This review contains spoilers
This is cinema.
Easily the best game I've played this year so far. The intro with Thor and Odin coming to Kratos' house and the fight that occurs is peak. What this game really nailed was the character development. I do still think the story (and intro) in the first game were superior but similar to Mass Effect 2 were the story was better in the first and characters in the second, this game develops the shit out of everybody. Kratos changes so much from the first game and is one hell of a daddy figure. Freya, Mimir, Atreus, Thor, Odin, Brok, Sindri, Tyr, all these characters feel real and I actually cared or was interested in them. This game also splits up who you play as a few times, so there's sections were you play as Atreus instead of Kratos. Normally, I'm not a fan of this kind of thing, like in Spiderman how you would play as Mary Jane or Miles Morales, it just wasn't fun and actually would become tiresome. In this game; however, I really didn't mind, Atreus was super smooth and had his own unique fighting style; the story was always still there too. The combat and graphics of course are very much upgraded and feels next gen, some areas looked truly beautiful on my big TV.
A few complaints I have is that the game doesn't change a whole lot from the first. Of course it's a continuation of the story but there wasn't much added other than a new weapon, new armor, skill tree, and other generic stuff. The weapon is cool and all but I was expecting a bit more innovation. Collectibles are also pretty much the same with the chests, ravens, tears, etc... The side quests are all great though, similar to the first.
The only character I didn't like was Thor's daughter. There was a very out of place scene near the end with Thor being in a bar drinking his life away and her daughter getting emotional asking him to change his habits. It was made very serious and tried to go deep but it wasn't emotional at all but rather quite cringe. Why am I supposed to get invested in this dudes drinking problem completely out of nowhere? Especially when that's one of the factors that make him cool. I was surprised why they threw that in there, it doesn't serve much purpose. Also the armor menus were a little confusing to navigate, it took me a decent amount of time to get used to unlike the first.
Both were great fun to platinum with this one being less tedious but taking more time. After finishing both of these games I can confidently say that imo Kratos is the greatest video game protagonist that has ever been created.
Easily the best game I've played this year so far. The intro with Thor and Odin coming to Kratos' house and the fight that occurs is peak. What this game really nailed was the character development. I do still think the story (and intro) in the first game were superior but similar to Mass Effect 2 were the story was better in the first and characters in the second, this game develops the shit out of everybody. Kratos changes so much from the first game and is one hell of a daddy figure. Freya, Mimir, Atreus, Thor, Odin, Brok, Sindri, Tyr, all these characters feel real and I actually cared or was interested in them. This game also splits up who you play as a few times, so there's sections were you play as Atreus instead of Kratos. Normally, I'm not a fan of this kind of thing, like in Spiderman how you would play as Mary Jane or Miles Morales, it just wasn't fun and actually would become tiresome. In this game; however, I really didn't mind, Atreus was super smooth and had his own unique fighting style; the story was always still there too. The combat and graphics of course are very much upgraded and feels next gen, some areas looked truly beautiful on my big TV.
A few complaints I have is that the game doesn't change a whole lot from the first. Of course it's a continuation of the story but there wasn't much added other than a new weapon, new armor, skill tree, and other generic stuff. The weapon is cool and all but I was expecting a bit more innovation. Collectibles are also pretty much the same with the chests, ravens, tears, etc... The side quests are all great though, similar to the first.
The only character I didn't like was Thor's daughter. There was a very out of place scene near the end with Thor being in a bar drinking his life away and her daughter getting emotional asking him to change his habits. It was made very serious and tried to go deep but it wasn't emotional at all but rather quite cringe. Why am I supposed to get invested in this dudes drinking problem completely out of nowhere? Especially when that's one of the factors that make him cool. I was surprised why they threw that in there, it doesn't serve much purpose. Also the armor menus were a little confusing to navigate, it took me a decent amount of time to get used to unlike the first.
Both were great fun to platinum with this one being less tedious but taking more time. After finishing both of these games I can confidently say that imo Kratos is the greatest video game protagonist that has ever been created.