Thoughts in comparison to GOW 2018.

[Vault-TecPhantom]

This post is completely spoiler free. I have no idea how close I am to the end, mainly because the story has so much padding that it’s anyone’s guess when a spanner gets thrown into the works to delay the end for as long as possible. Still, I’ve definitely played enough to give my full thoughts.

 

I think the critics definitely overhyped this and I predict that there will be an undercurrent of negativity that will only grow as time goes by, like with Red Dead Redemption 2. In my opinion, GOW 2018 is far superior in pretty much every aspect. It being shorter and smaller in scope worked to its advantage because it meant more memorable areas and more time to focus on quality rather than quantity. However, even then, it wasn’t perfect and its flaws were overlooked when they shouldn’t have been. Consequently,  the developers have doubled down on some annoying features.

 

The RPG element, for instance, felt out of place in the 2018 game but it was tame enough to not be bothersome. Here, it just gets in the way and the sheer amount of stuff to keep on top of just starts to get silly. You have your weapons and their skill upgrades and labours, then their handles, then their runics which have their light and heavy attacks which need XP to upgrade, then your armour and then your amulet and then your rage(s) which also need XP to upgrade, and your shields and their attachments and it just goes on and on and on. It adds nothing of value to the game. Worse, they require so many overlapping resources to upgrade that I rarely switch them out due to sunk cost. There must be a better way to scale difficulty without it becoming a numbers game. 

 

On the other end of the spectrum, I think the devs may have also taken too much to heart the criticism from a vocal minority about the lack of enemy variety - or at least they have come up with the wrong solution. There are too many different enemy types in a single encounter. I feel like I am being forced to use certain weapons, combos and moves for the sake of efficiency rather than experimenting. It should feel like I'm playing with my food but it just feels frantic and messy to me.  I also find that I’m using my runic attacks less than I did in the last game because they have really long, slow mo wind ups and don’t cancel enemy animations even if you strike first. This essentially means that Kratos could be taking damage mid runic which is stupid. I’m playing this on ‘balance’ difficulty, by the way, but so far it’s anything but. Enemies are noticeably spongier no matter how much you put into damage and stun. They also don’t drop as much health orbs as before unless you make a Luck build so I’m often entering battles with half my health missing, leaving me on the back foot upon every encounter. I get through them OK but I wouldn’t say it’s comfortable or fun. 

 

Additionally, the optional boss fights are just not very good. I loved the Valkyrie fights but their equivalents here (again, no spoilers) are just poorly designed. They’re either potatoes with very infrequent attacks that Kratos can just wail on endlessly, or they’re too difficult to the point of being straight up broken. In the case of the latter, there was one optional boss that spammed a red attack that entailed vomiting electricity all over the floor so Kratos literally could not run or dodge anywhere without taking damage. In this same fight, using lock-on was pointless since this enemy zipped out of frame way behind Kratos which kept breaking the lock-on so I had to constantly reposition the camera and lock on again. Such blatant BS like this would be funny if it wasn't so frustrating. The combat in 2018 was amongst my favourite of all time so the fact that it’s worse just makes it tragic. 

 

As for the exploration side of things, it’s still fun but the puzzles are way dumbed down in comparison to the first. Yet, despite them being far easier, your companions won’t shut up and it’s ruining them for me.  Sometimes they’re blurting out the solution before you’ve even found the puzzle! Can’t believe there isn’t an option in accessibility to tweak this.

 

I can’t talk about the story without going into spoilers so I won’t bother, but I will say it’s very poorly paced. There are at least three sections that feel like extended side quests. The way I’d describe them is if in Ghost of Tsushima you were forced to do all the side tales for your allies as part of the main story. That’s how meandering it is.  There’s also a plot point where a character does something so unbelievably  stupid that it’s unforgivable. Moreover, it's a really obvious excuse for the game to give you more side content.

 

Ragnarok is a good game, don't get me wrong, but it's far from great and should definitely not win GOTY. That honour should go to Elden Ring.

[InsomniWrench]

I haven't finished yet, I think it's good but I'm disappointed so far. 

