God of War (2018)

[Jakuvious]

4 hours ago, kingseanjohn said:

Is this game more like Skyrim, Shadow of Mordor/War or MGS: The Phantom Pain?  Not character or story wise but game play and exploration/missions.

Or am I way off in comparisons?

It's really tough to say, honestly. Because it's kind of like...half-assed open world? And I don't mean that in a negative way, but like, there's clear open world elements, but it's also linear enough in terms of world design that I don't feel comfortable calling it open world. There's more just a lot of branches that you can explore at any given time, with only some of the branches being mandatory. I'd almost feel more comfortable comparing it to Witcher 2 than Witcher 3 or Skyrim or something like that, in terms of the style of exploration. Because with Skyrim or Shadow or War, unless you're at the maps edge, if you see a cliff, you can climb it. Like anything within sight is accessible, as long as you aren't at the edge of the world map. While God of War has far more in terms of artificial barriers. Short cliffs you can't climb, valleys funneling you into one path, rivers you can't cross except with a boat you can only dock at certain places, etc. It isn't Assassin's Creed Origins, where you can get on a boat and get off a boat anywhere, or Skyrim where you can kind of sidwalk/jump/ride a horse up any mountain you see. The branching paths are a little more linear than a true open world game like those.

So exploration wise, I dunno, I really don't have a good comparison for you. It's somewhere right smack in the middle of your usual linear Sony exclusives (Uncharted, Last of Us, etc.,) and your true open worlds (Witcher 3, Skyrim, etc.) More exploration and backtracking than full on linear games, but more boundaries than true open worlds.

Gameplay wise, I still think the old God of War games are the best comparisons. The puzzles and combat still feel familiar enough to the old series. Less quick time events, which is nice. But still the mix of cinematic combat you partially control combined with fully controlled combat. Some hack and slash with the periodic challenge or tough enemy type/combinations that make you have to slow down or rethink your methodology. The same style of puzzles centered around traps and moving parts. Still has a bit of the Zelda style influences the old games had IMO with the style of puzzles, and the way you get new upgrades/items that open the world up further.

In the end, I think it's a hard game to find a good comparison for because of how many different game styles it seems to be taking the best elements from. It has the open feel you want from an open world game, but it's linear enough that the developers/writers can put really meaningful interactions and moments along the way, and be sure that you'll experience them. The combat has the hack and slash satisfaction but with a little bit more thought needed for some fights (ESPECIALLY on higher difficulties.)

I will say, getting further, it has had a few missteps because of this. A few occasions where it says, "Hey, go anywhere, really, it's up to you," but then kind of backtracks to say "Yeah....except there....or there....you can go there, just not that way." At one point it was crazy counter-intuitive, because right after I opened up fast travel fully, it let me fast travel everywhere expect the place the plot told me to go, basically because they had plot waiting on the way to that place. So it was just a weird moment. But I digress.

tl;dr, comparison is difficult because the gameplay doesn't properly match any other recent AAA game, as it kind blurs linear with open world.

[DingoLadd]

The closest thing I can think of to compare this to is last of us and it's close to that but the combat is about 5000x better. I love it so far and this was probably the best way to reintroduce god of war as a series.

Sony killing it again this year with the exclusives... Now they just need to steal Microsoft's idea of porting all games to P.C. 

[TXsteeler]

7 hours ago, riceman80 said:

Witcher 3 is more freely open world than this game but it is the best comp imo as well. It's like the original God of War but the graphics, cinematics, and environment of a game like FF13 plus theres 9 different maps im thinking(1 for each realm), gobs of collectibles and side missions in addition to the main storyline, and weapons/armor/skillset upgrades dynamics. The best comparison really is that some took God of War and gave it the look and feel of The Witcher 3, tho Witcher 3 is more freely open world.

It takes the best parts of some of the greatest action/adventure games of the last decade and blends beautifully with a cinematic experience thats unparalleled as @NickButera said. There are no cutscenes, the whole game just flows as one beautiful piece.

I don't think this game has all 9 realms unlocked, I think I'm now mostly through the game based on what I've heard about when certain things happen and there isn't enough time for the rest to get unlocked, plus a few of the realms are listed as being locked specifically by Odin whereas a few others just say you need the travel rune, I think they are saving some of the other realms for the sequels.

[riceman80]

1 minute ago, TXsteeler said:

I don't think this game has all 9 realms unlocked, I think I'm now mostly through the game based on what I've heard about when certain things happen and there isn't enough time for the rest to get unlocked, plus a few of the realms are listed as being locked specifically by Odin whereas a few others just say you need the travel rune, I think they are saving some of the other realms for the sequels.

I was wondering this too. Or maybe DLC expansions later on.

[Jakuvious]

15 minutes ago, TXsteeler said:

I don't think this game has all 9 realms unlocked, I think I'm now mostly through the game based on what I've heard about when certain things happen and there isn't enough time for the rest to get unlocked, plus a few of the realms are listed as being locked specifically by Odin whereas a few others just say you need the travel rune, I think they are saving some of the other realms for the sequels.

