I always wanted to replay this, and with Ragnarok coming out, I figured I would be a patient gamer and do a replay to tide me over, including all of the valkyries and things I never bothered with when I played it at launch.
But it turned out that the pull of Ragnarok was too strong, and I picked that up without having had a chance to write a review for this one. Now I need to review both, and I feel like I have to make a concerted effort to not muddle the two. Suffice it to say that they're both good games with flaws, for very different reasons.
When I first played God of War, I don't think I noticed the lack of enemy variety, but then again, I don't think I did any side quests. This time, I did almost everything, and it was very apparent that the devs probably could have used more time.
In 2018 I also had barely played any Souls games, other than a little of Bloodborne. I'm still not the biggest Souls guy, but having played more of the clear inspirations for this (and Star Wars Fallen Order, similarly) it's a lot more obvious when a game tries to incorporate those award-winning systems, but only to a partial measure.
It's also been said plenty of times, but the menus are pretty awful to navigate and it feels like there are a few upgrade systems too many.
All of that being said, God of War is still amazing, especially as someone who grew up as an angsty teen playing the Greek games who now is a father with a little boy of his own. The story is quiet and the writing trusts your intelligence, and apart from a pretty rapid Atreus-is-now-a-jerk segement, all of the pacing and character development flows in the right ways.
But it turned out that the pull of Ragnarok was too strong, and I picked that up without having had a chance to write a review for this one. Now I need to review both, and I feel like I have to make a concerted effort to not muddle the two. Suffice it to say that they're both good games with flaws, for very different reasons.
When I first played God of War, I don't think I noticed the lack of enemy variety, but then again, I don't think I did any side quests. This time, I did almost everything, and it was very apparent that the devs probably could have used more time.
In 2018 I also had barely played any Souls games, other than a little of Bloodborne. I'm still not the biggest Souls guy, but having played more of the clear inspirations for this (and Star Wars Fallen Order, similarly) it's a lot more obvious when a game tries to incorporate those award-winning systems, but only to a partial measure.
It's also been said plenty of times, but the menus are pretty awful to navigate and it feels like there are a few upgrade systems too many.
All of that being said, God of War is still amazing, especially as someone who grew up as an angsty teen playing the Greek games who now is a father with a little boy of his own. The story is quiet and the writing trusts your intelligence, and apart from a pretty rapid Atreus-is-now-a-jerk segement, all of the pacing and character development flows in the right ways.