God of War 2018 General Discussion

Yep. Main reason why I've quit and have it listed online to sell, and gone back to superior games like Knack 2.

Almost at the end...honestly can't wait for it to be over. The story really doesn't connect with me at all and the gameplay is getting really stale. Fights have now boiled down to "let us throw as much shit in one room".

Beat it, doing GMG difficulty now. It's...okay. Devil Trigger isn't a bother, some nerfs are. They nerfed a few things via patches (wonderful), to make it harder. Never going to challenge run this game I think, just too tedious, even if we could one day skip cutscenes. Found an infinite on the first boss but honestly, who cares? People are already selling and forgetting about this game in droves and for good reason.

I'd still say post any tech you find.

Welp, it happened. Rage got nerfed (stealthily). The shockwave no longer rings people out as easily, and the Heavy Shockwave move no longer rings heavies out, making Striders tactic for that part moot. I swear to god I'm not making this up.

Some other notes. You can infinite phase 1 Baldur (stranger fight). Just do a [] combo with the fists for 3 hits, and then switch to the axe for two, then back to the fists. Vice versa. For some reason it locks him down. You can actually counter his shockwave unblockable by throwing muh axe (haven't seen anyone do that yet). Phase 2 you can do [][][] and cancel with a forward dash (forced Rage segment) for a sweet infinite. Phase 3 he gets dodge happy, but STSS>throw>fist change SSS worked.

Really annoyed that you have to hold forward so much in cutscene. Was watching some tvshows on my phone at the same time. Constant interruptions. Haven't found a single interesting thing about the first Troll fight. Even Strider is just 'dodge left'.

EDIT: some really good tech in this video:

Why would they do that? I don't know about you, but I never found it that easy to ring out in this game. It didn't seem like there were many places to do it, or at least not very convenient ones. I also have never heard of anyone exploiting rage to ringout. It would have to be pretty broken to even be worth nerfing rage. It's like they're trying to make it as little like old GoW as possible lol.

For some reason it locks him down.
It sounds like something similar in Knack 2. I found recently that if you attack enemies continuously, a lot of tougher ones can block and parry you. I discovered something dumb, which is you simply don't hit certain enemies more than twice. It sounds like in GoW you're sort of doing something similar by resetting the AI when you switch weapons. Just an idea.

You can actually counter his shockwave unblockable by throwing muh axe (haven't seen anyone do that yet).
Quality parenting. Even if we aren't huge fans of this entry, it's still worth discovering and listing anything that can help us become better parents.

It sounds like something similar in Knack 2. I found recently that if you attack enemies continuously, a lot of tougher ones can block and parry you. I discovered something dumb, which is you simply don't hit certain enemies more than twice. It sounds like in GoW you're sort of doing something similar by resetting the AI when you switch weapons. Just an idea.

What I've noticed is that enemies have a hit-cap, once you hit them a certain number of times (I believe its number of button inputs, not hits or hit-count) they will auto-dodge away. Valkyrie and even Baldur does this. Yet for some reason Baldur Phase 1 doesn't have this. The final boss has it too against the Sweep, which infinites him (probably a hitstun issue, Sweep has way too much hitstun to it).

It's like they're trying to make it as little like old GoW as possible lol.

Which is weird because, for how much I love old GoW, it never promoted ringouts and punished it (you didn't get orbs from ringed out mooks). Here ringed out foes give XP and even drop their loot on the map out of thin air. I think they want to promote using the 'combo system' but honest: what system?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5K0mk8kbZc

Painful reality.

There's a lot of dumb stuff like this. In quite a few places enemies have zones they won't leave. I've even been able to get back into the boat and they just act like I dont exist. I can then get out and get free shots. Pretty stupid that they nerf attack options but not obvious stuff like this.

So I watched Infinity War and wont spoil anything, but seriously who is copying who now?

Birdman wrote:So I watched Infinity War and wont spoil anything, but seriously who is copying who now?

