God of War

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

 

Apparently this is up too early so it may not be up when you try to view this.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

I lucked out and saw it right before it went down. I like what i saw. Crafting armor and weapon upgrades looked really nice. Reminded me of tomb raiders crafting setup at camps. 

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

This one will stay up.

 

[Myk JL 1,731]

I'm kind of annoyed by health bars & level numbers.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

It looks like you actually have to retrieve the health orbs and they don't flow to you like in previous games. Maybe there is an upgrade that restores this ability, or its by design to let more difficult settings cause far less of them to drop.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

 

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

 

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

 

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

 

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

So far this game in incredible. The story is freaking amazing and has me nerding out over all the nice surprises and twists they've done with Norse mythology. I'll be curious to see how the more casual fans react to this entry into the series. Gone are the days of mashing X, Square, and Triangle mindlessly. You have to be calculating in this game. Dodge and blocks are very important as quite a few enemies can one shot, or stun lock you to death with a 2-3 hit combo. Checkpoints are super forgiving so you often might find yourself entering the same room 2-3 times or more depending on your skill level to figure out the best way to survive an encounter. Combat feels brutal as where enemies can one shot you... you can one shot them if you are patient, and are good with timing. Once you unlock enough abilities on the tree, Kratos has quite a few wind up/big blow hits that will take down some of the mid to hard tier enemies fast. Also, you can normally tell when an enemy is going for a one shot kill. Each attack a monster does will either ping yellow or red before the strike... this only happens for a brief second, but its enough time to dodge out of the way. If it pings red, you better dodge or you'll die. Later in the game you have the option to buy Revive stones, but I haven't really needed them and they cost too much when I'm trying to upgrade my gear. Spartan Rage is an amazing ability which is basically a berserk  meter. For the duration of the meter you have rapid big damage fist attacks and slams. You regen health every hit, but you are not invincible, just more durable. You can cancel for a sizable cost of the meter, and it takes a good while to build up. So it is best saved for groups of harder enemies, or big enemies like Trolls and Ogres. 

While the game is amazing, its gameplay mechanics are not perfect. My biggest gripe is the auto targeting is wonky at times. Ill be setting up a combo on something only for Kratos to start swinging at the air because he locked on to another monster further away. It doesn't happen too much, but it is an issue. The game tries to give you warning arrows on incoming attacks from behind, but sometimes the camera gets in too close to where you can't see them, and if its something that can one hit you, then you're gonna die pretty much. On the dialogue part, everything is very entertaining. My only complaint is that some of the interesting banter gets needlessly interrupted. Mostly when you are in a boat, Atreus and Kratos have conversations, but when you dock, Kratos stops and tells Atreus its time to focus or something. In a game that is 50% exploring/puzzle solving and 50% combat, its kind of needless that he can't finish the story or thought until next time you get into the boat again. I've learned to just sit there by the dock until the story is done and then get off. 

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

Further into this game and I'm blown away with how amazing this game world is. The NPCs make this game hands down. The dialogue is so good, and each character's personality is so different and unique. The voice acting is stellar which is what brings it all together. Top that with the fact that there is no cut scenes, all interactions are  the in game engine. "cut scenes" do still occur, but the camera just moves seamlessly into a new position as the scene plays out, once the scene is finished you resume control of Kratos. Its all one cut and its masterful. I've done 3 boss fights so far, and the last one I just finished was probably the most epic in the games history. I'm glad the QTE's are gone, or done differently in a more interactive way rather than a press this button as it flashes on the screen or you'll suffer type deal. It's killing me I have to go to bed so early with this new job. I have to force myself to quit so I can get some sleep. I'll probably focus on a bunch of side quests tomorrow. I did a few today and which took up 50% of my game time, and then I decided to do some main mission.

My armor is two tiers below the max I believe, Its like any MMO with Gold, Purple, Blue, and Green. I had green for the longest time and then I crafted some blue... and then when I thought that was good, purple and now gold appear. These don't really drop, and if they do, they're shit stats and perks. Basically just merchant fodder. The good stuff needs to be crafted, and to craft it they require certain materials that come from certain places or enemies... hard enemies. You can't just go cut down a bunch of trash mobs, you have to seek out challenging encounters to collect these things. Luckily only 1 kill is really needed for any one piece as these types of fights drop the materials in bunches, and if they don't then the piece only requires 1 of whatever it is. So you might get lucky and get to craft 2-3 from one kill.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

The game sounds amazing. Is there a good variation of magic abilities like in the old God of war games? Does magic have any benefits over physical damage? Or maybe it makes certain enemy types easier to kill? Or do you think it's better to focus on upgrading all physical damage as a priority?

