God of War Ragnarok

[Jamie John]

Some of the Berserker fights in this are such bullshit. I'm currently trying to face off against 

 

Spoiler

3 of the cunts at once in Alfheim - Twatty Twat The Cold and his two Twat Sisters - and I'm just getting merked left, right and centre. If Mimir tells me one more time that 'You're on fire, brother - it will pass', I'm going to eat his fucking head and pass it out of my pale Greek arse.

 

And I get that I should probably just 'Come back later', but when the game is going out of its way to encourage you to explore, it sticks in the craw a fair bit when what you're exploring you're evidently not supposed to attempt yet.

[HarryBizzle]

I’m doing the two berserker fight in Svartalfheim post game. Very annoying and feels very cheap. 
 

Haven’t fully digested my thoughts on completing it but overall I thought it really clawed it back towards the end. The game is too flabby around the middle and there’s characters who could have probably been cut (Angrboda, please) but overall it’s a great game. Not a stone cold classic like 2018, but still excellent. 

[Jamie John]

I'm not sure whether I should push through to the end or keep exploring and then mop up later. I understand that there is no point of no return, but I wanted the final trophy for finishing the game to be the last one I needed for the plat, like in the first game, but I don't think that's possible this time around.

[HarryBizzle]

There’s at least one trophy you get after the credits roll that you can’t get before hand. Fairly sure there’s berserkers you can’t access before either, but not 100% sure about that. 

[Minion]

Finally got out of Vanaheim last night and went back to Alfheim to get past the bit you couldn't previously, now in the burrows doing more environmental puzzles. 75% of this game is shitty environmental puzzles so far, please tell me that changes as I'm really not getting the love for this tedious game play? 6/10 at best for me so it really needs to change significantly for me to start enjoying it and bear playing it for longer than 20 minutes.

[PaB]

55 minutes ago, Minion said:

Finally got out of Vanaheim last night and went back to Alfheim to get past the bit you couldn't previously, now in the burrows doing more environmental puzzles. 75% of this game is shitty environmental puzzles so far, please tell me that changes as I'm really not getting the love for this tedious game play? 6/10 at best for me so it really needs to change significantly for me to start enjoying it and bear playing it for longer than 20 minutes.

Just sell it and move on. If you dont like it by now you aren’t going to .

[Minion]

38 minutes ago, PaB said:

Just sell it and move on. If you dont like it by now you aren’t going to .

 

So does it get less shitty puzzle heavy or not then?

[PaB]

Just now, Minion said:

 

So does it get less shitty puzzle heavy or not then?

I dont think it is puzzle heavy or shitty. But from where you are the game doesn’t suddenly transform into something else. 

[MansizeRooster]

This is really annoying. I'm specced out about as high as the levelling system will go, and the 2 hardest fights in the game utterly shag me before I can get even half of their life-bar down. This is on the absolute easiest difficulty mode.

 

I've made it through every other part of the game with ease, so it's not like I'm just being shite.

[Minion]

21 minutes ago, PaB said:

I dont think it is puzzle heavy or shitty. But from where you are the game doesn’t suddenly transform into something else. 

 

It seems very very puzzle heavy to me, all I ever seem to be doing is environmental puzzles. Fights last a minute or so on normal and then it's back to more puzzles. All I'm asking is does the puzzle to fight ratio change?

[HarryBizzle]

I thought that bit of Alfheim was probably the best bit of the game. Chilled out, some decent but non-stressful combat, you find out what a few of the things you can’t access do. Some really good dialogue as well. 
 

Probably made all the better by coming after the Agraboda bit and the relief of

 

Spoiler

Playing as Kratos again.

 

[NecroMorrius]

It brings me no pleasure to say this but I really don’t think this is very good. I’m at least two thirds of the way through and it’s mostly been tedious filler with no real thrust to the narrative. I’m just not interested in anything that anyone is doing. Compared to the heartfelt journey portrayed by the first, which had a tighter scope and deeper themes, this seems unfocused, scattershot and distant. 
 

I don’t really like the characters, new or old, they’re either clichéd, abrasive, stupid or some combination of the above. Old favourites like Mimir are now pretty annoying, babbling away incessantly and spoiling every puzzle.

 

The puzzles are kind of OK for dated environmental chores, but are mostly spoiled by companion NPCs. The wealth of fiddly tools at your disposal are simultaneously uninspiring and overused.

 

The combat seems like an afterthought. They’ve simply piled more of everything onto an already overly complicated moveset and reduced the need to use specific moves or even weapons in most circumstances. Fights in the first often worked like puzzles in disguise. Here they’re a tedious gangbang slugfest where most attacks work against most enemies. Multiply this by the added sideways complexity of loadout builds and multiple characters/companions and it quickly slumps into a mess of R1 spam. It’s poorly balanced too. 
 