Yeah, I think this is likely the case. Where I'm at, it seems as though 6 will be accessible in some capacity. I've been to 3 so far, I believe, 1 has been talked about a lot as an eventual destination, 1 I know that I can go to I just haven't, and there's another that says I just need to find some stuff first. So I think it'll sit at 6. At least 2 of the other 3 have the message about Odin. Maybe all 3. I can't remember looking into Svartalfheim at any point. Not sure what way they'd go with that realm, either. A lot of stuff with Svartalfheim, the dwarves, and dark elves are kind of up for interpretation in Norse mythology.

[TXsteeler]

3 hours ago, Jakuvious said:

Yeah, I think this is likely the case. Where I'm at, it seems as though 6 will be accessible in some capacity. I've been to 3 so far, I believe, 1 has been talked about a lot as an eventual destination, 1 I know that I can go to I just haven't, and there's another that says I just need to find some stuff first. So I think it'll sit at 6. At least 2 of the other 3 have the message about Odin. Maybe all 3. I can't remember looking into Svartalfheim at any point. Not sure what way they'd go with that realm, either. A lot of stuff with Svartalfheim, the dwarves, and dark elves are kind of up for interpretation in Norse mythology.

There are 9 total including midgard where you start at. I've been to 3 others with a fifth one being where I am going next, and atleast one more I can unlock, so yeah it looks like 6 it is for this game.

[TXsteeler]

Not to continue to circlejerk about how good this game is, but now it's metacritic userscore is up to 9.3, tying it for #2 all time with TW3 (PC), Bloodborne: The old Hunters, Resident Evil for GC, and Resident Evil 2 for PS, and behind Resident Evil 4 for GC sitting at 9.4 and #1 all time.

The thing is though, none of those games have near the number of user reviews as God of War (3324) other than TW3 (12234) with all the others including RE4 having under 2000 and a few below 1000. I don't know how much of this has to do with it having less relative fake reviews meant to tank the score vs other games or what, and I don't know how good metacritic's user score really is at tracking older games scores that had hype back in the day.

Anyways, for anybody still not sure about how good this game is, it's not just hype or anything, this game is legitimately one of the greatest games of all time and anybody who is saying it's #1 isn't just being a fanboy, it's within that realm.

[Jakuvious]

13 hours ago, TXsteeler said:

Not to continue to circlejerk about how good this game is, but now it's metacritic userscore is up to 9.3, tying it for #2 all time with TW3 (PC), Bloodborne: The old Hunters, Resident Evil for GC, and Resident Evil 2 for PS, and behind Resident Evil 4 for GC sitting at 9.4 and #1 all time.

The thing is though, none of those games have near the number of user reviews as God of War (3324) other than TW3 (12234) with all the others including RE4 having under 2000 and a few below 1000. I don't know how much of this has to do with it having less relative fake reviews meant to tank the score vs other games or what, and I don't know how good metacritic's user score really is at tracking older games scores that had hype back in the day.

Anyways, for anybody still not sure about how good this game is, it's not just hype or anything, this game is legitimately one of the greatest games of all time and anybody who is saying it's #1 isn't just being a fanboy, it's within that realm.

Yeah, I wouldn't really put too much stock into user review scores, especially yet. At this point it's kind of like an IMDB score the day a movie comes out. Got a lot of people reviewing it that probably shouldn't be reviewing it yet. Along with the fact that user reviews on sites like that often have a lot to do with fan bases anyway. How much people like the devs/series/console, not just the game. GTAV's user scores very by like .8 points depending on console. Battlefront 2 sits at 0.8 mostly due to issues long before the game came out. Etc.

Not saying a high user metacritic score is a bad thing or anything, just that I wouldn't really point to it as evidence of much.

[TXsteeler]

27 minutes ago, Jakuvious said:

Yeah, I wouldn't really put too much stock into user review scores, especially yet. At this point it's kind of like an IMDB score the day a movie comes out. Got a lot of people reviewing it that probably shouldn't be reviewing it yet. Along with the fact that user reviews on sites like that often have a lot to do with fan bases anyway. How much people like the devs/series/console, not just the game. GTAV's user scores very by like .8 points depending on console. Battlefront 2 sits at 0.8 mostly due to issues long before the game came out. Etc.

Not saying a high user metacritic score is a bad thing or anything, just that I wouldn't really point to it as evidence of much.

Well the game got a 95 from critics. I feel like if a game gets good reviews from critics, it could be good or it could be bad, but if a game gets bad reviews it can only be bad. So if the critics gave a game good reviews, you look at the user score to verify whether or not it truly is that good or if they are just slobbing on a game because of the IP or publishers for whatever reason.

Fans are similar, they will give good games bad reviews and good reviews but only give bad reviews to bad games except in the cases of fanboys and haters, which I feel like will end up countering each other over enough time.

