Nope, I feel exactly the same. This is coming from the biggest god of war fan, I even have 2 kratos tattoos ffs.
After the initial honey moon period has passed and replaying the game a second time, its evident this game got caught up with the media hype. All these 10/10 scores are justified for the first 3 hours of the game, then once you reach the middle point, the game just takes a nose dive in pacing and the flaws start becoming a lot more apparent.
Enemy variety is dreadful, fighting lava undead monsters is not satisfying, it doesn't help the fact that there is only 1 finishing move with each enemy and it gets repetitive real quick. The game needed more enemies that actually bleed and having blood spray as a visual feedback would of been a lot more satisfying.
the trolls are a joke and all have the exact same attack animations, and we literally fight them like 10 times throughout the game. Once I reached Hell I was shockingly dissapointed that we had to fight another reskined troll with the only difference being he can teleport and throw some orbs at you. It was extremely lazy design.
the side quests are all boring and feel completely pointless. The world feels dead and rather uninspired. Some npcs roaming around would of added a lot. Instead we get spirits that asks us to kill some mobs or fetch some bones with the only reward are some gem stones.
The lack of spectacle and boss fights is really disappointing and the game constantly hints at a grander story actually taking place but we actually never take place in it, we only hear about it. No encounters with Thor, odin, etc etc.
The game felt too grounded for its own good. It starts off with an epic battle with Bulder, then I was blown away by the cinematography and scale of the giant turtle at Freyas house, the game elevated to a new level once you see the first orge encounter and not to mention the awesome dragon battle. The pacing,urgency and relentlessness for the first couple of hours is truly excellent. The sights and feeling of seeings these fantastical characters and views gave you the feeling of mystique and buoyancy that was like watching a Peter Jackson movie. But unfortunately the game never really hits those highs again and just starts feeling like a drag.
The constant climbing and puzzles really drag the game down, enemy variety just sucks with the only fun enemies are the trolls and wolverines. The ending boss was fun to watch but I honsetly didn't expect the game to just end 5 minutes after that, and I also had no real incentive to go on this journey in the fucking first place, why? we never met his wife, we have no real emotional connection to her. If she had asked Kratos to throw her ashes at the highest point of all Asgard so it would prevent Ragnarok and we knew this at the start of the game then it would give me some incentive to actually do it. Imagine Frodo enduring absolute hell and agony he went through just to throw some ashes off a cliff....you get my point?
The twist and pay off why we had to actually throw the ashes was just underwhelming. The end game is dreadful, the mist and lava area is plagued with awful boring game design and I refused to replay those areas. I waited years for this game, as a god of war fan I felt like I needed to 100% this game so I can give it a honest review. I initally fell in love with it but once I let my feelings process and replay the entire game, I was let down.
Also, the combat actually would feel a lot better if we had more enemy variety that actually bleed. Look at bloodborne, I have finished that game 12 times due to how satisfying it is to see blood spray out of enemies with each swing.
I give god of war 7.5 out of 10.