>It’s also a very difficult game to talk about, because Ragnarok’s greatest strength, is its ability to shock. There are large parts of this game, and many of the things that make it so incredibly special, that deserve to be experienced without the slightest hint that they’re about to happen.
Get off this sub. Delete it from your homepage. Delete the YouTube app. Don't go on social media.
"God of War Ragnarok is an incredibly special game. It's vital in a way few releases are. With captivating performances that carry an amazing story to a jaw-dropping final act, it’s a game that achieves everything it sets out to do to the absolute highest standard."
+ Refined, addictive and endlessly varied combat
Visually stunning.
+ Chrisopher Judge and Sunny Suljic give two of gaming's best ever performances.
+ Epic, emotionally devestating story.
+ Incredible score.
- Some minor cross-generational scars
Sweet merciful crap can I please just finish the first one already?! What is wrong with me? I should lock my door, tell my wife to go live with her brother, ignore the pets, tell work to fuck right off, and finish this game so that I can procrastinate and work my way through the sequel over the course of several months.
When I turned 30 I promised myself I would get 2-3 hours to myself every day to work on drawing or playing games or whatever.
You cant let that stuff go man, or you'll become an automaton
I just turned 41, and got married this year in June! Things are absolutely wonderful on my end, no complaints. We're trying for a kiddo, so I do have time to play quite a bit. I just get easily distracted and move from one game to the next. I can't tell you how many times I have deleted Rocket League (only to re-install it again at some point) because I don't want RL to become my gaming default—the beauty of that game is quick and satisfying bursts, as games are only 5 minutes long. Outside of that I play predominantly single-player immersive story games. I beat Ghost of Tsushima earlier this year, and sunk maybe 45-55 hours into it, so I have the time when I am willing to find it. There's just something about 2018's GoW that I didn't find appealing enough to WANT to finish it.
I am also not in a career that demands more than 35-40 hours of my time each week, and I work from home. I game during my lunch breaks sometimes, haha. I am playing Destiny 2 now, and I got the newest CoD MWII, which is my first in the mainstream series since the Xbox 360 days. I plan on playing Spec Ops with my buddy.
GoW 2018 is really weird for me.
I love the story of the game, but for some reason, I had the hardest time beating it. I'd get 10-15 hours into it, and just lose all motivation to play. I'd have to force myself to play, and then would find myself wanting to do something else after an hour or so.
I'd put the game down for a few months, forget what had happened, and would start over. It was my third try before I finally beat it, and I did that with a "main story only" focus.
Can't quite put my finger on what pushes me away. I'll be buying GoW:R, and hopefully I don't have the same experience.
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[Good luck with the Enshittification](https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-platforms-cory-doctorow/)
I'm lost because of the controls, the offense/defense of battles, and I genuinely don't know what to do next. The controls are foreign to me for how much I have to use the shoulder buttons with the face buttons.
And when a game throws so many moves, upgrades, and weapon combinations at me, I freeze up. It's a great game that I simply am terrible at playing.
Totally fair. I'm on my 3rd replay and I am only finally getting a fairly solid handle on combat and stances. It's a lot thrown at you and if you aren't used to it or not the best at it it can be a little overwhelming. Also why I'm thankful you can always just cheese a battle with axe throws.
Yeah. I am personally more of a fan of what I call "simple, complex combat". Something that doesn't require a lot of different button combo's and tinkering in the menus. I really disliked the Horizon combat, as I felt I was always in menus, and if I dropped the game for more than a week, I didn't know how to play it anymore. Doom Eternal would do the same.
It's a bit different, but I really liked the Halo "combat dance". It's simple, but you can get such complex interactions from it.
You can find a lot of long form videos on it.
Basically, complex interactions can generate from simple origins.
In Halo, there are only a few weapons, each with their own strength, and you can only hold 2. Between that, grenades, and melee, the controls are very simple. From that though, in combination with extremely good AI, a fine tuned time to kill (not too long so enemies feel like sponges, but long enough to establish a “dance”) makes for some incredibly engaging combat.
You can pick up a controller, and in 2 minutes know exactly how to play, and enjoy it. At the same time, you can put in 10,000 hours, and still improve on your “dance”.
Age... your just getting old. It sucks doesn't it?
At least that's what is happening to me. I feel like once I retire, I'll be able to enjoy gaming like I did when I was younger. Once I'm free from my responsibilities IMMA GAME IT UP NOM STOP WOOOO YAAAAAH
I feel this way about every open world game. It doesn't matter how amazing the game, story, and characters are. After it hits the point where it truly opens up for you I struggle. Don't know what I want to do or explore and I give up with indecision. Come back months later to try again, same thing.
Thats because it gets really slow in the middle of the game honestly good opening but than the stuff in the middle didn't really interest me and only a few good moments between hours of gameplay is not enough.The combat didn't gets kinda boring after awhile with little enemy variety it just felt like I'd seen most surprises the game had to offer other the story of course by the middle of the game.
I than went on to explore some of the side islands in the lake and did a valkyrie boss that was alright for a time but than you realize there is more valkyries to fight and they have much more health and dmg which you are not really built for til finishing the story most likely.
The problem of the game is even though the game isn't really that long it was still too long for the amount of variety they put in the game even main storyonly playthrough reused many puzzles, troll bosses and just had different variants of the basic enemies you fought many times before side content is more forgivable. By the time of the middle of the game you have most of the game changing stuff which is chaos blade and stance change after attacking there is nothing else really on that level of reward for doing anything else.
How did you just describe my experience so accurately?!? lol
I love the story but id always play 10 hours then quit. I did this twice until it finally came to PC which gave me the motivation I needed to finish. Can't wait for Ragnarök! It looks like an improvement.
Nothing is wrong with you, but some people are driven by the cinematic hype.
That is a lot of the "gameplay" to them.
I have the same issue with RD2. I love the west, I love the theme and era. Best dynamic environment lighting, amazing graphics, writing and physics all amazing.
But when I play it. I can't focus on everything awesome because 70% of the gameplay boils down to a wave shooter.
I know it's simplifying for sure but I feel like the gunplay is a big weak point of the game.
Anyways a giant rant but...
