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Thoughts in comparison to GOW 2018.


ZZ383

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On 11/18/2022 at 1:26 AM, Elegy said:

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.


Being a God of War fan myself, the story was definitely taken out of the Disney vault. Unfortunately I couldn’t resist spoiling the story and it’s just…. yuck. 
 

This is just one of those things where I’m no longer the target audience. 

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ragnarok is better than 2018 by a country mile.

 

2018 was THE most overrated game i ever came across. it left me with a sour feeling to what they have done with the god of war series. copy/pasted enemies and mini bosses, lack of enemy variety, clunky combat, nonsensical upgrading system, young atreus coming across as annoying, the camera angle being so close it limits my field of view during combat, and the story is basically to go to XYZ to drop off a bunch of ashes. then there are those realms in the game thats locked off, so wtf was the point of having them in game. were there any bosses other than baldur? not really, or at least not any memorable ones. 2018 was shit. the only good thing about 2018 were the valkaryes.

 

ragnarok is far better. i completed the story just now and it feel like an epic experience compared to the first one. the world, story, enemy variety, and characters are more opened up, you even get to see civilians in this game unlike the other. its more 'friendlier' to the gamer, though still suffers from camera and controls getting in the way of the combat - the camera should be pulled away abit, and the right stick should allow us to turn sideways and run away when pulling down, instead of sidestepping and walking backwards respectively, as these were never needed in game. wrestling with the camera during combat hindered the experience. i liked the enemy variety, the various strategies needed to defeat them, and the bosses too. ragnarok totally shits on 2018 in every way.

 

this is speaking from someone who played the original god of war games since 2005. though the original greek trilogy still remains to me untouched as the finest in god of war, ragnarok then follows - everything after that, be it the DLCs, ascension and 2018 are all at the bottom side of my list.

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