Everyone copies everyone basically haha, that's just the way it goes ;p

This is way too blatant though. Not that I care about the game of the movie but it's still surprising.

What set you off in particular?

Well, I know Thor got a magic axe in the comics before GoW so I can't say it copied GoW.

Game is getting New Game Plus soon, also I'm changing the name of this topic a bit.

Interesting. Does this mean you'll be doing challenge runs?

I still have to get through my GMG run first, but ejecting Doom and putting this disc in...just doesn't work for me haha!

Yeah I saw that, there's a comment by SBK under it too. I'm sorry, but no. I don't get the video. I agree the axe has some neat ideas, but the way it is used and gimped throughout (basically becoming a throwing dagger) just makes it so pointless. Also the intro makes it sound like Kratos always only had the Blades of Chaos, which is...weird.

haha yeah, I clicked 'read more' and it become an essay.

That's how I felt pretty much. A few neat ideas, but not much else. It was my favorite thing in the game though.

Marky-boy makes some good points in many of his videos, but when it comes to action games, I don't think he knows that much.

Interesting that SBK brings up TFD just as I was thinking about it while watching that video. I think in the video Marky-boy talks about the close up camera in relation to how the transition to axe throw is seamless, something about TPS. But look at TFD. Now THAT'S seamless. You have the further back DMC camera, yet INSTANTLY you can switch to over the shoulder, pop a shot, then INSTANTLY back to the zoomed out camera. There's no excuse for anything else.

Is TFD the only game to do this? It's freakin' amazing.

TDF is pretty unique in that regard I think. I know Metal Gear Rising dabbled with it, but it was more wooden. The game wasn't really made with switching between combat and throwing EMP grenades on the fly or firing that RPG. I tried it at times but it didn't really work, the quickfire option worked better.

What's the general view on this game now?

Unchanged. They added some longevity by implementing NewGame+ that ups enemy levels and gives Valkyries methods of chaining their attacks. A skip function for some cutscenes has been added. The general thing I've noted from the high level players (SBK, BullseyeStrider etc) is that the game is all about being efficient, but for long periods of time. Some fights take very long and the further you get into the game the more it is about using SST instead of smart usage of its mechanics since most foes become invulnerable to the 'fun stuff'. It's like if the Izuna was the only good thing about Ninja Gaiden (and we all know it isn't) and they take it away after chapter 3 by making everything unjuggleable.

In the end it was less offensive to me than I'd thought it would be. The combat has its up sides and when it works it really does work and you can see combat designer Derek's inginuity. But the absolutely horrible RPG mechanics, terrible difficulty scaling and complete disregard for the player having a brain really are big nails in the coffin.

Roy, did you just receive a...reasonable response? On GAMEFAQS!?

Excuse me, I have to go outside and check if the world is ending.

I was as taken aback as you were, trust me. I checked the sky for fire but could fine none.

Haven't seen this mentioned in a while. It's like the whole world forgot about it lol.

Flavor of the month indeed.

Out of the eye, out of the heart. Short term gain though, game sold really well.

Not gonna lie, I liked some aspects of it. Not enough to keep my playing though. I didn't even finish it.

https://twitter.com/ZhugeEX/status/1130663844454514688?s=20

Sad to report that God of War 2018 was indeed a financial succes with more than 10 million units sold, making it the best selling entry in the series (based on single releases). God of War 3 reached around 8 million. Guess daddy Kratos with his emotions, slowwalking and lackluster combat is here to stay.

I think I played maybe 8-10 hours before calling it quits and selling it a few weeks after launch. Honestly, when I see gameplay I really enjoy how the combat looks, but it just felt dull in it's execution. I'll probably pick it up again pre-owned when it's cheaper, but I need to play the other titles first.

This is one of the most frustrating things I've read in a while.

Some dipshit in the Youtube comments wrote:You are missing the point.

The fact of the matter is that the game doesn't force you into mastering it. You can play through it without much thought or strategy. You can style if you want but then again you can do so in GOW4 if you master it.