I’ve had several annoying bugs, there are two sidequests I can’t finish in Vanaheim because I died from poison after killing some enemies, the quest didn’t progress but the enemies are gone when I return.

 

Mostly the game is in dire need of an editor to provide some focus and reduce the hours upon hours of filler content. 

[Pob]

God of War 2018, for me, was all about the combat with the story being a nice extra and the downtime between fights helping to pace things out. I was all about getting to the next fight ASAP and luckily that really game delivered on that front.

 

The combat in this is still amazing but there is a lot more cruft inbetween fights which is too intrusive, some of it pretty tedious. Any time I'm

(spoilers for up to Muspelheim)

Spoiler

playing as Atreus I want to get back to being Kratos. Atreus is okay but, inevitably, he has far fewer combat techniques available as he's a secondary character. Hitting people with the bow just isn't that fun, and the ranged attacks aren't as interesting as they could be. I'm also not keen on the various secondary 'helper' characters as there's not much incentive to learn how they differ, so I don't tend to use them much. I'm in Muspelheim currently, playing as Atreus and with Thor helping me as well as my new green glowing sword flying about, and it's a clusterfuck. I can't see what's going on.

 

I do still really love the combat though. I'm using the blades a lot more and I love the idea of applying one status effect and then switching weapons to do more damage by then hitting them with the other element. I've realised it's much easier to set enemies on fire using the blades' whiplash moves and then hit them with the axe, rather than trying to apply the frost status. I just fought two Dreki at the end of the Vannaheim optional area and it was brilliant. The bosses are much better in this game.

 

I'm looking forward to a rock-hard endgame that's more combat-focused. I thought the end-game in 2018 was just as good, if not better, than the main story.

[Kevvy Metal]

For me, the pacing in this is what actually make it, it's game flavours as Tim Rodgers would say, and the game is stronger all for it. To call it filler is a complete disservice in my mind, as the adventure is literally the game. 

[Cappuccino Kid]

I started replaying 2018 over the weekend, mainly because I'd spent the majority of my Ragnarok playing time thinking "I wish I was playing 2018 instead". The differences are pretty striking when you put the two next to each other. I think I've already had more quiet contemplative moments in the first few hours of 2018 than there are in the whole of Ragnarok. 2018 is simultaneously tighter and more spacious; it's not littered with long sections where you think "God, this is boring, why am I having to do this?", but it has got periods of downtime that fit in naturally, and give you time to think without someone constantly talking at you. I guess it's the nature of a story that it feels busier as it nears its climax, but it does feel like they didn't get the balance quite right this time around.

[Jamie John]

I just took out (post-game boss spoiler)

Spoiler

Gná

after a good 90 minutes of trying.

 

To quote myself,

 

On 07/12/2022 at 22:31, Jamie John said:

Hooo-eeee, whattacunt.

 

I came *this* close to lowering the difficulty but managed to pull through thanks to pure bloodymindedness. As is regularly the case, on my winning run I hardly got hit. Fuck doing that on any of the harder difficulties, though; the inconsistency of when she can poise through your attacks and when she can't, coupled with the animation stun-locking and camera hijinks, as well as your companion getting in your fucking way all the time, and Mimir saying the same old shit over and over again - it's safe to say I was raging a wee bit.

 

But anyway, I'm only a handful of trophies away from the plat. I reckon I'll have it by the end of tomorrow.

 

[Jamie John]

21 hours ago, Jamie John said:

I'm only a handful of trophies away from the plat. I reckon I'll have it by the end of tomorrow.

 

 

Huzzah! That was quicker than I was expecting. I only had a couple of Relics left to find and some of the Trials, but everything was a pushover after 

Spoiler

Gna

 

I probably should have waited until I was level 9 before I went after her, instead of 7... And

Spoiler

King Hrolf I just completely merked with Runic attacks and killed first time.

 

Just shy of 48 hours on the clock. A great game, overall. It's in sore need of an editor in places, and I don't think it's a stone 10/10 like the first game, but it's still one of the best games I've played this year. I'll post up some more thoughts in the Completed Games thread, once I've had time to process it all.

 

Some screenshots from my play through (the latter few a bit spoilery):

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MardiganX]

Not finished yet but this moment toward the end of the main story had me smiling like a big happy child…

 

Spoiler

 

[Jamie John]

6 minutes ago, MardiganX said:

Not finished yet but this moment toward the end of the main story had me smiling like a big happy child…

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Snap!

 

The game seems to pause at certain moments to invite you to take snapshots.

