God of War: Ragnarok

[SD-[Inc]]

It keeps getting better IMO. I thought I was almost done and then a side quest opened a massive optional area called The Crater. Been exploring that area all week. Cool puzzles and enemies. It’s the biggest “open world” area in the game. Don’t skip it!

[KAC]

I just got my spear. I am going around doing as many sides as possible. However, sometimes I am caught with enemies I can’t kill. I think they turn purple or something. Almost impossible to do damage to them as they are one level above and very fast.

I am clearing out as much as I can but then when I hit such a point, I know it is not the time and have to walk away. The saves and overall structure of the game is so well done. It also pisses me off that you check the map and it shows only 35% complete when you have been around in the area for like 3 hours.

I am now in a dream sequence and about to start Chapter 11. Game is dope af and every night I start playing and end up 4-5 hours later when I go back to sleep.

[KAC]

Spent a lot of time today playing and hit chapter 13 with the moon thingie. Such a great game. I am going to fiddle around after I save Freya’s bro as I heard there are a lot of side quests after that. Side quests are such a must have in this game as it is only way to upgrade armor or get decent armor. Finally hit level 5 and it has taken a very long time to get here lol.

Game is just stunning. I hope it doesn’t take them another 4+ years to push out a sequel. I can also hear Kratos talk for hours with his son and Mimir. So much story telling going on all the time. It is just wonderful.

Easily my GOTY and I know I am screwing over Horizon Forbidden West but then again the whole planet did it also.

[SD-[Inc]]

After you rescue the brother is where you get to The Crater. It’s huge, open, and fun. It seems like the developers must have played Elden Ring near the end of their project because the game became more and more open the further you played. If all the world was as open and interesting as this area it would be my GOTY also. But early on, it was sort of lame. I loved Horizon too. But, that story was just so amateur. If you could mix the storytelling and combat from Ragnarok with the beautiful open world of Horizons you would have something that would have gave Elden Ring a run for the money for GOTY. But this year Elden Ring is clear winner. That game is just MASSIVE. The entire game so far in God Of War is about 1/8 the size of the world in Elden Ring. I prefer games like God of War and Horizon. But just the scale of quality content in Elden Ring is too impressive to ignore this year.

[KAC]

Elden ring is just dodge roll garbage. Same formula from first Demon Souls game. The bosses look interesting but literally have the same cheap lunge or high AOE attacks that I have seen in most games. Maybe someday I will enjoy such games. God of War on the other hand is great at giving freedom to play like you want to. I feel challenged and die quite a few times as well but I am not dodge rolling like a maniac.

[KAC]

Damn spent all day doing side quests in the crater lol. So much loot that I don’t even know what to use and what to discard.

[SD-[Inc]]

Elden ring is just dodge roll garbage. Same formula from first Demon Souls game. The bosses look interesting but literally have the same cheap lunge or high AOE attacks that I have seen in most games. Maybe someday I will enjoy such games. God of War on the other hand is great at giving freedom to play like you want to. I feel challenged and die quite a few times as well but I am not dodge rolling like a maniac.

Somewhat agree. But there are a ton of weapons and skills you can tweak to make the game interesting and play differently. (And by a ton I mean 10x what God of War has). And, the amount of content in that game is beyond insane. There are literally dozens of levels like The Crater. I put close to 200 hours into it and don’t think I will ever finish it. That’s also a negative in a way because you could play the game the rest of your life and still not uncover all gameplay options. I would agree that God of War can be more “fun”. Elden Ring has no character and story worth investigating. It’s just From Software weird stuff constantly. You can really get attached to the story and characters in God of War. Game has good pacing and character development. And, to be honest, I do appreciate the ability to just turn the difficulty down when things get too repetitive. The thrill of defeating a boss after 25 tries in Elden Ring gets a little old after a while. Being punished constantly for lack of perfection is not fun. Sometimes it’s just good luck or bad luck when an enemy randomly decides to spam or not spam some cheese at the wrong time. Plus, creating levels where gravity is the main enemy is just annoying. God of War is forgiving throughout the game but offers rewarding side content for challenge. My only complaint is the large amount of invisible walls making everything so linear. I don’t think it is really necessary and a little dated gameplay. The Crater level did a much better job with this. But much of the game is just too linear. Deciding which path to take is always: Path seems long and no chest = must be quest. Backtrack to shorter path that dead ends at chest exploring is not really 2022 open world gameplay. God of War was never really an open world game in the past. But it can be. The Crater was a much better level and shows the possibilities.

