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

LakeOf9

Member
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 with this reasoning, if the PS2 could do it, the PS4 absolutely could. they chose to focus on other things, it was a deliberate decision
 

Thirty7ven

Banned
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.

It’s all a metaphor, they are gods. Like. What don’t you get?
 

LakeOf9

Member
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.
So this hot take is as hot as the dark side of the moon during the lunar night, is what you meant to say?

Also, this was a fun side convo lol, thanks for playing along
 

Represent.

Banned
Absolutely not. And lol at the old stories being better. Just no.

The only thing the old ones were better at was a sense of scale
 
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diffusionx

Gold Member
I liked God of Reddit, but I also think the old games were very unfairly tarnished and slandered in a rush to praise this one, especially by game "journalists" and it is something that Cory Soylog actively fostered. Good to see that people are returning to the old games and seeing that yes they were actually really great games made by talented people.
 
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Little Mac

Member
I’ve been saying this shit for years. If they hadn’t abandoned the original’s style and ridiculousness, I would have bought a ps5 by now. Sony is turning everything into The Last of Us. Where are games like the OG God of Wars? Or Shadow of Colossus? Where’s fucking Patapon you cowards?!?!?!

Season 1 Reaction GIF by Rick and Morty
 
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R6Rider

Gold Member
I enjoy the old style and new style for different reasons.

Except Ascension, never finished that one.
 

Represent.

Banned
The people who prefer the old GOW remind me of the people who prefer the old Broly in DragonBall over his re-invention in DB Super
 

Hudo

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.
I concur. Daddy of War is not God of War. It's just a mediocre melodrama with some father-son bullshit that is obviously just there for some artificial conflict potential for the writing. It is not tastefully done, gets on my nerves and gets in the way of gameplay.

But it sells and gaming blogs like IGN love it, so it's here to stay. At least the old God of War games don't go anywhere.
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
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.
disagree, this is a hot take, there are different levels though.

your example is like ghost pepper take
 

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
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)


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
And I actually agree with all these points, except that they're all undermined by what might be the worst-paced game I have ever played.

And I can't agree with the last point at all. Ragnarok spends 2 hours with Atreus riding a slow-ass yak collecting fruits while talking to his girlfriend. This shit doesn't belong in GOW. GOWR feels like Naughty Dog's take on GOW. Freya utterly disrespects Kratos while he tries to appease her for killing her dumbass son who was a pain in his ass for an entire game. He was so annoying that she straight up told him to STFU and keep killing things to which Kratos got his feelings hurt and went "Don't tell me to kill things! I have feelings too!"

GOWR does play better than GOW 2018 (because it plays almost the same with some enhancements) but the ratio of play time to cutscenes has been dramatically reduced, and the game spends more time than ever wrestling control away from the player.
 
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mitch1971

Member
New ones are overblown, over stay their welcome, and 'serious' feelings garbage.

Give me angry arsehole Kratos back, with bombastic action set pieces. Zoom that camera in and out baby!!!

No interest in ragnorock. Gladly replay GOW 3 over any of the modern takes.
 
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Blackage

Member
The bigger issue is the old style died for the new games. Would be nice to have a spin off series that played like the old ones.
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
2018 was a highly successful, and extremely needed reboot. The series has been plagued by lack of innovation since the original part 2. By the time Ascension came out everyone was ignoring the series. Its similar to people who forget that Resident Evil was declining in interest and popularity already on 3 and Code Veronica. Without that reboot in part 4 it wouldnt hold the same interest.

The only really controversial thing is Ragnarok potentially burning out that new formula in just 1 sequel. Some people love it, some people hate it.
 

FeralEcho

Member
Next
It’s an opinion. Liked 1 & 2 and then it was over for me until God Of War took the premise into the next level.
Next level? The only level it went was into soap opera garbage oscar bait where nothing ever fucking happens in cutscenes except Kratos sighing every fucking 30 seconds because life is hard or Atreus having some teen drama because thats what we all come to GOW for.I'd take 1 original trilogy over 50 Dad of Bore "next level" garbage.
 

AlphaDump

Gold Member
There is no "unleash" moment from Kratos, where he basically stops pulling his punches and let's them know what's he's all about. And I'll admit that kind of hurts the overall lasting impression for me.

Maybe they are holding out for some real shit to go down in the next game but I thought that after the first, too.
 

JaksGhost

Member
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
God of War 1-3 was the exact same formula with Ascension being the only one to derive from that by having enemy weapon drops. Even the PSP games followed the exact formula blow-by-blow.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Old games had much 10x betetr boss fights, and more akin to traditional action games. Crazy action and battles.

Newer games follow the more earthy modern day HBO TV show kind of vibe.

How many action games have better boss fights than GOW 3?

 

Gamerguy84

Member
The old games were good for their time. The new wouldn't be new without the old.

They served their purpose and we've moved on. The new ones are better in every way.
 

Kokoloko85

Member
I loved the old ones. But I prefer the new ones. Especially the combat.
Its close though, both have great story telling, atmosphere and characters.
The bosses I prefer in the old games
 
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ungalo

Member
I hate basically every decision they made for the new God of War, it's actually pretty incredible.

At the same time i understand them. And i'm not an absolute fan of the original trilogy but still i really liked those games.

Also i'm not saying the serie didn't need changes. It probably did.
 
