I know there'd been a lot of GoW bashing here at GAF, but for the most part I had ignored all of it as I wanted to go into the game with an open mind. So today I finally sat down and played through all of God of War and I'm not quite sure I want to join the hate parade for the game, but there are definitely a few 'issues' that I thought stuck out about the title which I will illustrate through bad unfunny drawings of stick Kratos.
Random thoughts:
+Nice scenery. The architecture was nicely modeled and the scope was top-notch.
-No free camera. For the most part the camera was fine during action scenes and all enemies were able to stay in view. But 3d platforming should not have LOCKED CAMERA VIEWS. This is especially bad when backtracking or going from a direction that the camera doesn't expect and you end up staring at the screen not being able to see ANYTHING in front of you.
+Hurray for trying to be a platformer
-Boo for having the most frustrating, terrible platforming this generation due to a bad camera.
-I think they should make a sequel to GoW and call it Plank Walker 2: Revenge of the Planks. Obviously it will sell in millions since look at how well this plank walking game did
j/k. The walking itself wasn't 'that' bad (it sure wasn't good) but there was seriously waaaay too much plank walking in the damn game. wtf.
+60fps, yay.
-Most screen tearing I've ever seen in a game. Seemed much worse in 480p so I stuck to 480i. It's kinda wierd because you expect screen tearing in games where the users have the camera and sometimes they point at too many objects and the game tears rather than dropping framerate. Yet since all the camera angles are locked and the developers knew exactly what would be on-screen there really shouldn't have been tearing like every 30 seconds.
+Good amount of moves. yay.
-no lock-on. This really kept the battle system from ever feeling tightly knitted and deep allowing intense one on one battles. Instead the battle system feels more like crowd-control aka. Dynasty Warriors where you do non-precise large scale rolling and wide attacks to take out multiple enemies.
+Nice FMV. The 2d cut-outs type FMV scene was really neat and the transition between the 2d art and 3d people was excellent.
+Story was alright. Good background setting, but Kratos's story was not very existant.
-Kratos was a pretty terrible lead character. I like his design, but actual personality was basic non-existant and he just screamed of generic rage. It's possible to have anti-heros that the audience still likes and enjoys watching, but that's not Kratos. He just comes off as an ass that you'd like to see get killed.
+Main temple area was great. It had story, it had personality, it had interesting locations, it had the metriodvania returning to old areas with new abilities and gradually seeing the entire map.
-Starting section with Hydras and pre-desert was pretty boring. Lots of plank walking, drab and dark locations and nothing that stood out.
+Enemies were pretty fun, though it would've been nice if there were more.
-Everything has too much life in the game. Instead of going with tough enemies that have good AI, GoW goes with simple stupid AI that has tons of life and takes a crapload of hits to die.
-In addition rooms full of respawning enemies that all have tons of AI artificially lengthen the game and share the same problem of boredom that the Prince of Persia 3d battles have. Make it hard! Don't just make it long.
Yeah I dunno. I enjoyed it as I would a popcorn b-movie matinee. You go in for a few hours, watch a movie that's decent but has almost enough bad as it does good and you walk out and say "meh, I guess it was worth 2 hours and $7". To me, it seemed like it was Prince of Persia SoT in reverse. Whereas SoT had wonderful platforming mixed with repetitive terrible action. GoW has enjoyable action with terrible platforming and block pushing puzzles. If GoW2 comes out I'd probably give it a chance, but I wouldn't buy it at full price unless they give the user control of the camera.
Oh well, Oni4 import is out in a day or two and while the battle system might not be as flashy and the locations surely won't be as good looking. At least the game has a lock-on button, a fully controllable camera, and solid fundementals for its base battle system. Plus it's 30-40 hours long with 5 playable characters and 100 different weapons. Yay.
Random thoughts:
+Nice scenery. The architecture was nicely modeled and the scope was top-notch.
-No free camera. For the most part the camera was fine during action scenes and all enemies were able to stay in view. But 3d platforming should not have LOCKED CAMERA VIEWS. This is especially bad when backtracking or going from a direction that the camera doesn't expect and you end up staring at the screen not being able to see ANYTHING in front of you.
+Hurray for trying to be a platformer
-Boo for having the most frustrating, terrible platforming this generation due to a bad camera.
-I think they should make a sequel to GoW and call it Plank Walker 2: Revenge of the Planks. Obviously it will sell in millions since look at how well this plank walking game did
j/k. The walking itself wasn't 'that' bad (it sure wasn't good) but there was seriously waaaay too much plank walking in the damn game. wtf.+60fps, yay.
-Most screen tearing I've ever seen in a game. Seemed much worse in 480p so I stuck to 480i. It's kinda wierd because you expect screen tearing in games where the users have the camera and sometimes they point at too many objects and the game tears rather than dropping framerate. Yet since all the camera angles are locked and the developers knew exactly what would be on-screen there really shouldn't have been tearing like every 30 seconds.
+Good amount of moves. yay.
-no lock-on. This really kept the battle system from ever feeling tightly knitted and deep allowing intense one on one battles. Instead the battle system feels more like crowd-control aka. Dynasty Warriors where you do non-precise large scale rolling and wide attacks to take out multiple enemies.
+Nice FMV. The 2d cut-outs type FMV scene was really neat and the transition between the 2d art and 3d people was excellent.
+Story was alright. Good background setting, but Kratos's story was not very existant.
-Kratos was a pretty terrible lead character. I like his design, but actual personality was basic non-existant and he just screamed of generic rage. It's possible to have anti-heros that the audience still likes and enjoys watching, but that's not Kratos. He just comes off as an ass that you'd like to see get killed.
+Main temple area was great. It had story, it had personality, it had interesting locations, it had the metriodvania returning to old areas with new abilities and gradually seeing the entire map.
-Starting section with Hydras and pre-desert was pretty boring. Lots of plank walking, drab and dark locations and nothing that stood out.
+Enemies were pretty fun, though it would've been nice if there were more.
-Everything has too much life in the game. Instead of going with tough enemies that have good AI, GoW goes with simple stupid AI that has tons of life and takes a crapload of hits to die.
-In addition rooms full of respawning enemies that all have tons of AI artificially lengthen the game and share the same problem of boredom that the Prince of Persia 3d battles have. Make it hard! Don't just make it long.
Yeah I dunno. I enjoyed it as I would a popcorn b-movie matinee. You go in for a few hours, watch a movie that's decent but has almost enough bad as it does good and you walk out and say "meh, I guess it was worth 2 hours and $7". To me, it seemed like it was Prince of Persia SoT in reverse. Whereas SoT had wonderful platforming mixed with repetitive terrible action. GoW has enjoyable action with terrible platforming and block pushing puzzles. If GoW2 comes out I'd probably give it a chance, but I wouldn't buy it at full price unless they give the user control of the camera.
Oh well, Oni4 import is out in a day or two and while the battle system might not be as flashy and the locations surely won't be as good looking. At least the game has a lock-on button, a fully controllable camera, and solid fundementals for its base battle system. Plus it's 30-40 hours long with 5 playable characters and 100 different weapons. Yay.
