Thoughts in comparison to GOW 2018.

[ZZ383]

I've been feeling some annoyance at the pacing of the story's plot so I want to share how I feel the game compares against the GOW 2018 game. These points are coming from someone playing on "Balanced." Presumably 7.5/10ths though the main story, I just rescued a prisoner, and doing as much side quest as I can as soon as possible.

 

Frankly the plot is ass and the pacing is horrid compared to the 2018 game. We had a clear motivating force in 2018 and all the random adventure fun happened in service of it. Now we're just kinda aimlessly doing things until THING happens that the leads don't intend or have to plot around to recover from. And all the whining about destiny/fate/predestination/prophecies is oldhat. The new characters all suck and are definitely not acting in a way that matches how the other characters revere them except that guy in the mines. I had no expectations of the characters in 2018 and the only thing giving me guidance on their personality and if it is working within the story was the boy and the head so its tough to defecate on a clean slate the 2018 game had.

 

Main character-wise, Atreus hasn't grown up, Kratos' beard has grown more than he has. They're both still insufferable morons who can't use their words to describe politely what the issue is and how they can solve it. I accepted the tension and friction in 2018 because of the emotional circumstances and the Atreus heelturn was amazing in that game. The time spent doing giant things is the worst so far, as a nice contrast to all the murdering and adventuring, its great, but there are dire stakes on the table and all they can do is collect food for animals. Quite literally, little people's little problems. This Ragnarok game certainly has had more story twists in the first third than 2018 did in the entire game, but most just happen with little to no fanfare. Especiallllly Atreus' "I kinda figured he'd grow big" line is just so fucking subtle that you can miss it and not get what the implications actually are until I hope it comes back at the end. 

 

It is nice to see more NPCs, as the 2018 game was devoid of anyone not trying to murder the obviously bad ass guy with a giant axe. Just wish the cities weren't so xenophobic, as that really emphasizes just how empty game worlds have to be in order for the game to work. If this doesn't come across well, check out the three(four?) Batman Arkham games and how far the circumstances have to go in order to remove civilians from the gameworld.

 

Puzzles and side quests, they feel about the same, but a little bit too much back tracking just to feel like I'm keeping pace with the Main Path's difficulty. Kind of frustrated with the gimmicks of the dead soldier boss fights.  Otherwise most fights are just one peculiar gimmick to overcome and boss fights aren't about how strong you've made your character but about how well you can read the attack pattern to do some chip damage, if the 2018 game was like this then I completely forgot but it's bad regardless. The Runic attacks feel extremely weak, the weapon attacks feel weak, and the arrows don't do too much. I don't feel like a bad ass playing this game at all, and that's sad.

 

The lack of a useful map is unacceptable. It was fine in 2018 as the studio was new to this type of adventure game. But holy shit get your act together in the year 2022. I have blanked out my mind on the collectibles for 2018, but I know it wasn't fun, and its the same for this game. Too many and currently no way to get assistance to find that last piece I'm seeking in Vanaheim.

 

Graphics, things are vibranter. With the PS5's additional power and performance/graphics mode options it really is nice to look at, mostly. Glory kills are still bloody but not too gory and nowhere near as 'eww' as the classic games were or how ridiculous some of the deaths got in 2018.

 

Equipment stats are still ambiguous, sins for both games. The extremely slow growth of additional equipment stuff is annoying, as it undermines my expectations of starting off in a decent position coming from the 2018 game, accessibility I guess. 

The one XP currency for multiple skill trees and MOD slots meant I spent a lot of time grinding moves and not focusing on the best way for me to kill things. Before it was more of a combo move unlocker, but here it is really just something to fill out while fighting the same type of baddies for the 12th time in a single story mission. Some iteration was nice, but the fact you can't use DAM mods on all skills feels bad.