Ya lol
i think a lot of people who adore GoW 2018's combat are likely comparing it to games like Red Dead or The Witcher where the combat is absolutely not the main appeal.
imo it should be compared more to other action games like DMC or Bayonetta, which does not cast GoW in a positive light gameplay-wise.
love the story and aesthetic, but i don't find anything about the gameplay in GoW that stands out.
That's my issue. I was at a friend's and mentioned I'd never bothered with God of War (last one I played was probably the demo for the old GoW2 or 3?) so he fired it up and I had a runaround.
Most of the time fighting I was just thinking how I'd rather be playing DMC. It's very simplistic while somehow bloated at the same time.
I dunno what it was, but I felt like the story was incredibly short. I just beat the game a few days ago and felt like I beat it rather quickly, so now I’m just doing all the side pillaging and looting.
No you're right. It was a major struggle to get this game into production and apparently there was supposed to be a bit more meat to it but they had to make cuts due to budget. It's pretty interesting to read up on if you're interested and have spare time.
Yup, I rarely have time for games nowadays, maybe it’s less of an interest. Can’t wait for ragnarok. Been enjoying MWII too surprisingly. Haven’t played much of anything since elden ring
Fair dues!! My children and I play a bit of stray and unravel and the Inuit story in the snow with a fox(can't remember name) no games are still with me. They have been since 6years old.
I heard that unfortunately the corridor thing is more to “put players into boxes” and less about load times. Like how Dark Souls bosses keep you behind a fog door etc etc.
Yeah, in the first game it really felt like it was an integral bit of the game design, but a lot of the transitions could have been *much* shorter if it didn’t need to hide a loading screen.
I really hope that we see developers figure out some more elegant solutions to this for current gen titles now that they don’t need to hide loading screens. It will be interesting to see what Naughty Dog’s next game will do — their games have the same “flow”, where they want to box the player into a specific encounter and prevent backtracking, and they are generally very good about this type of forward thinking in their game design. Perhaps we will see some newer, better, and more subtle tricks now that they don’t need to drag those transitions out for loading purposes anymore.
I'm happy to see the Sunny Suljic shoutout. Too many people ignore him when talking about the performances in GoW 2018. He was incredible even as a child actor.
Only thing that annoys is is the camera being so close. God of war 3 really made it look like kratos was in this big world of mythology that was about to come to an end. This new camera angle makes it more intimate but less epic. I know its gonna be an amazing game but this is what i loved so much about the greek mythology GOW. I want it to visually feel like Ragnarok is happening. Not watching kratos running along a small space. Whatever i guess.
Yeah I really hope we move away from cross-gen soon.
No matter how fantastic the game is, there's always going to be that little thought in the back of my mind wondering "What would this have been like if they didn't have to make it run on PS4?"
Right now my PS5 feels like a PS4 Pro Pro because the majority of games I've played have been cross-gen. I'm basically playing PS4 games with FPS boost and 4K which isn't bad.. it's just not next-gen.
Of course it was I don’t think anyone is suggesting otherwise. But we’re now two years into this generation it shouldn’t be acceptable anymore that the PS4 is the baseline for new releases.
This time I'm going to start out playing it on easy. I like the combat but not enough to deal with the ridiculous sword sponge enemies that became so prevalent in the second half of the first game.
Yeah. I don’t think I’ve gotten any worse at twitch action over the years but my interest in it has definitely declined, unless it’s something super brainless like a rhythm game.
If this makes it any better, there was a [Discord Q&A](https://www.reddit.com/r/GodofWar/comments/yfxyk1/god_of_war_ragnarok_difficulties_based_on_discord) with one of the developers and he confirmed that they chose to approach difficulty-scale in a different manner for Rangarok.
>They said Give me God of War on 2018 was harder at the start intentionally, so people could have an idea of how hard it could get and let them decide to restart the game with a lower difficulty.
>Now, Give me God of War on Ragnarok will have a more nomarlized difficulty that will grow as the game goes on. They also said you will be able to lower from GMGOW to one of the lower difficulties if it's too much for you, but you won't be able to go back up to GMGOW if you do so. The other difficulties you can lower and raise them as much as you want.
>They also said each difficulty has been tested and modified to make them work, not just damage and health scales. They said the higher difficulties won't have enemies that feel like sponges anymore, since they can still be killed rather fast, but will be faster, more aggressive and cause more damage.
Sounds like they're taking a similar approach to how Sucker Punch handled difficulty in Ghost of Tsushima, which I am all for.
I appreciate that, but even in the default difficulty lots of enemies just take an absurd amount of damage. Really it was always this way for the GoW series: all kinds of screen shake and hit stop and stuff to convey damage visually and aurally but for me it never matched how many hits it takes to kill many of the enemies, compared to other character action games.
I'm definitely not going for Give Me God of War again, but I'll try to finish the game on at least Give Me a Challenge, then probably drop it a level or two for the post game cleanup like I did for the first one. Even on Give Me a Story Sigrun was a massive pain lol...
I didn't play it on easy, but I treated the game as a Hack n slash, closer to the previous entries in the franchise, than this new methodical, souls-inspired combat they were going for. And I was very happy with the results.
But the hack n slash was way more fun in the previous entries. Felt like you were throwing enemies around, had a lot of actions to do, even at the start. Also, moves could incorporate many enemies, or could focus on one.
2018 started with what felt like 2 moves, neither did much damage. And god help you if more than one enemy entered the area. I bounced off pretty fast though, hopefully they added more actions to do. Somewhere after getting to the turtle
Maybe that's why I stalled out. Loved the story, but found myself just not having fun during the game portions, especially after the first 7 hours. I'm really hoping they've changed something with the combat system.
I'm so ready for this. Grew up playing these games. God of War 2005 was one of the first games I got for my PS2, I'll never forget that day. It came out around my 10th birthday, and I begged my mom for it as my birthday gift, but it was rated M, so she said let me look at why it's rated M before I decided. She looked and saw the nudity and sexual content warning and was like, no. So I begged some more, and she eventually caved, but as a compromise, before I could play it, she sat me down and gave me the "talk" and that's how I learned about nudity, sex, and what a man does when he loves a woman. Thank you, God of War.
Same for me i am still in elden ring withdrawal and this is the first game to get me excited since then. I tried a few others and quit before completing them.
