Alex
Still a Music Elitist
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I need a fucking glossary for all of our ratings. I don't follow the politics thread which I assume a number of them come from.
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God of War (2018)
- Thread starter gshurik
- Start date
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Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!
Go here and give us your nominations!Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!
I need a fucking glossary for all of our ratings. I don't follow the politics thread which I assume a number of them come from.
Dandai
<WoW Guild Officer>
- 5,918
- 4,503
Don’t wanna go into details about the respawning because I really think this game is at its best when you go into it completely blind and spoiler free, but rest assured, you’ll have plenty of opportunity to farm your heart out if you so desire.
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Dandai
<WoW Guild Officer>
- 5,918
- 4,503
Namon
Blackwing Lair Raider
- 1,976
- 2,565
No that's perfect. I don't want too much spoiled either. You gave me enough info that I'm looking forward to it now.
Namon
Blackwing Lair Raider
- 1,976
- 2,565
Well this game fully clicked with me finally, and I'm totally hooked. Took it long enough, but the beginning area and the first realm were just rough for me from the overly cinematic (and linear) nature of it all to the weird pacing to worrying about how to "build" my guy. However, after hearing the above advice and being able to just wander some, it just did a 180. I'm glad I stuck it out, because my first fight with a Valkarie was bad ass as all hell, and when you get the next weapon... holy shit balls. Definitely my GOTY so far.
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Frenzied Wombat
Potato del Grande
- 14,730
- 31,803
Just finished it-- my thoughts and questions on the endgame:
First off fantastic game all around-- the type of game you hope never ends and where you try and explore and complete every side quest possible to stave off the ending. That being said, literally my only gripes/questions are:
1) The ending really snuck up on me and I didn't anticipate it, as I didn't think Baldur was the "end boss"-- one because he was so bloody easy to beat, and two because I didn't associate him with the main storyline beyond the fact that he was hunting Kratos.
2) The end game doesn't align well with the progression curve of items/weapons. You aren't given enough story/missions to have time to enjoy the higher end loot and abilities. I had just gotten access to Nilfheim, spent an entire day grinding it, only to realize the next mission was basically game over. Game is dying for a DLC.. There were a ton of armor reagents I had never come across, and was expecting them at some point, then boom-- game over.
3) Did I miss a level up for the blades? Ended the game with them one level lower than my axe, and never found the component that let you buy the flame at the store to level it up.
4) The ending was touching but somewhat underwhelming.. Just expected something a bit more interactive between the two before it ended, rather than "scatter ashes, say a few words, and game over".
5) Was the giant lying dead at the foot of the mountain supposed to mean something? Atreus seems to mention something along the lines of "so this is why mother wanted her ashes scattered here".. Didn't pick up on that meaning.
Definitely Game of the Year for me, and leaves me hungry for more. Never played the previous GoW games and this makes me want to pick them up, if only for the lore/story and Kratos' background.
1) The ending really snuck up on me and I didn't anticipate it, as I didn't think Baldur was the "end boss"-- one because he was so bloody easy to beat, and two because I didn't associate him with the main storyline beyond the fact that he was hunting Kratos.
2) The end game doesn't align well with the progression curve of items/weapons. You aren't given enough story/missions to have time to enjoy the higher end loot and abilities. I had just gotten access to Nilfheim, spent an entire day grinding it, only to realize the next mission was basically game over. Game is dying for a DLC.. There were a ton of armor reagents I had never come across, and was expecting them at some point, then boom-- game over.
3) Did I miss a level up for the blades? Ended the game with them one level lower than my axe, and never found the component that let you buy the flame at the store to level it up.
4) The ending was touching but somewhat underwhelming.. Just expected something a bit more interactive between the two before it ended, rather than "scatter ashes, say a few words, and game over".
5) Was the giant lying dead at the foot of the mountain supposed to mean something? Atreus seems to mention something along the lines of "so this is why mother wanted her ashes scattered here".. Didn't pick up on that meaning.
Definitely Game of the Year for me, and leaves me hungry for more. Never played the previous GoW games and this makes me want to pick them up, if only for the lore/story and Kratos' background.
