This review contains spoilers
I really liked it.
I don’t know if its stockholm syndrome, but I actually kinda liked the gameplay of this one. The improved enemy variety, the depth to the arenas, and memorable battle music this time around did it for me I think. However there is one glaring issue with this combat system, that being the absurd balance. I played the majority of the game on the normal setting, and while a lot of battles are balanced well, a lot more in the later half aren’t. Most of the enemies in those encounters have this skull thing next to their heads. That means they do increased damage. On paper it sounds like a nice challenge, but in actuality, on the normal difficulty they end up one shotting you. They aren’t glass cannons, either. These guys are beefy and have a huge amount of health. On the story difficulty they two shot you. That’s just shit. Call it a skill issue or whatever, I know I suck but I don’t think one shot beefy enemies aren’t my fault. Oh that reminds me, the story difficulty has even worse balance. Not all the enemies are strong so you end up with encounters where you can take like 20 hits from a non-skulled (fuck it thats what im calling them) enemy and youre still at like 75% HP then 2 seconds later you’re dead from a skull attack. The bosses are pretty well balanced on normal, though. Atreus’ gameplay is more fun than Kratos’, by the way. The opening fight between Kratos and Thor was really unimpressive, just a copy and paste of Baldur’s fight in the original.
The story was better than 2018’s, I had no idea if they’d actually kill off Kratos or not until the end. Heimdall was spectacularly written, not many villains I hate that much. I went on the villains wiki for some asinine reason, and saw baldur on the trending page and thought I was spoiled that Baldur came back lmfao. In hindsight that makes no fucking sense. Playing these games back to back helped me pick up on small details and callbacks I probably wouldn’t have appreciated as much if I hadn’t had it fresh in my mind. I loved the way Kratos’ and Atreus’ relationship developed further. I can’t say I was a fan of the Feye flashbacks, I liked that in 2018 you only knew about her from the way others spoke of her. The dialogue isn’t as cringe as others are making it out to be, I mean there are a few cringe moments, particularly all those times when they're eating at the table and quipping. But it’s not like they’re quipping after Odin impaled Brok or during other serious moments.
The music was also an improvement and had some epic battle themes in it. A thought dawned on me though like a few days ago. What if this(https://youtu.be/Jbj46qI0zDo) was the theme of Asgard, and you hear it as soon as you step over the wall as Atreus? Fucking insane, it would be seared into my memory for ages. Like yeah there are some great tracks and it’s an improvement on 2018 but like, we could have had so much better. The wonder and awe captured in that track, mesmerizing. I should stop wishing for trails music in god of war lmao.
Overall, I loved the game, but it’s held back by a few things. At a few points I thought I’d give it a 10 but as I sit here mulling over the experience, I think my final score’s gonna be a 9. Spectacular game, totally recommend it.
Addendum: I forgot to say that I felt like the game was padded a bit, and a few main quests couldve been sidequests. also pop in moment
Also, Reyn, my friend, why are you reading a spoiler review for a game you haven’t beaten yet?
I don’t know if its stockholm syndrome, but I actually kinda liked the gameplay of this one. The improved enemy variety, the depth to the arenas, and memorable battle music this time around did it for me I think. However there is one glaring issue with this combat system, that being the absurd balance. I played the majority of the game on the normal setting, and while a lot of battles are balanced well, a lot more in the later half aren’t. Most of the enemies in those encounters have this skull thing next to their heads. That means they do increased damage. On paper it sounds like a nice challenge, but in actuality, on the normal difficulty they end up one shotting you. They aren’t glass cannons, either. These guys are beefy and have a huge amount of health. On the story difficulty they two shot you. That’s just shit. Call it a skill issue or whatever, I know I suck but I don’t think one shot beefy enemies aren’t my fault. Oh that reminds me, the story difficulty has even worse balance. Not all the enemies are strong so you end up with encounters where you can take like 20 hits from a non-skulled (fuck it thats what im calling them) enemy and youre still at like 75% HP then 2 seconds later you’re dead from a skull attack. The bosses are pretty well balanced on normal, though. Atreus’ gameplay is more fun than Kratos’, by the way. The opening fight between Kratos and Thor was really unimpressive, just a copy and paste of Baldur’s fight in the original.
The story was better than 2018’s, I had no idea if they’d actually kill off Kratos or not until the end. Heimdall was spectacularly written, not many villains I hate that much. I went on the villains wiki for some asinine reason, and saw baldur on the trending page and thought I was spoiled that Baldur came back lmfao. In hindsight that makes no fucking sense. Playing these games back to back helped me pick up on small details and callbacks I probably wouldn’t have appreciated as much if I hadn’t had it fresh in my mind. I loved the way Kratos’ and Atreus’ relationship developed further. I can’t say I was a fan of the Feye flashbacks, I liked that in 2018 you only knew about her from the way others spoke of her. The dialogue isn’t as cringe as others are making it out to be, I mean there are a few cringe moments, particularly all those times when they're eating at the table and quipping. But it’s not like they’re quipping after Odin impaled Brok or during other serious moments.
The music was also an improvement and had some epic battle themes in it. A thought dawned on me though like a few days ago. What if this(https://youtu.be/Jbj46qI0zDo) was the theme of Asgard, and you hear it as soon as you step over the wall as Atreus? Fucking insane, it would be seared into my memory for ages. Like yeah there are some great tracks and it’s an improvement on 2018 but like, we could have had so much better. The wonder and awe captured in that track, mesmerizing. I should stop wishing for trails music in god of war lmao.
Overall, I loved the game, but it’s held back by a few things. At a few points I thought I’d give it a 10 but as I sit here mulling over the experience, I think my final score’s gonna be a 9. Spectacular game, totally recommend it.
Addendum: I forgot to say that I felt like the game was padded a bit, and a few main quests couldve been sidequests. also pop in moment
Also, Reyn, my friend, why are you reading a spoiler review for a game you haven’t beaten yet?
NOWITSREYNTIME17
1 year ago