 

Most people seem to hate them but the Atreus parts have been my favourite so far, I'm way more interested in his story and him trying to save his dad and figuring out what the right thing to do is. The world feels so much less immersive than GOW 2018 and I think the main reason for me is there's a lot less dialogue going on as you go about the game.

 

In GOW 2018 Mimir always went into long stories whenever you found things, locations, or were solving puzzles. In this one it's just "good thing you learned the runes", or "ah, remember this from last time", they tell you the puzzle solution immediately, or Kratos just grunts.  At least in the Atreus parts there's constant conversations going on as you play and I like the bow and arrow more than Kratos' weapons. They also try to go for more comedic moments in this one and most of them don't land for me.

 

The combat feels exactly the same to me, I don't know why people are saying it's such a huge step up, maybe my playstyle just isn't making use of whatever changes they made. I do like the spear but it isn't powerful enough right now for me to use it a lot. I also find the bosses to be more of a trek than a fun, entertaining fight like GOW 2018.

 

Then there's the story elements others have touched on here. Freya spending a large chunk of the game trying to kill Kratos and then they're suddenly back to the way they were in the last game. Visiting new locations doesn't have the wow factor of the last game for some reason and some of the new characters feel really jarring compared to the tone of the previous game and parts of this game.

Edited November 15, 2022 by InsomniWrench

[SnakeSound222]

I loved 2018 and think this is slightly better. It lived up to the hype for me and is shaping up to be my GOTY. The main story took turns that I didn't expect at all and I didn't want it to end. My companions usually waited to tell me any puzzle solutions, only a few times did they tell me almost immediately (which definitely should go). As for them backseat gaming during, I quickly learned to ignore it. I like that they're actually trying to help you during puzzles and combat because it wouldn't make sense for them to just look around or only focus on themselves (especially Mimir, if Kratos dies he's stuck there with nowhere to go).

Edited November 15, 2022 by SnakeSound222

[Fr_0zt]

Only thing I don't like so far is the Americanized writing and puzzles that require perfection/ rng? ? (purple arrows).  The story is a bit all over the place but it's also the final game, so it's to be expected. 

 

Also giants been black.... This is norse mythos but oh well, it wasn't done so badly and found it stupid funny tbh. 

 

 

 

 

Solid 9/10 so far that rivals Requiem and ER for GOTY. 

[JingjangSotona]

Just played this game for about 5 hours, platinumed the first one shortly after release. So far, I have to say I'm pretty disappointed. The previous game was easily 10/10 in my book, although not even my top 3 games of that generation.  It's too early to judge of course, but so far the new one feels to be in the 8/10 territory, sometime even 7/10.

 

EDIT: I progressed this a bit further and it does get much better when you get to a new realm. But prior to that, it was pretty underwhelming I gotta say.

Edited November 17, 2022 by JingjangSotona

[Mori]

After 40 hours and main story complete, I can say this game is absolutely fantastic and surpasses 2018 in every regard.

[L0sT_NZ_Kazekage]

I've finished the story and whole heartedly disagree, for me the game is equal too 2018, if not slightly better. Some dialouge got annoying but the story is amazing.

Edited November 16, 2022 by L0sT_NZ_Kazekage

[SiXDenso]

I've been a bit surprised by the negativity and disappointment because I think this game is better in nearly every way. It expanded on the foundations of 2018 with more enemy and boss variety, a bunch of new and entertaining characters that make the world feel larger and more lived in, etc. 

 

This happens a lot though. The game or movie that follows the one that made a big shift and took the world by storm will often struggle because it's the follow up, even if it makes many improvements.

Edited November 18, 2022 by SiXDenso

[Grimzilla32]

I feel it's the Sequel Curse, especially after the original became such a phenomenon, bit of tough love as it were. GOWR is indeed a great game and equals and surpasses 2018 in almost every way, but it seems that the Ironwood section has become such a "That one Level" that it just drags down the game in our eyes so much that we feel the need to complain to let the studio know that this level's length was just too much

[Vault-TecPhantom]

18 hours ago, SnakeSound222 said:

I loved 2018 and think this is slightly better. It lived up to the hype for me and is shaping up to be my GOTY. The main story took turns that I didn't expect at all and I didn't want it to end. My companions usually waited to tell me any puzzle solutions, only a few times did they tell me almost immediately (which definitely should go). As for them backseat gaming during, I quickly learned to ignore it. I like that they're actually trying to help you during puzzles and combat because it wouldn't make sense for them to just look around or only focus on themselves (especially Mimir, if Kratos dies he's stuck there with nowhere to go).

