Hot take: Why I don't like the new God of War - now fight!

L

LakeOf9

Member
probably super controversial cause the new ones are so popular, but I just finished replaying the original trilogy this weekend, and man... there's no contest, the new games are good but they're not even god of war. the older games' brutality, their sense of scale, their amazing encounter design, the incredible boss fights... all of that's just gone in the new ones. and I get the series needed to change, after ascension (which I also tried to make part of the replay but, as with every single other time I've tried to play it, gave up a few hours in because it sucks) it was clear the old style needed some updates.

but I wish they hadn't just made it a totally different thing. the new god of war games are fine (I like ragnarok, not that big on 2018) but they dont even feel like god of war anymore. the actual combat style is totally different. the way the encounters are designed and paced is totally different. the camera angle has completely ruined the sense of scale from the original trilogy. the nonsensical one take gimmick has completely limited storytelling. the boss fights are a joke. the stories are much... nicer? rather than the rampages that kratos was on in the originals. kratos has a whole party of chattering companions who are always quipping and monologuing about something or the other. it is just not the same, it doesnt feel like god of war anymore.

look at devil may cry - it hit a crisis point after DMC4 and DmC too, and they sort of went back and reassessed as well, but DMCV, while a modernization of the classic formula, is still DMC through and through. I wish that was the kind of update god of war had gotten. I guess then they'd have missed out on their Oscar bait GOTY awards and stuff.
 
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God of War is part of the Sony AAA blueprint games, now. Like it or not, that formula seems to sell very well, and I wouldn't assume that things will change until those games start losing numbers.
 
Sigh* no, you're wrong. The new ones tell a far better story, the combat is more impactful and less of a hack and slash "feel" the old games had.

Could they add more scale? yea, probably, but thats it.
 
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I agree
The new God of War games are extremely overrated.
The original titles just shit on them in spectacle and raw gameplay its not even comparable.
 
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I still prefer the olds GoW than the reboot, but the first GoW reboot was actually good. My only complain is the enemy variety, besides sometimes the pacing.


Ragnarok I totally skip. Not my taste. The pacing there is awful. IMO was a huge downgrade from previous. They just adress enemy vaeiery and call a day.
 
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I enjoyed the GOWR, but no where near as good as the first game in my opinion, it just felt more serious with more emotional weight. Felt like I was watching a slap stick Marvel movie at times honestly with GOWR.
 
tmlDan said:
Sigh* no, you're wrong. The new ones tell a far better story, the combat is more impactful and less of a hack and slash "feel" the old games had.

Could they add more scale? yea, probably, but thats it.
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I mean I explain in the OP why I think the old style is better, do you have an actual response other than "you're wrong"?

Fake said:
Ragnarok I totally skip. Not my taste. The pacing there is awful.
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For what it's worth, I really liked Ragnarok, it felt like it was willing to go more gamey than the 2018 game. But yeh, it is ultimately still just a new game in the same style, if you dont like that style you wont like this.
 
I loved the original and was a little unsure of the new ones until I spent more time with the new ones. I really like what they did so I can enjoy both. :D
 
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Totally agree

Original GOW was at least pure raw action.

When i started on PC i kind of got the idea early on that this would deploy into some metroidvania where your abilities unlock very good things and to explore. I knew it was different than the old GOW but this excited me a lot. How disappointed i was later in the game. This perpendicular map system all with the central hub basically killed the whole idea. The back and forth between the maps, ugh. Imagine if they had made an intertwined map with unlocking abilities, it could have been GOAT, even though it would not be old GOW.
 
LakeOf9 said:
I mean I explain in the OP why I think the old style is better, do you have an actual response other than "you're wrong"?
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Can you not read? i said the combat it significantly more impactful - it feels real, the hits feel real, in the old GOW it was burning through enemies like a musou game. Bosses were also meat sacks with QTE.

Also, the story was so shallow in the old GOW games. A classic revenge story.

IDK how this is hard to understand tbh
 
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They're very different games and they're both good in their own way. I'll always prefer the original trilogy, but that's nostalgia mostly.
 
Agreed, the only part of the new GoW that resemble the old GoW in brutality is Heimdall boss fight.

FF16 is the closest thing that we have that come close or even surpass in size and scale the old GoW epicness boss fights.
 
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I don't mind.
I like both styles and I think the way these long franchises survive is by reinventing themselves and not just making more of the same for 20 years.

That said I miss some of the over the top spectacle of the earlier games. I remember liking that first Baldur fight and thinking "if this is the opening fight I can't wait to see how crazy things get"....but they never did, it sort of peaked there.
 
LakeOf9 said:
(I like ragnarok, not that big on 2018)
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I don't get how you can make a thread with such a premise but then say this? GOWR takes everything that was great about 2018, gives you less of it, all the while adding more of what you don't like.