I'm sure if someone had the ability/want to they could do some data analysis and determine what games/consoles/IPs are more likely to get fanboyed or unfairly criticized, and then they could adjust from there. Like BotW has a below 9.0 score which doesn't seem right to me considering how much people went crazy over it, and how big of fanboys Nintendo fans can be, so either those types of people tend to not use metacritic, or that game/IP just attracts a lot of haters.

This game is legitimately as close to a 10/10 on launch as any game has ever been I feel like, not necessarily ahead of all the rest but there is nothing to put anything ahead of this one, so we know a high user score is well fitting, so the only thing to wonder when you see it tied for the second highest rating all time is how much other games were held down.

[TXsteeler]

Also I've played through more of the game now and I want to take back what I said about the music. It is extremely well done during the main quest line and in a couple other realms, it's just when you are going around midgard doing all the side quests where I feel like it's lacking a bit. I suppose this actually makes a bit of sense though because that is the only part of the game (that I've seen so far) where you can sidequest for hours on hours without actually being in combat for 90% of it, so you notice the music more than at any other time where everything is basically story driven or in combat.

I think the other thing I realized is that during much of the midgard sidequesting/traveling you are still in combat half the time, or you are listening to a bunch of cool lore and conversations between the characters, so music takes a backseat to those two things in that regard.

[WizeGuy]

Man, that flying elf boss is a real ******.

 

Also, this is the best game I've ever played. It's beautiful, deep, and has amazing combat.

[Jakuvious]

8 hours ago, TXsteeler said:

Also I've played through more of the game now and I want to take back what I said about the music. It is extremely well done during the main quest line and in a couple other realms, it's just when you are going around midgard doing all the side quests where I feel like it's lacking a bit. I suppose this actually makes a bit of sense though because that is the only part of the game (that I've seen so far) where you can sidequest for hours on hours without actually being in combat for 90% of it, so you notice the music more than at any other time where everything is basically story driven or in combat.

I think the other thing I realized is that during much of the midgard sidequesting/traveling you are still in combat half the time, or you are listening to a bunch of cool lore and conversations between the characters, so music takes a backseat to those two things in that regard.

I will say, I very much like how the backstory is presented in dialogue. The boat conversations are great. Though I do wish they wouldn't hard stop when we get out of the boat. Makes for an awkward transition sometimes. "Let me tell you a story about_____" "Actually, maybe later." I get it, but that is one thing I've seen some games handle a little better.

It's nice though to have enough side characters to give you those bits of dialogue and backstory though. The original trilogy never had much of that, I feel, because it was just Kratos, and most of his interactions with others involved either death or Kratos making it clear that he didn't have the time/patience for them. Now you still have that, mostly, but Atreus allows for some actual conversation.

[riceman80]

anybody else taken on any valkyries yet? Theyre a challenge and a half. Cant imagine what the Queen is gonna be like...

just unlocked the blades last night. From Freya's house to Kratos' house i was like a 5 year old kid on Xmas morning. I stopped before going to Helheim but im stoked to jam them when i get home tonight. Also Magni and Modi kicked my a** a good couple times last night

[showtime]

I've been playing this the past few days.  I actually like this game MUCH better than the previous God of War games.  Granted, I thought the previous God of War games were pretty trash.  This series seriously needed this reboot.  This game is pretty good.  It would be cool for some other series like Gears of War to do something like this.  Not exactly like this, but something that's different than the same nonsense they keep releasing.

[TXsteeler]

3 hours ago, Jakuvious said:

I will say, I very much like how the backstory is presented in dialogue. The boat conversations are great. Though I do wish they wouldn't hard stop when we get out of the boat. Makes for an awkward transition sometimes. "Let me tell you a story about_____" "Actually, maybe later." I get it, but that is one thing I've seen some games handle a little better.

It's nice though to have enough side characters to give you those bits of dialogue and backstory though. The original trilogy never had much of that, I feel, because it was just Kratos, and most of his interactions with others involved either death or Kratos making it clear that he didn't have the time/patience for them. Now you still have that, mostly, but Atreus allows for some actual conversation.

I prefer the "And we'll pick this up later" aspect far more than other games where you just accidentally cut off the story cause then you feel so screwed out of that little conversational piece. What other ways have you seen it done better?

There are really two types of these little dialogues, boat/world tree and then the actual side/world quests, where they can be scripted a little bit more cause they can control where you are when they start and therefore know where you can get before it's over. With the world tree ones they just hold off the portal until its over, and with the boat they pause the conversation so it doesn't get cut off or continue into combat, which makes sense imo.

Also, yeah Atreus is surprisingly refreshing and for the first half of the game or so I found myself getting annoyed at Kratos' attitude about everything and enjoying Atreus and then they bond a bit more and the game gets a lot better in that aspect, right before Atreus' attitude changes (if you've gotten there you know what I mean and if you haven't then this won't spoil it). I haven't finished the game yet so I don't know how that resolves yet but it's overall been really well done with actual emotion.

It's crazy because all of the bad reviews about this game are about how it's not like the first trilogy and how it's just "one big cinematic" (which couldn't be further from the truth) but this game is better than the first three in so many ways, the only thing different is the combat, which is just a matter of taste.