 

It makes sense for them to try and help Kratos with puzzles but why do they always have the solution? Kratos should be better at puzzles than Atreus is so the latter shouldn't be barking orders. The companions shout out the solution before you've even found the puzzle. Sometimes I'll just be exploring the area for supplies and Mimir or Atreus have already told me the solution to a puzzle that's off screen. I don't remember this being an issue in 2018 game and, again, I think it's a case of the devs taking feedback - in this this case, accessibility - too much to heart or simply coming up with the wrong solution. It's a problem in other Sony first party games as well.

[Vulpine9Tails]

I wasn't a huge fan of the 2018 game but I did play through it twice. I liked it quite a bit better my second time around. That being said, I absolutely loved Ragnarok. My biggest gripe though is some of the sections dragged and felt more like filler. I think maybe because of how the story went, the characters, and just how beautiful the game is really made me overlook how draggy it felt at times. At least, I loved it enough to beat the story over the weekend. Also my favourite animal is the wolf so them being around also helped lol. I will be pursuing the platinum on this one whereas for the 2018 game I just couldn't bring myself to enjoy it enough. GOTY for me for sure. 

 

23 minutes ago, Vault-TecPhantom said:

 

It makes sense for them to try and help Kratos with puzzles but why do they always have the solution? Kratos should be better at puzzles than Atreus is so the latter shouldn't be barking orders. The companions shout out the solution before you've even found the puzzle. Sometimes I'll just be exploring the area for supplies and Mimir or Atreus have already told me the solution to a puzzle that's off screen. I don't remember this being an issue in 2018 game and, again, I think it's a case of the devs taking feedback - in this this case, accessibility - too much to heart or simply coming up with the wrong solution. It's a problem in other Sony first party games as well.

 

I felt this as well, though my problem was less that they were giving away the solution to a puzzle and more they were telling me to look "up there" in a fairly open area and I'm like "where goddamn it!?" Though I can be dumb and blind sometimes so I guess it kind of helped to know a general area where to look for stuff. 

[mega-tallica]

Better than the 2018 game in practically every way. 

 

If you're going to be hypercritical then yeah, the story is a bit bloated and really slows to a halt at points specifically the Atreus sections for the sake of character development. I can see why they'd focus on Atreus so much since it's obvious Kratos' story is nearing an end and Atreus is set up for a whole spinoff series now to keep the series going. Maybe they could squeeze in one more Kratos story and game but I don't know if there's enough meat there and the idea that Kratos' story is over is disappointing in of itself. Kratos IS God of War and about 1/3rd of the game, you're not even playing as him. 

 

The only thing I truly did not like was the stupid purple orb puzzles and there's so many of them. So frustrating to have something dependent on trial and error and half the time it just doesn't work. It looks clearly like they're all connected but the last one won't explode so you have to redo it. Incredibly dumb. 

 

And having a better fast travel alternative would do this game wonders as it could've the first game too. Many times you'll find yourself nowhere near a gateway and then you have to figure out the path back to one just to get one collectible that's all the way at the back of the map. To travel there and back sometimes will take you up to 10 minutes, just running through empty landscapes post game just to get that one collectible you missed. 

 

Other than those things, the game is phenomenal. The much more varied enemy types this time around greatly improve the experience, the side content is some of the best a game can have and also very varied (besides those stupid purple orb puzzles), minus the pacing issues the story is fantastic, the writing and voice acting is exceptional, movie-esque quality, and to top it off, it's easily the best looking game I've yet played on the PS5 up there with Rift Apart which only further enhances the immersion. I'm not one to stop and ogle at graphics in games but this game was so stunning I stopped and ogled quite often. This game has restored my faith in modern gaming and has me much more optimistic about the PS5's future if we can get games that look like this or even better on the norm. 

 

Easily it's GotY and it's not even close. 

