I'm starting to finally get it...
God of War 2 was an absolutely pleasant suprise in my trip through the God of War series, and it helped me to understand why these games were praised. This game in particular feels likes an action-adventure game filled to the brim with varied and interesting levels, suprisingly fun puzzles, bosses each with their own gimmicks and solutions, with a simplistic combat system that is quite mashy. God of War 1 felt more like a half-backed hack and slash game with barely any bosses, not enough puzzles and varied level design, but a magnificient spectacle. I am so glad that the developers went into this direction rather than doubleing down on making combat the main draw.
The combat encounters have been reduced to allow platofrming, puzzles, and bosses to shine, so the combat is no where near as exhausting as the first game. The enemy variety has increased as well, adding a bit more complexity to how to take down enemies rather than your simple square square triangle spam. These levels are fantasitic. Whether be that God of War spectacle with the music and visuals, the tightly crafted tests of the new powers you achieved, or the puzzles that were fun shakeups to the pacing of the game, I was having a blast. I kept saying to myself, "oh, we are doing this now? Cool!" and I could not wait where the game took me next. The bosses were the best part of the first game, so I am glad there are way more in this game. They kinda went all-out with the first boss of the game, which really made a lot of the later bosses feel much less exciting, but still fun regardless. Bosses boiled down into straight up duels, or setpiece bosses with small little puzzle solving to take them down. The best bosses were ones that combined both of these designs, and I hope GoW 3 really plays into that.
I still have my gripes with the mashy combat. Magic is still incredibly powerful, but each magical ability felt viable in comparison to the electric power dominating the first game. Certain encounters feel near impossible (especially aon hard) without magic, and the game never refills your magic automatically at savepoints. Crowd control moves are still the way to go for most of the enemies, leading to yet again juggling and air combos to be left in the dust of the combat loop. I hope they atleast flesh out the grapple you can do with the blades of chaos (Or I guess Athena's blads in this game), because the juggle potential from bouncing enemies is fun, but by no means helpful, as you tend to get swarmed anytime you attempt to use it. The spear and the hammer feel pointless because the Blades of Chaos is much more fun to use, and far more optimal for larger crowds. The game is built around using the Blades, so I felt like I was limiting my moveset by using any other weapon. There may be some enemey speciifc weaknesses that each weapon can take adavantage , but I never had the motivation to experiment.
The story is still solid, but I don't think it is as engaging as the first. The emotional turmoil and how that fuels Kratos's character in the first game was amazing to see, but this game seems to put that more personal look of Kratos on hold as revenge becomes the main focus. I also think this game relies heavily on the third game to complete its story, while the first game feels like a more condensed story that could have ended or continue at its finale. I've heard that the psp games lean more into what I like about the first game's story, so we will see.
I'm a fan of God of War now. I think this game solidified that. On the Ps2 in 2007, I could see why this game was so impactful to the Ps2's library. I cannot wait to see where the series goes from here.
8/10 ;)
God of War 2 was an absolutely pleasant suprise in my trip through the God of War series, and it helped me to understand why these games were praised. This game in particular feels likes an action-adventure game filled to the brim with varied and interesting levels, suprisingly fun puzzles, bosses each with their own gimmicks and solutions, with a simplistic combat system that is quite mashy. God of War 1 felt more like a half-backed hack and slash game with barely any bosses, not enough puzzles and varied level design, but a magnificient spectacle. I am so glad that the developers went into this direction rather than doubleing down on making combat the main draw.
The combat encounters have been reduced to allow platofrming, puzzles, and bosses to shine, so the combat is no where near as exhausting as the first game. The enemy variety has increased as well, adding a bit more complexity to how to take down enemies rather than your simple square square triangle spam. These levels are fantasitic. Whether be that God of War spectacle with the music and visuals, the tightly crafted tests of the new powers you achieved, or the puzzles that were fun shakeups to the pacing of the game, I was having a blast. I kept saying to myself, "oh, we are doing this now? Cool!" and I could not wait where the game took me next. The bosses were the best part of the first game, so I am glad there are way more in this game. They kinda went all-out with the first boss of the game, which really made a lot of the later bosses feel much less exciting, but still fun regardless. Bosses boiled down into straight up duels, or setpiece bosses with small little puzzle solving to take them down. The best bosses were ones that combined both of these designs, and I hope GoW 3 really plays into that.
I still have my gripes with the mashy combat. Magic is still incredibly powerful, but each magical ability felt viable in comparison to the electric power dominating the first game. Certain encounters feel near impossible (especially aon hard) without magic, and the game never refills your magic automatically at savepoints. Crowd control moves are still the way to go for most of the enemies, leading to yet again juggling and air combos to be left in the dust of the combat loop. I hope they atleast flesh out the grapple you can do with the blades of chaos (Or I guess Athena's blads in this game), because the juggle potential from bouncing enemies is fun, but by no means helpful, as you tend to get swarmed anytime you attempt to use it. The spear and the hammer feel pointless because the Blades of Chaos is much more fun to use, and far more optimal for larger crowds. The game is built around using the Blades, so I felt like I was limiting my moveset by using any other weapon. There may be some enemey speciifc weaknesses that each weapon can take adavantage , but I never had the motivation to experiment.
The story is still solid, but I don't think it is as engaging as the first. The emotional turmoil and how that fuels Kratos's character in the first game was amazing to see, but this game seems to put that more personal look of Kratos on hold as revenge becomes the main focus. I also think this game relies heavily on the third game to complete its story, while the first game feels like a more condensed story that could have ended or continue at its finale. I've heard that the psp games lean more into what I like about the first game's story, so we will see.
I'm a fan of God of War now. I think this game solidified that. On the Ps2 in 2007, I could see why this game was so impactful to the Ps2's library. I cannot wait to see where the series goes from here.
8/10 ;)