Someone posted a video earlier that shows how GOW4 when mastered plays like and it is way more demanding that old GOW ever was. Only classic GOW that felt "deep" was Ascension because you had to use parry and a lot of different moves to get through the game or else the game is much harder.

Seems to me you like the classic combat (and I like that one too) and are expecting GOW4 to be like it when it is not. It is a much different combat system that requires a lot more than "style".

People like this piss me off to no end. Wouldn't be surprised if they thought DMC 4 was the best action game ever.

>GOW4
This is referring to GoW2018 right?

>not forced to master
>play through without strategy
This always applies to their favs as well. I once played through Bayo 1 with PPPPP and the occasional dodge just to prove someone wrong. Then I get told I'm doing it wrong, but when they do the same it's ok. Blind fanboys.

>GOW4 when mastered
>way more demanding that old GOW ever was
Sounds like they just contradicted themselves. So there needed to be a video to show 'mastered' gameplay and how great it is, which implies people WEREN'T playing it like this.

>that requires a lot more than "style".
Since when was old GoW about style?

As a general statement, my biggest gripe with these sort of things is that here having the game be 'mashing' is a masterful design choice, but when Astral Chain can be mashed in a single chapter, it is heresy.

My biggest surprise is the mention of Ascension. Granted it was one of the harder ones, especially the final challenge, but it was mostly just spamming cooldowns (a prelude of things to come).

> expecting GoW4 to be like previous games
The obvious aside, no, we just want a good action title that has quality combat to dive into.

A lot of the defenses for the ridiculous camera are pathetic. The camera's NOTHING like, say, God Hand... People in that comment thread were also citing Resident Evil 4, and how you used audio cues. Except that they forget that the other critical aspect of RE4 beyond sound is the use of chokepoints in the small, tight arenas as opposed to the open environments of God of War.

People were arguing that you have to use sound cues, and the arrows were just there if you weren't using a headset, and weren't originally how the game was designed. The mental gymnastics of people on the internet is astounding.

TheFirmament1 wrote:This is one of the most frustrating things I've read in a while.

Some dipshit in the Youtube comments wrote:You are missing the point.

The fact of the matter is that the game doesn't force you into mastering it. You can play through it without much thought or strategy. You can style if you want but then again you can do so in GOW4 if you master it.

Someone posted a video earlier that shows how GOW4 when mastered plays like and it is way more demanding that old GOW ever was. Only classic GOW that felt "deep" was Ascension because you had to use parry and a lot of different moves to get through the game or else the game is much harder.

Seems to me you like the classic combat (and I like that one too) and are expecting GOW4 to be like it when it is not. It is a much different combat system that requires a lot more than "style".

People like this piss me off to no end. Wouldn't be surprised if they thought DMC 4 was the best action game ever.

If you don't mind me asking what video was this?
And how old these comments were?
I would like to ask them how do you "master" GoW2018's combat?
And I would also like to know how is GoW2018, where most attacks and magic have linier utility and has arguably lesser options for combat, is more demanding than games like old GoW games that have more options of combat and most attacks and such have more than one use?

TheFirmament1 wrote:
People were arguing that you have to use sound cues, and the arrows were just there if you weren't using a headset, and weren't originally how the game was designed. The mental gymnastics of people on the internet is astounding.

Wait is this true? I really if ever use headsets and usually keep the volume low, but does the game has sound cues to tell you about the enemies?

Sorry but no, that's absolutely them talking out of their ass.

I could just as easily say that the visual-indicators are there because most enemies don't have audio-cues since the developers didn't trust players to catch up on them (i.e. casual players), and I'd probably be closer on the mark. It's not a bad idea, but there are better ways to do it, far better ways. Right now having foes off-screen is actually better than on-screen, as some visual and audio cues aren't really there, making off-screen attacks easier to avoid.


> why modern GoW is more demanding
Honestly, because reviewers told them so. Most didn't bother to do anything in the classics beyond the standby combo, and if they did more they don't remember it. The day something new comes out, they'll probably move on or even trash this game (which I've already seen happen).