[ZZ383]

9 hours ago, mega-tallica said:

If you're going to be hypercritical then yeah, the story is a bit bloated and really slows to a halt at points specifically the Atreus sections for the sake of character development. I can see why they'd focus on Atreus so much since it's obvious Kratos' story is nearing an end and Atreus is set up for a whole spinoff series now to keep the series going. Maybe they could squeeze in one more Kratos story and game but I don't know if there's enough meat there and the idea that Kratos' story is over is disappointing in of itself. Kratos IS God of War and about 1/3rd of the game, you're not even playing as him. 

 

And having a better fast travel alternative would do this game wonders as it could've the first game too. Many times you'll find yourself nowhere near a gateway and then you have to figure out the path back to one just to get one collectible that's all the way at the back of the map. To travel there and back sometimes will take you up to 10 minutes, just running through empty landscapes post game just to get that one collectible you missed. 

 

I could be hypercritical if you want, my original post was a tad rambly, but nowhere near as hypercritical of the game as I could get. I never even got into the puzzle hints that can't be changed, or the constant combat tips, or the absolute trash that is Musphelheim's challenges. 

 

I decided I would clean up my collectibles post-main story. I go to the right side of the map to clear out Asgard Remnants at the area where you encounter your first Ancient. Go there and then I had one lore missing in Vanaheim, in the Abandoned Village near the Draugr Pit. Since you don't get an in-game item to help you find missing collectibles, and there weren't any trackable waypoints in the Village I set a tracker on a Time Changer Shrine to go there via the path from Freya's house. This follows the leftside of the map.  But wait, it's night time and there are branches preventing me from climbing a wall. Reload Checkpoint from Freyr's camp. Change to night, head out on adventure. Get to Freya's old house, and the path further back to the Village is inaccessible. Reload Checkpoint. Follow the normal path to the Abandoned Village, taking me past my previous stop for the Asgard Remnants. Some short time later, I do that side quest in the prison. Curious to hear dialogue from the prisoner I head back to Sindri's house for the first time since starting the final battle. Oh, what's this? Ratfucker has extra fast travels for the map? ONE OF THEM IS THE ABANDONED VILLAGE IN VANAHEIM!? I wanted to turn off the game and walk away. I really fucking did. There was no reason not to put a fast travel marker there from the start. 

 

The fast travel system in this game is also a huge fucking joke. Run to door, choose new fast travel, wait inside loading screen for dialogue to finish, then be at destination. Y'all remember when you could fast travel to any named location in Skyrim, from anywhere in Skyrim? TEN FUCKING YEARS AND TWO CONSOLES AGO!

 

[mega-tallica]

39 minutes ago, ZZ383 said:

 

I could be hypercritical if you want, my original post was a tad rambly, but nowhere near as hypercritical of the game as I could get. I never even got into the puzzle hints that can't be changed, or the constant combat tips, or the absolute trash that is Musphelheim's challenges. 

 

I decided I would clean up my collectibles post-main story. I go to the right side of the map to clear out Asgard Remnants at the area where you encounter your first Ancient. Go there and then I had one lore missing in Vanaheim, in the Abandoned Village near the Draugr Pit. Since you don't get an in-game item to help you find missing collectibles, and there weren't any trackable waypoints in the Village I set a tracker on a Time Changer Shrine to go there via the path from Freya's house. This follows the leftside of the map.  But wait, it's night time and there are branches preventing me from climbing a wall. Reload Checkpoint from Freyr's camp. Change to night, head out on adventure. Get to Freya's old house, and the path further back to the Village is inaccessible. Reload Checkpoint. Follow the normal path to the Abandoned Village, taking me past my previous stop for the Asgard Remnants. Some short time later, I do that side quest in the prison. Curious to hear dialogue from the prisoner I head back to Sindri's house for the first time since starting the final battle. Oh, what's this? Ratfucker has extra fast travels for the map? ONE OF THEM IS THE ABANDONED VILLAGE IN VANAHEIM!? I wanted to turn off the game and walk away. I really fucking did. There was no reason not to put a fast travel marker there from the start. 

