God of War Ragnarok

[bgmnts]

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-63555509

They've made it more accessible.

[Crenners]

Fuck's sake no change I'm getting it nowwww

[oggyraiding]

I've got to Alfheim, so far it's more of the same as GoW 2018, which isn't a bad thing. But it doesn't feel like a massive generational step up. Doesn't even feel as much as a step up as from Arkham Asylum to Arkham City as far as development of ideas and mechanics in a sequel.

[Mobius]

Yeah agreed. I think the graphics look nicer (or maybe the areas just feel more detailed?) but it really is a direct sequel to GoW, and doesn't do anything different.

[Mobius]

I've played a fair bit of this now, and I think the reviews were a bit generous.

It is essentially the same game. Spoilers below I guess (just talking about the game generally)

Spoiler alert

- The combat somehow feels less weighty and meaty.
- The kid is a bit older now and never shuts up. You enter a puzzle room and before you've even looked around he's going "oh there's a lever" "look over there" and if he's not talking, the head is going on and on. It feels like almost every room has a puzzle in it, but you get hand-held through everything.
- It's just the same as the first game the kid talks about stuff and Kratos tells him to be quiet, don't let your anger take over, same old dour conversation again and again. All of the quests and conversations are just lacking in nuance generally, they hyped up the side quests but I've found them pretty basic. People online saying the game had them crying 10 minutes in but it's that forcefed Ricky Gervais type emotion.
- They said there was more enemy variety but so far it feels like there's less. I've probably got a ways to go so I'm sure there's more enemies but you think you'd mix it up early on as that was a main criticism of the first game.
- So much crawling through tight rocks, under stuff really slowly. Those annoying loading screens. Feels like you have control of the character taken away from you a fair bit.
- It just feels a bit less cinematic and epic so far. I don't know if it's the story, or sound. Apparently this "Cory Barlog" bloke didn't direct this one and he's meant to be the brains behind GoW?

[close]

Well anyway no point going on and on, but I'm struggling to find the enthusiasm to keep playing it really. It all just feels a bit basic and unadventurous.

[Crenners]

Sounds like all the stuff I found hackneyed and laborious about the first game, where I was also quite surprised by the gushing reviews.

It was a very good looking 6/10 game - there's nothing particularly wrong with that - and this sounds identical.

[Pink Gregory]

Makes you wonder whether it'd be worth trying a mega-budget 10 hour game rather than the meandering 30-40 hour standard sidequest-a-thon that the default AAA game now is.

[Crenners]

Dummies would spit out their dummies because of game per dollar.

I would enormously prefer it. Same reason I don't watch TV shows, almost all a load of thin gruel watered down to keep the square eyed jonesing.

[Pink Gregory]

Dummies would spit out their dummies because of game per dollar.

I would enormously prefer it. Same reason I don't watch TV shows, almost all a load of thin gruel watered down to keep the square eyed jonesing.

The very stupidest valuation ever to exist, 1hr=$1.  Encountered that in the wild more than once.

Granted now that the mega budget games are getting up to £70 a go I can sympathise a bit but not to the point that I think stretching 10 hours' worth out to 50 is any better.

It's a bit of an either/or.

[Timothy]

I wasn't really in a rush to buy it but could buy it with a nice discount. Been playing since yesterday and am really enjoying it. It's not reinventing the wheel in any way but the gameplay is still really solid and doing the puzzles while fighting of giant monsters is quite fun.

Agreeing with Mobius about the son spoiling all the puzzles. I really disliked this about Horizon as well.

[Mobius]

Christ, you have to play as the kid, for ages...

[Timothy]

Yeah and

Spoiler alert

playing as Altreus is quite enjoyable imo. Mainly due to the great dialogue and fighting with the bow is fun.

[close]

Still really enjoying this. Quite funny as wel in moments.

[AngryGazelle]

I'm quite near the end of the story now and I am loving this! The tweaks to combat have really worked for me and I find encounters a lot more enjoyable than 2018.

I do think this is a game that shines on higher difficulties; you really have to think during combat

Spoiler alert

the spear is amazing

[close]

[Memorex MP3]

Think it was fair enough back decades ago when a big part of what games were great for was filling up a monstrous amount of time where there was nothing better to do. That doesn't really apply so much when everyone has access to so many alternatives.

[AngryGazelle]

Sounds like all the stuff I found hackneyed and laborious about the first game, where I was also quite surprised by the gushing reviews.

It was a very good looking 6/10 game - there's nothing particularly wrong with that - and this sounds identical.

It's definitely better than a 6/10 in my opinion; the combat alone is so engaging that it deserves a higher score than that.

Enemy and boss design is fantastic, level design is great, and I love the added verticality to combat spaces (admittedly some of the smaller combat areas feel a bit lacking)

Puzzles are okay; they even the pacing out and are never bad but also never brilliant.

Spoiler alert

Playable Atreus, the spear, grappling with the chains, along with the new combat mechanics are definitely enough for me to feel as though it's a nice step up from 2018. The wheel has not been reinvented but it's been heavily greased.