Hekotat
FoH nuclear response team
- 12,244
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Siliconemelons
Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
- 11,856
- 17,818
Sometimes I think these types of game are better than "well X had shit characters, story, pacing, control... BUUUUUUTTTTT it had a new pixie buffer tech that will forever change the vidiya game market! Look at the water droplets roll off the blades of grass"
Like Lunar the silver star story complete- a masterpiece of just classicness of a RPG.
So a perfectly executed, nice story base, great different but same action GoW- yes. And so far it's been a great game.
Dandai
<WoW Guild Officer>
- 5,918
- 4,503
1. They cut a lot of planned boss encounters (hence the abundance of trolls and arena style bosses). I imagine Baldur’s final encounter suffered similar trimming.
2. No DLC planned, sadly. Again, this is likely another victim of shifting story elements and cut content. In one interview the game director said there was a two hour build up of Atreus becoming a little shit, but that content got shuffled towards the beginning of the game (where it wouldn’t make sense for him to behave like he does since he doesn’t know he’s a god yet). Due to that change, his personality shift was much more abrupt than they had planned.
3. Blades final level up comes from defeating 3 stages (iirc) in the Muspelheim+ arenas. They don’t have to be in order, but you might need one of the three to be the top of the volcano. I don’t remember exactly.
4. I choked up hard at the ending. I’m not sure what i would’ve done differently. I found it very touching and a fitting conclusion to the game’s story. Did you visit Kratos’ house after spreading the ashes?
5. I don’t recall those moments being connected. I thought he was referring to Faye wanting Kratos and Atreus to discover the fate of the giants and her prophecy. Guess I need to watch that sequence again on YouTube.
The previous god of war games were good by their own right, but it’s difficult to compare and contrast them to this game. GoW has probably aged the most gracefully, but I doubt GoW2 and GoW3 are as easy to get into as they were when they initially released. Action games have largely adopted (and polished) the GoW play style and made it a staple of the genre. Going back and playing the first iterations of gameplay mechanics can be very hit or miss!
2. No DLC planned, sadly. Again, this is likely another victim of shifting story elements and cut content. In one interview the game director said there was a two hour build up of Atreus becoming a little shit, but that content got shuffled towards the beginning of the game (where it wouldn’t make sense for him to behave like he does since he doesn’t know he’s a god yet). Due to that change, his personality shift was much more abrupt than they had planned.
3. Blades final level up comes from defeating 3 stages (iirc) in the Muspelheim+ arenas. They don’t have to be in order, but you might need one of the three to be the top of the volcano. I don’t remember exactly.
4. I choked up hard at the ending. I’m not sure what i would’ve done differently. I found it very touching and a fitting conclusion to the game’s story. Did you visit Kratos’ house after spreading the ashes?
5. I don’t recall those moments being connected. I thought he was referring to Faye wanting Kratos and Atreus to discover the fate of the giants and her prophecy. Guess I need to watch that sequence again on YouTube.
The previous god of war games were good by their own right, but it’s difficult to compare and contrast them to this game. GoW has probably aged the most gracefully, but I doubt GoW2 and GoW3 are as easy to get into as they were when they initially released. Action games have largely adopted (and polished) the GoW play style and made it a staple of the genre. Going back and playing the first iterations of gameplay mechanics can be very hit or miss!
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Soygen
The Dirty Dozen For the Price of One
- 28,431
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Yes, do this. I only did this by accident after going back and finishing collections/plat trophy. Was a cool surprise.
Frenzied Wombat
Potato del Grande
- 14,730
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spronk
FPS noob
- 23,352
- 27,210
huh they found an easter egg like 3 months ago, you had to go to a specific spot and look in different directions in a certain order to open a realm tear. pretty cool
God of War Secret Found Using Collector’s Edition Map
they apparently found another and final one last night in Kratos' home, but it just spells out a word I guess (a name), nothing too weird
God of War Secret Found Using Collector’s Edition Map
they apparently found another and final one last night in Kratos' home, but it just spells out a word I guess (a name), nothing too weird
Namon
Blackwing Lair Raider
- 1,976
- 2,565
So yeah I beat the story part this weekend.
Jozu
It's definitely awesome. I personally do not like the overly cinematic games like Last of Us, Uncharted, etc. It took a while to click with me, but once it did, the gameplay is absolutely amazing, and the story is amazing as well. Once you get to a point in the game it pretty much allows you to do what you want in any order, which is what I usually hate about games whose primary focus are story... they tend to be too linear for me.
