don't have a good world interaction, I found the linear exploration in these games far far better than in GoW.
jumping would've most definitely been awful with the camera. It doesn't feel like it was cut, it feels like it wasn't there day one, what are you even saying
Ah another hot take thread. Can't say I agree with any of it, although I did get kinda tired of the enemy design.
His elaboration is full with hyperbole similar to the title. And yes people who make this thing is greatest ever are also making a take.
Well you do have to be bold to be wrong and then double down on it. So yeh, there's that.
If you could jump, you would encounter constant, unending invisible walls everywhere.
Tbh, tiny linear levels feel like a breath of fresh air to me at this point. Im sick of huge open world games that are half game half busy work
Is this the hill you want to die on what defines a hot take?
You have some weird qualifiers to what constitutes as a hot take. Time and length of argument was never a qualifier.
Either way this definition of hottake nonsense is flooding this thread and derailing it now.