 

The awesomeness of the game is overshadowed by a lengthy quest to not do and also do do the thing they learned was going to happen in 2018. It's flipflopping left and right, struggling to breathe as its core game loop offers nothing new that is good. 2018 gets a pass on the core game loop issue because it was the innovation in the franchise that brought it from being a dudebro-trendsetting-buttonmasher-combos'galore'fest and transormed it into a cinematic work of art. 2018's story was actually fucking good.

[AJ_Radio]

I’m basically on the fence. 
 

I’ve already watched a dozen live streamers on YouTube and Twitch play this game on their PS5. Looks exceptionally stellar, graphics are excellent… but, and there is always a but, it’s just too much of the boring filler crap. 
 

Portions of the dialogue feel underwhelming. I was expecting Atreus to mature because a fucking 13 year old brat is insufferable to me. I already didn’t like him in God of War 2018. Here he just hasn’t fully matured out of his kid phase. What can we expect, we live in a world full of 20 and 30 something year olds acting like kids anyway.

 

I didn’t watch as much as I could of since I don’t want to spoil the entire game for myself. Ever since The Last of Us became mega popular, every other game in Sony’s arsenal has tried to emulate the same experience. It’s gotten to the point where the games are pretty identical in a lot of ways, despite coming from different franchises. 

Edited November 14, 2022 by AJ_Radio
Dialogue a bit underwhelming

[Boorish]

3 hours ago, ZZ383 said:

most fights are just one peculiar gimmick to overcome and boss fights aren't about how strong you've made your character but about how well you can read the attack pattern to do some chip damage

I am actually quite enjoying these fights. I thought the final Valkyrie fight in the first game was extremely hard, even though I played that game on "balanced". They seemed to have gone the route of all these fights having quite well telegraphed moves and they are fun to fight. Playing this on "no mercy" and these fight were great till I got to a couple which are complete BS. 

Spoiler

Those BS fights have ads.

 

3 hours ago, ZZ383 said:

Frankly the plot is ass and the pacing is horrid compared to the 2018 game.

They are trying to close the arcs of all the characters so it is all over the place, yes. But, I think the writing is great.

 

3 hours ago, ZZ383 said:

Atreus hasn't grown up

Their relationship has clearly evolved.

 

Some issue I've had with this game is that there is no chill. Pointless and repetitive combat encounters which gets really tiring on higher difficulties. I think they could've spaced the encounters with puzzles a bit better. Doesn't help that enemies even a level above you hit like a truck.

 

Edited November 14, 2022 by boorish_brute

[kanzenchaos]

49 minutes ago, AJ_Radio said:

Ever since The Last of Us became mega popular, every other game in Sony’s arsenal has tried to emulate the same experience. It’s gotten to the point where the games are pretty identical in a lot of ways, despite coming from different franchises. 

This. While TLOU is a great game, it's formula has been overdone by Sony 1st party studios lol

 

I don't really see the appeal of having a partner just for cringe dialogue. RE4 was kind of an inspiration to TLOU didn't need it and it was great as well, if not better (up for personal taste).

[AJ_Radio]

23 minutes ago, kanzenchaos said:

This. While TLOU is a great game, it's formula has been overdone by Sony 1st party studios lol

 

I don't really see the appeal of having a partner just for cringe dialogue. RE4 was kind of an inspiration to TLOU didn't need it and it was great as well, if not better (up for personal taste).

That’s the thing. 
 

I already sound like an old geezer, but Christ Almighty these games are beginning to feel the same.

 

There’s no way in hell these developers could pull anything like System Shock 1 and the original Deus Ex.

[veinte-justo]

39 minutes ago, AJ_Radio said:

That’s the thing. 
 

I already sound like an old geezer, but Christ Almighty these games are beginning to feel the same.

 

Im pretty sure Jimbo has everything covered. According to their plan they want to keep doing their AAA formula plus those 10 or 12 live service games that will arrive in the next 3 years.
As much as I would like to complain about how a lot of their over the shoulder third person games feel the thing is that gameplay in all these projects is king and the GAAS that awaits us in the near future sound interesting to say the least especially considering the IPs Sony has.

