Uh… yes there was?
Not on my phone, let me clarify in what will be a massive spoiler you have been warned
Did you not fight Baldur for like thirty straight minutes through four phases of combat while a massive, re-animated frost giant corpse ravaged the battlefield!? It was… pretty hard to miss. :)
hey, a not un-funny Ctl-Alt-Del. that’s a rare one.
Uh, I guess that was a boss fight?
And no, it wasn’t a big deal for me. Maybe I was overleveled or something, but I just beat the fuck out of him pretty trivially. All the Valkyries were much harder.
Honestly, I felt it was pretty much a non thing… to the degree that I really had forgotten about it until you mentioned it. I mean, it was a thing, but it wasn’t a fight against some giant beast that filled the whole screen or anything.
It was easy, but I was playing on easy and probably over leveled as well. Still, I thought it was a really cool fight, though YMMV of course.
I felt like Timex. I was expecting another boss fight due to all the downtime there was between that fight and completing the game. Especially since as I started going towards the realm gate the dwarves gave me a quest for some legendary armor, so I went to go do that to gear up for what I thought was the final fight. Then after I did that side quest I went to the final realm and saw credits and was like “oh, ok then”.
I loved the game, but there was definitely something off about the way they paced the ending from the last boss fight on.
A friend who had my PS4 for the last three months finally brought it back so I started playing this just now.
I have a dilemma over whether to play favour performance or resolution. On one hand resolution means stable consistent 30fps, but it is jarring coming back from PC gaming and I hate it. On the other, performance means losing supersampled image, and the framerate still does not hit stable 60 so there are some frameskips. Kind unhappy with both options.
What did you folks chose?
As for the game itself I only played first hour and it seems ok so far, nothing bad nor mindblowing.
I played through at enhanced / 30fps. The higher frame rate was really unstable and uncomfortable for me to play.
Hmm, I tested both longer and settled on performance, because while not locked 60, it is close enough to be a better experience for me. The resolution mode introduces not just constant camera stutter (as 30fps games always do) but also unhealthy dose of input lag, which perf mode eliminates.
As for the game, I am about 12 hours in, just came back from the elven realm. I gotta say I wish I knew why this game blew so many minds to the 10/10 GOTY extent, because so far what I am playing is a competent, nice looking third person action adventure with a cool “one take” gimmick, I’d give it 8/10. Hopefully the mindblowing stuff will come later.
I’m sticking with performance mode as well. I didn’t play with resolution mode long enough to pick up on the input lag, but the performance mode is so much smoother it’s hard to pass up, and while I understand it fluctuates, it doesn’t feel unstable or distracting. In contrast, the only other PS4 Pro optimized game I’ve played since upgrading is Rise of the Tomb Raider, in which the performance mode fluctuation was very distracting.
Yep. It just feels better. Not to mention there are long (too loong…) stretches of gameplay that take place inside and those run at straight 60 most of the time anyway.
The game really picks up after Alfheim. You skill tree really expands and the puzzles get more interesting and you’ll start seeing bigger fights and cooler setpieces. Make a beeline for the top of the mountain. Save the exploration until later. There’s a character you’ll want to meet ASAP.
Great! Thanks for info, glad to hear that.
I also the game couple hours ago. Did all sidequests except valkyries (only killed one) and trials (only did two).
7/10
It is a good game, particularly the writing is sharp - all characters and their interaction are well written and defined. Voice acting is perfect as well. Graphics is technically incredible (but read below).
I mostly enjoyed it, but things that hampered my enjoyment:
incredibly stale, one note visual design - I felt like 90% of the time I was in some boring caverns, the world just isn’t very fun to explore and kind of lacks in atmosphere compared to games like Witcher 3 or Kingdom Come
the gameplay got a bit stale as well. There is only so many times I can see the same combat animations over and over again before they become boring, and the repetition is strong with this one. Eventhough I was switching my runes and weapons and trying out new moves, for a dedicated combat game it got old a bit too quickly.
I would like to see GoW 2 if they can keep quality of writing and improve these aspects. Give me world populated with more than just monsters, more varied and beautiful. Give me more expansive agency and scope of interaction beyond just combat.
I have to say my faith in videogame journalism hit a new low here, with how overhyped they made this game.
Another terrific mechanics analysis video by Mark Brown.
One of God of Wars’ developers wrote a fantastic breakdown of how the team made the axe throw and recall feel so good. Lots of small details that are greater than their sum!
I still haven’t finished because I got so pissed off grinding the terrible optional content.
Key piece of info?
Though I do know what you mean, really - the game’s side content was many and varied but not necessary and not really that interesting. Some cool rewards, and some fun fights, but I only did maybe half the optional stuff, and bee-lined to the end of the game to see credits and wrap things up in short order. I recommend doing that, if you aren’t enjoying the side content.
The side content is very mixed, some is fantastic and some is grindy garbage, some of which is also really meant to be done post game.
I’m still playing (trying to knock a dead giant’s hammer over at the moment), is that relatively spoiler free?
Yes, you don’t need to worry about spoilers, WhollySchmidt. From what I can tell, most of the footage appears to be from the early parts of the game, and there’s barely any discussion about the story beyond the high-level pitch of Kratos fighting alongside his son.