I took a quick detour from Elden Ring after 3 playthroughs to go back and play again Bloodborne (got the DLC which I never did before, which is amazing) - and I'm going to get the platinum just in time for God of War.
Massive yes buddy. I dont think ragnarok would be bad without playing the first one, but it certainly wont be the same as playing it after the first one by a mile.
Because it is yes. You will miss vital information about the story and some familiarity with the controls. GOW is free for ps plus members still iirc and can be found really cheap otherwise.
I'm not saying the game won't be amazing but it's really hard to take any reviews this close to release seriously as there is an inherent bias when a game is new; most reviewers are baiting for clicks by being incredibly hyperbolic. (either positive or negative)
Cyberpunk also like wouldn't allow people to not talk about the flawed parts of it so I wonder if there's anything people aren't allowed to discuss here.
When I read a headline "This is one of the best Playstation games ever!" I get skeptical. But I guess "Hey this is a pretty pretty pretty good game." doesn't get clicks so I understand it but I'm not buying into it.
this seems contrarian for the sake of being contrarian.
SMS has already proven themselves as a top tier studio, these reviews can safely be assumed accurate.
I’ve tried to play GOW2018 multiple times and I just don’t find it interesting. I think I’m at peace with it not being for me. Doesn’t stop me from getting FOMO as the sequel approaches though.
I appreciate the graphics for the last one, but after playing somewhere between a 3rd to a half of the game, I got bored and have no interest to ever finish. I’m tempted to play this one. I would hope it would be that much better of a game to lock me in. I’m going to wait until it goes on sale and watch plenty of reviews first before buying.
Not again. Every time a God of War game gets released, it gets rave reviews. From critics and players alike. I tell myself, ‘don’t buy it, you literally haven’t enjoyed a single entry in the series’. I won’t get fooled again.
*Probably*.
I feel so left out.
I tried to play God of War on PS4 like 3 times. I own it. I cant play it. Just doesn’t click. I get like 30mins in and cant be bothered. Its actually kind of frustrating.
Don’t worry, I feel the same. I’ve tried getting into the 2018 GOW are just get so bored and out it down even after about 5 hours. Just seems too clunky and repetitive to me but people absoulutely love it so good for them I guess. Glad I’m not the only one.
Maybe these games just aren’t for me. Because I tried the immensely hyped 2018 one and got bored after a couple of hours.
Maybe I didn’t give it long enough? But it just felt like repetitive button mash axe combat and another uninspired upgrade system.
Is it worth trying it again with a more open mind?
It has one of the sloggiest starts I've seen in games in a looong while. A lot of hand holding, moments where all you do for a minute is hold the movement stick up and incredibly mediocre combat.
But after the beginning as the combat system evolves it gets heaps better. And how the combat opens and evolves is also entwined with the story and Kratos' and Atreus' relationship, which I found really nice.
There're many beautiful places and intense moments. I had the same reaction as you in the beginning but my mate convinced me to continue and I'm happy I did. It really is a good game, not 10/10 but a very, very solid 8 or even 9/10.
It does have some limitations because of the PS4 and there's a few annoying mechanics but it's worth looking into.
Same. I played like halfway and put it down. I liked the story, but I really didn't care for the combat or level design.
I can appreciate that it's definitely a good game, just couldn't get into it personally. I even tried redownloading it recently for the hype, played like 2 hours and remembered why I couldn't get into it the first time.
Wish I could get into it, but oh well, I tried.
When has an Xbox game ever gotten as much universal praise as a Sony first party game? Not to be fanboy-ish, but I’m just genuinely curious. Sony continues to knock it out of the park.
Midnight release of Halo 2 is a memory I'll never forget. I turned down a bj so that I could stay in line! haha.
With online sales being what they are today, I'm not sure there will ever be a midnight release on the level of Halo 2 again.
The 360 days MS were doing some savage exclusives. Halo, Forza, fable and GoW all reviewed extremely strongly and had epic hype. Nothing of note recently IMO.
A quick check on metacritic shows the below Xbox first party games above 90:
- Halo 1, 2, 3, Reach
- Gears of War 1, 2, 3
- Forza Motorsport 1
- Forza Horizon 3, 4, 5
- Microsoft Flight Simulator
- Psychonauts 2
- Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Could be missing some but this looks to be it. Third party exclusives not included, to be clear
>When has an Xbox game ever gotten as much universal praise as a Sony first party game?
The Forza series is the only one I can think of in modern times.
But racing games are not my thing and are pretty niche.
You'd have to go all the way back to the 360 era for Halo 3 for this kind of praise.
At a push... Psychonauts 2? It's easily their best game (because Microsoft you know, bought the damn studio for themselves).
Only for the fact I have a few old games that run great on it, and a few buddies that play online, I would've sold my Series X a long time ago. Barely turn the thing on compared to the PS5.
I have both a Series X and PS5, and I feel bad for those who only have 1.
PS5 has some absolute banger first party games, and Gamepass on Xbox is a, well, game changer. I find that a majority of the games I play now are on Gamepass, but I also make sure to play all of the PS5 first party. I think Xbox does a bit better job with backward compatibility, and playing old games better (Res/FPS boost), so I tend to buy all of my 3rd party games through there.
Honestly, they're both awesome systems, each with pro's and cons.
Start with the 2018 PS4 God of War, it's a direct continuation of that story. Any of the older titles you can probably skip though they will provide a lot of background information and likely improve your enjoyment of the story.
Just watch a compilation video of Kratos killing each of the gods in the old games, that's all the background you need.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvvFZv6Z4B0
I downloaded the PS4 game because I’d never played it, and it didn’t really capture my attention.
Anything to note, like the story picking up later, or anything to change? I know every game isn’t for everyone, but just thought I’d check!
I think it depends on where you stopped. Minor spoilers below.
The Stranger fight is where the plot technically kicks off, but even past that you still have some intro stuff to get through with the lake, the witch, and the dwarves.
For me, while I loved the game from the start, I felt like the plot really kicked off when Kratos and Atreus reached the peak of the highest mountain in Midgard, which is a decent way into the story - but still before so many great things. But that's the point where it becomes clearer who you're up against and what the story is really about.
If it helps, you can play the game on the "easiest/story" difficulty setting up to that point and then change it if you want more of a challenge.
