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[Fbh]

The release of God of War caught me right when I was moving to the other side of the world so I only got to play this now. I'm a bit disappointed I had to play it on an older Full HD TV instead of the 4K HDR TV I used to have but I can always replay it sometime in the future when I get a new TV.

Overall, wow, this game was amazing. Ever since GOW Ascension I fully agreed with people saying GOW needed to shake up its formula and this did so nearly (but not quite) perfectly.
So a few overall thoughts after having finished it yesterday:

-Different, and much better, than I feared: The original reveal had me worried this would feel too much like a Naughty Dog Game (I love ND games...it's just not what I wanted for GOW). With just too much dialog, too much talking and walking, Kratos being too much of a father, etc. So I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that the vast majority of the game is focused on Gameplay. It does take a note from TLOU and other similar games but for the most part it's all about fighting, exploring, solving puzzles, improving your gear, etc
On the same note, Kratos was handled really well. He is more of a character now instead of just pure rage but it's definitely still Kratos. His short temper, negative outlook on the world and uninterest in both the world and the people living in it are still very much Kartos-like and often had some pretty funny contrasts with Atreuses child like optimism, curiosity and sense of wonder. I also loved the multiple disagreements and fights between the 2 as I think it kinda captures the way you would imagine Kratos to be as a father.

- Can we get more games with this level design?: I enjoyed the combat way more than I expected (actually like it better than the older games) but the one thing that impressed me the most was the awesome level design. In a similar way to the Souls games I think it had the perfect blend of linearity and openness. In pretty much all areas it was worth it to look around since there was almost always something optional to find, be it just a chest or some room or challenge or gear. And then you reach the big Lake and man, there's just so much to see and do and almost all of it is both fun and rewarding. It's not a giant area or packed full with 200 things to do but rather has a great quality over quantity approach.
It's games like this that give a way better sense of journey, discovery and exploration than your average massiven "follow the GPS" open world games.

- The new characters are great: Freya with her mysterious vibes and the fall out she ends up having with Kratos (didn't expect things to end up that way between them), Sindri who as of now is my favourite blacksmith in gaming (his voice actors was great) and Mimir who is definitely mainly there as a tool of plot/backstory exposition but has enough personality and fun exchanges with the main characters to be really likeable. Artreus was also way less annoying than I expected, games seem to struggle with children characters but this one was handled well IMO

- But I sort of wish we had seen more: I know they are saving them for later games but I still hoped to see some more characters from Norse Mythology. I wasn't expecting to fight and take down Odin and Thor in this game but I hoped we would at least get to see them (outside of that short tease in the "secret" ending). At one point when you are going back to the mountain there is this big tunderstorm and I was sure it was foreshadowing an appearance by thor...nope

- And it could have used some more bosses: They definitely toned it down in this regard, I was just expecting some more bosses in the style of the first encounter with Baldur but there aren't really a lot and it only reaches that level again in the final showdown with Baldur (which was at least really awesome). The sense of scale is also a bit toned down, Baldur could knock out the world serpent and Kratos is even stronger yet we hardly see him doing things on the level of his old Chronos smacking self. The Valkyries are actually fantastic though, to the point I kinda wish they had been integrated into the main story instead of being hidden away.



And 2 final things which I hope you guys can help me with:

- Did anyone get how the world works? So Kratos came from another reality? or he just simply moved from Greece to Scandinavia? So gods are more of a regional thing than a world thing? Which mean the "end of the world" that Ragnarok is going to bring is more like the end of Scandinavia?

- Any tips on that "beat 100 enemies" challenge? I just can't beat it and am mostly nearly death after the first 50 enemies. The fact they pretty much turned off health drops for this challenge doesn't help.

 

[Imtjnotu]

God's from every continent exist in the same world. Just some parts have access to realms such as hel and the tartarus. Maybe based on religion or area depends on where u end up going

 

[Danjin44]

I also love the way this game does level design and exploration. This is game is not full open world but unlike most actual open world games these days GOW trusts the players to do their own exploring.

As big fan of pervious GOW games I personally enjoyed this GOW's combat way more than pervious games. I feel like I have more option how I approach each encounter. I also agree that this game need more boss fights, I really LOVED Valkyrie fights but this game needed more story bosses.

 

[The Shepard]

The level design is very metroidvania. I loved it, fave game of the generation almost perfect Imo.

 

[A.Romero]

They never explain how Kratos moved from one reality to the next. To me it looks like he traveled through dimensions. I think it's better this way, there is probably not a good enough explanation to make it canon.

Regarding the 100 enemies challenge, I'd recommend you to be at least level 6 with medium armor. Carry a resurrection stone and make sure you use your arrows a lot.

If you are playing in the highest difficulty then I think it's just a matter of keep practicing.

For me it was more difficult to beat the challenge where you have to kill them all at once or they will respawn.

 

[Fbh]

Well beat all the Valkyries. The one in the mist level was rather annoying with the framing you have to do to get the armour but other than that I really enjoyed all of the fights. They were all pretty intense and it was fun figuring out their various movesets and how to counter them. I was a bit disappointed by the fact you don't get anything too exciting from beating the quest. I thought I'd be able to turn the helmet of the queen into some cool gear but it seems like it's just ment to be sold.


Is the sidequest from the poisonous mist realm worth it (only sidequest I am missing). Seems rather annoying and I'm not into farming but if the rewards or the challenge of the portals itself is fun I might do it

The level design is very metroidvania. I loved it, fave game of the generation almost perfect Imo.

Yep.

I loved going back to explore the lake after getting new upgrades. Though I wish they would enable fast travel sooner.

Regarding the 100 enemies challenge, I'd recommend you to be at least level 6 with medium armor. Carry a resurrection stone and make sure you use your arrows a lot.

I ended up equipping the Squirrel summon. That one gives you 3 health pick ups every time you use it , with that I managed to beat it on my first try.
I went with the second to last difficulty. Some friends told me the hardest one is just annoying (more about tuning enemies into bullet sponges than anything) and since you can't change the difficulty if you go with the last one I didn't want to spend several hours to find out if I like it, only to have to restart the game if I don't.

 

[nowhat]

Did anyone get how the world works? So Kratos came from another reality? or he just simply moved from Greece to Scandinavia? So gods are more of a regional thing than a world thing? Which mean the "end of the world" that Ragnarok is going to bring is more like the end of Scandinavia?

I don't think this is really properly explained (or at least underlined Hollywood-style) in the game, but it is heavily implied that Midgard (the "main" realm) is physically connected to Greece and other mythologies. There's the bit where they discover that cloth/painting, that has symbols of different gods of war. Kratos instantly recognizes his own.

As to what this means WRT Ragnarok, I guess we'll have to wait for the next game. Like a TV movie, the game is "based on real mythology", but not really following it to the letter (insofar it'd be possible even, it's mythology after all, there's no canon).