Royta/Raeng wrote:Sorry but no, that's absolutely them talking out of their ass.

I could just as easily say that the visual-indicators are there because most enemies don't have audio-cues since the developers didn't trust players to catch up on them (i.e. casual players), and I'd probably be closer on the mark. It's not a bad idea, but there are better ways to do it, far better ways. Right now having foes off-screen is actually better than on-screen, as some visual and audio cues aren't really there, making off-screen attacks easier to avoid.

I see.

> why modern GoW is more demanding
Honestly, because reviewers told them so. Most didn't bother to do anything in the classics beyond the standby combo, and if they did more they don't remember it.

I mean even then, as of now I don't see anything that is hard to pull off or any strategy that is hard to execute.
The only thing I can say was some kind of problem for me initially, was the aiming, as I wasn't used to aim with a controller as I usually use Kb&M.

The day something new comes out, they'll probably move on or even trash this game (which I've already seen happen).

I mean they already did as you've said. Most of the "fans" of GoW 2018 moved on as soon as Spiderman came out.
The only thing I've seen form most of them in this year are theories and such about the game's story and barely anything that is related to gameplay.
It really feels like the game was a flavor of the month.
Even the speed running community seems dead, which is odd for a game this big and popular.

God of War was never about execution to be honest, though if you want to get technical God of War III has some good complexity at times. Modern God of War can get finnicky if you start doing weapon-switch combos but it never gets more complicated than III was. And yeah I can get your issue with the aiming, the game does have a very lenient auto-aim though.

Regarding the fans, I also mean in coming back on their opinion. When God of War 2018 launched every game in the series was considered to be trash, despite their critical and financial succes. Now, one year later, most people when asked about their favourite entry in the series will note God of War 2 again.

The speedrunning, I get why they left but am also a tad surprised they stayed gone. Originally you couldn't skip cutscenes, making the first real speedrun nearly 6 hours long due to unskippable brabble. Afterwards the record got turned into 4 hours when skippable cutscenes got patched in. There still are some runs going on though, but nothing amazing. One played, Clowned187, holds most of the game's records.

> I would like to ask them how do you "master" GoW2018's combat?
An interesting question. To me it is basic mastery of which cooldown to use when as well as meter managment. It's a shame, against humanoids the game is actually quite interesting in the early game. But near the end...well, you know my tale haha!

Royta/Raeng wrote:God of War was never about execution to be honest, though if you want to get technical God of War III has some good complexity at times. Modern God of War can get finnicky if you start doing weapon-switch combos but it never gets more complicated than III was.

No I get that, this is a franchise where knowing what to use, how to use it and when to use it, combined with some good meter management a etc provide the main meat of gameplay, it's playing smart that matters.
But I would like to ask those higher intellectuals of YouTube, what kind of finger gymnastics I have to learn to master the GOTY.

And yeah I can get your issue with the aiming, the game does have a very lenient auto-aim though.

It does, but I really wanted to learn the manual aiming as it really did seemed weird to me at first as I wasn't use to it.

Regarding the fans, I also mean in coming back on their opinion. When God of War 2018 launched every game in the series was considered to be trash, despite their critical and financial succes.

Let me guess, Gamefaqs? Or was it Léddit?

Now, one year later, most people when asked about their favourite entry in the series will note God of War 2 again.

And when the sequel to the reboot will be released, they'll start praising it for a month and shit on the older entries and then forget about.
It's like they don't know or care at all about the very things that they love.

I recently saw some posts by some Sony fanboys on Twitter thanks to Dr.Shyguy and on one of them, a high intellectual explained that GoW is deep in terms of gameplay because "Kratos fights hordes of enemies and Gods like Zeus". No Joke.

The speedrunning, I get why they left but am also a tad surprised they stayed gone. Originally you couldn't skip cutscenes, making the first real speedrun nearly 6 hours long due to unskippable brabble. Afterwards the record got turned into 4 hours when skippable cutscenes got patched in. There still are some runs going on though, but nothing amazing. One played, Clowned187, holds most of the game's records.