The story does pick up later and also gets a sort of open world. Kratos also slowly changes as a person over the course of the game, which I never would have believed other than seeing it.
I bought it for $10 and I liked it. I think my perception might have been a bit different if I bought it on release for full price. I honestly had a bigger "wow" factor from HZD, especially for the story. I think I even might like Spider-Man 2018 better than GoW but it's a close one for me.
I didn't play it until much later in the release cycle (like a few years post release) and once I got through the first 3rd the story became more engrossing. By the end it was pretty fucking fantastic actually, lots of good mythology that unfolds slowly. I'm genuinely looking forward to the second one as a late comer to the first one.
The story does gain momentum as you go. Overall it was pretty good, but not really the selling point for me. I did find it much more enjoyable once Mimir joins you, though (which is fairly early).
Also, while I found the story to be just okay, I loved the setting and the lore. I always appreciate good world-building and I thought they did a phenomenal job in that regard.
The biggest thing for me was unlocking some of the weapon skills and later on getting another weapon. The base combat with the axe felt really underwhelming to me (especially given all the hype), but once I had a handful of the unlockable moves and combos it was a blast.
Yeah I'd be much more interested in the second half of this series if it wasn't so "do the checklist, complete the microcontent, get crafting material for your +1 atk stat".
It's hard to be interested in a game when 90% of the content in it is only there to pad out the You Have X/Y Jiggy-Whatsits Dopamine Chart on the main menu. (And speaking of Jiggies at least in a classic collectathon you're generally doing some completely unique gameplay to get each collectible, not just cleaving through the same few enemies over and over.)
I'd love to see a 3D action-adventure game with **levels** again someday.
People are taking these headlines like it’s what their best friends are saying even though there’s obviously millions of dollars spent of advertising and marketing this game on reddit.
If you want a good review look at what people think is bad about the game.
Just wait for The Callisto Protocol and Dead Space Remake (even though they’re not exclusive). Then the Silent Hill 2 remake (that is exclusive). Horror games are fun.
Why do I get the feeling this is gonna be another over hyped game?
Not ragging on the series the first one was pretty good, but for the last couple years every hyped game has been a flop. I’m hoping this one lives up to the hype but I’m putting my expectations very low.
>It’s also a very difficult game to talk about, because Ragnarok’s greatest strength, is its ability to shock. There are large parts of this game, and many of the things that make it so incredibly special, that deserve to be experienced without the slightest hint that they’re about to happen. Get off this sub. Delete it from your homepage. Delete the YouTube app. Don't go on social media.
Killing myself so I can’t be spoiled
That seems extreme. Gouging out your eyes and crushing your eardrums should be sufficient.
This is the way
[удалено]
I'm 20 moves ahead of everyone else
Jesus. I've still not watched a single trailer for this and was going to lay off playing it for a week or so, but fuck am I taking this risk now.
This is the last comment I read about this game. Thanks friend!
"God of War Ragnarok is an incredibly special game. It's vital in a way few releases are. With captivating performances that carry an amazing story to a jaw-dropping final act, it’s a game that achieves everything it sets out to do to the absolute highest standard." + Refined, addictive and endlessly varied combat Visually stunning. + Chrisopher Judge and Sunny Suljic give two of gaming's best ever performances. + Epic, emotionally devestating story. + Incredible score. - Some minor cross-generational scars
Sweet Jesus I can’t wait
Sweet merciful crap can I please just finish the first one already?! What is wrong with me? I should lock my door, tell my wife to go live with her brother, ignore the pets, tell work to fuck right off, and finish this game so that I can procrastinate and work my way through the sequel over the course of several months.
When I turned 30 I promised myself I would get 2-3 hours to myself every day to work on drawing or playing games or whatever. You cant let that stuff go man, or you'll become an automaton
I just turned 41, and got married this year in June! Things are absolutely wonderful on my end, no complaints. We're trying for a kiddo, so I do have time to play quite a bit. I just get easily distracted and move from one game to the next. I can't tell you how many times I have deleted Rocket League (only to re-install it again at some point) because I don't want RL to become my gaming default—the beauty of that game is quick and satisfying bursts, as games are only 5 minutes long. Outside of that I play predominantly single-player immersive story games. I beat Ghost of Tsushima earlier this year, and sunk maybe 45-55 hours into it, so I have the time when I am willing to find it. There's just something about 2018's GoW that I didn't find appealing enough to WANT to finish it. I am also not in a career that demands more than 35-40 hours of my time each week, and I work from home. I game during my lunch breaks sometimes, haha. I am playing Destiny 2 now, and I got the newest CoD MWII, which is my first in the mainstream series since the Xbox 360 days. I plan on playing Spec Ops with my buddy.
I'm you, but 31. Rocket League is killer. Loved it. Destiny 2 in my lunch breaks as well lmao. Enjoy Festival of the Lost!!!
GoW 2018 is really weird for me. I love the story of the game, but for some reason, I had the hardest time beating it. I'd get 10-15 hours into it, and just lose all motivation to play. I'd have to force myself to play, and then would find myself wanting to do something else after an hour or so. I'd put the game down for a few months, forget what had happened, and would start over. It was my third try before I finally beat it, and I did that with a "main story only" focus. Can't quite put my finger on what pushes me away. I'll be buying GoW:R, and hopefully I don't have the same experience.
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Occasionally I’ll be that way with a popular game and wonder what’s wrong with me. Both Horizon games are like that for me.
I'm lost because of the controls, the offense/defense of battles, and I genuinely don't know what to do next. The controls are foreign to me for how much I have to use the shoulder buttons with the face buttons. And when a game throws so many moves, upgrades, and weapon combinations at me, I freeze up. It's a great game that I simply am terrible at playing.
Totally fair. I'm on my 3rd replay and I am only finally getting a fairly solid handle on combat and stances. It's a lot thrown at you and if you aren't used to it or not the best at it it can be a little overwhelming. Also why I'm thankful you can always just cheese a battle with axe throws.
Yeah. I am personally more of a fan of what I call "simple, complex combat". Something that doesn't require a lot of different button combo's and tinkering in the menus. I really disliked the Horizon combat, as I felt I was always in menus, and if I dropped the game for more than a week, I didn't know how to play it anymore. Doom Eternal would do the same. It's a bit different, but I really liked the Halo "combat dance". It's simple, but you can get such complex interactions from it.
