Release: November 2022
Developer/Publisher: Sony Santa Monica
Gameplay Stats: 52 hours (so far), Completed all realms but Muspelheim
Aesthetics: The game looks and sounds excellent. I have no notes here, they increased the variation of enemies and bosses and if you look at them they act how you might expect at first glance. The attacks look good and feel weighty, more so than the original to some degree. The new realms that you get to visit all look really unique and beautiful. Even the realm of the dwarves that is supposed to stink and have heavy industry looks great. I'd vacation pretty much any of these places. They have all the normal RPG biomes here but they don't seem as bunched since they are different worlds. As a note, I do wish the world changed more for the post-game. The characters remark about the world feeling different, but there were no visual differences that I could see.
Plot: The plot here was a little rushed. I enjoyed it, but it seemed like they tried to cram a lot in here. There were several story events that could have used more room to breathe or more dialogue between characters to digest a bit. I heard the pacing compared a little bit to a Marvel movie and that seems kind of apt. It seemed like the game was always more focused on what was coming next than what came before. And I think that was to this game's detriment if I'm being honest. I heard after playing that this was supposed to be two games originally but they compressed it into one and I can feel it. There was so much big picture stuff that happens here I felt a little like I was being led on a rollercoaster. I enjoyed it, but I wish there was more space between events to digest a little what came before.
Gameplay: This is where this game shines. Just like the previous God of War game, the gameplay here was quite good. I did have some slight issues with the little warning wheel letting me know about all of the attacks, but it was quite fun overall. It seemed like if the enemy gave a visual warning that their attack wouldn't show up on the wheel which makes sense if you can see all the enemies, but if they are off camera it's an annoyance. There was also no enemy friendly-fire in this game which was a change from the previous one. Enemies were more careful before to not hurt their allies on their way to you, but they were distinctly more aggressive here. Kratos seemed a little slower/weaker in this game than he did in the previous one but it feels deliberate. I felt underpowered until I received the new weapon of this game, then I felt pretty good. The new weapon felt way stronger than the carry overs which was interesting.
Shoutout: There was a really neat area in Vanaheim called the crater. It was densely packed and there was plenty to do. I really enjoyed it! I took a day off work and went through most of it in a couple sittings. It honestly felt like a DLC for the game. If they do introduce DLC, I hope it's with more areas like this. You get to open up a dam and release a flow of water that changes the area pretty significantly. I do with there was a reason to open/close the dam more than once so it was more like a Zelda dungeon maybe, but it was really fun.
Overall I enjoyed my time here. I'd recommend it if you enjoyed the plot of the first game but otherwise I think I'd recommend the first game over this one. Still a damn good time though.
Comments
Post a Comment