> I would like to ask them how do you "master" GoW2018's combat?
An interesting question. To me it is basic mastery of which cooldown to use when as well as meter managment. It's a shame, against humanoids the game is actually quite interesting in the early game. But near the end...well, you know my tale haha!

Funny that you say that. The begining of the game was kinda fun with the Draugrs, but imo it starts to screw things up mid to late game.


In some parts of the game I even think "what were they thinking?". It's like they put every enemy in one place, but that wouldn't be bad if it weren't for the RPG mechanics, it feels like I'm either under-leveled (as the rooms are filled with purple health bar enemies), where the enemies can kill me in one hit and resist a lot of my basic moves, so then I have to play cheap or I'm over-leveled (against every enemy that isn't purple) and I don't even need to use any smart tactics as I can just cut them like butter.

There definitely are certain parts where I feel the game really works well, but sometimes (as of now at least) I feel like the meh parts outweigh the good parts.

I do hope they'll make it better and if not that, just fix the issues of this game in the next one.
But then again knowing AAA companies, for all we know, they might just double down for the casual players.

Frankly, I can't thank OG God of War enough for teaching me that execution isn't everything in action games: Prior, I was hooked on stuff like DMC, and Ninja Gaiden, which are generally more execution-based. But God of War and Souls are great examples regarding how action games don't need to have a super wide variety of moves and combos to still be good.

>execution
There are those that believe this is what defines a top action game. I list it right up there with other retarded notions like 'one button combat' and 'combocombocombo'.

And now for something completely different

Kratos, a man with white skin
Was a guy who used to delight in
The killing of Gods,
Against all odds
Until he had a kid that was like him

Atreus, or Loki as the game reveals
Is meant to bring out the feels
But he’s so utterly bland,
I can’t understand
Why he has so much appeal

Despite the game’s emphasis on story
I felt it didn’t quite earn it’s glory
That it had so garnered
And was widely so honoured
After all, it mostly just bored me

All right, I admit, it wasn’t that bad
I slightly enjoyed it a tad
But compared to some others
It was just another
Story about some guy as a dad

“But what about the combat?” you say
“In moveset, there’s a wide array!”
But the inability to jump,
Put me into a slump
So I must express my dismay

When I first started up the thing
My first thought was “How chilling!
He’s bringing some wood
Experiencing fatherhood
Hah, just kidding, this is boring.”

While I was playing the game
I thought to myself “This is lame.
Overanimated kills,
Unnecessary frills
Modern trends truly are to blame”

Midgard’s a gilded cage
With uninteresting things to engage
To try and seem like a classic
It slowed me down to show graphics
While I tried to get to the next stage

There wasn’t much to do except hunt
For some loot and money upfront
But said loot is unfitting
And I considered quitting
It made the game more tedious, to be blunt

I was really falling asleep
And I realized that I must weep
I thought Ascension
Was worth apprehension
But this is truly a black sheep

My ultimate question was “Why
Should I even bother to try?”
Despite fancy seas
I was filled with apathy
Even when some trees stretched to the sky

It’s very widely acclaimed though
For me, it was a lump of Play-Dough
No lasting appeal
All it did was steal
From other games that had mechanics contained so

You might enjoy it of course
For my opinion, I cannot force
The story could be touching
But I found it clearly clutching
On the bet that your hearts aren’t coarse

If your heart isn’t on Mars
And your head is straight up your arse
God of War may give
Some Joie-de-Vivre
Otherwise, 2 point 5 stars.

LMAO, this is fantastic.

