[Cause]

3 hours or so in, So far it feels like I could have put down the controller for a snack break and come back. The game feels and looks so similiar. From ps4 to ps5 has not changed much of anything. I guess becuase its also still a ps4 game.

That said the last game was a ten so this is still great. Some of that beggining roughness from the last game is back too, The open world/linear combiantion means you can walk into a mini boss fight that maybe in theory you can beat but it would be better to be higher level. I look forward to the next 35 hours or so

[Aptorian]

Played through the Swartalfheim area, the story is sort of paused while Atreus is off to do something really stupid.

I'm not entirely onboard with Ragnarok at this point. I feel like the game is suffering from video game sequel-itis.

In trying to do more, it's also straying from the tighter story of the 2018 game. It's introducing new mechanics but they're not adding much to the experience. A lot of the traversal and exploration feels less tight and well designed than the first game, probably because they've just created much more area to explore. I mainly get annoyed by how often I descend a ladder or run down a diverging hall way only to find a bit of silver and nothing else of interest.

The combat isn't that satisfying to me. Probably because I'm coming straight off the 2018 game where Kratos was fully upgraded and now I have to rebuild the moveset. I am disappointed with the amount of enemies. Despite being a new generation video game, it's never putting more than 3-5 enemies on screen at a time. And why do the corpses keep disintegrating!

Also Teenage Atreus is going to get really straining if he's like this the whole way through.

Stil all these gripes asides it's still a beautiful, well made game. Maybe just trying to do too much.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 13 November 2022 - 08:49 PM

[Maark Abbott]

Corpse disintegration is an easy one - a corpse is still an entity, get too many of those running and the framerate will suffer. See: Vampire Survivors, where it's graphically quite simple but stutters on the low end because it simply has that much stuff on screen.

[Cause]

I am probably more than halway through, here are some thoughts so far

Spoiler

The game is still great. Easilly a 8/10. Its after all more of the same of GoW 4 which was amazing. However in trying to deliver more it has delivered a weaker experience. Quantity over quality and even than, sometimes it feels like the quantity is weaker too. Ill explain.

For me a signature of Gow games is great setting design, not only does the game look beautiful but there are moments were you are genuinly impressed with how clever it is. Pandoras temple was a maze that your actions continually recreated and unlocked new areas. GOW 3 was set in Olympus and had you unlocking the home of the gods secrets as you broke chains and locks to reveal the flame of olympus. Gow 4 was also very clever, Jormungur coming out of the water changed the lakes depths revealing new locations and Tyrs temple was similiarly clever and had you at one point flipping it over. By contrast Ragnarok is a series of combat/puzzle arenas connected by traversal regeions of ice, sand or water. Similiarly in GoW 4 these transversal regions were used for a ton of exposition from mimir. Everyone still talks in the boat or sleds like before but not to the same agree and not saying anything that interesting this time around. Despite the end of the world approaching, it feels like almost all the cards and secrets have allready been revealed.

Gow4 had a ton of extra boss fights in the form of the valkyries. They were optional hard challenges and yet they tied in thematically with the story and were of relevance to Odin being a prick, to Mimir wanting to help his love and more. Ragnarok has repalced them with Berserker souls. People you can fight and kill, because why not. Its hard to put your figner on everything, but its little thigns like this that make the game feel less polished than GoW4.

GoW also padded an already long game with Muspelheim combat challenges and a near endless gridn in Nifelheim. Both realms return in Ragnarok but are significantly smaller in scope. Maybe more will happen in both realms but it seems like Nifelheim especially was added just to tick off a box of having all 9 realms in the game.

Also the story. It has some good beats. They are making their own creative take on Thor but in doing so I feel like the scope of the game has suffered. I feel less like I am fighting to save the world and more like I am in a soap opera of Norse gods. I realize in many ways that what mythology is, so perhaps they nailed it. However, having now met Odin he feels more like a cross between a low level mobster and eldery grandfather than he does the evil god whose Machiavellian plots rule all.

