God Of War

So, what is this thread's consensus on the All Myths Are True revelation? How do you hope this series uses this element for future games, and which mythologies, are you wanting to see?

I figured that that would happen beforehand as a thing of progression for it. I'm thinking that the Egyptian mythology would be the one up next.

I recall the creators saying their not gonna be sticking to a single pantheon for an entire triology this time so there gonna be spreading out & focus on other Gods, not just the Norse.

So along with the knowledge that other pantheons exist, anything can happen in the next game really.

I mean, the next game should at least address the Aesir and the events of the Norse arc before getting to heavily into other myths.

That said, I'd prefer them to look at a mythology that doesn't get a lot of attention in fiction, like the Celtic deities. Plus, the Celtic ones are pretty safe to use, since (barring a few rather tiny revivalist movements) no one really worships them anymore. Doing something like Shinto or Indigenous American beliefs is a bit more....sensitive to say the least.

Since Kratos is the father of Loki, I guess this means he's going to be the grandfather of a eight legged horse. Let's pray that this version of Odin doesn't get his hands on him. He's also going to be grandpa to a giant freaking wolf and a the ruler of the underworld. It makes me wonder if Kratos' Norse name is Fárbauti. Also in mythology Loki had two other brothers by his parents as well.

Isn't Odin riding his eight legged horse in one of the murals?

Also Fenrir's sons & by extension Loki's grandson's Hati and Sköll are on the murals.

That's the tricky thing, are these beings currently alive right now or are they not alive yet but they are known because the prophecy of Ragnarok has already made everyone well aware of all the key players?

Skoll and Hati are spoken of as if they are alive. Mimir suggests they have murals in the temple because Tyr knew them personally.

Didn't Tyr lose a hand to their father?

Funnt thing that image of him on the mural showed him with his limbs intact.

edited 14th May '18 11:40:25 PM by slimcoder

All things are true... few things are accurate.

Heck, the game even offers an in-universe explanation for discrepancies between this game's interpretation of Norse myth and the actual Norse myths. After all, who are people going to believe? Freya or the Ghost of Sparta?

BTW, did anyone else notice that Mimir calls himself a "Goodfellow" at one point? That got me thinking that he used to be Puck, the servant of Oberon.

edited 15th May '18 12:29:30 AM by M84

So I finished the game last week, did all the side missions, and only have the buried treasure, Ravens and Artefacts left uncompleted, which i'm in no rush to do. My thoughts, after all my doubt is... A 7 out of 10. I think it's a good game, but it definitely falls very short of the "Game of the Generation" praise some people threw around, and I feel it also suffers from their whole obsession with being cinematic. Now to note, while I know a bunch of stuff about the previous games, I haven't played any of them, due to never owning the right consoles. I know GOW 3 is on PS 4, but I don't feel right playing that game without going through 1 and 2 first.

Summaries of my thoughts:

• Exploration is very good, I loved going to all the little islands on the Lake, and also finding hidden areas with their own side missions. I felt like there was a bit too much focus around exploring the lake, and not enough of the other areas. This is moving ahead to my story thoughts, but I felt like the sense of adventure fell apart halfway through when Mimir revealed that Faye wanted her ashes scattered in Jotunheim. At that point, the sense of escalation and progression you got from scaling the mountain evaporates, and going to only one other mandatory realm and the side areas feels much less epic. Kratos destroying the portal to Jotunheim also leads to a pretty flaccid retread of other areas, topped off with the boring underground of the temple and the incredibly short stomach sequence.

• The combat has a good visceral factor, I like how you have to take positioning into account, the focus on optimising fast kills, and all the options you have, but of course the one thing that brings it all down a peg is the camera. I've gone on about it before, and the game confirmed all my worst fears. Despite all the U.I assistance they tried to give, the camera can't keep up, and hurts the game. It's fine when you're fighting Dragur, but when you start dealing with fast enemies like the Dark Elves, who love to pivot out of your field of view, and fire blinding projectiles on the floor, a part of the screen that's hard to keep track of due to the angle, it becomes obnoxious. When I got to harder challenges like Muspheilheim or the Valkyries, I really began to hate the camera, because you start getting ganked out of your FOV by all kinds of things. There are other issues I have with the combat, but the camera sticks out. Except for the bosses, where with the exception of The Stranger, suck. Way too many lazy Troll copy pastes, and the original bosses The Dragon and Magni/Mordi are respectively terrible and lame with pointless, pace breaking guarding bits. Suffice to say, it's really not the revolutionary combat system people praised it as. What really gets me is that they chose this camera for presentation, over gameplay, which...