[Infected Elite]

2 hours ago, AJ_Radio said:

Portions of the dialogue feel underwhelming. I was expecting Atreus to mature because a fucking 13 year old brat is insufferable to me. I already didn’t like him in God of War 2018. Here he just hasn’t fully matured out of his kid phase. 

 

As someone who platinumed it today... pacing issues indeed. Enemy design is a step up but there's still too many pallet swaps.

i enjoyed it. But it reminds me of Godzilla 2014. After a hot start, any time something looks ready to kick into full gear it takes a step back to a dialogue heavy chapter. Mostly Atreus stuff... Post game is much better. Has he grown at all? no. Not really. But i mean even if hes 13-16, most kids these days that age are whiny obnoxious turds you just cant stand... So i guess Atreus acts his age cause hes a whiny obnoxious turd. Kratos has grown though. 

 

Dialogue was underwhelming. Especially when many times you get to a puzzle area and your partner just goes to the solution "i think we should try this".... Thanks.... I'm not against buddy ups, but this did have a sense of similarity to Last of Us (which is highly fuckin overrated). 

 

Overall i did enjoy GoW:R . If Kratos ever comes back, change the formula up again. Open world Celtic world?

 

 

Edited November 14, 2022 by Infected Elite

[Hitman_Spinksy1]

I agree the pacing is so bad. One minute you’re going through an intense situation and the next all emotion just disappeared like when Atreus finds out the fate of what’s to happen he has a complete meltdown to seconds later everything’s fine let’s find food. This situation happens so often as well with a lot of their characters. They have high emotional cut scenes to as if nothing happened when you regain control.

 

The game is amazing but it took me so long to get in to and every time I think damn this game is amazing I’m confused to how everyone is acting 

 

Also the game is really only playable in performance mode dedicated fps as any other mode just makes it juttery on even walking and definitely shows the importance of having high fps which in turn makes the game look better than a stuttery graphics mode 

[MeltedDreams1]

Mixed feelings on this one and possibly least fun i'm having with God of War game? The pacing is atrocious. Some long sections are pretty much out of The last of Us game with slow walk and little to no combat, but worse and this is because in ND game they are shorter (for example in TLoU 2 Joel/Ellie flashback) and feel special. Here, these keep going, one of them is 2 hours long (!). Then you have the companions, they will talk almost 90% of the time. They will repeat what to do even during battles (block this, block that it is comical lol), spoil most puzzles for you and so on.

Boss battles are overall step up from GOW 2018, but nothing comparable to large scale battles in old trilogy. However, encounter desing with standard enemies is bad. Some of them are more frustrating to fight than bosses and have a lot of hp. Critters, poison spititng enemies that jump behind you cconstantly and snipe you, poison golems,  flying little enemies that spit poison or ice. I was close to drop the game with how bad some encounters feel. Played around 25 hours btw. ?

Edited November 14, 2022 by MeltedDreams1

[POMARANCZA123PL]

9 hours ago, ZZ383 said:

I've been feeling some annoyance at the pacing of the story's plot so I want to share how I feel the game compares against the GOW 2018 game. These points are coming from someone playing on "Balanced." Presumably 7.5/10ths though the main story, I just rescued a prisoner, and doing as much side quest as I can as soon as possible.

 

Frankly the plot is ass and the pacing is horrid compared to the 2018 game. We had a clear motivating force in 2018 and all the random adventure fun happened in service of it. Now we're just kinda aimlessly doing things until THING happens that the leads don't intend or have to plot around to recover from. And all the whining about destiny/fate/predestination/prophecies is oldhat. The new characters all suck and are definitely not acting in a way that matches how the other characters revere them except that guy in the mines. I had no expectations of the characters in 2018 and the only thing giving me guidance on their personality and if it is working within the story was the boy and the head so its tough to defecate on a clean slate the 2018 game had.