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

You have a heavy and light runic attack that can be upgraded. It's better to accumulated some before deciding to upgrade them. Each can be upgraded twice and the latter is very expensive XP wise. All of your abilities takes XP. Rather than leveling up, XP is a currency that slowly accumulates. You also have a talisman that does special things upon activation. The one I use instantly refreshes both my runic attacks off cooldown. I haven't found anything that is more beneficial IMO. Runic attacks have 30-80 second CDs depending on what they do. There is also the axe pommel that gives you a passive ability. All of these can be upgraded but the pommel and talisman require those special items off kills I mentioned. There is so much to choose from in the skill ability dept it's really up to you what to do. You can upgrade your axe melee and ranged, spartan rage, shield and barehanded combat, and Atreus. They all have 5 tiers of skills that slowly unlock and you get stronger. 

Also Runic attacks are found in chests and from defeating enemies. Later you can buy some super powerful ones, I can't afford these yet as they just became unlocked for me. Your HP and rage meters upgrade classically through chests. These chests are generally hidden or require a 3 seal puzzle. You have to find 3 if certain items to grow the meters. The HP meter can also be modified through vitality and dew of the world tree which give random permanent star bonuses of +2. The dew is found mainly through exploring with the boat.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

That sounds like a great setup. Any idea if the axe is the only primary weapon for the entire game? Like how in the older games we got Hercules gauntlet/ chain things or that one lance? Lol. I cannot remember those weapons names.

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

I haven't played it but you do get one more weapon in the game but I won't say what it is since I don't want to ruin it for DX if he hasn't gotten that far yet (I've seen the entirety of the game played through on Twitch). Gotta say I've never been interested in the GoW series but after seeing people play through it on Twitch I might just have to pick this up eventually, the story is extremely fucking good and the game play looks awesome.

Edited April 22, 2018 by Strider Hiryu

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

Oh yes, there is another weapon in the game you get later. But for a good amount of the game the axe is all you have. Atreus also gets two arrow types that do different things and also solve puzzles. 

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

I focused on mostly side quests today. I now have maxed purple lvl armor. I was able to go back and defeat a few encounters that were just too much with my previous gear. I'd say thats one of the best parts of this game is that you don't really have to commit to any of the side quests. If you keep getting your ass kicked, you can just leave and come back later. In fact there was one that required me to undo 3 locks. I did two of them and the 3rd was in this small ass room with a big ass dude with a even bigger sword. At the time he could one shot me, and the room was so small the camera would fuck up at times and I couldn't see him over Kratos' back. In a fight that had no room for error, I kept getting hit. I gave up and came back later to find the first two locks were still undone and I only had to focus on the last one.

Its not a spoiler since its in the trailer, but once you get Mimir's head, he's a lore machine. Boating around the map he'll tell Atreus all kinds of stories about the mythology. It's highly enjoyable. I'll sometimes just not even dock until he is finished telling the tale. The game is jammed pack with Norse lore. Not only from Mimir but Atreus translations into his journal which you can real every time you uncover some texts.

I feel like this game is still awesome if you haven't played any of the games before... but if you have it really has that extra feels. There are some real watershed moments that are only so for those that have played the previous games. Oh and there are still some gory moments. Not everything bleeds elements. I ran into a werewulf type monster yesterday and if you break his stun bar, you grab his jaw and pull on it until it rips it off along with the front of his neck and chest.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

I just beat this game and holy shit, it was amazing from start to finish. There was never really a dull moment. Its amazing how they were able to create a map where every path had a purpose, everything had reason. You never went anywhere and there was nothing but a dead end or just pointless trinket for a collection. At worst there was a skeleton with a bag of currency, but that was a lot less common than finding a chest plus a collection item. The dialogue kept things interesting while you walked or boated to wherever you needed to go. There was only one stretch in the game where Atreus is disgruntled and just kept saying "whatever" over and over again. It was pretty annoying but the overall silence between the two worked well for the tension being conveyed to the player at the time, as you've been conditioned to constant chatter the entire game. Even the back tracking, what little there was, was done very well as they generally made use of short cuts to the area that you could open up with new abilities and tools. Hell, even taking a long trek off path normally ended with a chain to climb down or a rope to zipline to get back to where you needed fast rather than having to walk all the way back through empty pathways.

The main boss fights were actually really easy, I never died on any of them or even came close to it. They presented a more cinematic experience as each of them had stages interrupted with various crazy ass unplayable sequences... it was almost like a short break because a lot of these fights are a good 10-15 minute affairs. Interestingly enough the side quests and optional bosses are much more challenging at the cost of really good drops and extra lore. Even some of the common encounters were more of a challenge TBH. I sorta prefer this model. I rather not constantly die from a boss and have to relive the sequence of events and dialogue multiple times. It does break immersion. Some of the tougher enemies will definitely have you cringing when you see them. The game does a good job of introducing you to their mechanics, and then later throw more powerful ones at you, or giving you two at a time either of the same type or two different ones that present their own challenge. I pretty much saved up my spartan rage of these moments. I would take one down with it and then deal with the other. I'm cheap like that. especially the Ogres since you can ride them and make them unwillingly attack when you break their stun meter. Health in this game is much different form previous GoW games, you have to manually stomp on them to regain HP. There are no chests or breakables that float you orbs in a time of need. Stomping on a crystal during a fight is a calculated risk as it does take a half of second. I've had it completely negated by getting hit while stomping on one during a fight. There are two armors you can get for Atreus that will have him throw you a crystal when low on HP. Spartan rage also heals you with every hit you land. There are also armor socketables that will give you health upon a kill, but its not a lot, and rarely worth wasting a slot on. 

