And that's 1 done out of 3
I think the game is overall quite okay considering how the character action genre was still in its infancy stage back then but god isn't the overall entertainment value bogged down by a staggering amount of annoying puzzles and platforming segments
There's nothing to say about the story other than the fact that it merely exists to push the gameplay further and that's fine. I like this approach better than turning a video game into some lazy and uninspiring interactive cinema
Combat is quite simple and it's very easy to get the grasp of the basics even on the hardest difficulty the game provides going in for the first time. I like the fact that you have to actually watch out for the enemies' attacks and counter them before you start chaining unlike DMC where the enemies are just glorified punching bag for juggling combos, but in here when you get to chain multiple attacks it's earned and not handed to you. But sadly the counter isn't utilized well enough as quite a lot of the mobs don't have any attacks that you can get a parry out of so you have to use the awkward and janky roll to avoid their attacks before you can get your hits in. The bigger mobs also rarely ever stagger themselves but can easily stagger you leaving for a barrage of attacks if you're swarmed by the little guys at the same time. So the combat after a certain point into the game when you get a bunch of upgrades basically divulges into just a crowd-controlling tool for the small-fries and playing it defensive against the big mobs until you get a prompt to play some annoying QTE mini-game that kills the flow of the combat encounters entirely. The tools you're given outside of your signature Blades of Chaos are all quite barebones, especially the sub-weapon as it is inferior to the default weapon in every way possible in turn giving you zero incentives to ever use it. The rage mode is also quite useless as it barely lasts for a few seconds and does nothing outside of merely giving Kratos a damage boost. Which is a massive missed opportunity as I believe a lot more could've been done with it, like giving Kratos an all new weapon or at least new moves that let us swiftly deal with the more annoying enemies instead of just making it a "Press to Win" button that lasts only for a few seconds. Oh and the button prompt for circle mashing can go to hell
What truly ruined the latter half of the game for me were the constant bombardment of tedious puzzles mixed in with obnoxious platforming segments that exist solely to ruin the overall pacing of the game. It was fine for the first half but in the latter half there were straight up more puzzles than combat segments which honestly made me throw the controller and do something else. Like is this supposed to be a puzzle platformer or what? I know this is an issue plaguing most other action games that released around this time but I was just way too exasperated having to go through nothing but puzzles and platforming segments when I just wanted to hack away at some mobs, so I couldn't really ignore it. Hopefully it's toned down a little in 2 and 3
The lack of boss fights can really make it draining to sit through the whole game when it's nothing but hacking away at fodders. At least there's some variety among the mobs which I can appreciate. As for the 3 bosses that are there, The Hydra one was okay and was basically a tutorial boss fight in charge of teaching you the counter mechanic (which I hoped would've been more prominent throughout the entire game) the 2nd one was basically an environmental puzzle so it was obviously fucking boring and finally Aries, who I'm quite disappointed with, since the game basically strips you away of all your abilities just to give you some random greatsword you've never used just for the sake of spectacle and story. Only the Hydra was somewhat fun to fight while the other two were just eh
I know I ripped into this game quite hard despite how old it is but I can at least say this much with confidence that I've extracted way more enjoyment out of this than I did with whatever the fuck that terrible 2018 reboot was
I think the game is overall quite okay considering how the character action genre was still in its infancy stage back then but god isn't the overall entertainment value bogged down by a staggering amount of annoying puzzles and platforming segments
There's nothing to say about the story other than the fact that it merely exists to push the gameplay further and that's fine. I like this approach better than turning a video game into some lazy and uninspiring interactive cinema
Combat is quite simple and it's very easy to get the grasp of the basics even on the hardest difficulty the game provides going in for the first time. I like the fact that you have to actually watch out for the enemies' attacks and counter them before you start chaining unlike DMC where the enemies are just glorified punching bag for juggling combos, but in here when you get to chain multiple attacks it's earned and not handed to you. But sadly the counter isn't utilized well enough as quite a lot of the mobs don't have any attacks that you can get a parry out of so you have to use the awkward and janky roll to avoid their attacks before you can get your hits in. The bigger mobs also rarely ever stagger themselves but can easily stagger you leaving for a barrage of attacks if you're swarmed by the little guys at the same time. So the combat after a certain point into the game when you get a bunch of upgrades basically divulges into just a crowd-controlling tool for the small-fries and playing it defensive against the big mobs until you get a prompt to play some annoying QTE mini-game that kills the flow of the combat encounters entirely. The tools you're given outside of your signature Blades of Chaos are all quite barebones, especially the sub-weapon as it is inferior to the default weapon in every way possible in turn giving you zero incentives to ever use it. The rage mode is also quite useless as it barely lasts for a few seconds and does nothing outside of merely giving Kratos a damage boost. Which is a massive missed opportunity as I believe a lot more could've been done with it, like giving Kratos an all new weapon or at least new moves that let us swiftly deal with the more annoying enemies instead of just making it a "Press to Win" button that lasts only for a few seconds. Oh and the button prompt for circle mashing can go to hell
What truly ruined the latter half of the game for me were the constant bombardment of tedious puzzles mixed in with obnoxious platforming segments that exist solely to ruin the overall pacing of the game. It was fine for the first half but in the latter half there were straight up more puzzles than combat segments which honestly made me throw the controller and do something else. Like is this supposed to be a puzzle platformer or what? I know this is an issue plaguing most other action games that released around this time but I was just way too exasperated having to go through nothing but puzzles and platforming segments when I just wanted to hack away at some mobs, so I couldn't really ignore it. Hopefully it's toned down a little in 2 and 3
The lack of boss fights can really make it draining to sit through the whole game when it's nothing but hacking away at fodders. At least there's some variety among the mobs which I can appreciate. As for the 3 bosses that are there, The Hydra one was okay and was basically a tutorial boss fight in charge of teaching you the counter mechanic (which I hoped would've been more prominent throughout the entire game) the 2nd one was basically an environmental puzzle so it was obviously fucking boring and finally Aries, who I'm quite disappointed with, since the game basically strips you away of all your abilities just to give you some random greatsword you've never used just for the sake of spectacle and story. Only the Hydra was somewhat fun to fight while the other two were just eh
I know I ripped into this game quite hard despite how old it is but I can at least say this much with confidence that I've extracted way more enjoyment out of this than I did with whatever the fuck that terrible 2018 reboot was