 

Main character-wise, Atreus hasn't grown up, Kratos' beard has grown more than he has. They're both still insufferable morons who can't use their words to describe politely what the issue is and how they can solve it. I accepted the tension and friction in 2018 because of the emotional circumstances and the Atreus heelturn was amazing in that game. The time spent doing giant things is the worst so far, as a nice contrast to all the murdering and adventuring, its great, but there are dire stakes on the table and all they can do is collect food for animals. Quite literally, little people's little problems. This Ragnarok game certainly has had more story twists in the first third than 2018 did in the entire game, but most just happen with little to no fanfare. Especiallllly Atreus' "I kinda figured he'd grow big" line is just so fucking subtle that you can miss it and not get what the implications actually are until I hope it comes back at the end. 

 

It is nice to see more NPCs, as the 2018 game was devoid of anyone not trying to murder the obviously bad ass guy with a giant axe. Just wish the cities weren't so xenophobic, as that really emphasizes just how empty game worlds have to be in order for the game to work. If this doesn't come across well, check out the three(four?) Batman Arkham games and how far the circumstances have to go in order to remove civilians from the gameworld.

 

Puzzles and side quests, they feel about the same, but a little bit too much back tracking just to feel like I'm keeping pace with the Main Path's difficulty. Kind of frustrated with the gimmicks of the dead soldier boss fights.  Otherwise most fights are just one peculiar gimmick to overcome and boss fights aren't about how strong you've made your character but about how well you can read the attack pattern to do some chip damage, if the 2018 game was like this then I completely forgot but it's bad regardless. The Runic attacks feel extremely weak, the weapon attacks feel weak, and the arrows don't do too much. I don't feel like a bad ass playing this game at all, and that's sad.

 

The lack of a useful map is unacceptable. It was fine in 2018 as the studio was new to this type of adventure game. But holy shit get your act together in the year 2022. I have blanked out my mind on the collectibles for 2018, but I know it wasn't fun, and its the same for this game. Too many and currently no way to get assistance to find that last piece I'm seeking in Vanaheim.

 

Graphics, things are vibranter. With the PS5's additional power and performance/graphics mode options it really is nice to look at, mostly. Glory kills are still bloody but not too gory and nowhere near as 'eww' as the classic games were or how ridiculous some of the deaths got in 2018.

 

Equipment stats are still ambiguous, sins for both games. The extremely slow growth of additional equipment stuff is annoying, as it undermines my expectations of starting off in a decent position coming from the 2018 game, accessibility I guess. 

The one XP currency for multiple skill trees and MOD slots meant I spent a lot of time grinding moves and not focusing on the best way for me to kill things. Before it was more of a combo move unlocker, but here it is really just something to fill out while fighting the same type of baddies for the 12th time in a single story mission. Some iteration was nice, but the fact you can't use DAM mods on all skills feels bad.

 

The awesomeness of the game is overshadowed by a lengthy quest to not do and also do do the thing they learned was going to happen in 2018. It's flipflopping left and right, struggling to breathe as its core game loop offers nothing new that is good. 2018 gets a pass on the core game loop issue because it was the innovation in the franchise that brought it from being a dudebro-trendsetting-buttonmasher-combos'galore'fest and transormed it into a cinematic work of art. 2018's story was actually fucking good.

[IDK HOW TO MARK SPOILERS HERE SO I'LL JUST DROP HERE A SPOILER WARNING]
(even tho it should be obvious in a thread like this)



While I didnt like a lot of things about God Of War 2018, I have to say that it was way better in storytelling and was wrote alot better. Ragnarok starts to introduce 15 characters at the same time, and while GoW4 gave every character enough time to breath and develop, here I dont even know most of names of those new people. They were just here so they can be usefull once in few hours.
And while I didnt really like the Angrboda mission (becouse it was waaay too long), I still hoped that they just want to develop her character. But no. She appeared a few times for maybe like 2-3 minutes.
I felt like they wanted to add those Loki Asgard missions to show Asgardians and Aesiers from a more human perspective, but they didnt give it enough time so it just looked bland.

