So I bought God of War last week and already sold it because I just can't deal with what the game has to offer, because I already seen it somewhere else.
Sometimes, people say that the AAA games are just a copy of another AAA game in another setting, that they are lacking originality or they just take anything that's popular in gaming nowadays... and I think God of War is unfotunately a great example . Almost everything I've seen in this game is taken from popular trends during these last 10 years. It's ok to take inspirations from things that are working but here is the catch with GoW : it doesn't work for me. at. all. The list is long so I think I will just talk about what's bothering me the most.
The first thing that irked me is the high amount of RPG elements, there are levels, armors, crafting, forging, upgrading, skill trees, talisman, etc. I'm ok with RPG elements as long as they make sense and don't make navigating through the menu a pain in the arse. But it's not the case, this game is just throwing me lots and lots of stuff at my face it's actually boring. There is actually more loot than in some RPGs, so much loot that I actually don't care about upgrading since I know I will get a better armor every 30 minutes. It also makes getting treasure chests tedious (and there is another reason but I'll come back on it later), since I know that most of the time, the reward I will get wouldn't worth crap, but since I'm a stupid completionist at heart I can't leave one treasure chest unopened, poor me. Also, I'm actually really disappointed but how much your stuff makes battles easier or harder, I kinda like the battle system but it doesn't reward skill enough, if I'm like 2 levels below a random mob, I will just hit him like a potato and get hit like a truck in return, it's really sad. I don't understand why these elements take so much place in the game, it just drags the pace and get everything longer for no reason...
Another thing that bothers me, it's the huge inspiration from Naughty Dogs games. Like The Last of Us. Obviously there is Atreus but it's not the only thing, there is also the camera angle (well it's in
every sony games actually). While the combat is not has confusing as I thought when I saw the trailers, the exploration is irritating with this camera. You can't see things clearly since Kratos back is like on a third of a screen. Also the game is really beautiful (sometimes, not always, for example the witch's forest is a little bit TOO colorful) but it forgot to get to give player a clear understanding on where you can walk and where you can't, there is a lack of visual clues on that departement, sure there is rubbles that indicates a invisible wall but it's not easy to see from a distance with this camera angle making exploration not really fun or even rewarding for the reason above. Another thing that irks me is the good old boost you give to your partner to reach some places, this mechanic is downright infuriating right now, it's not fun, it's boring when you see it for the 47th time, really, I'm tired of this.
There are also others things that bothered me like the bad guy who is just a wildling from game of thrones that talks like a random vilain from a netflix series or the fact that Atreus sometimes talks like he is a millenial who browses 9gag and watches Rick & Morty. The pace feels likes Max Payne 3 sometimes where the game decides you will not sprint (sprint on L3, stop with that guys, changing to holding X does not resolve the problem) because Atreus needs to follow you even if there is no cutscene. The pacing also suffers from the old syndrome "you're princess is in another castle" where you're initial quest is supposed to take a few hours but there is also something that doesn't work out and then the game drags for too long for absolutely no reason. I actually did not bother to finish the game because of this
That's too bad, I don't totally dislike this game. Father-son relationship was kinda interesting and the combat is not bad per se but really, I can't bother with everything I mentionned below because I already saw it in a lot of other games and medias. It's tiring when you deal with this the 3455th time when it's not actually properly implemented in the game correctly.
(Also I'm kinda worried this game got such good reviews, which maybe means that everyone will take inspiration from it and I'm not ready for this)