God of War does have a lot of build options. Skill wise it seems like you can just get enough XP to get all of them with a little exploring. Using them effectively does take a little practice. The practice area they give is excellent for tweaking and trying new stuff. You can make a huge improvement in your combat skills with a little practice there. It looks like you had a surge of playing time and have caught up with me. I got a little time this weekend and nearly did everything in the crater. Will soon resume the story. It is definitely one of the best games this year. Elden Ring is just a ridiculous achievement. You’d need to dedicate a huge amount of time to it to see what everyone is talking about. And if you don’t like that type of gameplay, that would be a challenge.

[KAC]

Back to God of War, I just finished it. An amazing end to a beautiful and deep storyline. Seems even after the credits roll there is intentional end game content that I will indulge in. I still have a lot of places left to 100%. Maybe I never will but I thoroughly enjoyed the story. Just wonderful. For me it is a solid 10/10 and rarely anything stirs emotions in me but this game did.

[SD-[Inc]]

Back to God of War, I just finished it. An amazing end to a beautiful and deep storyline. Seems even after the credits roll there is intentional end game content that I will indulge in. I still have a lot of places left to 100%. Maybe I never will but I thoroughly enjoyed the story. Just wonderful. For me it is a solid 10/10 and rarely anything stirs emotions in me but this game did.

Dang, you beat me. I will start the ending soon. I am pretty solidly geared up and ready. I ended up getting a full set of the Dragon Scale armor from the crater by killing all the dragons. I liked the way they opened up that level the longer you played. It wasn't your standard "find a key" quests at all. Very original. Some cool favors still in there if you haven't finished all of them. The Epic Hunts were fun and finding all the hiding places of the Centaur Lady and killing her was challenging. I haven't really done any Crucible content or Rifts. And it looks like I missed about 10 ravens. But certainly not going to backtrack everywhere and find them. Not sure if that's required for platinum or not. Plenty of location guides online. But re-checking 48 places is way too much effort. Glad you enjoyed it. I am too. There are many things I like better than the previous version.

[KAC]

I didn’t do everything yet. There is a lot that is still left. Heck I didn’t even collect all Nornir chests. I probably won’t do a platinum since some of the fights are insane. The berserker fights are what I truly suck at. I also need to find a valkyrie etc. Just too many things to do.

Btw there is also a ton of more dialog after endgame. Mimir and Freya keep telling stories that I want to listen to. Just an amazing all round game. I have opened up 4 / 6 Raven chests and yes still to finish a lot of content. I may go back to the crater. I don’t have dragon armor either.

I just have too many games right now to try and 100% this one.

[SD-[Inc]]

Me either. Too many berserker fights to stay interested. I beat a couple of them. But I don’t like repetitive fights like that. I did discover most everything I could without a lot of backtracking. So I’ll probably move on too. Want to replay Witcher 3 on PS5 now that it does’t look so bad. This was a really good game worth playing. No regrets on the impulse buy at launch.

[SD-[Inc]]

Finished it today. Played all the way to the funeral. Great ending. I like how great the voice acting and writing was overall. Early on I wasn’t liking the gameplay but it just kept getting better and better. I like story driven gameplay and this one did hit the mark. Santa Monica Studio and Naughty Dog seem to be the only gaming studios to actually write good stories for games these days. They left the possibility of multiple character spin offs for the next installment of the series. Looking forward to more from them.

[KAC]

I thought this was a trilogy. And there will be another one with Kratos in it. I really don’t want to play as other characters. I want Kratos!