The old GOW games are beautifully paced with no filler. No slow mandatory walking sections or 10-minutes long custcenes with shitty dialogue. What the new games do better is providing combat feedback. Kratos feels much stronger, the blows have more weight behind them and you can really feel the punch and crunch in the fights. The older ones in comparison feel floatier and weaker.

That said, I love GOW 2018 and actually rank it pretty highly. I absolutely despise Ragnarok for what it did to the franchise. They went full Naughty Dog and completely killed the replay value with endless mandatory sections where nothing happens. It's telling when Ironwood, the worst part in the entire franchise, is longer than the fucking Ragnarok event that they spent two games hyping us up for. The actual war was so damn underwhelming and small scale.

Don't get me started on that little turd that his Atreus by GOWR and the terrible parts where you have to play him. They tried to steer the franchise in his direction but no one gives a fuck about him or his story or the giants. We're here for Kratos. Add to that the fact that they have way too many puzzles, causing the game to become a repetitive loop of Puzzle>Fight>Puzzle>Fight instead of the tighter pacing of 2018.

Words cannot begin to describe how much I hate Ragnarok. Worse game in the franchise by far.
 
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Yea I found the reboot pretty boring, as I do with most of Sony's recent cinematic games (TLoU1 rules tho). Heard Ragnarok is better though
 
Disagree

I never liked the old games, from story to gameplay.
New games are far better in all aspects and especially story. It's far more interesting with a greater meaning.
 
People have no clue what a "Hot take" is

This isn't a hot take. It's a take that many but not all agree with.

A hot take would be saying Redfall is a better game than anything Sony has put out.

THAT is a hot take.
 
By the time the 3rd game of the original trilogy came around I was bored of the formula and ready for something new. Then we got ascension which I didn't even bother to buy.

I much prefer Dad of War. Sue me.
 
i´ll give one better and more controversial.

Ragnarok was nothing more than an overbuffed DLC.

Game is good but it does NOTHING new as the original one. Everything is just more of the original reboot
 
I checked out when Atreus tells Kratos DONT BE SORRY, BE BETTER.

Bitch, you literally almost destroyed the world by letting lose a wolf who is chewing through the fabric of time. You nearly killed Sindri in a fit of rage. You dont get to make quips that call back to previous games you little shit.
 
rodrigolfp said:
During the day is not dark.
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the dark side of the moon is not literally "dark" its called dark because that side of the surface is never visible from the earth. otherwise it's just the same as any other side of the moon (and temperatures on it are the same as any other part of the moon)

Gaiff said:
I don't get how you can make a thread with such a premise but then say this? GOWR takes everything that was great about 2018, gives you less of it, all the while adding more of what you don't like.
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That's fair, I've seen this criticism a lot, so I'll just give you quick reasons why I like Ragnarok more (you don't have to agree, I know most people don't, just sharing my take):
  • Better enemy variety (2018 sucked at this)
  • Better boss variety (2018 sucked at this)
  • Better variety in environments thanks to the multiple realms (2018 sucked at this)
  • Combat feels more agile and mobile thanks to the options like grapple that they added in (but on the flip side they changed how a lot of attacks worked, so I guess this part is more subjective)
  • generally a better sense of spectacle (ragnarok is a joke, but the parts with the wolf, or the first Thor boss fight, are all closer to the old style of god of war than anything in 2018)
  • the spear is a fantastic addition to the combat
  • the new traversal options are much better than the boat (except for the fucking yak)
  • while the story is fucking stupid, the story in old god of war games was fucking stupid too, that's what I like and want from god of war. stupid, fun high octane action. ragnarok doesnt get all of that right, but it does feel closer in spirit to the older games than 2018 did
 
WHen he defeated all the greek gods, he lost most of his powers. Hes god of war in name only, to a point. He can still absolutely murder thousands of humans with no problems. QT Kratos is where he really is the God of War, and gameplay Kratos is a super-human.
 
Many reasons, cpu weaknesses limit the amount of stuff you could do, obviously you would make a character down to earth, believable with matured personality to avoid physics complexity that demands stronger hardware.
 
I disagree as I like the new approach much better.

However I can certainly understand that a lot of folks would prefer older more action oriented approach. 20 years ago I would have preferred the same, lol.
 
All I'm asking for is some GOW3 boss fights in the new engine. You barely get any of that.

The Dragon from 2018 is probably the best one. And that's about it.
 
LakeOf9 said:
the dark side of the moon is not literally "dark" its called dark because that side of the surface is never visible from the earth. otherwise it's just the same as any other side of the moon (and temperatures on it are the same as any other part of the moon)
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During a full moon, however, the "dark side" is truly dark. Scientists estimate that the far side of the moon gets as hot as 260 degrees Fahrenheit (127 Celsius) during the day, and negative 297 (minus 183 Celsius) during the lunar night.
 
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