 

The fast travel system in this game is also a huge fucking joke. Run to door, choose new fast travel, wait inside loading screen for dialogue to finish, then be at destination. Y'all remember when you could fast travel to any named location in Skyrim, from anywhere in Skyrim? TEN FUCKING YEARS AND TWO CONSOLES AGO!

 

 

Yeah, the day/night cycle was pretty bad and all it accomplishes is frustration and more unnecessary backtracking. 

 

I learned from the first game to be as thorough as possible when doing the side content so I wouldn't have to backtrack and do stuff again and even still I missed stuff I needed and had to backtrack anyway a few times. The maps can be really confusing and the compass doesn't help at all and sets you on the wrong path sometimes. I know exactly where you're talking about because that's exactly where I missed something too and couldn't figure out for the life of me how to get there. Also took me forever to figure out how to get to the Blatonn fight that you need to do to get a material for a relic. Literally was the last thing I needed to get the platinum and I couldn't figure out how to get there. Things like that that shouldn't be an issue but are drive me nuts. Thank god for YouTube otherwise I'd probably still be running around in that forest. 

 

I wouldn't mind the backtracking so much if the game had a more intuitive fast travel system more like Skyrim where you can instantly go from place to place. I'm not a big fan of games that have a literal fast travel system that makes sense in the game world. Like no, it's a video game, let me warp to wherever I want to go on demand, you don't need to have a game mechanic that literally explains how it's possible in the context of the game and to mask loading screens. It's really not necessary. 

 

I loved the game but the fast travel system and map traversal are the two main things that could use improvement for sure. 

[NashtyMouse]

I’m clearly an outlier here, but as someone who’s played every GoW game, this one is by far my favorite. I am not done (only 20 hours in), but so far it’s just gow 2018 except better everything (especially enemy variety).

 

the Atreus bits definitely do get tedious but the story chunks they reveal have been nice so far… but the exploration is phenomenal imo. 

[Vault-TecPhantom]

I know people aren't too fond of the Atreus parts but his Asgard sections were fun and a nice change of pace for me. I enjoyed learning more about our godly enemies. Even the Jotunheim section, while about 30 minutes longer than it should have been, had a nice payoff.

 

I've finished the game now and I have mixed feelings about the ending. On one hand it had some beautiful emotional moments but on the other hand it felt anti climactic and rushed. I can't tell if Santa Monica ran out of time or if the PS4 was holding that final battle back from being as big as it needed to be. And not to be mean but there were some unintentional moments of laughter from me at some of the dialogue in the final act, particularly in a certain boss fight...

 

I agree with you, ZZ383, regarding how frustrating the backtracking can be in the more linear areas - a beef I never had with the first game. Thankfully, I've been mostly thorough, but in the rare moments I've had to backtrack I couldn't help but feel like the game was wasting my time.

[ARIXANDRE]

Great criticism in this thread.

 

The ending had little impact on me but a lot of interesting things happen with the optional quests if you're going for platinum. 

 

Given the nature of the combat, I wish that had a FOV slider, somce enemies always come from behind. It got better when I raised X axis sensitivity. 

[cometowner]

This kind of subject, in my opinion, doesn't fit with first-party games, particularly Santa Monica, which never disappoints.

[Elegy]

I, personally, am not finding it as good as I was hoping for.  I think it suffers heavily from reused assets so nothing feels fresh, new or exciting in the same way that 2018 did.  2018's game world was a mystery in that you had no idea what you'd find or who you would meet.  In Ragnarok.. we all knew what the story was going to be.  I think the level design is considerably less interesting as well in Ragnarok vs 2018.  Ragnarok feels like its just a lot of linear paths.. and nothing really has stood out quite like the Thamur's corpse section did in 2018.  I could just be tired of the game's formula though.  I don't like foraging around for hacksilver and lore anymore nor do I like shimmying along walls, crouching through tunnels or holding forward in the "platforming" sections which feel ripped straight out of Uncharted.  It is all incredibly slow compared to the old God of War games and everything feels scripted and setup in a way that requires little effort on the part of the player to see it to its conclusion.  Every story boss feels like its programmed to lose and secretly wants to fail on normal difficulty.  The camera is still an improper camera for a hack n slash action game so I have no real desire to increase the enemy damage and life by setting it higher; this game's combat difficulty is entirely based on getting hit from behind or stun locked.