 

From a gameplay perspective - I like the changes. Gameplay feel smoother and the new weapon is a cool idea. (even tho it really needs a buff, I barerly use it in a normal combat becouse it doesnt take much damage) I still dont like the RPG mechanics, but I feel like they lowered them a bit(?).

I dont really want to go into details becouse I would have to write a big wall of text, but in summary - 
The game is nice, a 4/6 for me, graphics and music are obviously good (It's a PSStudios game after all) but the game feels a bit halfbaked. Many ideas feel scraped. Freya attacked us once in a scripted QTE scene, and then became our friend. The Midgard phase of the game was waaaay too short. Cant wait to hear someday that they planned a lot more but had to cut it. (like with GoW 2018 and the Bird)
The ending felt a bit underwhelming for a game that ends an another pantheon saga. (But I heard that there's a secret ending so I have to check it out)


(Might have some mistakes becouse im writing on a phone. Sorry guys!)

Edited November 14, 2022 by POMARANCZA123PL

[jakD_710]

Not really one to write long paragraphs nor am i good at writing stuff but i'd thought i'd pitch in so ill try my best. Also going into this the 2018 gow is definitely up there with some of my favorite games ever made. Just putting that out there. Alrighty then. :Spoilers obliviously:

Combat/enemies/bosses - Combat to me felt way better than the last iteration. Blades and axe feel great to use once again, Loved using the triangle button to build up those frost/flame effects. Then we get the draupnir spear. This became my favorite weapon to use. Really fast and fluent to use, Also its great for inflicting stun which I did alot. Enemies are also another improvement. Loved how i was still seeing new ones nearly 20 hours into my play through. Bosses once again were improved imo. Standout one for me was surprisingly the Heimdall fight (Loved watching Kratos fucking demolish his face into the ground) Also really enjoyed playing as Atreus 

Soundtrack: It slaps not much to add here. Its just that good

Characters/acting - Loved all the characters they introduced this game but the main standouts were Sindri, Kratos, and Freya. Christoper judge here does a absolutely phenomenal job reprising his role again. Same with all the other actors. They did a fantastic job with their associated character. Also wished we got a little more Heimdall. Cant explain why but he is my favorite antagonist in these new gow games.

Gameplay/Story - May be in a different parade here but i really loved the story and writing in this game. Was emotionally attached right from the get go all the way to the end. Seeing Atreus and Kratos throughout this game and their growth was awesome. Cant think of a scene in this game where I wasn't smiling or ya know bawling my eyes out. Also seeing the bond between Kratos and Mimir in this game compared to 2018's was awesome (Loved hearing them call each other brother) As for the game play I thought the pacing was fine. I personally didn't have any problems with it but i do think that on subsequent runs the ironwood section is gonna be a real drag. Wish their also wasn't as much climbing or going through holes in walls but i get why thats all their. That's just me nitpicking though. The story's the characters tell are once again great. Was really cool seeing Kratos talk about his past life in Greece and Mimir's wrongdoings in svartalfheim.

Ending - Quickly gonna give my thoughts on the ending. I do wish Ragnarok went on for a tad bit longer but it is what it is. Seeing Kratos reprise his role as a general had me in tears i wont lie. Loved the final fight with Thor and Odin but i do think 2018 final boss did it better. As for the last part seeing Atreus go his separate way had me in tears again. "Loki will go.......Atreus remains" is easily my favorite line in this game. Then seeing that final panel with Kratos and him sobbing once again broke me. Did not expect that at all. I guess its up to interpretation but seeing him as this savior people are looking up to really felt to me like Kratos has finally come full circle. Now i am assuming they are going to continue this series i mean how can they not. But i cannot wait to see what SMS do next. 

Really loved this game even more so then 2018's gow. Sorry if that wasn't to fleshed out. Like i mentioned im not really good at writing stuff like this so hopefully that wasn't to bad lmao. But yeah tldr: Imo this game was fucking awesome and i cannot wait to see the future of this series or whatever SMS is working on next.