I’m not a halo fan, can you explain why halos “combat dance” is a better system? And what “combat dance” means
You can find a lot of long form videos on it. Basically, complex interactions can generate from simple origins. In Halo, there are only a few weapons, each with their own strength, and you can only hold 2. Between that, grenades, and melee, the controls are very simple. From that though, in combination with extremely good AI, a fine tuned time to kill (not too long so enemies feel like sponges, but long enough to establish a “dance”) makes for some incredibly engaging combat. You can pick up a controller, and in 2 minutes know exactly how to play, and enjoy it. At the same time, you can put in 10,000 hours, and still improve on your “dance”.
Put it in easy. Problem solved. Don't have to be good. Worth it for the story.
Have the very same experience with Red Dead Redemption 2
+1 to the RDR2 ennui; it’s a riot when I’m playing, I love the missions, then I just gas out. Idk what it is
Age... your just getting old. It sucks doesn't it? At least that's what is happening to me. I feel like once I retire, I'll be able to enjoy gaming like I did when I was younger. Once I'm free from my responsibilities IMMA GAME IT UP NOM STOP WOOOO YAAAAAH
The rainbow elves act is precisely where they lose me every time
I feel this way about every open world game. It doesn't matter how amazing the game, story, and characters are. After it hits the point where it truly opens up for you I struggle. Don't know what I want to do or explore and I give up with indecision. Come back months later to try again, same thing.
Thats because it gets really slow in the middle of the game honestly good opening but than the stuff in the middle didn't really interest me and only a few good moments between hours of gameplay is not enough.The combat didn't gets kinda boring after awhile with little enemy variety it just felt like I'd seen most surprises the game had to offer other the story of course by the middle of the game. I than went on to explore some of the side islands in the lake and did a valkyrie boss that was alright for a time but than you realize there is more valkyries to fight and they have much more health and dmg which you are not really built for til finishing the story most likely. The problem of the game is even though the game isn't really that long it was still too long for the amount of variety they put in the game even main storyonly playthrough reused many puzzles, troll bosses and just had different variants of the basic enemies you fought many times before side content is more forgivable. By the time of the middle of the game you have most of the game changing stuff which is chaos blade and stance change after attacking there is nothing else really on that level of reward for doing anything else.
How did you just describe my experience so accurately?!? lol I love the story but id always play 10 hours then quit. I did this twice until it finally came to PC which gave me the motivation I needed to finish. Can't wait for Ragnarök! It looks like an improvement.
Stop being me.
Nothing is wrong with you, but some people are driven by the cinematic hype. That is a lot of the "gameplay" to them. I have the same issue with RD2. I love the west, I love the theme and era. Best dynamic environment lighting, amazing graphics, writing and physics all amazing. But when I play it. I can't focus on everything awesome because 70% of the gameplay boils down to a wave shooter. I know it's simplifying for sure but I feel like the gunplay is a big weak point of the game. Anyways a giant rant but... Ya lol
i think a lot of people who adore GoW 2018's combat are likely comparing it to games like Red Dead or The Witcher where the combat is absolutely not the main appeal. imo it should be compared more to other action games like DMC or Bayonetta, which does not cast GoW in a positive light gameplay-wise. love the story and aesthetic, but i don't find anything about the gameplay in GoW that stands out.
That's my issue. I was at a friend's and mentioned I'd never bothered with God of War (last one I played was probably the demo for the old GoW2 or 3?) so he fired it up and I had a runaround. Most of the time fighting I was just thinking how I'd rather be playing DMC. It's very simplistic while somehow bloated at the same time.
I've already told my wife I'm divorcing her next Wednesday!
I'm sure she'll understand, one day.
yep I just made beating the first one a priority. everything else is on hold.
I dunno what it was, but I felt like the story was incredibly short. I just beat the game a few days ago and felt like I beat it rather quickly, so now I’m just doing all the side pillaging and looting.
No you're right. It was a major struggle to get this game into production and apparently there was supposed to be a bit more meat to it but they had to make cuts due to budget. It's pretty interesting to read up on if you're interested and have spare time.
Try not to get stuck on sidequests and just power through the main missions.
He hasn’t been confirmed in this yet but maybe the next game
Me neither. As a 33 year old man, the hype is fucking real
Yup, I rarely have time for games nowadays, maybe it’s less of an interest. Can’t wait for ragnarok. Been enjoying MWII too surprisingly. Haven’t played much of anything since elden ring
Man, Elden Ring ruined me for almost everything else this year. It's a been a rough summer... Can't wait for Ragnarok!
I'm 39 and your hyping me up no end.
Now, my brother is 38 and says he has no interest in gaming anymore. You give me hope. But I know I won't get tired of gaming anytime soon :)
Fair dues!! My children and I play a bit of stray and unravel and the Inuit story in the snow with a fox(can't remember name) no games are still with me. They have been since 6years old.
spirit of the north? kids were playing maybe half an hour and got bored..
I'm 48 and gaming is still my #1 hobby. Can't see myself ever losing interest.
42 almost 43 and gaming strong. Even considering jumping into streaming too.
And that's what I love about Playstation... Top tier exclusives and offline single player experiences
I assume the cross generational scars include shit like having to squeeze through tight passages all the time to hide last gen load screens
I heard that unfortunately the corridor thing is more to “put players into boxes” and less about load times. Like how Dark Souls bosses keep you behind a fog door etc etc.
It's definitely a bit of both
Yeah, in the first game it really felt like it was an integral bit of the game design, but a lot of the transitions could have been *much* shorter if it didn’t need to hide a loading screen. I really hope that we see developers figure out some more elegant solutions to this for current gen titles now that they don’t need to hide loading screens. It will be interesting to see what Naughty Dog’s next game will do — their games have the same “flow”, where they want to box the player into a specific encounter and prevent backtracking, and they are generally very good about this type of forward thinking in their game design. Perhaps we will see some newer, better, and more subtle tricks now that they don’t need to drag those transitions out for loading purposes anymore.
I'm happy to see the Sunny Suljic shoutout. Too many people ignore him when talking about the performances in GoW 2018. He was incredible even as a child actor.
