First AAA game I've played for quite a while. Man I forgot how talented these developers have become in some ways. The story of the game didn't exactly hook me, in fact I found it to be underwhelming in some ways. It clearly has the sequel in mind which is good for the series overall but takes away as a standalone title I think. However it definitely had it's highs and knows how to craft some emotional moments and epic set pieces.

I really admire what this game does to keep you engaged. It created a world to be explored, but so impressively reveals it layer by layer that always feels approachable. Environments are beautiful and the puzzles are interesting enough for a game like this.

Extra content outside of the main story is not so interesting if you're not very interested in the lore, but it still doesn't feel much like filler, enemy/environment variety and ongoing dialogue helps with this alot.

The combat is excellent and satisfying, and the freedom to create a build, mixing and matching gear/stats to match your play style is designed extremely well. Hard difficulty gave me the perfect balance of challenge. I also give the game credit for the optional challenges that are substantially harder than the main game but still very fair and rewarding.

Overall, I was constantly having fun in the 40 hours I spent here, but I was hoping for a bit more in a some areas, I really don't feel like I know Kratos.