Edited November 14, 2022 by jakD_710

[sepheroithisgod]

I think Gow 2018 and Ragnarok are vastly different in what they try to achieve from a story perspective. The first game is more about the father/son bond and everything else is extra, whereas, the second game is more about seeing how this established bond makes each one take action to protect the other.

 

I do think the weakest part of the game was the Angrboda section. I really think you could remove her from the story and have everything play out the same with nothing lost

Spoiler

(Fenir can save everyone at the end)

.

I enjoyed the Asgard section as it helps build up the enemies. I don't think the fight with Heimdall would have been nearly as great if you didn't see him through Atreus's PoV. That said, I think they could have expanded on this bit more. There should have been more sidequests or conversation opportunities in it to help build up the Aesir cast.

 

I just hope based on the ending they don't try to make Atreus the main character of his own game. I really don't like him that much, but I could be alone on this.

[PhantomFear94]

I'm not done, so have skipped all spoilers, but thus far this is on par for me with God of War (2018), which my GOTY for that year. This is equally my GOTY, I think, unless the ending sucks. 10/10 experience so far, think it's incredible. I will obviously reserve final judgement until I have the Platinum. 

 

Firstly, the below comment is the nail on the head for me.

 

1 hour ago, sepheroithisgod said:

I think Gow 2018 and Ragnarok are vastly different in what they try to achieve from a story perspective. The first game is more about the father/son bond and everything else is extra, whereas the second game is more about seeing how this established bond makes each one take action to protect the other.

 

I personally think that what this game tries to achieve suits a slower pacing. The divided story paths make you understand perspectives from a different angle and heightens the experience in encountering certain foes, had you just seen it from Kratos' perspective. I don't think you'd get this from a more refined path through the game.

 

I also prefer the Kratos to Atreus balance, as opposed to Ellie vs. Abby in TLOU2. I loved the gameplay concept in TLOU2, actually, despite unanimous criticism. Equally, its execution was flawed. I felt you were forced to play as Abby TOO much and the purpose of understanding that there is "no good side", with each side is impartial of blame, nor deserving of all, was made pretty quickly and dragged you along with a character you're almost pre-programmed to hate (even acknowledging their character's intention), which dilutes her arc's emotional impact vs. Ellie's. This doesn't suffer from that same fatigue to me anyway. Both characters are endeared, and instead, it just contextualises the intention of each major character to punctuate Kratos and Atreus' relationship/differences. Finally, I feel it opens up new companions. I like having an AI companion in gaming, and the layout of the game keeps it fresh as you're with a different combination of people in most quests. That is given more weight by the diverging paths.

 

Regarding the gameplay, the combat still feels dynamic and flexible to your playstyle and gives you the tools to play around. Ultimately, the game just feels smooth and intuitive with great difficulty options. 

 

The only thing I miss - and its nothing that can really be avoided, given the scope of the first game and the lore it draws from - is that there is less of a sense of discovery. You've really been to most of these realms before, in varying contexts. Not much that can be done, but an unfortunate consequence of 2018 visiting nearly all the realms. From memory, Anaheim and Asgard are the only two 'new' realms. Vanaheim feels like a cross of Midgard and Alfheim, and Asgard itself isn't a principal focus really.

 

Edited November 14, 2022 by PhantomFear94

[Deluziion90]

There’s only 2 things that annoy me

- mimir: BEHIND YOU, LOOK OUT, BEHIND YOU!!!!!!!

- Combat sometimes feels a bit bad against bosses. Doesn’t feel like you get invincible frames like dark souls which got my ass kicked multiple times.

- Did I mention? Mimir needs to stfu in combat

 

Back to topic. I love it. Feels like I’m in a massive series on netflix. I can tell why some people feel it takes to long sometimes but goty for me.

