Topic: God of War OT

@Draco_V_Ecliptic lol there is a lot of interest in that post!

I didn't mean to imply that Dark Souls were uninteresting games to those who enjoy them. I couldn't comment on that because I have never played them.

What I meant was, the combat in God of War 2005 is a bit boring and repetitive, mainly because of the many waves of enemies that spawn. It just gets a bit pointlessly dragged out. But the combat in the God of War is only part of the game and my interest in playing the games comes from owning and at least experiencing one of the main PlayStation exclusives.

I don't really remember Jedi Fallen Order having terribly boring combat, the game was OK but it was really good and engaging because of the setting and the characters, much like God of War.

I get that Dark Souls is highly lauded by many fans but seeing as I have no attachment to it, having not played any of the games, it's not something I'm keen to look into due to my own huge backlog and my desire to play certain other games and series. I'm also put off by the level of difficulty that gets described, the lore sounds attractive but as I have no investment in it currently, it holds no interest to me. Whereas something like God of War, I already own and something like Jedi Fallen Order is a story based star wars game so again something of at least a vague interest to me.

I found another Colonol Campbell voice in God of War 2, the voice actor Paul Eiding also plays Theseus! Sadly Zeus has been recast in this one though despite his larger role.

I do wonder how many of these huge statues legit existed in ancient Greece and what their actual sizes were. Obviously they wouldn't come to life but I bet they were amazing to behold, the ones that actually existed at least.

@Draco_V_Ecliptic I’ve made it through the part where Atreus has obtained the light shot ability and so now has opened up the capability to create the light bridges.
I’m taking the game pretty slow, not only because of real life time constraints but also because I’m trying to really savor the experience and explore every pathway and try to solve every puzzle before moving on.

Never played these back in the day, the character-action sub-genre just never really appealed but God of War 2018 struck such a chord with me that even though they are very different, I decided to give them a go. I vary up the game styles I play from one to the next... that and I’m in no rush to get these older GoW games over and done with, so I have only got through two of them so far.

After much research the order I’m playing them is God of War, GoW: CoO, GoW: GoS, GoW 2, GoW: A and GoW 3. I know it is neither chronological nor release order but someone somewhere made a pretty good argument for why this would be a good order to play them if coming in fresh. So far I’ve plat’d GoW and CoO and was really surprised by how much I enjoyed them. Not to say that they rocked my world but with my low-ish expectations going in, they have definitely been exceeded.

I’d imagine that I’ll get through the series in time for Ragnarok but even after that I’ll definitely give this game-style some more time moving forwards. Off of the back of the two that I’ve played, I have picked up the whole series of Devil May Cry as well as Vanquish, Bayonetta and Metal Gear: Rising.

Does anyone have any thoughts on how similar these various games are in gameplay and overall quality?

@colonelkilgore I have some extended thoughts on this question and I’ll post them over on the recommendation thread to avoid too much of a derail here.

Finally finished God of War 2 this evening. I'd feel a bit bad bagging on it for its pacing because I had a week long break from it due to a personal matter. I just thought it was more of the same, but about 3-4 hours longer so just a bit long really. I did think it was cool to see some more greek figures in it like Icarus and Prometheus, that was cool.

Anyway after a bit of faff with the Bluetooth controller, I managed to get God of War Betrayal going on the phone. This was a short and enjoyable game, it took about 2 and a half hours to complete so it didn't outstay it's welcome at all. It was definitely interesting to play GoW in 2D and I am really glad to tick a quick and easy game off the list!

I hope to start (and finish) Chains of Olympus tomorrow, that one clocks in at about 6 hours according to HLTB so I'm wondering what I'll think of it. It sounds like the perfect runtime for a game like God of War, I think the 8-12 hour games have just been a bit long.

Here are a couple screenshots from GoW Betrayal if anyone is wondering what the game looks like:
(I'm sure some UK users here will get a laugh out of the greek monster called Argos!)

@Th3solution how you getting on with GoW 2018? Made any more progress on it?

@colonelkilgore how is your playthrough of the games coming along? You're doing a completely different order to me, I'm just doing release order because I've never played any of them before (except for the first one)

@ralphdibny Not too much progress this week, what with work and holidays. I’m still really enjoying the game though. I figure I’m not quite halfway. I started doing side quests and exploring the Lake area, picking up chests and collectibles as much as I can. I actually think my game time will be spotty the next week to two, so you might make it to GoW 2018 in time to beat it before me! 😄

@ralphdibny

Yeah I never played any of them before either. I just kinda slot them in between long drawn out games as and when, so I played God of War back in August, Chains of Olympus in October and I’m planning of starting Ghost of Sparta after I finish Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (which I’m starting tomorrow). I’m enjoying them and am fairly psyched for Ghost of Sparta and God of War 2 as a lot of fans of the franchise seem to rate them highly.

I’ve made a New Years resolution (already) to clear my PS3 backlog by the end of 2021, so my PS5 won’t be seeing much action for the foreseeable,

@Th3solution nice work! I'm calling time on GoW after Chains of Olympus so I can do Christmas stuff until January and then I'll get back into it with GoW 3! I doubt I'll make it to the end of 2018 before you!

I know it's a bit weird but I quite like the idea of the series changing settings between different pantheons. I doubt they will do as many games for the Norse mythology because of increased cost for modern games and a lack of a PlayStation handheld but I do wonder where they could go after that. Egyptians maybe? It might not make sense because I think ancient Egyptian gods were before the greek gods but I'm not too up on the timeline of ancient civilizations and whether it would actually matter within the setting of GoW. Also the name of Osiris' wife might cause some...problems. could be quite cool if they tackled a monotheistic faith too but somehow I don't think any modern religion would fly with the mainstream, not yet anyway.