I think I may have forgotten a few things, but in the end I felt like the whole Baldur/Odin/Thor conflict going on was kind of just tacked on to provide conflict during the journey. I kept expecting the dead wife/mother to be somehow directly related to them (Sister/Daughter/Ex Wife whatever) and when it turned out she was a giant, it kind of fell apart for me. Like I said before, it may have been said, and I just flat out forgot it. However, I really think they should have given Thor/Odin/Bauldur more of a motivation to be after us. My friend explained to me that it was their "god-sense" going off and they needed to kill Kratos because of that. Personally, these guys are trying to make movie quality stories here, and that is just a bit too video gamey for me. With that said, I really enjoyed the story, and I love the game. Now, I just need to go and get everything else done. I didn't realize I was doing it, but I kind of b lined right for the story's end and still have a bunch of stuff left to do, and I cannot wait for the next game.
Jozu
It's definitely awesome. I personally do not like the overly cinematic games like Last of Us, Uncharted, etc. It took a while to click with me, but once it did, the gameplay is absolutely amazing, and the story is amazing as well. Once you get to a point in the game it pretty much allows you to do what you want in any order, which is what I usually hate about games whose primary focus are story... they tend to be too linear for me.
Dandai
<WoW Guild Officer>
- 5,918
- 4,503
So yeah I beat the story part this weekend.
I think I may have forgotten a few things, but in the end I felt like the whole Baldur/Odin/Thor conflict going on was kind of just tacked on to provide conflict during the journey. I kept expecting the dead wife/mother to be somehow directly related to them (Sister/Daughter/Ex Wife whatever) and when it turned out she was a giant, it kind of fell apart for me. Like I said before, it may have been said, and I just flat out forgot it. However, I really think they should have given Thor/Odin/Bauldur more of a motivation to be after us. My friend explained to me that it was their "god-sense" going off and they needed to kill Kratos because of that. Personally, these guys are trying to make movie quality stories here, and that is just a bit too video gamey for me. With that said, I really enjoyed the story, and I love the game. Now, I just need to go and get everything else done. I didn't realize I was doing it, but I kind of b lined right for the story's end and still have a bunch of stuff left to do, and I cannot wait for the next game.
I couldn't disagree more that the Baldur/Odin/Thor conflict was tacked on. It's not explicitly stated, so it's easy to miss, but Faye (wife/mother/giant) is who set this whole thing off. She marked the trees providing the barrier between the forest and the rest of Midgard that shielded them from the eyes of the gods. When Kratos cut them down, it allowed Odin to see them and he sent Baldur to investigate. It's strongly inferred that Odin and/or Thor promised Baldur that the giant he'd find would cure his curse and allow him to feel something again (or that Odin would cure it after he killed the last giant). Baldur didn't show up at Kratos' home looking for Kratos, he showed up looking for a giant. We just thought he was talking about Greeks/Gods when we first saw the interaction because we knew who Kratos was, but not who Faye was.
You can't get more directly related (or at least of interest) to Odin and Thor than being a giant (Thor, by the way, is half giant, like Loki). The motivation for Thor/Odin to be after us is their desire for genocide/complete annihilation of giants. Baldur's motivation for pursue us is to cure his curse (because his father and brother are cruel and promised him that we held the secrets to cure him). They didn't know Kratos was a god until much, much later in the game (iirc when they opened the gate to Jotunheim on top of the mountain where they found Mimir). I'm not claiming this is War and Peace levels of storytelling and nuance, but it's certainly one of the best examples of storytelling within a video game.
For better or worse, I can't turn off the part of my brain that wants to analyze and be hyper-vigilant for game design choices (I've made a couple games and have a degree in game design and development). With that being said, I don't recall ever thinking, "Well this is here because they just needed an excuse to show off this awesome mechanic/scenery/plot element." This is a rare instance of a game having a story FIRST, and then the gameplay was designed around the story. Soooo many games are developed backwards - with all their mechanics and "cool" elements locked in stone first. The stories in those games are shit because they hire a writer(or writers) YEARS into their dev cycle and say, "Give us an awesome story that showcases these mechanics."