[MilanYildirim]

God of War Ragnarök is a great example why games need to be shorter. 8 hours of decent, rock solid story without any filler bullshit is amazing. GoW 2018 was better one compared to Ragnarök because it did not have unnecessary filters. Whenever l got to play as Atreus l was like oh, l guess it is time to turn off my PS5. Pacing is horrible indeed and l feel they overdid combat a bit. There were times l was like oh boy, this monster l killed 1000000 times already? Again? Didn't l kill you a minute ago? There were lots of unnecessary combats as well ( climbing up Asgard ). Yes, it is a good game but one can't help himself to expect more than GoW which surely Ragnarök did not deliver

[Grimzilla32]

I like the game a lot, but I got to admit, when you're playing as Atreus, I'm just SPEEDING through said sections because they are BORING AS HELL and frankly I just don't like his "I am the chosen one" attitude. I honestly loved it when playing as Kratos and having Freya or anyone else as his partner. Sure, we get a lot of emotional tear-jerking moments between father and son, but I feel that's mainly because of Christopher Judge carrying these scenes

 

My one other complaint was I was expecting a LOT more Thor, but then again, 2018 established him as a joke given how many times Mimir told us "The Fat Dober only got Lucky" so I guess I should've seen him being a background character

 

That being said, everything else has been pretty good. Villains are pretty engaging and wiping the floor with Hiemdall was VERY satisfying and Odin was different enough from Zeus to not call him Zeus 2.0. Enemy variety was a step up, but still way too many palette swaps again, but at least we got more

[ScintillaWolf]

I'm loving the game for the most part, but I find the Atreus sections to be such a joy killer. I appreciate they have to flesh out his story from his perspective but I find his gameplay sections such a drag, especially one in particular that I'm sure most agree drags on too long.

 

As others have said, the pacing seems off, but the game still stacks up enough for me to see past it. I just wish I didn't have to play as that moody kid as much.

[Grimzilla32]

1 hour ago, ScintillaWolf said:

I'm loving the game for the most part, but I find the Atreus sections to be such a joy killer. I appreciate they have to flesh out his story from his perspective but I find his gameplay sections such a drag, especially one in particular that I'm sure most agree drags on too long.

 

As others have said, the pacing seems off, but the game still stacks up enough for me to see past it. I just wish I didn't have to play as that moody kid as much.

Oh my God, the Atreus & Angrboda in Ironwood section was 40 minutes too long, took me over an hour to finish it and I was rushing it, so I was PRAYING for it to end. When we were Atreus in Helhiem with Thrud, I honestly really wanted to play as her instead, she has some awesome potential

 

I understand adding new playable characters, fleshing out the story and characters, but I feel Atreus in the second third of this game really dragged the game down.

Edited November 14, 2022 by Grimzilla32

[OTPYG]

Having just 100%’d the game myself, I share many of the thoughts already mentioned in this thread. 
 

The gameplay was solid. Fluid, responsive, it was a blast. Looked great, sounded amazing. The storytelling and pacing on the other hand was so stagnated. In parts it was gripping and had me hooked. In others it was excruciatingly slow. The Atreus & Angrboda main segment of the game was an absolute drag. It wasn’t that parts of the game were slow that I found boring, RDR2 is a real slow burn but for mine is storytelling perfection. It just wasn’t that interesting. And when the story doesn’t have you hooked, you notice when some of the more boring scenes outstay their welcome a lot quicker. 
 

Behind ya, brother is going to haunt my dreams for a while, too. Wish there was someway to turn that off. It actually became a hinderance during combat.

 

Not shitting on the game completely, it’s a great game and I had fun with it. It’s probably on equal footing with its 2018 predecessor for me. Worth playing? Definitely. Worthy of all the 10/10s? I personally don’t think so. Elden Ring is still my 2022 Game of the Year. 

Edited November 15, 2022 by OTPYG

[Stinkyremy]

Story is completely out of wack in this game, clearly the new director had no real motivation like the last game.

Last game it was a journey with a father-son bonding mechanic and with kratos trying to overcome his past and eventually coming to terms with his past , while they went on a journey to spread the ashes.