Many aspects of the game feel rushed from the considerably worse menus and UI which really do look like a free to play game's interface.  The map is completely useless.  The gear is not interesting at all and as far as I can tell doesn't really matter.  As long as you upgrade anything as you go then it probably doesn't matter which perks or stats you have.  Most enemies feel like sponges from the start to the finish regardless until you get to gear score 7+ and start beating up on things that are lower.  One of the final areas just gets thrown over the wall near the end of the game and the way the end game resources are just offloaded on you like a dump truck pouring shit on your head feels like they didn't have time to put adequate content in the game to feed you those materials in a better way.  Muspelheim once again felt unfinished.. like why do you have to redo trials several times in different orders instead of them making some new and interesting ones to do instead?  Gear stats still aren't explained in a way that tells you exactly what 1 point of strength or 1 point of defense does for you.. so it feels like it wasn't thought out that well.  Why is this game using RPG mechanics if it doesn't share any of the min/max values with us?

 

The game's writing is basically ripped right out of a Disney movie.  It's super difficult to take it seriously at all and the buddy jokes/quips just feels out of place most of the time. The game is dragged out like a soap opera and the coming of age, father/son bonding stuff is predictable and uninteresting.  I'd rather read The Road if I wanted that story.  This does not fit God of War's origins or universe, but rather fits the headspace of the developers and writers of the game in 2022.  Additionally, the Atreus sections are quite boring and his combat is not interesting.  I think I mostly just spammed sonic arrows and then beat stuff up with the bow.. every fight was the same with him.  The story really feels like its interfering with the gameplay and replayability in Ragnarok.  This game might get a lot of praise now on people's first run or two, but this game is not gonna have any longevity.  Ultimately, it feels like they wrote a story and then made a game around it rather than vice versa.

 

I feel like 2018 had the benefit of essentially being a new series so things felt new and interesting and discovering the game's lore and learning about the Aesir felt more interesting then.  However, I still vastly prefer God of War 1-3 to the reboot series.  The story was a straight up revenge tale and the games were made to be fun first.  We didn't have to have round table discussions about whether we should beat some god's ass.. decide its bad and morally wrong.. but then do it anyway because we're still playing a game and we need boss fights.

[NathanielJohn]

I just platinumed it. Spoiler-free thoughts:

 

Thoughts on the game itself: I loved the moment-to-moment storytelling, dialogue, animation, and so on. The level design was fantastic. The game is absolutely immersive. But I thought that the overall plot and pacing were awful. At least half of the game's missions are "go and find this thing", and then when you find that thing it turns out that you don't actually need it. Even worse, there are three late-game instances where a mission has you do a thing, and then that thing turned out to be bad so you have to try to fix it. I can't remember ever playing a game before where I spent so much time wondering why on earth I'm doing what I'm doing.

 

Thoughts on the trophy list: Waaaaaay easier than GoW 2018. I had trouble with Sigrun in GoW 2018, even on the easiest difficulty. This game lets you get insanely overpowered though. I beat both of the superbosses on my first try, doing pretty much nothing more than button-mashing, without even using Revive stones or the Accessibility settings. I found GoW 2018 to be a 5/10 for difficulty (entirely because of Sigrun), but this one is a 2/10. You can make this game, including post-game content, as easy as you like. You really don't need that many collectibles either -- as long as you pick up any ravens and artifacts that you see lying around when you play through the game, you won't have to do that much post-game backtracking (though there are some new post-game areas that will still take some time).

Edited November 18, 2022 by NathanielJohn

[UlvenFenrir]

I havent beaten the game yet but ive played a good chunk of it now and to me this is one of the best games ever made. Its the perfect sequel. I feel like gow ragnarok will be remembered fondly years from now up there with games like re4. 

 

Regarding pacing issues, i mean i can see why some would find some of the slower parts of the game too slow but i personally think they just add to the overall experience. A slow buildup to something epic is always a good thing.

[UlvenFenrir]

On 14/11/2022 at 6:23 AM, AJ_Radio said:

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. 

