After another session:
The Thor fight isn't tuned well, and frankly isn't fun. I never felt in control, and all of the counters and everything felt very sluggish. Obvious scripting issues, like when it says to hit L1 and you hit L1 and nothing happens. What a disappointment after all this build up. Due to the fucked up tuning and scripting it felt like a button mashing, die again-and-again weak exercise from lesser games of yore. After that awesome first boss fight, in which everything clicked and worked, this is an absolute eye sore as far as boss design goes
The UI is fucked. People are right. This needs a top-down overhaul to make it elegant. It's useable, certainly, taking just a few moments to get used to.... but that doesn't mean it's good
The weird tutorial type shit forcing one to press specific buttons or do specific things before they can regain agency is some of the worst I've seen. Worse than some Japanese games in this regards
Everything else is spectacular. The story, the acting. The graphics and 3D audio are amazing, and to think this isn't even what the PS5 is fully capable of. The use of the DualSense rocks - the awesome haptics and subtle use of the speaker. All combat and gameplay outside of that awful Thor fight has been absolutely excellent, like 10/10 fun and rewarding
TLDR: They badly need to fix the UI, need to remove tutorial type stuff that eliminates agency, and the Thor fight needs tuning - it merely outstays its welcome (way too long) and has some fucked up scripting issues that I am surprised made it past testing. The high level of storytelling one expects from these first-party Sony games. So far it's a 8/10, would be a 10/10 if that Thor fight was good