God of War is a technically stunning game, rivaling the generations best in terms of graphic fidelity and presentation. But after that initial "wow" factor passed, I was left a little underwhelmed by the rest of the package in comparison.

Gameplay wise, you will see 90% of the combat the game has to offer within the first 5ish hours. Sure you can unlock some new moves, but the basic combos you'll be using are the same combos you have access to in the beginning. You'll also be facing a lot of the same enemies, right down to the same exact same troll mini-boss you have in the opening of the game.

I was having the most fun in God of War when I was figuring out a new enemy or when I was in a brutal boss fight putting everything Kratos has into a fight. Sadly there are only 4 "real" boss fights in the game that pull out all the stops, and one of them is a rematch. The opening fight against Baldur in the beginning of the game was probably my favorite out of them all, which is a shame. If there were more boss fights on the same scale as the one used to open the game with, I would have no problem counting this game as one of the generations best.

I also dislike when games don't show a cohesive focus or vision. In God of War's case, it loves to hide little collectibles around and promote exploration, but the exploration is so much worse than the story. Clearly God of War was developed with its story beats in mind, which has lead to the exploration aspect of the game feeling like it was added "just because that's what games do". I felt it was distracting more than engaging. That goes for the loot system as well.

The biggest "dropped ball" so to speak was the fact that some of the game's most interesting fights are found in the side content. There are hidden valkyries around the world map you can fight, but they are totally skippable. My question is why though? The same troll boss was used so many times, why not use the valkyries as some of those fights to freshen things up? It doesn't make sense. And as I said, exploration is just not that fun in this game. Breath of the Wild it is not. Hiding some of the best content behind the worst part of your game is baffling.

Purely from a technical perspective God of War is masterful. But it needed a bit more gameplay showcases to really make it stand out, so as it stands it's a great but not perfect game.

It's a real shame to say but I think this game is too well made for me to enjoy it properly 😔

That may sound off, but my score is personal to my experience and my enjoyment, which unfortunately both grew more strained the longer I played for. To be clear off the bat, this game being a fully explorable map was not something I expected at all, especially not anything so big and complete, it's wild really. That aside though, the investigating areas and interrogating characters is exactly what I wanted, and there's a lot of that which was perfect... Until there was a little too much of it.

It feels strange to say, but without spoiling anything there is so, so much more to this mystery than it first appears. I was 9 hours in and suddenly meeting new characters for the first time uncovering huge new parts of the story that I hadn't even considered to that point. To preface, this is largely because of how *I* played, and I'm sure most people would've found this much earlier than I did, but therein lies most of where this game feel short for me to be honest.

Paradise Killer is so unbelievably open that you're quite literally just sent out onto the island. The nature of investigating means you're constantly finding new clues, hearing testimonies from people and then checking out their stories to see if they hold up. Which in a single game mechanic, translates to backtracking. You will speak to the same people so many times throughout the game that just travelling across the map to get to them becomes a chore. You'll retrace the same paths so many times it may take you 9 hours to realise that there's a whole other area you've never been to because you were planning on exploring it after you'd expended all the clues to be found in this location first 😅

To further this issue, at least for someone as directionally challenged as myself, the map simply isn't very helpful. Some locations require specific routes to be reached and even by the end of the game there were places I'd been to a dozen times and could still only access by climbing up somewhere nearby and jumping down to it from above. And to make this problem sting just that bit more, the fast travel system costs in-game currency (crystals you find around the map) to both unlock each travel station and then costs again every single time you use it. So lazily skipping to that one guy who's miles away from everyone else and then doing it again to come back costs 2 crystals. Which are also used for other things on the island, and are in finite supply, so by the end i'd run out and was forced to run the entire length of the island multiple times bouncing between suspects and key locations 😭

Anyway I've rambled more than I wanted to already, I don't mean to knock this game per se but a couple of frustrating design choices paired with too much freedom for my personal liking made for an almost too realistic Investigative experience. I'm a big fan of a lot of what the game has and does, but the case files grew too great for me to keep up with and constantly running back and forth and getting lost just made it feel like a chore to get through by the end, sadly.

If the idea of investigating this way appeals to you by all means please go play and love it, just know in advance that you have total agency over the order you do things which can very easily bite you when you decide to speak to A before B only to learn that B gives you a new question for A :p

Didn't expect this to be my next review but just wanted to share those thoughts I s'pose. Two things I can't criticise at all for this game are the art style and the music, my god is the island a vibe to be on when you first start😌

That'll do it, thanks for reading y'all. I'm working through Elden Ring at the minute (it's great, I suck! :D) so my next completions will likely be smaller games I've picked up on steam recently. Getting pretty eager for Apollo Justice though so anticipate a potential review for that maybe.
Take it easy🙏

Some quick micro-reviews for anyone interested in stuff I haven't talked about--
- FF13 was fantastic, really loved the setting, story and characters. Combat was fun but the level design could've been more interesting.
- Knowledge or Know Lady was dumb as hell, had a lot of fun with that.
- Max Payne 3 is unquestionably a Rockstar game pretending to be Max Payne but the gunplay is unreal so its hard to care. Also I started listening to Health so that's neat.
- The World Ends With You was great too, really enjoyed the narrative and characters in that, looking forward to trying NEO and hopeful that the controls will be less awkward.