God of War Ragnarok

[Kevvy Metal]

1 hour ago, HarryBizzle said:

Isn’t the irony here that you’re utterly incapable of ignoring posts that don’t like the thing you like?

…and what is this exactly contributing? Yes, I don’t care for the negative takes on things I like and I doooont care. I had even lamented the loss of the ignore thread option.
The drive-by justice delivery service is just as annoying and off-topic as the thing everyone is so gleefully calling out on. 

[Kevvy Metal]

Also fuck it, I am done. 

[HarryBizzle]

You can still ignore topics, but the button only appears on the dark theme. 

[Kevvy Metal]

1 minute ago, HarryBizzle said:

You can still ignore topics, but the button only appears on the dark theme. 

I appreciate that tip. 

[teddymeow]

Well, that's the main narrative done.

 

Blimey! I enjoyed that a lot. I'm torn as to whether it's "better" then the 2018 game. I appreciate the world building, expanded scale of this but part of me liked the taughter, focused previous game.

 

Not that the 2018 game didn't have loads of side stuff to do but this seems to try to cram so much in that I felt a little over-whelemed at times.

 

Still, great combat, it looked great - although some character models when compared to Kratos seem to be from a different game, rousing score, nice emotional pay-off.

 

Yeah, my GotY for 2022.

[Faded]

I’ve skipped a lot of this thread as I have yet to finish this but I was in the very much not feeling it camp for at least the first fifteen hours. The narrative wasn’t compelling me to keep playing but I had some kind of sunk cost fallacy that kept me plugging away in short bursts because I was getting fatigued quite easily. I also felt like Kratos was now a spectator in the story and I didn’t like playing as someone who wasn’t really the protagonist anymore. 
 

 

I feel like that last part has changed now and the combat options have opened up and I really really love it now. I’m glad I stuck with it. 
 

 

[Droo]

Sorry to ask again, but before I bite the bullet and buy it new; Anyone want to flog the ps4 version?

[Hewson]

9 hours ago, Faded said:

I’ve skipped a lot of this thread as I have yet to finish this but I was in the very much not feeling it camp for at least the first fifteen hours. The narrative wasn’t compelling me to keep playing but I had some kind of sunk cost fallacy that kept me plugging away in short bursts because I was getting fatigued quite easily. I also felt like Kratos was now a spectator in the story and I didn’t like playing as someone who wasn’t really the protagonist anymore. 
 

 

I feel like that last part has changed now and the combat options have opened up and I really really love it now. I’m glad I stuck with it. 
 

 

I'm in exactly the same boat. I was really underwhelmed at first but I'm enjoying the kind of Avengers take on the story and the whole thing has just got better and better for me. Been particularly enjoying the crater section.

[Chadruharazzeb]

This is £55 for the PS5 version on SimplyGames. Yet another win for physical media.

[Chadruharazzeb]

Actually it's more like a win for SimplyGames, for some reason amazon are asking for £72 for the disc version. 

[Floshenbarnical]

I got this from my wife for Christmas, and evidently I did a bad job of concealing my disappointment. I played the opening 2 hours of the previous game and hated it. And then I didn't even install it for a week because my back was out and I couldn't sit down.

 

Anyway I started playing it night before last and I'm hooked, it is a banging good time especially now that I have unlocked a load of moves. When I turned it on I told myself I was going to blaze through the campaign and call it a day, but the world-building is so good and the dialogue is so slick that I find myself exploring every nook and cranny and listening to everyone's banter.

 

When I first got the Blades of Chaos I thought they were going to be my favorite because they make crowd control easier and have better range, but then I found the practice arena and axed Draugr for a couple hours and now I am surgical with that thing. When you get into a flow state parrying, dodging around people, nailing combos it's really a very fun game.

 

I just got to Altheim - should I go back and play the first one? I kind of have no fucking idea what's going on.

[scoobysi]

21 minutes ago, Chadruharazzeb said:

Actually it's more like a win for SimplyGames, for some reason amazon are asking for £72 for the disc version. 

Sounds like a 3rd part seller on Amazon.

[stir fry]

18 minutes ago, Floshenbarnical said:

I just got to Altheim - should I go back and play the first one? I kind of have no fucking idea what's going on.

Yeah, the first one is (imo) a better game as well. It handles 'open' linearity in a really excellent way also, once it passes the slow opening section

[Pob]

1 hour ago, Floshenbarnical said:

I got this from my wife for Christmas, and evidently I did a bad job of concealing my disappointment. I played the opening 2 hours of the previous game and hated it. And then I didn't even install it for a week because my back was out and I couldn't sit down.

 

Anyway I started playing it night before last and I'm hooked, it is a banging good time especially now that I have unlocked a load of moves. When I turned it on I told myself I was going to blaze through the campaign and call it a day, but the world-building is so good and the dialogue is so slick that I find myself exploring every nook and cranny and listening to everyone's banter.

 

When I first got the Blades of Chaos I thought they were going to be my favorite because they make crowd control easier and have better range, but then I found the practice arena and axed Draugr for a couple hours and now I am surgical with that thing. When you get into a flow state parrying, dodging around people, nailing combos it's really a very fun game.

 

I just got to Altheim - should I go back and play the first one? I kind of have no fucking idea what's going on.

Stop now and play the first one

[Floshenbarnical]

fine i will, jesus

[Stig]

Three of the people from my podcast have done a spoilercast for the game. It's available on all podcast apps, Spotify and YouTube if you fancy giving it a listen.

 

[teddymeow]

My goodness, the post endgame content in this is just sublime.