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The formula was stale as hell by Ascension. If they had done another game in that style it wouldn't have been nearly as successful or critically acclaimed, the franchise would probably be dead, in fact.

It's easy to be nostalgic now that we have two games in the third person, narrative heavy style, but what GoW 2018 did in jumping genres was a huge accomplishment. And they made a fantastic game. I will never agree with anyone saying it shouldn't have happened.

I'm hoping the next iteration of the series keeps the narrative focus and third person camera, but ditches the single shot thing, ups the scale massively, and gives us the best of both worlds. But until that day give me 2018 and Ragnarok all day.
 
Definitely not a hot take. A large portion of the fanbase feels like the new format should have been relegated for a new IP and God of War left alone in the gameplay department.
 

SHA

Member
I disagree with this reasoning, if the PS2 could do it, the PS4 absolutely could. they chose to focus on other things, it was a deliberate decision
Read about cpus instruction sets, it's not a secret, it'll kill a lot of doubts, there's no secrets into making games, search about Linux op, it's easier to get useful informations and will save a lot of your time.
 
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Loxus

Member
The trilogy is good but not the camera in my opinion.

That stuck in place, awkward camera angles is what I dislike about the trilogy.

Imo, I want the trilogy to be redone to match God of War 2018 and Ragnarok.
 

Golgo 13

The Man With The Golden Dong
The original trilogy was incredible and they still hold up today. GoW 2018 struck a good balance of mature introspection and visceral combat that while inferior to GOW3 for example, still successfully took the series into the new generation. Minor pacing problems sure, but no serious flaws. It didn’t go overboard and retained the spirit of the original Trilogy for the most part.

Ragnarok was a complete failure and took the game away from the God Of War spirit into a teenage angst ridden walking simulator full of horrific pacing and uninteresting characters. You can feel the presence of a woke writing staff in how Kratos was emasculated at every turn. I had to force myself to finish it.
 

Topher

Identifies as young
No, God of War is still God of War. Thread title should have been "Why I don't like the new God of War".
 

Sethbacca

Member
Claiming that the old games are better in your opinion is a valid criticism, but claiming that something isn't what it is just makes the argument foolish. People like to do this gatekeeping nonsense and say Fallout isn't Fallout, and modern Star Wars isn't Star Wars, and (*insert your property of choice here*) isn't (*insert your property of choice here*). The fact is that the license holder is the only one with the ability to dictate what something is or isn't, and people can either like it or not. Besides, I'm not sure why you'd want something to stagnate in the same style forever anyway. If they were like the old games people would complain that the games feel old and dated, so no matter what they do somebody is going to bitch and the situation is unwinnable and in that case it makes sense to appeal to modern gameplay sensibilities to attract the widest market possible especially when you're doing a series reboot.
 
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Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
Ragnarok was a complete failure and took the game away from the God Of War spirit into a teenage angst ridden walking simulator full of horrific pacing and uninteresting characters. You can feel the presence of a woke writing staff in how Kratos was emasculated at every turn. I had to force myself to finish it.
This. Atreus screaming at his father "You're acting like an asshole!" was just WTF. Maybe modern western kids could do that with their parents, but the child of Greek people would never dare raise their voices at their parents, let alone insult them. Atreus acts like a 21st century zoomer which is jarring considering his father and upbringing.

Then you also had Thrud beefing with her parents like a high school teenager. I think she even told her mom that she hated her or something like. Definitely teen drama series vibes there.
 

Majukun

Member
not really a hot take, at least the part about new gow not being gow.

i don't know what some fans liked about the series, but for sure it was not, well, the series
 

GymWolf

Member
I could not give less fucks about old gow games except for the gore and angry kratos memes and the 2 new games were my goty in their respective years of release.

So i'm not 100% on this with Op to put it mildly.

I take a technical, hard fight against a valkirie over smashing the toes of kronos with qte every day of the week, and i severely side-eye whatever gameplay centric gamer who think otherwise.

At best we can say that they are not god of war games anymore and they are a new thing, i'm ok with that.
 
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I like both styles, but they are massively different. The newer ones are definitely not just an upgrade, but are almost a different genre. I can find the greatness in both though
 

JaksGhost

Member
Definitely not a hot take. A large portion of the fanbase feels like the new format should have been relegated for a new IP and God of War left alone in the gameplay department.
Didn't 2018 sale what the past iteration did over it's lifetime? It seems like the formula was stale and this fresh new God of War is what actually brought it into a larger audience.
 
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Nvzman

Member
I haven't played Ragnarök, but imo 2018 was a good game but horribly overrated. I played through the game on hard and I genuinely think the gameplay is probably the worst part of the game, the fact that the camera is always stuck up Kratos's ass is an absolutely dreadful design decision and I fucking hated that. It makes the difficulty feel a lot cheaper when you can barely see shit around you. I get its for """""immersion""""" but for fucks sake just pull the camera out a little just during combat like Horizon Zero Dawn or Spider-Man does and it'd be fine.
I decided to play the classic games again after beating 2018, and I really do think they are just straight up better games, even if they are also sort of following what was popular at the time. The spectacle and level design is much more memorable, as well as the combat being well designed. Sure 2018 has a better story and I actually like the theme of maturing Kratos a little after all the savage stuff he did in 1-3, but the gameplay I'd take the classic games anyday.
 
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