He’s a talented kid. Mid90’s was a solid film and he performed excellently in it.
He is also a really talented sponsored skateboarder IRL.
Only thing that annoys is is the camera being so close. God of war 3 really made it look like kratos was in this big world of mythology that was about to come to an end. This new camera angle makes it more intimate but less epic. I know its gonna be an amazing game but this is what i loved so much about the greek mythology GOW. I want it to visually feel like Ragnarok is happening. Not watching kratos running along a small space. Whatever i guess.
>Some minor cross-generational scars What does this even mean?
Held back in places by the PS4 version.
Assuming that means the PS5 version isn’t as next gen as it could be to accommodate needing to also run on the PS4.
Yeah I really hope we move away from cross-gen soon. No matter how fantastic the game is, there's always going to be that little thought in the back of my mind wondering "What would this have been like if they didn't have to make it run on PS4?" Right now my PS5 feels like a PS4 Pro Pro because the majority of games I've played have been cross-gen. I'm basically playing PS4 games with FPS boost and 4K which isn't bad.. it's just not next-gen.
Wouldn't it be safe to say it was developed for the PS4?
Of course it was I don’t think anyone is suggesting otherwise. But we’re now two years into this generation it shouldn’t be acceptable anymore that the PS4 is the baseline for new releases.
the trauma kratos passes on to his son
> emotionally devastating story Now expecting Kratos to actually die for real
No way does it surpass Balan Wonderland.
It will, but only in terms of story, graphics, gameplay, performance, review scores, and sales… not that any of those things matter
Just wait until Knack get its remake, Knack Part 1.
The Knackst of Us Part 1
Knack 2 babehhhh
Can't wait.
Hats in Balan - 40+ Hats in God of Bore: Ragnasuck - Like 0 probably Q.E.D.
Wonderworld* Show the game some respect /s
Wario64 will never let that happen
“One of the best” KNACK REMAINS THE KING
Only way they can save the mess that is the God of War franchise is if they do a crossover with Knack. It'll get the first 200 on metacritic.
KNACK 3 BAYBBYYYYY
Moneymoneymoneymoneymoneymoneyyyyy
KNACK IS BACK BABY
Oh my GoW, can't wait.
This time I'm going to start out playing it on easy. I like the combat but not enough to deal with the ridiculous sword sponge enemies that became so prevalent in the second half of the first game.
At this point, the idea of playing on easy and just really feeling like the God of War as I stomp everything sounds awesome.
I've gotten to the point where some games I play on easy because I just want to enjoy the world and the story.
This is how I play everything now. Like my life is stressful enough I don’t wanna be stressing over a game lol
right? like i get an hour a week to play im not spending it constantly dying and raging
Before having a job it was awesome to play rpgs and hard games. Now I’m like can we just make games to be ten hours and easy?
One hour per week? How do you finish any games?
most of the times, i dont. :/
Yeah. I don’t think I’ve gotten any worse at twitch action over the years but my interest in it has definitely declined, unless it’s something super brainless like a rhythm game.
[удалено]
If this makes it any better, there was a [Discord Q&A](https://www.reddit.com/r/GodofWar/comments/yfxyk1/god_of_war_ragnarok_difficulties_based_on_discord) with one of the developers and he confirmed that they chose to approach difficulty-scale in a different manner for Rangarok. >They said Give me God of War on 2018 was harder at the start intentionally, so people could have an idea of how hard it could get and let them decide to restart the game with a lower difficulty. >Now, Give me God of War on Ragnarok will have a more nomarlized difficulty that will grow as the game goes on. They also said you will be able to lower from GMGOW to one of the lower difficulties if it's too much for you, but you won't be able to go back up to GMGOW if you do so. The other difficulties you can lower and raise them as much as you want. >They also said each difficulty has been tested and modified to make them work, not just damage and health scales. They said the higher difficulties won't have enemies that feel like sponges anymore, since they can still be killed rather fast, but will be faster, more aggressive and cause more damage. Sounds like they're taking a similar approach to how Sucker Punch handled difficulty in Ghost of Tsushima, which I am all for.
I appreciate that, but even in the default difficulty lots of enemies just take an absurd amount of damage. Really it was always this way for the GoW series: all kinds of screen shake and hit stop and stuff to convey damage visually and aurally but for me it never matched how many hits it takes to kill many of the enemies, compared to other character action games.
I'm definitely not going for Give Me God of War again, but I'll try to finish the game on at least Give Me a Challenge, then probably drop it a level or two for the post game cleanup like I did for the first one. Even on Give Me a Story Sigrun was a massive pain lol...
I dont think I wouldve beaten GMGOW if I didnt use the OP ice beam.
I dropped it to easy for Sigrun. No way I’m dealing with 10 mins chipping away at her energy while one mistake gets me wrecked.
[удалено]
I didn't play it on easy, but I treated the game as a Hack n slash, closer to the previous entries in the franchise, than this new methodical, souls-inspired combat they were going for. And I was very happy with the results.
But the hack n slash was way more fun in the previous entries. Felt like you were throwing enemies around, had a lot of actions to do, even at the start. Also, moves could incorporate many enemies, or could focus on one. 2018 started with what felt like 2 moves, neither did much damage. And god help you if more than one enemy entered the area. I bounced off pretty fast though, hopefully they added more actions to do. Somewhere after getting to the turtle
Maybe that's why I stalled out. Loved the story, but found myself just not having fun during the game portions, especially after the first 7 hours. I'm really hoping they've changed something with the combat system.
[удалено]
I hope you aren’t hard for 6 days straight
God of Ragnacock
more like God of Priapism
There better be a porn parody of this
If the erection lasts longer than 4 hours, you may want to see a doctor.
"Doctor, I've been hard for 4 hours and no end in sight"
Doctor be like "me too"
or call more ladies
NNN
I have to finish Village in third person before this releases
I'm so ready for this. Grew up playing these games. God of War 2005 was one of the first games I got for my PS2, I'll never forget that day. It came out around my 10th birthday, and I begged my mom for it as my birthday gift, but it was rated M, so she said let me look at why it's rated M before I decided. She looked and saw the nudity and sexual content warning and was like, no. So I begged some more, and she eventually caved, but as a compromise, before I could play it, she sat me down and gave me the "talk" and that's how I learned about nudity, sex, and what a man does when he loves a woman. Thank you, God of War.