 

Travelling across the game world, listening to Mimir telling stories, carrying out favours and using the whole range of Kratos' skills to find chests / smash up baddies is incredibly moreish.

 

I was going to start Klonoa / SIFU once I'd done the main story of this but the hooks are in so deep I don't think I'll stop until I've got the platinum trophy!!

 

ᚡᚨᛚᚢᛖ ᚠᛟᚱ ᛗᛟᚾᛖᚤ!!

[Floshenbarnical]

On 04/01/2023 at 12:01, Pob said:

Stop now and play the first one

 

played it until 4am and loved it. some tattooed ginger prick just came to my house and we got into a big old brawl and then atreus and i left to go and do something, I'm not sure what.

 

I'll tell you what I love. Trying to find the deer with Atreus and exploring some ruins. Found a brightly-painted door hidden behind another door. Had to go off the beaten path to find it. In Ragnarok, Atreus took me to the same door at the beginning of the game. Cool callback

[FalconGR]

I think I am around the half way point (just met the fates) and I am still enjoying it a lot. It feels like there’s a bit more variety in the combat (enemy types, two weapons from the start) and your companions.

 

The game it reminds me most of, strangely, is Halo 3. Familiar combat, but perfected for that same 15 minutes of fun over and over. An epic, over the top ‘Finish the Fight’ style narrative. A very clear series of linear missions, each lasting an hour or a bit more. And huge production values. 
 

 

[Pob]

Hmm, it reminds me more of Halo 2 tbh. 

[FalconGR]

I can see that comparison as well, to the halo 2 campaign. Personally I am enjoying the Arbiter equivalent parts of this, but I get some people might now like that. 

[teddymeow]

Bloody hell!! I played a total of 7 hours of this yesterday in two blocks!!

 

I just got lost in it. In my desire to get the main story done, realms I'm going back to for collectibles look small on the map and then just explode with content and extra areas.

 

I know I said in my post above that the post endgame content is deep but I'm shocked at how much if the game a player could potentially miss.

[Sarlaccfood]

So I can’t say I’m loving this tbh. 
 

I’m about 11 hours in

Spoiler

Just met Freya’s brother

and it just feels so stop-start and never seems to properly get going. 
 

The game will arbitrarily throw in a couple of enemies every now and then and I’m like “okay sweet here we go” but then it’s always over so quickly and I’m back to shite puzzles to open chests. 
 

So…many….chests.
 

Does it get better?

[Thor]

2 minutes ago, Sarlaccfood said:

Does it get better?

I would say yes it does, but also counter-argue that if you're not getting on with it now then perhaps the rest won't change your mind. 

[Sarlaccfood]

Just now, Thor said:

I would say yes it does, but also counter-argue that if you're not getting on with it now then perhaps the rest won't change your mind. 

I like the combat and the story. It's just all the shite in between. There’s such an emphasis on upgrading gear and skills but I hardly have time to try anything out. 

[Thor]

1 minute ago, Sarlaccfood said:

I like the combat and the story. It's just all the shite in between. There’s such an emphasis on upgrading gear and skills but I hardly have time to try anything out. 

Ah, if you're enjoying the story and don't mind the cut scenes, then I'd say stick rigidly to the story waypoints only. You can then go back and mop stuff up in the endgame if you want more. Just like the first game, there is a huge amount you can skip entirely to simply finish the game.

[Sarlaccfood]

1 hour ago, Thor said:

Ah, if you're enjoying the story and don't mind the cut scenes, then I'd say stick rigidly to the story waypoints only. You can then go back and mop stuff up in the endgame if you want more. Just like the first game, there is a huge amount you can skip entirely to simply finish the game.

Good to know I can come back cheers! Will stick with it for now as it’s so well made and the characters are great.

[FalconGR]

I’ve been skipping all the optional bits and just doing the story, and it’s working for me. As you say it’s the story and combat that are the fun parts - the gear and skills trees are all completely pointless and overwhelming, but so far it seems fine to basically ignore them. I might do the favours at the end, but 30 hours or so for the story feels like a good amount for this kind of time. 

[Majora]

If you skip the optional areas I suspect it's a much better paced story too.

 

The structure mostly goes

 

New area -> Story content -> Major story development/crescendo -> Optional open area -> New area -> Story content etc

 

The problem for me with putting the optional open section right after every major story development is that it seemed to take at least half the game for the story to start building any momentum. Something would happen which made me think finally it was building up a head of steam and then I spent several hours pottering around a completely optional open area that had nothing to do with the story.

 

This is most egregious with The Crater. The Crater is arguably the best location in the entire game but it's completely optional, very long, and comes right after a MAJOR story event. It just doesn't make sense for Kratos and Arteus to spend 10 hours fannying about in the essentially consequence-free Crater given what has just happened in the story.

 

I really liked The Crater but it ruined the pacing of the main story for me. Of course you could argue it's optional and it was my choice to pursue that area rather than continue with the main story but when the developers open them up for you at particular times it feels like they're pushing you to complete them then as well.

 

Tension between story urgency and side quest content/open world design is nothing new obviously. I experience it in so many open world games. It feels a bit worse here than in most other games though. I think because it's SO story focused, with the story having such potentially serious stakes, and large chunks of the game being so linear, it feels more egregious to then potter around these open areas that have nothing much to do with the main story constantly.

[gooner4life]

On 04/01/2023 at 15:02, Chadruharazzeb said:

This is £55 for the PS5 version on SimplyGames. Yet another win for physical media.

I got this for £40 on cdkeys USA key but simple to create a U.S. psn account and can play on your main account anyway