God of War Review Thread

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hanselthecaretaker

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Hello my friends,

So, it?s probably not too surprising but the game is being pretty well-received. [http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/god-of-war/critic-reviews]

I liked this one [https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2018/4/12/17223854/god-of-war-review-ps4] for example, which touches on one of the biggest issues people had about Kratos being a one-note/lost cause/asshole character.

Only one week left to see for ourselves.
 

CaitSeith

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It already got more 10's that GOW3.

hanselthecaretaker said:
I liked this one [https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2018/4/12/17223854/god-of-war-review-ps4] for example, which touches on one of the biggest issues people had about Kratos being a one-note/lost cause/asshole character.
Review:
It almost makes you wonder why this is a 'God of War' game at all
I wouldn't be surprised if that becomes a problem with the fans.
Review:
Kratos is nearly unrecognizable, with an actual personality and an impressively bushy beard
Err... he already had a personality (a one-dimensional ultra-violent personality in the last two games in the main series, but a perfectly identifiable one).

Anyways, I'm interested in seeing the contrast by myself. Probably I'll buy it eventually.
 

hanselthecaretaker

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Ezekiel said:
Let me guess. The reviews all overwhelmingly focus on the story.
Well, that was a big part of the change, but they also praise the combat and other technical features. Out of all the games released so far on PS4, apparently this one is the first (removed gamerevolution link due to spam) to show what it can really do.

Of course, these are all still mere opinions influenced by some degree of hype, but par for the course with every AAA game.
 

CaitSeith

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Ezekiel said:
Let me guess. The reviews all overwhelmingly focus on the story.
$10 on no more than 1 or 2 paragraphs dedicated to the story in each review (except Polygon).
 

Silentpony_v1legacy

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I never played this series. Is it any good? I played Dante's Inferno, and desperately want a remake of it, and it was damn fun and loved the visuals. But the gameplay is very repetitive and gets boring in the end.
 

Samtemdo8_v1legacy

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Silentpony said:
I never played this series. Is it any good? I played Dante's Inferno, and desperately want a remake of it, and it was damn fun and loved the visuals. But the gameplay is very repetitive and gets boring in the end.
Play each game in release order. Trust me.
 

hanselthecaretaker

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Silentpony said:
I never played this series. Is it any good? I played Dante's Inferno, and desperately want a remake of it, and it was damn fun and loved the visuals. But the gameplay is very repetitive and gets boring in the end.
It?s an old school hack n slash with puzzle and platforming elements, but now the focus is more on combat, story, and exploration. DI was a GoW clone, but they shook things up with this reboot so that combat feels more Souls-ish while trying to keep some of the hack and slash roots.
 

CaitSeith

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Silentpony said:
I never played this series. Is it any good? I played Dante's Inferno, and desperately want a remake of it, and it was damn fun and loved the visuals. But the gameplay is very repetitive and gets boring in the end.
Good enough to change the mainstream gaming trend back then into GoW clones and hack-n-slash in general. The first one is still mechanically very good.
 

Phoenixmgs_v1legacy

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After watching Skill Up's review [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyYbCNp1Rjk], I am almost certainly now going to give God of War a chance when it was a game I totally wrote off because of God of War 2/3 being shit and not being very confident in Santa Monica being good at anything outside of graphics and technical aspects. Not that I'm a huge fan of Skill Up as his reviews don't usually mesh with my preferences but I'm willing to try just about anything when someone is very genuine and passionate about it. He even mentioned that DMC and Bayonetta are button mashers in the aforementioned God of War review when that literally couldn't be farther from the truth; Bayo's core dodge offset mechanic completely contradicts button mashing. Anyway, I hope story-wise the game is not at all connected to the last 2 games or that it is a straight-up reboot where you can disregard literally everything about the previous games.

Ezekiel said:
Let me guess. The reviews all overwhelmingly focus on the story.
Well, God of War has never been a series that was carried by its gameplay, it's basically baby's first hack and slash. It would be really hard to for this new combat system be any more basic and simplistic than the previous games, it really can only have better gameplay. Why don't you ever do just a little research on something instead of constantly making ignorant statements and assumptions?
 

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Ezekiel said:
Let me guess. The reviews all overwhelmingly focus on the story.
Gee, imagine that, evaluating a story-driven game based on the quality of its story. 0_0
 

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Phoenixmgs said:
After watching Skill Up's review [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyYbCNp1Rjk], I am almost certainly now going to give God of War a chance when it was a game I totally wrote off because of God of War 2/3 being shit and not being very confident in Santa Monica being good at anything outside of graphics and technical aspects. Not that I'm a huge fan of Skill Up as his reviews don't usually mesh with my preferences but I'm willing to try just about anything when someone is very genuine and passionate about it.
I had my doubts about God of War 4, but after seeing footage around late March, I got more invested. I never cared nor liked Kratos, but I am willing give him another chance since he finally learned something. Asura will always be the best video game daddy compared to Kratos or most other fathers in games.