Not sure if you have played every god of war or not but i personally went through all of them again including gow 2018 100% before ragnarok came out and there is nothing cringe or underwhelming about the dialogue. Everything theyve said has either been a reference to something kratos did in the past or you learn something new about one of the giants or gods that mimir mentioned in gow 2018 or the dialogue adds even more layers on top of the already great story being told. You are always fed new information and lore that adds to the game.
 

Im not biased or anything or a blind fanboy. As much as i like my favorite games im not afraid to point out its flaws and ragnarok does have them but its definitely not in the dialogue. Its pretty easy to tell that the dialogue was well crafted. Everything thats spoken has meaning in one way or another.

 

Yes ragnarok follows the last of us formula but come on. Its like people live in a bubble or in the past still and dont really remember how older games were back then. Guess what? Older games did the same exact thing. Copies one anothers formula because it worked. Why change something that works? Its like people expected ragnarok to reinvent the wheel all over again.

 

While ragnarok clearly does what other games have done a million times already, it does it well. Did anyone complain when jak and daxter copied ratchet and clanks formula? Probably not. Every damn survival horror game back on the ps1/ps2 copied each others formula.

 

People complaining are probably just getting older. Thats the reality of it.

[The Alchemist]

1 hour ago, UlvenFenrir said:

I havent beaten the game yet but ive played a good chunk of it now and to me this is one of the best games ever made. Its the perfect sequel. I feel like gow ragnarok will be remembered fondly years from now up there with games like re4. 

 

Regarding pacing issues, i mean i can see why some would find some of the slower parts of the game too slow but i personally think they just add to the overall experience. A slow buildup to something epic is always a good thing.

 

Likewise. I'm 50 hours into it now, I still have around 25% of the story to get through and about the same again in terms of side content and stuff, and this is one of the best games I've ever played. GOW 2018 is a masterpiece and one of the best games ever, yet Ragnarok improves upon it in every single way. It's a perfect sequel and a perfect game. No matter how good something is it will always have detractors. I do find it funny though how this game addressed the few issues the first game had such as lack of enemy variety, but now people are complaining that there's too much enemy variety. You just cannot please some people lol. 

[Vault-TecPhantom]

37 minutes ago, The Alchemist said:

 

 I do find it funny though how this game addressed the few issues the first game had such as lack of enemy variety, but now people are complaining that there's too much enemy variety. You just cannot please some people lol. 

 

The so-called lack of enemy variety was never an issue for me and it wasn't until recently that I learned people had a problem with it in the last game. Regardless, the problem isn't necessarily the diversity of enemies - that's good. It's the fact that they spam too many different types in a single encounter that either a single weapon can't deal with efficiently (leading to switching), or there's too many different types of attacks coming at you simultaneously that require different defensive moves all at once, making it feel frantic. The enemy types should have been more spread out.

[Hitman_Spinksy1]

I never had any problems with enemy variety and still don't. There are some flaws that I can look past like the Atreus sections overstaying there welcome but I'm also happy they tried new things, tested with new characters and tried to build and expand on a masterpiece. The new weapon would have been a nice addition if it wasn't so weak that I used it for just puzzles in the end and it lacked the impact the chains had in the first one when you got them. I can even look passed the emotional confusion to some extent though it really makes little sense how Freya can go from trying to murder us at the start of the game, all this anger and even after lifting her curse she is torn between killing us and not quoting "I can't kill you, but I can't forgive you". After the cut scene it's back to the same backseat gaming from the companions and she talks to you as if she wasn't seconds away from cutting your head off. This kind of thing happened multiple times which is a shame unfortunately. The worst thing for me and literally dropped it from a 9/10to a 7/10 was the constant backseat gaming from Mimir and Freya. "You're on fire brother, but you probably knew that", why can't me being on fire set him on fire and shut him up. They solve all the puzzles instantly always stressing you to hurry up, telling you where to go, what to do, how to do it and this made me rage more than any frustrating trophy, game or plat I've ever gone for or played and when you're post game, cleaning up and that's 90% of the dialog and it's all the time it becomes too much. 2018 I finished the game and felt fuck yeah, this game is sick but this time I'm truly glad it's over and Mimir is no longer ringing in my head.