Speaking of atreus.
One of the worst part of GoW writing is that brat.
So at the beginning of the game, he is the good, nice kid who's supposed to be likeable and is rather naive.
He's supposed to be more human like, but the moment Atreus is told that he is a God, his character changes completely, but fine I'll take that, his initial beliefs were due to his notion of what's a god and what's a man.
But what was bizarre, was that I had some side quests that I didn't do, so after the whole saving atreus storyline, I decided to start doing them.
So story wise, when he learns that he is a god, he gets all cocky but when you go to do the side quests, his dialogues and personality reverts back to his former self. It's so bizarre to see him saying
"We're gods we can do anything" and a couple minutes later when I went to fight the Valkyries he's like "come on, we have to help her" and then you start going to the mountains and he gets all mad at one of the drawfs and then you do that one side quest where you have to find the whetstone and he reverts to his normal self and starts lamenting about how a son killed his father, by stabbing him in the back.
I mean with all this attention to story, you'd think that they would write different dialogues in the side quests (which are supposed to be reflection of kratos's past deeds) that would match the character's personality at the time.

Instead what happens, is that if you keep the side quests for later you get a kid who's personality changes faster than a YouTube vlogger. Which makes him even more insufferable.

That poem needs to be framed in GOLD.

I decided to give the game another chance on New Game, and on challenging.

Currently on the mountain, and I can safely say that the game is "alright" so far. I don't hate it, but I'd definitely take something like DmC: DE over this. Here are some gripes:

- There are some moments where it all fits nicely into place, and it's really fun, but I still think the camera's shit. Maybe if there was only one opponent to fight at a time, it would work. Perhaps do something like For Honour where when you lock on to another player, the camera zooms in. I think this would work fine, but the other problem is that lock on barely works, and spazzes around, when enemies are leaping everywhere.

- A lot of stuff just feels overanimated. Especially the block. Blocking should be instant in these types of games. Way too many times I tried to block, only to get decked, because the animation didn't finish playing out. In general, Kratos just feels too slow and heavy. Especially his dodge. It's quite a shock coming back from God of War 3, where Kratos had this quick Bloodborne-esque dash with the Cestus and Nemesis Whip.

- Too much slow-mo. Seriously. Stop with the slow-mo. It was already a bit annoying when the old games did it with launching attacks (But only when held down fully), and it's even more annoying here. Takes too much control out of my hands.

- Jesus Christ, enemy tracking is spooky. They just glide around the arena constantly like they're on roller skates or something.

- I think the RPG elements would've been fine if it just cut the armour out of the equation. If that wasn't there, I wouldn't really mind the progression system.

But the moves that are present are generally fun to use, and I suppose there isn't anything that truly offends me about the combat beyond the camera. Seriously, just fix the camera, and I'd bump it from a 6 to 7.

I like the game well enough for what it is, but a lot of its major issues start to show in challenging and above if you haven't played it on those difficulties before. The way the RPG elements arbitrarily dictate your damage output and limit your defensive options in encounters is super aggravating. Especially considering the small health pool and how easy it is to get hit due to the numerous inconsistencies that will arise in combat encounters. There's boat loads more combat related issues you'll become acquainted with too once you get further in unfortunately.

So, this game's financial numbers are slowly leaking out. If it keeps this up it will probably outsell the franchise. Up until this point the franchise had sold around 22 million copies. God of War 2018 is estimated to have sold between 20-29 million copies at this point (hard to do the math apparently haha).

That kind of hurts my soul to be honest.

Up until this point the franchise had sold around 22 million copies.

Think 1 and 2 sold 4-5 million. GoW 3 sold around 6-8 million iirc. GoS sold less than CoO, despite being Ghost better game. And the dark horse Ascension sold even less than CoO. Still good numbers for a franchise in a niche genre. Sadly it wasn't selling enough (TLOU and Uncharted numbers).

God of War 2018 is estimated to have sold between 20-29 million copies at this point

The biggest sell-out in gaming history.

That kind of hurts my soul to be honest.

I wonder if SSM even considered a GoW sequel that we would have seen in the same light as the DMC V comeback (a fan's wet dream).

No point in thinking about that now. A perfect GoW game would not have sold like this.

The truth is that they were selling out since 2013--when they decided to follow trends rather than listen to fans (not always an option understandably).

Can't really blame Sony for taking a certain direction with their games moving on. It's just how the market is now.