Yippy!!!
God of War is setting an absolute gold standard with their releases. Putting out content filled, beautifully looking and running games on release and now we have a free DLC? Amazing.
This was great. So clearly made for the fans of the series and stayed true to Ragnarök’s story and characters.
The combat mechanics were so fun and addictive, it made me vary between playstyles in a way that I seldom do with games. Kinda want to play more just for the fun of it.
This makes me a very happy boy, thank u Santa Monica <3

Pretty unfair playing the second game before this, I almost feel bad. And I’m not just trying to be snobby or crapping on older games, I just loved RDR2 so much that it was impossible for this to meet that standard.
This is a very fun cowboy game. And especially for 2010?!! Oh ma gawd.
I vividly remember my brother showing me and my dad that you could get drunk and get into duels, this was just one of the coolest games that I really wanted to play as a kid.
And yeah! The atmosphere is still great, and the storytelling and voice acting are very well done. I would assume especially for the time with how “real” some things feel and how fairly unconventionally the story is structured.
The main thing holding this game back for me aside for some minor gameplay issues (too easy, only being able to pass time by sleeping exc.) was my investment.
It took a long time for the “real” story to kick in. There is an entire chunk in the beginning spent on tutorial missions and low stakes goofy encounters that were occasionally fun but I was getting pretty tired after a while.
After you cross a certain border it got a lot more interesting both in terms of conflict and new characters and it didn’t really let up after that. But sadly I never got as emotionally invested as I’d like and some parts of the story felt quite anti climactic (the difficulty played into that as well).
I will say the ending is pretty great and it gave me a new perspective on the game, reflecting on the themes of destiny, power and cruelty on both sides of the law. I can already feel that the game it starting to grow on me seeing the story as a whole.
But yeah, sadly I felt pretty disconnected from the experience all-throughout, hence the long time it took me to finish it.
Objectively a great game for the time, I am just a goofy goober I suppose.
Anyways, should I replay 2? Yes. Yes I should.

One of the most emotional journeys a video game has taken me on. It's been weeks and I still think about this game every day. Probably some of the most well-rounded and realistic characters that I've ever seen in any medium.

Plenty of well-articulated criticism has been made towards this game since its release. The missions are repetitive, the gameplay too linear, it's too long, etc. But none of this affected me and if it did, only in minor ways.
I love the balance it strikes between the cinematic story that you're playing through and "Realistic Cowboy Simulator 2018". I thought the gameplay and missions were always engaging enough and although parts felt repetitive, the story always carried it for me. Every time I thought something was starting to drag or take too long some crazy shit happened and all that build-up was worth it.

Every evening I wanted to boot it up and play for a few hours to see what Arthur Morgan and the gang were up to this time. Mostly doing story missions but occasionally taking a breather by hunting and doing side quests. I have memories of camping with my beloved horse under a starry sky. Like a great book, it feels like you were really there.

By the end, I was moved and overwhelmed.
Unfathomably immersive with such an engaging story and fantastic music.
What a journey. Can't wait to play this again when I'm like 60 years old.