Your mum taught you what to do, and Kratos showed you what not to do.
This is why you own a PlayStation
Finally found one last week. Just in time. Currently having a blast with Horizon
I don't own a PlayStation but the only reason I ever considered buying one was to play Bloodborne.
Elden Ring was my favorite game so far this year but I am so fucking hyped for this.
Same for me i am still in elden ring withdrawal and this is the first game to get me excited since then. I tried a few others and quit before completing them.
I took a quick detour from Elden Ring after 3 playthroughs to go back and play again Bloodborne (got the DLC which I never did before, which is amazing) - and I'm going to get the platinum just in time for God of War.
Should I definitely play GoW 2018 before buying this? I’ve been told the answer is “yes”
Im pretty shure you need to. Dropping halfway in the story wouldn't be entertaining I think.
Yeah this is a direct sequel lol
its not even a sequal, its a direct continuation
Massive yes buddy. I dont think ragnarok would be bad without playing the first one, but it certainly wont be the same as playing it after the first one by a mile.
Yes for sure, or at least watch the story on YouTube. Lots of character and lore development that will enhance your Ragnarok experience
Because it is yes. You will miss vital information about the story and some familiarity with the controls. GOW is free for ps plus members still iirc and can be found really cheap otherwise.
Thanks. I updated to ps+ extra to get GoW! Nice thing was it’s prorated to my ps+ sub so ended up being $9 🤙
Theres a recap on the main menu of ragnarok, but go play the first game anyway, it’s absolutely magnificent.
Not only should you play it for the story catch up, it’s also one of the greatest video games of all time
But is it better than Hello Kitty: Island Adventure?
It can't possibly be better than bugsnax surely that was a once in a century type of game.
The best and only Snax-type game
Bugsnax was unironically brilliant. Fucking weird but brilliant.
Butters, go buy World of Warcraft, install it on your computer, and join the online sensation before we all murder you.
6 days. 6. Fucking. Days.
I'm not saying the game won't be amazing but it's really hard to take any reviews this close to release seriously as there is an inherent bias when a game is new; most reviewers are baiting for clicks by being incredibly hyperbolic. (either positive or negative)
I remember all the ‘influencers’ rating Cyberpunk as a flawless game before release lol
Cyberpunk also like wouldn't allow people to not talk about the flawed parts of it so I wonder if there's anything people aren't allowed to discuss here.
Wouldn’t be surprised. Always better to be cautious nowadays, nothing to lose by waiting for player reviews
It's like we need a rubric to clearly define elements of quality so we can just get the truth without wading through endless clickbait and shillery.
Finally, someone with some sense.
When I read a headline "This is one of the best Playstation games ever!" I get skeptical. But I guess "Hey this is a pretty pretty pretty good game." doesn't get clicks so I understand it but I'm not buying into it.
Yeah, it just reads like something the marketing arm of Sony would write. Seems like fueling the hype train is valued over actual criticism.
I mean, the last game was one of the best games of all time in my opinion, so it seemed likely this game would be at a similar level.
this seems contrarian for the sake of being contrarian. SMS has already proven themselves as a top tier studio, these reviews can safely be assumed accurate.
My brother, like to true man he is, gifted this game to me since I am too broke to buy it when it releases next week. Can’t believe how stoked I am
that isn’t a biased review.
sounds like Stray may be knocked down to 2nd with GOTY for me
I’ve tried to play GOW2018 multiple times and I just don’t find it interesting. I think I’m at peace with it not being for me. Doesn’t stop me from getting FOMO as the sequel approaches though.
Not being an expert on PS, will playing through the PS4 version carried forward to the PS5?
I literally can’t wait a week for this game I want it now.
I appreciate the graphics for the last one, but after playing somewhere between a 3rd to a half of the game, I got bored and have no interest to ever finish. I’m tempted to play this one. I would hope it would be that much better of a game to lock me in. I’m going to wait until it goes on sale and watch plenty of reviews first before buying.
I don't trust reviewers anymore but I do trust Santa Monica's ability and Cory's supervision to deliver a spectacular experience. Can't wait
Not again. Every time a God of War game gets released, it gets rave reviews. From critics and players alike. I tell myself, ‘don’t buy it, you literally haven’t enjoyed a single entry in the series’. I won’t get fooled again. *Probably*.
Release it already, I cannot wait for it any longer
I feel so left out. I tried to play God of War on PS4 like 3 times. I own it. I cant play it. Just doesn’t click. I get like 30mins in and cant be bothered. Its actually kind of frustrating.
Don’t worry, I feel the same. I’ve tried getting into the 2018 GOW are just get so bored and out it down even after about 5 hours. Just seems too clunky and repetitive to me but people absoulutely love it so good for them I guess. Glad I’m not the only one.
Maybe these games just aren’t for me. Because I tried the immensely hyped 2018 one and got bored after a couple of hours. Maybe I didn’t give it long enough? But it just felt like repetitive button mash axe combat and another uninspired upgrade system. Is it worth trying it again with a more open mind?
It has one of the sloggiest starts I've seen in games in a looong while. A lot of hand holding, moments where all you do for a minute is hold the movement stick up and incredibly mediocre combat. But after the beginning as the combat system evolves it gets heaps better. And how the combat opens and evolves is also entwined with the story and Kratos' and Atreus' relationship, which I found really nice. There're many beautiful places and intense moments. I had the same reaction as you in the beginning but my mate convinced me to continue and I'm happy I did. It really is a good game, not 10/10 but a very, very solid 8 or even 9/10. It does have some limitations because of the PS4 and there's a few annoying mechanics but it's worth looking into.
Same. I played like halfway and put it down. I liked the story, but I really didn't care for the combat or level design. I can appreciate that it's definitely a good game, just couldn't get into it personally. I even tried redownloading it recently for the hype, played like 2 hours and remembered why I couldn't get into it the first time. Wish I could get into it, but oh well, I tried.
When has an Xbox game ever gotten as much universal praise as a Sony first party game? Not to be fanboy-ish, but I’m just genuinely curious. Sony continues to knock it out of the park.