@colonelkilgore nice one! I actually think Chains of Olympus is quite good due to its relatively short run time. The controls are simplified too. Overall I do think it's a bit better than GoW 1+2 but I doubt I have a typical appreciation for this series.

Enjoy Peace Walker. It's actually one of my favourite games even though it's not very MGS-y in the scheme of things. It's very addictive though. My original save file on it was 60 hours and when I replayed it from the beginning this year, my new save file capped off at 93 hours! The final chapter (5 I think?) of it is a bit confusing in terms of how to unlock the missions that progress and finish the story so don't be afraid to check a guide at that point. Using a guide in the late/post game might show you how to unlock some odd, interesting and funny missions too!

I've cleared a lot of my PS4 backlog too and replayed a few PS3 games this year. I think I'll probably end up playing a few more PS3 games in the backlog next year too

@ralphdibny

Yeah I actually really liked Chains of Olympus too, don’t know whether I had lower expectations going in (because of things I’d read) but I too enjoyed it more than God of War.

As for Peace Walker, I’m already more engaged with the narrative than MGSV but I am struggling a little with the controls... we forget how long it took for game-controls to find that sweet spot for 3D.

@colonelkilgore are you playing on HD collection? I think there are 3 different control schemes though I can't remember which one I chose for the bulk of the game though. I do remember changing it every now and then for specific late/post game missions that just worked better with a different control scheme.

It's weird because Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain are direct sequels to Peace Walker, a lot is gained in terms of understanding the narrative by playing Peace Walker first. I love all 3 games but I wonder if being a numbered entry in the series was bad for the reception of MGSV in general because it attracted more people than would have played peace walker

@ralphdibny Yeah, I played around half of V and had no clue about the Peace Walker stuff. I might go back and play Peace Walker but I dunno, I wasn’t really into V anyway.

@nessisonett fair enough, it's not for everyone. V even alienated actual metal gear fans. Obviously I loved it though because I'm a total sap for anything metal gear 😅

@ralphdibny

Yeah the HD collection, played V first as I wanted to make sure that I could get the plat, just in case they closed the servers etc. Doing PW next as I want to get the online trophies while there are still playing it to ensure this plat is within my control too. Got some good co-op in already and I only started it this morning, so I may have been over-paranoid about finding no-one to play with.

@nessisonett

Yeah I started it (briefly) back in 2016 and didn’t really get on with it but went back recently and loved it... one of my favourite games now. Gonna play the whole series apart from Metal Gear Solid (unless those rumours of a remake are true of course).

@colonelkilgore I didn't know there were online trophies in mgsV, I'm only like 4 away from the platinum on that but I probably won't get around to them.

Glad you are getting games on peace walker though! I haven't played any online on it whatsoever, I think I did a search for players but it came up with nothing, might have been my internet connection or something though

@ralphdibny

There are 3 on MGSV... plan (& begin) an attack on another players FOB, build a nuke and then dissarm it.

On Peace Walker I actively went looking on Reddit and PlaystationTrophies.com. A couple of people got back to me with a day or so... if you ever fancy some PW co-op let me know.

@colonelkilgore oh yeah of course! I forgot about that, I actually managed to do the 2 nuke ones this year when I replayed it. Its funny because I was really apprehensive about deleting my save to start it again but quite a few cut scenes played out differently to how I remembered because I did stuff in a different order so it was well worth it!

Cheers, I'll definitely keep it in mind if I decide to boot it up again! How are you managing with the PW trophies? Some of the online ones looked quite work intensive if I remember correctly

@ralphdibny
Well I only started today so I haven’t gotten any online ones yet... think I’m around 1500 of the required 20000 camerarderie required for the real ‘grindy’ online trophy (Vic Voss).

Planning to get the 2 ‘quicker’ online trophies done with some nice Canadian chap next Tuesday. I’d imagine a great chunk of the cameraderie with him also.

Finally had a chance to spend some quality Kratos time. The game is just really quite fantastic. Unless it just absolutely falls apart in the second half, I think GoW will crack my PS4 top 5. It has such a great balance of combat, puzzles, exploration, and story.

There is one issue I’ve had with the game though. Despite being a good 10-12 hours into it, I feel strangely like I’m not making any “progress” in the game. It’s like I’m going hither and yon but I don’t really know if I’m progressing a story toward any kind of ending. The game set-up is a strange amalgamation of linear and open world, and yet there aren’t solid markers to seek out or check boxes like most open worlders. But in actuality, I think I’ve figured out the main reason I have this strange sense of non-progression — the single camera shot. The fact that there is no traditional cut scenes and no loading screens to break up things into chapters or sections, I feel like I haven’t made it to any “checkpoints” yet. It’s an unusual feeling, and one I didn’t quite expect from the single shot method. Don’t get me wrong, I like it and think it’s brilliant, but my brain is not wired to approach a game this way. It keeps expecting a stop in the action and a wrapping up of a section to signify moving along in the story, and this game just doesn’t have that. Amazing stuff.

@Th3solution nice one! I just finished up shadow of the tomb raider and had a similar feeling about progression about half way through, same sort of linear but open world structure but most of the last half of the game is kind of set in and around one area. With all the sidequests and stuff I felt like I was stuck there for a long time. Good game though and I managed to get most of the trophies so I've started a hopefully shorter playthrough on the hardest difficulty in new game plus to mop up the platinum