Anyway, I just wanted to offer another perspective. I'm far from unbiased because this is probably my favorite game of all time - certainly in the top 3 of all time. Check out the director's commentary if you're into that sort of thing:
You can't get more directly related (or at least of interest) to Odin and Thor than being a giant (Thor, by the way, is half giant, like Loki). The motivation for Thor/Odin to be after us is their desire for genocide/complete annihilation of giants. Baldur's motivation for pursue us is to cure his curse (because his father and brother are cruel and promised him that we held the secrets to cure him). They didn't know Kratos was a god until much, much later in the game (iirc when they opened the gate to Jotunheim on top of the mountain where they found Mimir). I'm not claiming this is War and Peace levels of storytelling and nuance, but it's certainly one of the best examples of storytelling within a video game.
For better or worse, I can't turn off the part of my brain that wants to analyze and be hyper-vigilant for game design choices (I've made a couple games and have a degree in game design and development). With that being said, I don't recall ever thinking, "Well this is here because they just needed an excuse to show off this awesome mechanic/scenery/plot element." This is a rare instance of a game having a story FIRST, and then the gameplay was designed around the story. Soooo many games are developed backwards - with all their mechanics and "cool" elements locked in stone first. The stories in those games are shit because they hire a writer(or writers) YEARS into their dev cycle and say, "Give us an awesome story that showcases these mechanics."
Anyway, I just wanted to offer another perspective. I'm far from unbiased because this is probably my favorite game of all time - certainly in the top 3 of all time. Check out the director's commentary if you're into that sort of thing:
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Pretty embarrassed to admit this, but because of how busy real life has been I put this on the back-burner and just recently started it up full-swing. Fought Hraezlyl last night in the mountain. Holy shit. This game. So far it's been a nearly perfect mesh of movie-video game (obviously more "game" than movie). Walking the summit of the mountain just reminded me of watching the LotR for the first time.
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Namon
Blackwing Lair Raider
- 1,976
- 2,565
I couldn't disagree more that the Baldur/Odin/Thor conflict was tacked on. It's not explicitly stated, so it's easy to miss, but Faye (wife/mother/giant) is who set this whole thing off. She marked the trees providing the barrier between the forest and the rest of Midgard that shielded them from the eyes of the gods. When Kratos cut them down, it allowed Odin to see them and he sent Baldur to investigate. It's strongly inferred that Odin and/or Thor promised Baldur that the giant he'd find would cure his curse and allow him to feel something again (or that Odin would cure it after he killed the last giant). Baldur didn't show up at Kratos' home looking for Kratos, he showed up looking for a giant. We just thought he was talking about Greeks/Gods when we first saw the interaction because we knew who Kratos was, but not who Faye was.
You can't get more directly related (or at least of interest) to Odin and Thor than being a giant (Thor, by the way, is half giant, like Loki). The motivation for Thor/Odin to be after us is their desire for genocide/complete annihilation of giants. Baldur's motivation for pursue us is to cure his curse (because his father and brother are cruel and promised him that we held the secrets to cure him). They didn't know Kratos was a god until much, much later in the game (iirc when they opened the gate to Jotunheim on top of the mountain where they found Mimir). I'm not claiming this is War and Peace levels of storytelling and nuance, but it's certainly one of the best examples of storytelling within a video game.
For better or worse, I can't turn off the part of my brain that wants to analyze and be hyper-vigilant for game design choices (I've made a couple games and have a degree in game design and development). With that being said, I don't recall ever thinking, "Well this is here because they just needed an excuse to show off this awesome mechanic/scenery/plot element." This is a rare instance of a game having a story FIRST, and then the gameplay was designed around the story. Soooo many games are developed backwards - with all their mechanics and "cool" elements locked in stone first. The stories in those games are shit because they hire a writer(or writers) YEARS into their dev cycle and say, "Give us an awesome story that showcases these mechanics."
Anyway, I just wanted to offer another perspective. I'm far from unbiased because this is probably my favorite game of all time - certainly in the top 3 of all time. Check out the director's commentary if you're into that sort of thing:
Nah thanks for the offer because...
As I said before I was totally open to the idea that I must have missed something, and I did. The way you explained it makes it completely make sense and now it works. I kind of wish it was a little more heavy handed though, but that's just me having to be hit over the head with important details, not objectively bad writing. I am usually a gameplay first kind of guy, and like games who worry about systems and mechanics first, but this game really did everything right. That's why I was kind of bummed with the way things turned out at first, but now I know I just totally missed the detail.
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