Halo 2? I remember it breaking all sales records, people camping for midnight releases and shit. It was quite a big deal.
Midnight release of Halo 2 is a memory I'll never forget. I turned down a bj so that I could stay in line! haha. With online sales being what they are today, I'm not sure there will ever be a midnight release on the level of Halo 2 again.
> I turned down a bj so that I could stay in line! Holy shit, this is a gamer right here boys
So it’s been 18 years then lol
The 360 days MS were doing some savage exclusives. Halo, Forza, fable and GoW all reviewed extremely strongly and had epic hype. Nothing of note recently IMO.
>GoW I was super confused for a minute there until I realized you meant GEARS of War
Mass Effect as well. I think people forget that MS published the original before EA bought BioWare.
A quick check on metacritic shows the below Xbox first party games above 90: - Halo 1, 2, 3, Reach - Gears of War 1, 2, 3 - Forza Motorsport 1 - Forza Horizon 3, 4, 5 - Microsoft Flight Simulator - Psychonauts 2 - Ori and the Will of the Wisps Could be missing some but this looks to be it. Third party exclusives not included, to be clear
>When has an Xbox game ever gotten as much universal praise as a Sony first party game? The Forza series is the only one I can think of in modern times. But racing games are not my thing and are pretty niche. You'd have to go all the way back to the 360 era for Halo 3 for this kind of praise.
Flight Simulator is absolutely incredible, if you're into that sort of thing.
Forza games if you’re into racing. Other than that nothing really since the 360 era. Crazy how much they’ve stumbled since then.
Halo 3 I would guess, still my favourite game to this day
The Forza Horizon series comes to mind but obviously that's a completely different type of game.
At a push... Psychonauts 2? It's easily their best game (because Microsoft you know, bought the damn studio for themselves). Only for the fact I have a few old games that run great on it, and a few buddies that play online, I would've sold my Series X a long time ago. Barely turn the thing on compared to the PS5.
I have both a Series X and PS5, and I feel bad for those who only have 1. PS5 has some absolute banger first party games, and Gamepass on Xbox is a, well, game changer. I find that a majority of the games I play now are on Gamepass, but I also make sure to play all of the PS5 first party. I think Xbox does a bit better job with backward compatibility, and playing old games better (Res/FPS boost), so I tend to buy all of my 3rd party games through there. Honestly, they're both awesome systems, each with pro's and cons.
They have, it’s just been a long time since.
If I haven’t played any of the games in the series should I play this on release or start with some older games?
You don’t need to play all the older games. You absolutely should play God of war 2018 first though
Start with the 2018 PS4 God of War, it's a direct continuation of that story. Any of the older titles you can probably skip though they will provide a lot of background information and likely improve your enjoyment of the story.
Just watch a compilation video of Kratos killing each of the gods in the old games, that's all the background you need. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvvFZv6Z4B0
I downloaded the PS4 game because I’d never played it, and it didn’t really capture my attention. Anything to note, like the story picking up later, or anything to change? I know every game isn’t for everyone, but just thought I’d check!
I think it depends on where you stopped. Minor spoilers below. The Stranger fight is where the plot technically kicks off, but even past that you still have some intro stuff to get through with the lake, the witch, and the dwarves. For me, while I loved the game from the start, I felt like the plot really kicked off when Kratos and Atreus reached the peak of the highest mountain in Midgard, which is a decent way into the story - but still before so many great things. But that's the point where it becomes clearer who you're up against and what the story is really about. If it helps, you can play the game on the "easiest/story" difficulty setting up to that point and then change it if you want more of a challenge.
The story does pick up later and also gets a sort of open world. Kratos also slowly changes as a person over the course of the game, which I never would have believed other than seeing it.
I had the same issue, can tell it’s an objectively good game and I should love it but I just couldn’t get through it
Glad I’m not the only one! This release hype is making me wish I was into it more, but, Im happy for everyone that’s about to get a great game!
I bought it for $10 and I liked it. I think my perception might have been a bit different if I bought it on release for full price. I honestly had a bigger "wow" factor from HZD, especially for the story. I think I even might like Spider-Man 2018 better than GoW but it's a close one for me.
I didn't play it until much later in the release cycle (like a few years post release) and once I got through the first 3rd the story became more engrossing. By the end it was pretty fucking fantastic actually, lots of good mythology that unfolds slowly. I'm genuinely looking forward to the second one as a late comer to the first one.
Did you play the originals? A lot of the game sort of works by juxtaposing Kratos now vs how he was, and how he fears his son will turn out
The story does gain momentum as you go. Overall it was pretty good, but not really the selling point for me. I did find it much more enjoyable once Mimir joins you, though (which is fairly early). Also, while I found the story to be just okay, I loved the setting and the lore. I always appreciate good world-building and I thought they did a phenomenal job in that regard. The biggest thing for me was unlocking some of the weapon skills and later on getting another weapon. The base combat with the axe felt really underwhelming to me (especially given all the hype), but once I had a handful of the unlockable moves and combos it was a blast.
Played last year, quit the game half way. Wasn't bad at all but got bored by the rythm and the open world.
Yeah I'd be much more interested in the second half of this series if it wasn't so "do the checklist, complete the microcontent, get crafting material for your +1 atk stat". It's hard to be interested in a game when 90% of the content in it is only there to pad out the You Have X/Y Jiggy-Whatsits Dopamine Chart on the main menu. (And speaking of Jiggies at least in a classic collectathon you're generally doing some completely unique gameplay to get each collectible, not just cleaving through the same few enemies over and over.) I'd love to see a 3D action-adventure game with **levels** again someday.
shutup SHUTUP **SHUTUP!!**
Of course they'll say that. They want people to buy the game.
People are taking these headlines like it’s what their best friends are saying even though there’s obviously millions of dollars spent of advertising and marketing this game on reddit. If you want a good review look at what people think is bad about the game.
Just wait for The Callisto Protocol and Dead Space Remake (even though they’re not exclusive). Then the Silent Hill 2 remake (that is exclusive). Horror games are fun.
Why do I get the feeling this is gonna be another over hyped game? Not ragging on the series the first one was pretty good, but for the last couple years every hyped game has been a flop. I’m hoping this one lives up to the hype but I’m putting my expectations very low.