I thought the spear alone made Ragnarok worth it, but it's a major step down in story telling from 2018 and it left a lot to be desired. Definitely not a 94 for me.
I finished it and I'm glad it did. Wasn't a bad game or experience, just not a great one, which seems to be in line with almost every Sony first party game this generation for me. I don't know if it is because they were cross-gen or what, but they haven't had that appeal. Spider-Man 2 wasn't cross gen but might as well have been.
It was the switching between characters.
And writing, something felt off in Ragnarok, I agree. I already wrote something similar in GoW thread a while back.
First game had better writing, no characters switching, you felt manly well like a God of War, here instead you could loose immersion and I did actually a few times.
It wasn't a bad game, had my share of fun here and there.
But I have felt it wasn't as epic as it could have been.
Maybe because of COVID it was rushed? Saw a heck a lot of support studios pitching in to finish it in the credits- and it wasn't buggy but maybe the direction suffered here and there. Maybe they had to cut content and it actually didn't click. SMS was supposed to initially do a trilogy- maybe cut content? Plus pacing issues. But anyways right now it's water under the bridge- no point in wondering what could have been.
As of SM2 prologue felt last gen as hell it really felt rushed, some parts were actually like some nice next-genish stuff, others felt crossgen. Definitely a few steps back were made in comparison to Miles Morales, which is a shame.
Was hoping for well more Venom, hopefully DLC won't feel like a cut content. But man who knows.
It feels like games made during COVID and post COVID suffered, even Sony couldn't made them 100% top notch with good direction and writing. Feels a bit like some management issues were involved. But it's somewhat uderstandable given the situation. They probably couldn't delay games and push budgets to the infinity and beyond, just to get a more coherent vision.
Hopefully new Sony exclusive games moving forward won't feel rushed, unfinished with a somewhat lacking writing or off feelings with direction or pacing.
But we will see if they were COVID/post-covid issues or that's the new Sony norm or something.
Hopefully not.
And I won't be bitching about it on GAF constantly or make a bunch of new threads about the same stuff because I already played those games and I know what felt off or not- and really there is no point. It's time to move on.
I personally would grade those games lower than critics did, but they weren't bad games. And Ragnarok didn't have any technical issues at launch. Can't say much about SM2, since I didn't play it at launch. And I think the game was mostly patched up when I started playing. Had only one non breaking game bug once during my whole playthrough. That's about it.
Anyways I am playing Dead Space Remake and I really feel like we should have more linear games 8 to 12h long tops, no bloat or XP stuff.
Sony should green light some cool more linear games this gen also or other 3rd party devs. I miss those type of games honestly. Is it just me?
Maybe I'm getting old. But sometimes it's a chore.
The last game I enjoyed 100%, even if it was open world, was Ghost of Tsushima.