• The story... While there's alot of good stuff, it really falls short in my eyes. The good stuff is Kratos himself, who I think is well done. I like seeing him as this tired old man, who still has signs of his anger and wrath, but expresses it in various ways, from his indifference and pragmatic attitude, to him trying to hold back his anger. Yet you still see his old brutality in combat, with how savage some of his kills are. I really like the gameplay banter between him, Atreus and Mimir, and their take on Norse mythology is really cool. There were moments where I didn't want to disembark because I was interested in the story being told and wanted to hear it to the end. Atreus himself... He's good in the banter, but I honestly think his character arc is just sloppy, and I just found him kinda bland by the end. His character development feels really artificial at times, like he runs on personality cartridges. When they want him to be in a different state, they insert the cartridge they need, then just remove it when the part is done and he goes back to normal. His god complex during the mines is the absolute low point in the plot, because while there's mild buildup, he suddenly does a hard 180 into that personality out of nowhere, and his dialogue gets really hokey and forced. Ellie from the Last of Us had a way more graceful arc, where she slowly loses her innocence, while growing a bond with Joel, and has none of the huge shifts Atreus has. The Stranger himself just never feels like much of a looming threat either. Despite talking about him a whole bunch, he doesn't reappear until near the end of the game, and his final fight with Kratos and Atreus is impersonal. On that note, I find the mortal Kratos has when he kills Baldur is broken for a number of reasons, and Freya's character is kind of a mess And with that said:

• This game is stifled by the cinematic obsession. It leaks into the gameplay with the camera, the shaky cam (Which I turned right the hell off the moment I noticed it) and the slow climbing bits to disguise loading times. The game being a Oner does not impress me, because there's no real life camera work involved, their intention to make you feel like you're with Kratos and Atreus the whole adventure falls flat due to the reasons I mentioned in my first point, and it's not even a first. Dead Space 1 and 2 back in 2008 and 2010 respectively did it before GOW 2018, with more justification too. I hate this feeling that the writers want me to feel it's this high art emotional story, when it falls flat to me, and falls flat even harder because they're putting the story on a pedestal so it's under more scrutiny in my eyes. I don't want ALL the cinematic or emotional stuff gone, but I would like them to try to tone it down next game.

Despite my criticisms, I did get hooked into the game, and I got invested enough to complete a huge chunk of it. I think there's a ton of talent and effort in it, and while derivative, they're got a good, fun game there. But it's held back in so many ways, and while I know it won't happen, I kinda want the devs to just stop trying to make it more like a movie for the next game and make it... You know, a game.

The only difference if I'm being honest is that the cinematics in the last games were separate files playing on trigger points. The franchise was always heavily cinematic, it's just the one take approach that makes it more blatant. The pacing will most likely improve with the second game in the new trilogy since you're gonna be thrust into the main action.

That is a good point. I probably should have worded it better. Less of... I guess TV Drama type of cinematography? Not sure the best term there. At least one that doesn't involve the damn over the shoulder camera.

Barlog originally wanted the game to feature nearly no cinematics at all, so I wouldn't be surprised if this was a compromise between him and Sony.

edited 15th May '18 2:03:56 AM by UltraWanker

Honestly, given the fact that you still have to interact with people in ways you can't do naturally in gameplay, that was not gonna happen either way.

I prefer the story and Kratos of this game to the originals, personally I never liked Kratos in the greek trilogy (raging douchebaggery aside) he just struck me as someone's overpowered fan-fiction character, what with the being able to kill the greek gods and heros with ease and all.

Most Greek Heroes were basically Mary Sues by todays standards, because Heroics back then referred to their feats of power and intelligence rather then Kindness and Purity.

That's not really that uncommon for a great deal of works. You could throw a dart in any comic book/manga store and probably find a book about a character who goes on to kill, or at least defeat the deities/Physical God's of their universe.

Kratos is only overpowered in the sense that he's the main character in a game about eviscerating your enemies, and in a setting where Death Is Cheap. I don't think he's anymore of an overpowered fan-fiction character than Dante from Devil May Cry or Doom Guy from Doom.

Importantly, despite how he goes on to "kill all of the gods" he dies three times in the process, is perpetually unhappy, and we see the repercussions of his actions time and time again.

What's this now? I saw the secret ending so does that mean they confirmed the next game is going to start you right off in a boss fight with Thor?

Ha, wow, took me awhile but yet again Kratos has apparently pissed off a lightning-wielding deity. Oh, Kratos.

edited 19th May '18 7:15:02 PM by Soble

At the very least Kratos' destruction of the Gods is not treated as an inherently good thing & that he himself is called out as even worse than them.

Even when he's accomplished his vengeance he finds there's nothing to be happy or satisfied about.

I find it amusing that hardass Kratos in his Spartan warrior days met Aesop and apparently liked his stories.

I mean, III started with a fight against Poseidon, so maybe they are looking to top that/Baldur? And I can't see them letting us outright off Thor of all people in the prologue, defeat maybe but if done right he could carry a game as a major villain. That said, it would be a big twist, Ragnarok starting and the Aesir's top enforcer just got his spine ripped out.

I wouldn't mind fighting Jormungandr at some point, because I love boss fights like that, where the boss is much, much larger than you.

They got Kratos' Voice Actor to do Dad Jokes.

And it's just as hilariously cringey as you'd think.

One of the perks of fatherhood.

Just wait for the grandpa jokes, when Jormungandr and his siblings are born. [tongue