All while keeping the camera in focus on a one take.

 

In this game it is more of a journey of atreus becoming a man and actually going his own way. Kratos is pretty much a jobber in most of the story and a lot of the story is based around the NPCs in the game. With the camera not even always following kratos and atreus.

 

Clearly they lost the focus of what the last game created and what it was doing.

 

That being said, the gameplay in ragnarok is god damn brilliant.

Loads of different enemy types, Loads of bosses and demi bosses. They refined the combat and made even the base skills of the weapons allowed to be customised in what they do so that you can tailor your gameplay around stun,damage, stagger resistance or perfmafrost/immolation gain.

Exploration is both better with traversal and areas are more "complicated" to explore, being more interwoven with multiple paths and options, where for example the lake of nine in the last game was a more formulated area to explore.

Wait until you get to the crater area in vanaheim. Exploring that is both a challenge and a rewarding area. (loads of bosses there)

 

I have not 100& it yet, still have a few more high level bosses to kill but I am half expecting them to repopulate the areas after I 100% it too. The devs did say that they were gonna repopulate areas but so far I have only seen one area repopulated later in the game.

 

tl:dr Weaker story than last game, but much better gameplay.

 

On 14/11/2022 at 1:56 AM, ZZ383 said:

meant I spent a lot of time grinding moves and not focusing on the best way for me to kill things. 

 

the fact you can't use DAM mods on all skills feels bad.

 

I at first was grinding moves too until I realised 2 things.

Firstly pretty much every skill would get unlocked anyway just by playing, depending on how good you are at the game I guess. And secondly, there is an infinite spawning low level enemies training arena in nielfheim where you cannot die and you constantly get your runic and rage back that you can simply farm the skills on, which i am expecting is what the devs intended as it genuinely is a training mode!.

 

The mods on skills are god damn brilliant!, WTF are you talking about. You can build your build around certain playstyles, makes the entire process of making a dedicated build and playstyle even more intricate.

Edited November 15, 2022 by Stinkyremy

[ARIXANDRE]

I finished the story in 30 hours.

 

Not a bad game, by any means, but it's long, poorly paced and with few grandiose moments. 

 

After 2018 and Ragnarok, I just started to miss the old fixed camera angles for combat. I'll keep hoping for a spinoff in the form of GoW 3. 

Edited November 15, 2022 by ARIXANDRE

[willmill97]

I don't know what developers have to do to stop people from complaining whenever a sequel is released, if people think something is too similar to the sequel like this, they complain. If people think something strays too far away from the previous like with The Last of Us 2 people complain. Let's just enjoy what we have

[alex21BKPS]

Too much filler, the Iron Forest part was an stinking pile of shit that ruined all the pacing from there and onwards, the combat is better and there are more unique bosses thou. I prefer to reed a fucking item description in elden ring and find out something cool than walking on the stupid Yak while the characters are talking bland, bad, stupid, boring exposition. I think that GoW never gone that far.

[Grimzilla32]

35 minutes ago, alex21BKPS said:

Too much filler, the Iron Forest part was an stinking pile of shit that ruined all the pacing from there and onwards, the combat is better and there are more unique bosses thou. I prefer to reed a fucking item description in elden ring and find out something cool than walking on the stupid Yak while the characters are talking bland, bad, stupid, boring exposition. I think that GoW never gone that far.

Agreed, if anything brings this game down from a S Ranked game it's that Ironwood section

[Hitman_Spinksy1]

Agreed, the Ironwood section should have ended once he saw the prophecy. Instead, it took the route of Atreus having a meltdown 1 second to making stupid noises for a yak and losing all the emotion of what we just found out. We fight an actual giant giant as if it's of some importance and never hear about her again. Idk if their focus was split between setting up a sequel or they just had too many ideas and couldn't decide. It's the same when breaking Freyas curse, she's like I can't kill you, but I can't forgive you and everything's tense then after the cut scene everything is like normal with their backseat dialog.