I think I'm just so disillusioned with gaming these days. When I see a game getting universal acclaim I thought it must be something worth experiencing, when instead it seems to be a reflection on how big a budget the game had.
The basic combat is fine but wears thin quickly and when it tries to add more variety it becomes more of an annoyance than a fun challenge. The rest of the game is just running or forced walking from place to place whilst characters speak to you, with the occasional branching path (barely even a path) where you can get some dohicky which makes your very specific type of arrow do 0.2% more damage. The platforming is basic, which for a modern AAA game is saying something.
The worst aspect is the puzzles. Not only easy as piss, but every single time the game shoves the solution in your face with dialogue mere seconds after entering a puzzle area. I have never played a game so intent on insulting the players as God of War Ragnarok and there is no way to switch this off. It was four years before this Shadow of the Tomb Raider at least gave people options to change the difficulty when it comes to this condescending game design, but so many games are terrified of you having to use your brain for so much as a second because you might get frustrated and miss the next super emotional cutscene. Has the success of the Souls series not shown that gamers enjoy frustration as it can lead to an incredible payoff? One this series denies you.
The story is fine, the characters all talk like you'd expect in mainstream American entertainment but besides that I was interested until the actual game part of the game became too boring and insulting to carry on.
Ah well, I'm glad lots of other people enjoy the game even if I can't stand it. I think if I've learned anything from this it's to not get sucked into hype and learn to accept when I'm not enjoying a game and give up rather than force myself through it.
The basic combat is fine but wears thin quickly and when it tries to add more variety it becomes more of an annoyance than a fun challenge. The rest of the game is just running or forced walking from place to place whilst characters speak to you, with the occasional branching path (barely even a path) where you can get some dohicky which makes your very specific type of arrow do 0.2% more damage. The platforming is basic, which for a modern AAA game is saying something.
The worst aspect is the puzzles. Not only easy as piss, but every single time the game shoves the solution in your face with dialogue mere seconds after entering a puzzle area. I have never played a game so intent on insulting the players as God of War Ragnarok and there is no way to switch this off. It was four years before this Shadow of the Tomb Raider at least gave people options to change the difficulty when it comes to this condescending game design, but so many games are terrified of you having to use your brain for so much as a second because you might get frustrated and miss the next super emotional cutscene. Has the success of the Souls series not shown that gamers enjoy frustration as it can lead to an incredible payoff? One this series denies you.
The story is fine, the characters all talk like you'd expect in mainstream American entertainment but besides that I was interested until the actual game part of the game became too boring and insulting to carry on.
Ah well, I'm glad lots of other people enjoy the game even if I can't stand it. I think if I've learned anything from this it's to not get sucked into hype and learn to accept when I'm not enjoying a game and give up rather than force myself through it.