Phoenixmgs said:
He even mentioned that DMC and Bayonetta are button mashers in the aforementioned God of War review when that literally couldn't be farther from the truth; Bayo's core dodge offset mechanic completely contradicts button mashing. Anyway, I hope story-wise the game is not at all connected to the last 2 games or that it is a straight-up reboot where you can disregard literally everything about the previous games.
I don't know much about SkillUp, but I can already tell he is full of shit when it comes to games like DMC and Bayonetta. He must have been playing on Easy mode, DMC2, or the vanilla edition of DmC (2013). Now Bayonetta 2 kinda encourages button mashing a little; if you have the chainsaws, but even on the highest difficult, you have to know what you're doing. DMC3&4 will kill you on the default difficulty, if you even think about mindlessly button mashing.
 

Tanis

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I really do love the series.
Even the PSP games have some great fun to be had.

I hope this is a good game it it manages to get the PSP/PS3/PS2 games some kind of proper remaster.
 

Hawki

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Ezekiel said:
When I write a review (I rarely do) I try to be in depth about the gameplay. Gameplay and setting are paramount almost every time.
That's your prerogative.

I never cared that much about the story in the God of War games and I certainly won't pick this up because it's said to have a good story. The story is now just more in the way, with more scripted walk and talk bullshit and a cinematic over the shoulder camera ill-suited to action games.
So...more reason for me to get it then?
 

Phoenixmgs_v1legacy

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CoCage said:
I don't know much about SkillUp, but I can already tell he is full of shit when it comes to games like DMC and Bayonetta. He must have been playing on Easy mode, DMC2, or the vanilla edition of DmC (2013). Now Bayonetta 2 kinda encourages button mashing a little; if you have the chainsaws, but even on the highest difficult, you have to know what you're doing. DMC3&4 will kill you on the default difficulty, if you even think about mindlessly button mashing.
I watched a few of his videos over the last couple months or so and his God of War review popped up on my Youtube feed. I initially thought it was a video about the PS2 game claiming it to be game of that generation because of the same name and the 1st God of War being awesome. From the few videos I've watched, he does seem to over exaggerate about how great some games are, but at least it comes off as genuine and passionate. The stuff he says about this new God of War just seems impossible to be true. However, I am definitely intrigued by this new game now and if it's half as good as he claims, it'll be something worth playing, which I can't say any of the God of War sequels were.

Ezekiel said:
I never cared that much about the story in the God of War games and I certainly won't pick this up because it's said to have a good story. The story is now just more in the way, with more scripted walk and talk bullshit and a cinematic over the shoulder camera ill-suited to action games. I like The Last of Us, but I don't want God of War to be that. I know God of War wasn't the best action game with the best mechanics, but I liked it for what it was, this epic, brutal adventure that you actually played. People like PhoenixMGS with ridiculous comments like "baby's first hack and slash" would never understand that. I don't know why he keeps talking to me. The classic God of Wars are more interesting to me than some monotonous, dull, cheesy, boring sounding hack and slash like Bayonetta. They're more well rounded packages. I'd rather the devs improve the things that need to be improved instead of turning it into something that it's not. We already lost Tomb Raider to greed.
Funny how one of best regarded melee combat systems ever (I doubt you even know the game I'm referring to) uses basically the same camera as the new God of War yet it's ill-suited for action games?!?! But no, Ezekiel has a rather narrow and limiting set things that work in video games and can't comprehend how one thing could work great for one game while being shit in another game because everything is apparently unilaterally great or bad. The original God of War was an amazing game, the sequels were shit though. Yet I don't "understand" God of War... I understand God of War needs to be firing on all cylinders to be a good game because its core gameplay is at best 'fine' and can't carry the experience if everything else around it is shit (like the sequels), square-square-triangle kills every enemy, what a great combat system!!! Plus, the combat system is just basically a clone of PS2 Prince of Persia. God of War is much like the Uncharted series and even TLOU with regards to the core gameplay being too basic to carry the games on its own and those games only work when Naughty Dog is at the top of their game in variety of levels/encounters getting the most out of the just 'fine' gameplay while the story and characters also doing some heavy lifting to help carry the experience. And that is where the similarities between God of War and TLOU begin and end.
 

Neurotic Void Melody

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hoo shit, am continuously relieved for the swapping of ships this generation with all this quality first-party single-player choice. can sense Microsoft's game division already sharpening their cheques for another misguided attempt at buying somebody else's success

On the other hand, they don't have the bewilderingly promoted Life of Black Tiger, so the embrace of the rough-smooth swingabouts and all such invariably vacuous bollocks
 

hanselthecaretaker

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^ Were they aware this is largely made by the same people who made GoW2, right down to the director? Epic scale alone wasn?t cutting it anymore. You can?t get much bigger than 3/Ascension?s bosses without being ridiculous, and people were already losing interest after 3 was in the books.

They were never going to please everybody. If they just made the same game blueprint but with minor tweaks, only the diehard fans would yield more than a yawn, and even Sony wasn?t ready for another God of War [http://www.pushsquare.com/news/2018/01/sony_didnt_really_want_another_god_of_war_game] after the disappointing reception Ascension got.

I get it; the ?new? direction isn?t everyone?s cup of tea, but at the end of the day it?s still business-driven. From the looks of it they?re off to another good start with the way they chose to go.