It’s hard not to think about this game in relation to 2018’s God of War. I only recently played it, and while I liked it well enough, I didn’t go crazy for it like others. I still believe it to be nuts that it won ‘Game of the Year’ over Red Dead Redemption 2.
This one I liked more. Here the story is more sprawling, the world is wider, the cast is bigger. 2018’s story is a smaller scale one, it’s great to have such a contained focus on just a couple of characters, but there the rest of the cast didn´t do much for me, and the stakes felt too low to be compelling most of the time. This one utilizes that set up to actually develop the characters into much more interesting ones, with well developed arcs and stories. It’s even harder to pick a standout character or performance, all are rather delightful in their own way, and divert enough from the preconceptions one might have about them, making them extremely compelling. There are also more standout sequences, set pieces and just memorable moments here. It’s a beautiful story.
I have some rather minor issues with it as well. This is brought over from 2018’s God of War, but I still do not buy Kratos as a husband someone would fall in love with. Here we see and interact with his late wife a couple of times, and the relationship never felt real to me. My other issue is with the pacing of certain sequences, which is killed, mostly near the end of the game, by the introduction of side content in awkward places. Yes, you can skip these and do them later, but if that was the developer’s intention, they should just introduce them either sooner or after the climax. I can’t complain about the side content though. Here there’s more than ever before, and it feels more interesting. There are large optional areas to explore, with some truly excellent side quests among them. Some of these areas feel a bit unwieldly at first but exploring fully is pretty much always rewarding in one way or the other. And I don’t think that the ‘one-shot’ gimmick is all that necessary here. They cheat enough where I just ended up believing that they are only using it because the previous game did.
I don’t want to go into detail regarding some of my favorite story beats, as it’s maybe better to go into it not really knowing all that much about it. It’s a truly spectacular, block-buster level, story.
In terms of gameplay, as with the previous game, combat is entertaining though not perfect. I still have issues with it, but here the options of engagement are expanded, and it feels more polished. I still do not like it enough to try and beat some of those extra post game bosses, but I like it more than before. Sadly, traversal still sucks ass. The new ‘grappling hook’ looks cool and feels dynamic, but climbing is such a chore still. And there’s a constant need for those crawling transitions that make going through areas again a real pain.
I still do not believe that these games need the gear and ‘rpg-lite’ systems that they feel necessary to include. I guess that it’s there because of modern AAA game design trends, but it’s the worst part of the game. So dull and uninspired, at least here you can just stick with a build and level it up so it’s viable all throughout the game. Looting is fun, but you can make it so the resources you pick up while playing are directly used to upgrade weapons and stats, if necessary to have them instead of just leveling up more linearly, instead of this whole confusion of gear and upgrades that is there. I understand that it gives freedom to players to adjust their playstyle to their liking and add some more versatility to the combat system, I just do not enjoy it enough to actually engage properly with this element of the game.
I played this on a base PS4 and it’s a technically flawless game. Smooth constant 30 fps, and it looks just as good as the 2018 God of War looked when I played it on my PC at fairly high settings. I have tried some of the Greek God of War games along the years, but never got hooked enough on their gameplay to stick with them all through the end. I believe it says plenty of the quality here that I played these two Norse ones back-to-back. And paid full price for it. If you are looking for a truly spectacular, state of the art, triple A, action-adventure videogame, and are even mildly interested in Norse mythology look no further. Just play this thing.
This one I liked more. Here the story is more sprawling, the world is wider, the cast is bigger. 2018’s story is a smaller scale one, it’s great to have such a contained focus on just a couple of characters, but there the rest of the cast didn´t do much for me, and the stakes felt too low to be compelling most of the time. This one utilizes that set up to actually develop the characters into much more interesting ones, with well developed arcs and stories. It’s even harder to pick a standout character or performance, all are rather delightful in their own way, and divert enough from the preconceptions one might have about them, making them extremely compelling. There are also more standout sequences, set pieces and just memorable moments here. It’s a beautiful story.
I have some rather minor issues with it as well. This is brought over from 2018’s God of War, but I still do not buy Kratos as a husband someone would fall in love with. Here we see and interact with his late wife a couple of times, and the relationship never felt real to me. My other issue is with the pacing of certain sequences, which is killed, mostly near the end of the game, by the introduction of side content in awkward places. Yes, you can skip these and do them later, but if that was the developer’s intention, they should just introduce them either sooner or after the climax. I can’t complain about the side content though. Here there’s more than ever before, and it feels more interesting. There are large optional areas to explore, with some truly excellent side quests among them. Some of these areas feel a bit unwieldly at first but exploring fully is pretty much always rewarding in one way or the other. And I don’t think that the ‘one-shot’ gimmick is all that necessary here. They cheat enough where I just ended up believing that they are only using it because the previous game did.
I don’t want to go into detail regarding some of my favorite story beats, as it’s maybe better to go into it not really knowing all that much about it. It’s a truly spectacular, block-buster level, story.
In terms of gameplay, as with the previous game, combat is entertaining though not perfect. I still have issues with it, but here the options of engagement are expanded, and it feels more polished. I still do not like it enough to try and beat some of those extra post game bosses, but I like it more than before. Sadly, traversal still sucks ass. The new ‘grappling hook’ looks cool and feels dynamic, but climbing is such a chore still. And there’s a constant need for those crawling transitions that make going through areas again a real pain.
I still do not believe that these games need the gear and ‘rpg-lite’ systems that they feel necessary to include. I guess that it’s there because of modern AAA game design trends, but it’s the worst part of the game. So dull and uninspired, at least here you can just stick with a build and level it up so it’s viable all throughout the game. Looting is fun, but you can make it so the resources you pick up while playing are directly used to upgrade weapons and stats, if necessary to have them instead of just leveling up more linearly, instead of this whole confusion of gear and upgrades that is there. I understand that it gives freedom to players to adjust their playstyle to their liking and add some more versatility to the combat system, I just do not enjoy it enough to actually engage properly with this element of the game.
I played this on a base PS4 and it’s a technically flawless game. Smooth constant 30 fps, and it looks just as good as the 2018 God of War looked when I played it on my PC at fairly high settings. I have tried some of the Greek God of War games along the years, but never got hooked enough on their gameplay to stick with them all through the end. I believe it says plenty of the quality here that I played these two Norse ones back-to-back. And paid full price for it. If you are looking for a truly spectacular, state of the art, triple A, action-adventure videogame, and are even mildly interested in Norse mythology look no further. Just play this thing.