Watcha Playin’?-God of War Impressions

After a very busy weekend, I was finally able to start God of War this past Monday. I’ve been excited for this game as a fan (probably heavily nostalgia-induced, if I’m being honest) of the old games, especially with it looking like the least problematic AAA title for the next few months (I realize there are a ton of issues with this game as well. Hooray for the state of games). As of right now, I’ve just gotten past the second boss fight, so that’s where my thoughts will be stemming from.

Currently, I don’t really know how I feel about the game. I’m probably a lot more lukewarm on it so far than a lot of people, though I don’t think I’m far enough in to feel super negatively about it either. It’s a really pretty game, and I’ve enjoyed the aesthetics of the enemies I’ve seen so far. Not really sure how I feel about the combat itself though. I don’t hate it, and I’ve never been a combat connoisseur, but it is frustrating that, at least so far, there isn’t a lock-on option. Or if there is, the tutorial hasn’t pointed me to it yet. This is really frustrating when trying to avoid attacks from bosses and get re-oriented. Playing this has also cemented my opinion that just because a game has a dodge option that’s pretty integral to how you fight, doesn’t mean it warrants Dark Souls comparisons. Come on, y’all.

Something else about the combat that kind of bothers me is that it seems to be hinting at variety, but doesn’t really deliver, or hasn’t yet. For example, there are enemies that are resistant to your axe, so you literally have to punch them to death, which is funny and kind of different from most games that would just provide you a spell or different weapon to take care of them. Heck, even the old GoW series did that. Now, I’m sure I’ll get something to deal with them later on, but for the time being, I’m going to enjoy punching ice dudes in the face. But then during the second boss fight, I felt like the only way the game wanted me to beat it was by spamming my shield and countering, which I ended up doing because I was getting sick of seeing the “use L1 to block” message. I’m sure there are other ways to beat this boss, but it seems to defeat the purpose of showcasing different kinds of combat if the game is just going to aggressively encourage you to play one way.

This is probably a pretty petty complaint, but I really don’t like that Atreus sometimes has modern speech patterns. Like, Kratos can’t actually just be black because of “historical accuracy”, but Atreus can sound like any 2018 10-12 year old? It’s just really weird and kind of distracts me whenever he says something that seems out of place. Also, why is his name Atreus? Like why did Kratos name him after the patriarch of THE most cursed household in Greek mythology? If it doesn’t end up being relevant to the story as a reference to Kratos’ history, I’m going to be pretty dang flabbergasted.

Currently, I’m not a fan of the pacing, but I also don’t think I’m far enough in yet. I’m hoping it’ll start coming together when I’ve played more than two hours. As it stands, the boss fights keep kind of catching me off guard because they just kind of…happen. Like one minute you’re walking, and oh hey it’s boss time! Or you’ll be in what seems like a basic story cutscene and then boom, now a rando’s here and we’re fighting.

I’m planning on putting more time in this coming week, so we’ll see how my feelings evolve as I get in deeper. For now, the verdict is kind of “meh”.