[close]

[oggyraiding]

I find a lot of the unlockable moves are really hard to pull off, when you consider the relatively restrictive camera, and with so much going on in each battle. In something like Devil May Cry, you're probably in situations with the same number/strength of enemies as in God Of War, but because you've got a more zoomed out and moveable camera, it's a lot easier to deal with it. In Ragnarok especially, compared to GoW 2018, you've got a lot of combatants in each fight, with lots of verticality, and then the red/blue/yellow ring stuff, then you take into account status effects and your companion, I just can't get into a headspace where I'm actively pulling off the advanced moves, I just do them by accident.

TL;DR I'm shit at the game.

[AngryGazelle]

I find a lot of the unlockable moves are really hard to pull off, when you consider the relatively restrictive camera, and with so much going on in each battle. In something like Devil May Cry, you're probably in situations with the same number/strength of enemies as in God Of War, but because you've got a more zoomed out and moveable camera, it's a lot easier to deal with it. In Ragnarok especially, compared to GoW 2018, you've got a lot of combatants in each fight, with lots of verticality, and then the red/blue/yellow ring stuff, then you take into account status effects and your companion, I just can't get into a headspace where I'm actively pulling off the advanced moves, I just do them by accident.

TL;DR I'm shit at the game.

You aren't necessarily shit at the game; the camera is still too close and that's my main complaint about combat. One thing that helped me a little was maxing out the sensitivity on the analogue sticks - makes moving the camera around much faster.

[Mister Six]

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-63555509

They've made it more accessible.

Hm.

Video game accessibility critic and consultant Laura Dale says it's "really heart-warming to see big companies in the industry finally starting to see disabled people as people who deserve to be able to play video games".

Warms my heart to see companies trying to make more money by widening their user base.

Heartwarming. Heart so warm now.

[oggyraiding]

That

Spoiler alert

Heimdall

[close]

is a real jerk.

[oggyraiding]

Finished it. Ending was fairly upbeat. Odin definitely stole the show, affable diminutive old man, hiding his cuntishness. Lots of possible hooks for a sequel, but equally a satisfying end.

[brat-sampson]

This feels like the kind of game CaB like to shit on with plenty of walky/talky parts and the overly-helpful sidekicks, but I'm probably about 2/3-3/4 through and I've had a great time so far. The whole thing just ups the ante on 2018 in basically every way. It looks better, the scale is larger, there's more combat/enemy variety, gear progression feels better, optional extra stuff is still plenty-challenging and I'm really interested in seeing where the story goes and what happens with these characters.

[Mobius]

Yeah I've gotten quite a ways further into it now, and am enjoying it more to be fair. Once it 'opens up' and you can explore/do side quests, it gets a lot better. They've put a lot of effort into the side stuff and the combat obviously gets more fun when you unlock more moves.

Definitely still think there's too much walking and talking though yeah.

I just hate cutscenes and having control taken away from me in games really. Can't believe there isn't a skip cutscene button. I just find the dialogue quite dull, not a fan of these 'games are like movies' style where people think the character development is so good and deep but is it? Or is it just better than average by videogame standards. And the dialogue sounds like a Marvel movie sometimes

[brat-sampson]

Polished it off. I had a good time. Combat/gear/etc all improved for me. I'm not sure if I feel like the story stuck the landing, but that's another discussion. Overall: Worth Playing.

[AngryGazelle]

I went into this with a lot of hype and my expectations were mostly met. I wasn't bothered by some of the common complaints - squeeze throughs, walkie, talky sections, 'crap' puzzles - I was slightly let down by the overall level design, mainly the narrowness of so many spaces. And the combat, whilst great, is just lacking a certain something to make it perfect. I think the camera is a big part of that.


 I pumped about 60 hours into this in less than a week, so became quite fatigued with it but will definitely replay it in the future.

[brat-sampson]

Re. the camera, some of the optional Hard bosses with more than one enemy... half the battle was realising you basically had to kite around the edge of the area to keep everyone on screen or risk getting smacked from across the map by 3 projectiles.

[AngryGazelle]

Re. the camera, some of the optional Hard bosses with more than one enemy... half the battle was realising you basically had to kite around the edge of the area to keep everyone on screen or risk getting smacked from across the map by 3 projectiles.

Yeah, I was fighting one of those bosses the other night and it felt really unbalanced. The camera is mostly fine during combat, certainly not ideal, but that encounter is atrocious because of it. I'm dying because of the camera rather than lack of skill. Most frustrating.

[elliszeroed]

I am finding the final levels too difficult, on normal. I am a shit gamer.

[bgmnts]

Git gud, scum.

[oggyraiding]

I came very close to lowering the difficulty from Normal to Easy during the fight when you go to Muspelheim near the end. Two ancients, then a couple of draugr join in too. As ancients require a level of axe throwing accuracy to kill them, it's hard to pull off a successful throw while being jostled about by the other ancient and the trashmobs.

[TrenterPercenter]

Enjoying this in the main but the the dialogue and cut scenes are waaaaay too much.  I've given up on the story because I just zone out and do something else whilst all the blabbering takes place.