God of War - OpenCritic/Metacritic 95 - Sony Santa Monica announces GoW PS5 details

[Met]

Just got there, too. Realised I was about 2 hours after when I was going to go to bed so left it. A bit worried about going back because I imagine that'll be another dozen hours of side content.

[HaruKazuhira]

Yo some of the combos you can do with Atreus are nasty, especially after you upgrade his stun effects more. Just had a sequence where I parried and countered with the pummel that sends em' flying, into a running jump attack into Atreus finishing him off with an over dramatic Hawkeye style aerial attack lol. I love how this combat is designed with different play styles in mind.

[the eponymous bollock]

Outside of the main story I find this loses its way a bit. The combat and mechanics retain their appeal of course but the world feels rather disjointed and exploring it just feels like moving between connected challenge rooms rather than much of an adventure of uncovering a world of which you’re an integral part. Tracking your progress is kind of a mess too. Everything on the lake looks pretty samey so it’s very difficult to tell where you’ve been and where you’ve not, the map, while pretty, is entirely useless.

[7256930752]

Outside of the main story I find this loses its way a bit. The combat and mechanics retain their appeal of course but the world feels rather disjointed and exploring it just feels like moving between connected challenge rooms rather than much of an adventure of uncovering a world of which you’re an integral part. Tracking your progress is kind of a mess too. Everything on the lake looks pretty samey so it’s very difficult to tell where you’ve been and where you’ve not, the map, while pretty, is entirely useless.

I know what you mean, I'm just systematically going round to each place to help me keep track, it is cool too find a new boat dock though. I completely agree about tracking your progress but apparently this is the iconless map future that everyone wants.

[Rex Kramer]

Dear god, Sanctuary Grove could be the single most beautiful location in a video game.

[Tafdolphin]

Outside of the main story I find this loses its way a bit. The combat and mechanics retain their appeal of course but the world feels rather disjointed and exploring it just feels like moving between connected challenge rooms rather than much of an adventure of uncovering a world of which you’re an integral part. Tracking your progress is kind of a mess too. Everything on the lake looks pretty samey so it’s very difficult to tell where you’ve been and where you’ve not, the map, while pretty, is entirely useless.

This isn't wrong. The more open world style of the Lake is just sort of thrown at you and the obsessive-compulsive side of me immediately had to hoover up all of the side quests in-case the area got locked off later on. Apparently it doesn't but the game does nothing to advise you of this.

It's still reet good fun though. The combat is legit fantastic, even if I continue to struggle with Hard, and Atreus is really coming into his own now. I'm not being quite as mindblown by the graphics as I thought I would be though. I still think Horizon and Uncharted pip it to the post, but there are some extremely impressive demonstrations of scale and general epic-ness.

Also, I've decided to read through Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology and if the witch doesn't end up being Freya (or at the very least a Vanir) I'll eat my hat. Also, the boar that Atreus almost kills is Gullinbursti, created by Brok and his brother at the same time they made Mjollnir.

[7256930752]

The only other thing I would add is that the upgrade system is rubbish. I keep getting hidden chests and doing side quests but the rewards are often meaningless. They've gone too far with the obscure crafting materials.

[HSH28]

The only other thing I would add is that the upgrade system is rubbish. I keep getting hidden chests and doing side quests but the rewards are often meaningless. They've gone too far with the obscure crafting materials.

Definitely this.

Its almost impossible to tell what is good and what isn't without spending a ridiculous amount of time going through everything, getting different specific items to upgrade specific bits of armour is utterly ridiculous. The game just keeps piling stuff on until you have no idea what is for what or what's a good thing and what's not worth your time.

For me its way beyond the point where I just don't care any more, it also doesn't help that its hard to figure out what the hell anything actually does. I can understand something that increases your vitality or strength, but its difficult to see what a boost to my runic level is actually doing.

Its just too convoluted, there comes a point where its clear the game shouldn't need all these different items and boosts. What they've done with the game seems to have been mistaking complexity and the sheer number of systems for some kind of depth to the gameplay. I'd bet they could have halved the number of different items in the game without compromising on any of the gameplay depth.

[karl_fletcher]

Agreed with he above, almost to the point of it ruining my enjoyment of the game. It seems that every five minutes there's another potentially pointless upgrade item appearing. Doesn't help that the text hurts to read, even on a 65" screen.

[7256930752]

I've had my suspicions that the party system is a bit ropey. Just reached my first Valkyrie, yep it's complete garbage

[HaruKazuhira]

I think most of the gear you get is intended for post game stuff, since you can optimise builds for certain encounters. Be heavy attack, or focus on Rune etc. I'm not spending too much time with it all and only focusing on whats best for the main story.

[the eponymous bollock]

Some of these Valkyrie fights can seriously strawberry float off. Having enemies that just warp all over the arena, break lock on and have block indicators a nano second before the attack hits. Bloody stupid.

Also, what’s with the world tree warping. It’s such a ridiculously over designed mechanic. I presume it’s to hide loading times but even so it’s just rubbish.

[JediDragon05]

BOY

[KjGarly]

"Heh"

"Did you just laugh?"

"No"

"Are you sure?"

"I do not laugh"

[the eponymous bollock]

The plot of this, around which the real meat of the narrative, the relationship between Kratos and Atreus, is woven, is absolute bollocks.

It’s so flimsy and meandering that it almost drips over to spoil the enjoyment of following the core relationship, and Memir who is brilliant.

[HaruKazuhira]

I'm enjoying in small bites as I go, so it doesn't feel as overbearing as it probably would feel. The way they handle the father son relationship as they are going on this adventure is a classic tale told in a refreshing way. I really enjoy seeing Atreus develop too.

[Tafdolphin]

The plot of this, around which the real meat of the narrative, the relationship between Kratos and Atreus, is woven, is absolute bollocks.

It’s so flimsy and meandering that it almost drips over to spoil the enjoyment of following the core relationship, and Memir who is brilliant.

I'm seemingly not as far in as you, I just finished Alfheim, but at this point I disagree. The plot is light, and intentionally so, as the story beats that are expanded upon all serve to reflect the relationship between Kratos and Atreus rather than divert attention away from it.

Take Alfheim. The centre message there is "you only know half the story." This reaches two climaxes: the first is Kratos discovering "the other half of the story" when the Light shows him Atreus' thoughts on his mother's death, the second when Atreus accuses Kratos of not caring about his wife's death. Both serve to heighten and illuminate just how detached these two characters are from each other, and the misconceptions they both held as they only knew their half of the story. This is reflected in Alfheim as it appears by the end that they may have been inadvertently aiding the wrong side in the war for the Light.

It is, in fact, a very savvy bit of narrative weaving.

Of course, it could all go horribly wrong and I might be eating my words at a later date, but we'll deal with that if/when it happens.

[the eponymous bollock]

Hmmm, fair point. Maybe I’m missing some of the subtlety like that, I just found myself not caring about that part of the story in Alfheim. Part of the problem is there are several long dialogue sequences, which just ramble about walkers, realms, elves, bridges, towers, all sprinkled with various Norse mythology terms and as they go on I just tune out. There’s one where Freya speaks just before you get to the area you’ve just done and midway through it just began to sound like a stream of bollocks.

[Tafdolphin]

Whoooa there. Can we spoiler all names of later game characters if poss?

[the eponymous bollock]

What, spoilery about that?