[Pob]

I finished the Midguard section last night - definitely the best bit of the game so far for me. I've finally, after 30 hours, internalised all the different combat techniques and was using them all. All the different moves, applying status effects then swapping weapon to maximise damage, finally using the buddy runic arrows and runic attack a bit more, trying to power up for the L1 + Triangle boost. There's a slight tension between trying to keep up the pressure to apply frost/burn status and then do as much damage as possible before it wears off, and attempting to avoid getting hit in order to build up your weapon attack power. I keep doing the former, which is leading to lots of deaths. I've found it easier to apply the burn status thanks to the flame whiplash move, which has lead to me using the blades more than I used to. Axe is still more fun, but the blades seem to have more use cases in Ragnarok when compared to 2018.

 

I spent an hour on the Hateful draugr in Midguard last night. I tried to fight him when I first found him but his health bar was just too hard to chip away at. I came back after finishing everything else in Midguard and my extra training and slightly powered up gear made it possible. Absolutely brilliant fight. It's a total fucker if you allow him to level himself up to a purple health bar, but then I realised a certain runic summon poisons him, which de-levels him again.

 

I can't wait for the endgame where I can try out different builds for different rock-hard encounters. I can't see myself ever wanting to change away from the Realm Shift armour though! Such a useful skill, feels great when you trigger it.

 

This game has definitely solidified that GOW has my favourite melee combat system of any game.

[MardiganX]

Atreus remains.

 

Spoiler

😶

 

🥺

 

😩

 

😭

 

[HarryBizzle]

Spoiler

I thought that was a bit awkward. It still hit home but the way he said it was a bit "me tarzan, you jane."

 

[Thor]

What bit are you on about? 

[NecroMorrius]

On 12/12/2022 at 12:33, Cappuccino Kid said:

I started replaying 2018 over the weekend, mainly because I'd spent the majority of my Ragnarok playing time thinking "I wish I was playing 2018 instead". The differences are pretty striking when you put the two next to each other. I think I've already had more quiet contemplative moments in the first few hours of 2018 than there are in the whole of Ragnarok. 2018 is simultaneously tighter and more spacious; it's not littered with long sections where you think "God, this is boring, why am I having to do this?", but it has got periods of downtime that fit in naturally, and give you time to think without someone constantly talking at you. I guess it's the nature of a story that it feels busier as it nears its climax, but it does feel like they didn't get the balance quite right this time around.

Ragnarok makes the fatal mistake of assuming the player is interested in the wider world, the bit-part characters and the side-stuff. The indigestion-inducing spew of constant stuff. The new lore, the old lore, the early GOW 1-4 lore. None of that was interesting in the first, the draw was the development of the central relationship and the themes of parenthood and parent-child dynamics. They’ve doubled down upon precisely the wrong things, at least for me. 

[Kevvy Metal]

The Skill up review for me hits all the points that I agree with. I couldn’t put it better myself but it pains me a little as his TLOUp2 review was absolutely atrocious with the entire point of that game missed by a huge mark. 
 

The world building, Lore and focus on ensemble cast is precisely exactly the reason why this is so good! There’s no point in retelling the narrative from the first game so instead the horizons are massively broadened. There’s an irony, as I feel the focus change with TLOUp2 from its original is doing the exact same thing as this, but SU man applauds one but not the other. 
 

 

[NecroMorrius]

I’d love to turn the corner on it. At the moment the story is about as emotionally involving as reading a Wikipedia entry. 

[Kevvy Metal]

The threads are all building to the conclusion. It’s that “open world” thing where there’s so much -excellent- side content that the main story thread can be put to sleep for a bit. I enjoy the character and world building you get from doing everything though, so it’s totally worth it. 

[Thor]

18 hours ago, Moz said:

Ragnarok makes the fatal mistake of assuming the player is interested in the wider world, the bit-part characters and the side-stuff. The indigestion-inducing spew of constant stuff. The new lore, the old lore, the early GOW 1-4 lore. None of that was interesting in the first, the draw was the development of the central relationship and the themes of parenthood and parent-child dynamics. They’ve doubled down upon precisely the wrong things, at least for me. 

See, the first (2018) game got me interested in Norse mythology thanks to Mimir's tales, so much so I bought two books on the subject. I love the wider tales, and in this I love the callbacks to Kratos' past, the wider characters and machinations, fucking all of it.

 

What I also find interesting is how many people love The Witcher 3, which is a far bigger game than this, has far more dialogue, yet the combat is "serviceable" at best. So why does that get a pass when this doesn't? I think I know why: in Witcher 3 you get to choose your dialogue options for Geralt, whereas in GoW they're just cut scenes. I reckon a lot of players hate control being taken away from them. 

[NecroMorrius]

Probably because GOW feels like an open world game that shrunk in the tumble dryer. 

[HarryBizzle]

19 hours ago, Thor said:

What bit are you on about? 

 

The bit that MardiganX is talking about.