This post has been edited by Cause: 14 November 2022 - 03:06 PM

[Cause]

I wonder what the future of god of war will be,

There are moments where I think they are setting up dlc prequels or side stories for ragnarok.

[champ]

I'm about 25 hours in though a lot of that is just exploring and doing the side quests. Haven't had the chance to play it over the last few days....

I have just finished:

Spoiler

Muspelheim with Thor

Which was super fun...

Stunning game and intriguing story, no idea how it is going to play out.

Happy I stopped my 2018 GoW playthrough month or so before Ragnarok as the first few hours are very samey. I was a bit tentative about the game for the first five or so hours thinking it is just very similar but they do add in some changes that freshen things up combat wise.

Someone mentioned above it doesn't seem as well put together as 2018 GoW and I do agree there. Too many places you go off the track to explore, find a well placed hidden chest and you get like 20 Hacksilver from it, I'm just like wtf all that to just open that shite chest?!

Playing it on hard mode, some of the battles are super tough so what the game is like on give me god of war mode I don't know. I will be trying that though on NG+.

This post has been edited by champ: 16 November 2022 - 05:11 PM

[Cause]

I think the core of my criticisms remain intact but I owe the game a small apology. The majority of the side quests and post game content is hidden in Vanaheim. There is an entirely new area locked behind a story beat (About 3/4a into the game) and an optional side quest. I didnt realize this untill I beat the game. I still dont think the content is as well polished or as clever as the first game but there is definitly more there than I had first realized.

[Aptorian]

Finished God of War Ragnarok.

Meh. Saying it was just okay seems unfair but that's my feeling after finishing the game. On a review scale I'd say GOW 2018 was a 5/5 game.

Ragnarok is someplace between a 3/5 and a 4/5, only because the individual parts, the environment design, the character writing, etc. is very high quality - It's just that nothing in this game feels really cohesive and streamlined.

The Game has two major problems.

1. The Game tries to take the world exploration from the first game and spread it out over various realms and it only sort of works. What was a tight iterative exploration process as the water fell in GOW 2018, becomes a slog when the exploration is stretched out over environments that takes you down long corridor-like environments that you can't skip, because the only quick travel option is limited to the portals which, along with the smithing stations, are way, way, way too far apart. Just give us a teleport to portal function.

Trying to find that one chest or drauger hole you missed in Vanaheim is a fucking nightmare.

2. The story is awful. I could be charitable and say the story makes some interesting narrative choices and decisions about how to use the established mythology. It tricks you, it makes the gods sympathic and tragic rather than cartoonishly evil, it's really touching in places - But it's also full of pointless half-assed bullshit.

There is just the flimsiest of plot that doesn't have a real hook. Sure there's an apocalypse on the horizon and a prophecy but there's very little actual motivation or personal stakes.
Odin and the Aesir haven't wronged Kratos and Boy, quite the opposite really. This is a young adult story about a stupid kid who doesn't know what they're getting into.

The peoples of the nine realms that you're supposedly trying to save are rarely shown on screen, mostly the worlds seem dead and empty. So who are we fighting for?

Odin is never shown to actually be a mastermind or a dangerous god king. He's at best a nerdy mob boss. Interesting take on the mythology but completely fails to convince you he's a formidable enemy or an interesting antagonist.

In fact none of the gods in this game seem particularly god like. They don't do god things, they're surprisingly weak - including Kratos. In 2018 Kratos and Baldur were breaking the world around them when fighting. In this game all fights take place in a small arena, they punch and chop each other a bit and then there's a kill scene. It's incredibly underwhelming.

And that also counts for the ending. What a pointless conflict, what a half-assed setup, incredibly poor execution and pretty much zero payoff at all.

The fact that this game won an award for best narrative is incredibly frustrating to me.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 11 December 2022 - 05:58 PM