The story itself was just damn good. There were so many "oh shit" crazy ass moments... most of the journey is filled with set backs and getting around those. Every time you're near your goal, something happens that makes you have to go do another task. Normally this would be annoying, but its well done, and extends the story to give the finale much more meaning. The relationship between Kratos and Atreus evolves throughout the game and is reflected thought the dialogue in how they respond to each other. This was done masterfully in more ways than one. There is no way to tell what and when a player will do side quests in relation to what you've done in the story including getting Mimir's head. Mimir adds even more dynamic to this as he will have comments on things too. For instance I missed a few lore discoveries at the starting area of the game. I later went back to unlock a door I couldn't and picked it up along the way. Mimir had something to add to it that I wouldn't have gotten if I had asked Atreus to read it the first go around. The extra mile was really put into this game, and it shows every step of the way. EA can suck a fat one for saying single player games are dead. This was worth the 5 years put into it.

Now for an aspect of gameplay I love/hated. I'll put it in a spoiler tag, because you can't do it until after a certain point in the game... chances are youtube or looking at the achievements will spoil it though. Its not a story spoiler but I still feel it's best to get there and experience it without knowing its coming.

Spoiler

The Blades of Chaos was a definite "OH SHIT" moment. I was fully expecting it to be a temporary weapon. Much to my surprise they were not. They are so OP its pretty ridiculous. I pretty much rarely ever used the axe again after I got them. The runic attacks brought back some of the most devastating combos from the old games and its insane cleave potential was just much better when having to deal with two or more enemies. I could constantly stunlock and air juggle monsters to their death without an issue. I have mixed emotions on bringing them back. It was a nice nostalgic comeback but at the same time it was cheap. The game became significantly more easy with them. At the same time it kept the spirit of the weapons and gave you a massive feeling of power reuniting with them. They weren't watered down, and having to deal with the axe the first half of the game really shows the player how powerful this item is from Krato's past.

Another gripe I have was there wasn't enough utilization of fire and ice mechanics. There are a few enemies that are ice based or fire based and using the opposing elemental weapon benefited you, but it wasn't done enough, that goes second for the puzzles. They could have done more to force you to use both weapons and solve complex puzzles. The puzzles were still good, but man they pretty much gave you very little incentive to use the axe post Blades of Chaos outside of freezing some gears. I guess looking back, they probably couldn't have with the nature of the game. There was very few places you couldn't go without the blades, so I guess making puzzles having to utilized both, would have caused confusion to players. All I know is that the most combat I got out the axe was blowing both runic attacks, swapping to the blades to do 2 more and stick with blades until I wanted to use the ice runics again.

 

[Sledgstone 8,672]

Great review!

I don't want a spoiler about the final boss fight... but.. does the final boss fight completely change the fighting style for one last fight like all the other God of war games? That crap always pissed me the hell off. Like how the GoW 3 last boss fight turned into a 2d fighter like street fighter. Things like that don't come off as innovative to me, instead I find it rage enducing. 😑

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

No, all the boss fights pretty much follow the same format, with a basic combat part, a break in the fighting, and an interactive part which is what they've replaced QTEs with, and then more fighting. The cycle may continue depending on the boss fight and the story they're trying to tell. The only two things the final boss fight changes up is they don't prompt you on what buttons to press during the interactive part because it already taught you what to do in a previous encounter and expects you to remember it. The second is an underused mechanic  in the spoiler tag but its straight forward and you'll easily understand it.

There is actually a single boss fight that is just straight combat. I think this is to introduce you to the condition mechanic because its not an important character and they reuse this enemy type later for optional bosses and tough encounters. There is burning, frozen, poison, and blindness. Burning, Poison, and Frozen just do damage over time. If frozen slows you down, I couldn't tell or wasn't paying attention. Blindness is more annoying as this is what that particular boss does. When you get blinded, your field of vision becomes limited. Minor blindness puts you in a grey haze where you can only see a few feet around you, while major blindness has you walking around in pitch black with a spot light over you basically.. you can't see anything outside of that circumference. The annoying part of this is that if you get hit by the these certain attacks again the meter completely resets and you stay blind until you can avoid getting hit by it for a pretty generous amount of time. Conditions have visual affects as burning has you covered in molten rock looking skin, Poison gives you a fart cloud , and frozen is just frost over your body... but there is also a symbol with a border timer over your health bar similar to GW2 to indicate how much duration is left on the condition. You'll later find armor enchantments that you can socket that can have resistance to these conditions, each can stack up to various amounts. I've never had to use them, I bet they're more useful for challenging or "Give me God of War" mode. I played on normal and it was a enjoyable experience with enough challenge for me.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

 

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

 

[Sledgstone 8,672]

Ok.. this and Horizon Zero Dawn 2 will be the primary games I'd buy the PS5 for.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]