The gameplay changes they have described in the interview dont seem to be significant. They are minor iterations I'd expect from a sequel 2 years in the making. This sequel has taken more than 4.5 years, basically as long as the original reboot did. For games that long in development and span generations, I expect bigger changes. See Uncharted 3 to Uncharted 4, TLOU to TLOU2. Cory himself said that games are taking longer to make which is why he wanted to finish the story in 2 games instead of making it a trilogy. Well, that doesnt mean you have to settle for the same combat.
I also think messing with an already perfect combat system by tweaking things instead of overhauling the combat system with entirely new movests, weapons and abilities doesnt always work. See Ascension which simply turned its combat into a bizarre convoluted mess, and also HFW which needlessly tweaked existing systems and ended up with a less fun version of HZD. This is the problem with making 40 hour games. You cant just throw out a brand new combat system after just one game, but by making the games 40 hours or 4x longer than they were before, you've risked the combat feeling samey. GOW's combat didnt star feeling samey until GOW3 but we were only around 20 hours into the franchise. With the reboot, we've already been playing this combat for 40 hours. Though having new enemies might help keep it from feeling too samey. Didnt help for HFW, but SSM are better game designers.
The more I play TLOU2, the more I appreciate it. It's a game that didnt just use the new tech to improve the combat systems, but also completely enhanced the overall level design. So many of the levels are huge and sandboxish, they dont ever feel like small arena battles. I am surprised I ever disliked playing the game because of pacing issues. While GOW's combat system was as perfect as they come, it felt a bit rigid and tanky at times. The lack of hermes boots from 3 really limited mobility which i guess was by design. Still, I think TLOU2 increases mobility without sacrificing the grounded feel by the way of its motion matching systems, and new animations. I guess I expect ALL sony studios to borrow the motion matching tech from ND after the E3 2018 demo. GOW2 was just starting dev, they couldve used it knowing the damn sequel was going to take 4 years anyway.
I dunno. Playing HFW and Elden Ring back to back and and struggling to shake the samey feeling really made me feel bored playing those games, and I dont want the same to happen to probably the only game im looking forward to play this year. I really hope they give you the Thor hammer right at the start and let you at least fly around the combat arenas with it.
Returnal is doing some cool things with destruction and lighting, but the game overall does not look as good as GOW Ragnorak. The first two levels have this great thick atmosphere, but by level 3 it's all gone. Levels 4-6 feel relatively last gen.
Level 4 which is rebuilt from Level 1 but under different lighting conditions shows this. It looks ugly and all the changed was removed the thick layer of fog and changed the lighting. Game feels very uneven. The snowy level 5 doesnt look as good as the desert level either and the particle effects dont save it from looking mediocre at best. GOW's environments make it feel far more punchy.
