I forgot about the existence of the Thor's sons boss fight in 2018. I should have mentioned that. That fight was okay. Good on new game plus but just okay otherwise. Support me on Patreon: patreon.com/underthemayo Join the Mayo Discord and meet more remarkable souls like yourself! discord.gg/29jbfwycDJ Mayo merch here! teespring.com/stores/underthemayo RUclips Memberships to my channel now available, click the "Join" button. Follow me on Twitch at twitch.tv/underthemayo
They literally changed it so that it doesn’t take a long time for the players to get there tho they really wanted to make us climb it ourselves at first. It just says so much about devs care in the past compared to now
@@TropicaIJay yes or anyone else who finds things sensitive like that. I understand maybe monitoring younger kids. Yes mainly liberals to answer that. Ever played Arkham city? I know it's off topic here, but I gurantee you they would complain about Talia or Catwoman and it the game could be patched now it would.... That is what I'm playing atm lol
20 years ago climbing were cutscenes, 10 years ago climbing was ascending Mount Olympus, today it’s holding the circle button while moving the left analog stick.
One thing I will always miss about the older Greek games is the sense of scale. That's the risk that comes with turning the game into a grounded "over-the-shoulder" style. You lose those dynamic levels like the Poseidon fight while climbing Gaia. Or the Chronos fight. It's a shame. Sometimes I imagine an alternate world where the Norse games were made in the gameplay engine of GoW3. That was the most polished game in the original trilogy. Still play it 12 years later!
@@javierduque7809 It wasn't just "fodder enemies and QTEs," that's a very shallow interpretation of the level. There was also lots of cool platforming involved. Yeah, there were fodder enemies, but the spectacle was really impressive and much more memorable than copy/pasted Troll ogres. There are many bosses in the GoW trilogy that had strategy/etc, not all of them were QTEs/fodder. Chronos was one of those QTE fights, but it was really memorable because the fight was whole level itself. You are literally climbing/platforming him.
@@javierduque7809 oh yeah because half of this game isn’t walking and listening to dialogue or watching a cutscene, just to then fight fodder enemies lol 😂
Atreus has completely ruined the game for me. I could handle him in 2018 as he was just a side character you could largely ignore, but now he has dedicated big chunks of gameplay. Add to that, as a whiny teenager he's even more annoying than as a child. It's like buying a "Batman" game and then being forced to play as Batman's child, who wants to do that?!?
Ironwood felt like 4 hours for me. It just went on and on. Someone described the giant boss fight as a Kingdom Hearts boss fight and that’s pretty accurate
Even Ironwood felt like the Kingdom Hearts 2 prologue. No longer playing the main character, much more limited move set, you’re stuck with other characters you don’t have any attachment to, you have loads of cutscenes interrupting gameplay and you don’t really know where it’s going or why you’re there.
I am also one of those players who love GoW for the combat and doesn't care about the story so much. I finished GoW 2018 10 times, just for perfecting the entertaining combat. The Ironwood is one reason why I won't finish Ragnarok 10 times. That section just steals a whole evening from me on every playthrough. It is such a huge pain in the ass. I am sick of all those people solely consider GoW as a heartbreaking family drama... I WANT COMBAT AND GORE GODDAMIT!!! I hope they let us skip all that soap opera bullshit with the New Game+ update.
I completely agree. I absolutely hated this section on the game and I couldn't wait for it to End. Unless they make an option to skip the Atreus sections or at least Ironwood in New Game Plus, I don't ever see myself replaying the game.
These games are really lacking in the epic department, in gow1 you fight a giant sea serpent on a boat in the middle of a storm, in gow3 you fight poseidon and his seahorses while atop gaia and kratos always had to come up with some creative or unusual way to deliver the final blow. I understand 2018 and ragnarok trying to be more "personal" and "emotional" but these things are not mutually exclusive.
The point about pseudo-interactive talking scenes resonates with me. People used to complain when every game wanted to be labelled "cinematic" by having lots of cutscenes and less gameplay. So they allowed you to walk around during cutscenes, but there often isn't anything meaningful you can do.
i miss the nostalgic feeling of playing videogames where it suddenly shifted into a cutscene like in jade empire or warcraft 3, where it took you out of the game engine for a minute and you were just as interested in the story being shown as you were in how they were animating it, walking simulator mode while you have to mash R1 or walk as an npc talks are fucking boring.
DMC 3 did it best, cutscenes at beginning and end of mission / post boss battle, inbetween is pure gameplay / puzzle solving, makes it really easy to jump in and play a good mission.
@@ethanreddy6551the Baldur fight was long and boring, with too many cutscenes. And the Dragon fight is just a movie, dodge or parry, do some damage, throw a ball, do some damage. All that repeating. Little sense of agency. I felt telegraph. It could not compare to the hydra fight in GoW 1, because in that fight there are not much useless cutscenes.
@@ethanreddy6551 cinematic? No, just a lot of cutscenes jumble togethef. One, cinematic is not a value, if anything, it became a minus because player agency is sacrificed. Two, the cinematography was boring = zoom-in and zoom-out, rince and repeated. There was even less misc-en-scene than the first GoW, where the frame had meaning due to the fixed camera. The 3rd person shooter view, made frame worse. Three, GoW 2018 felt like a chore and scripted event, whereas the old GoW felt like the players earn that event after bashing the god.
I miss when Kratos had wings, he had a bow, Medusa's head. He had a huge arsenal of weapons. In this game the blades of chaos don't feel as brutal or strong like they did in the first 3.
Because will make the new axe toy look like shit which by default are, just comparing how kratos was Spiderman with baldes of chaos doing such brutal epic moments with it and now they try to pseudo replace it with just a fk axe it like making a secondary weapon of gow 2 or 3 the main weapon , a fk axe could never replace the blades of caos
@@jaotrx7163I mean the axe isn’t weak just cause you don’t like it. It went on par with mjolnir and froze its lightning, which I feel like is as good a feat as the blades ever got. Also for them being weaker, kratos is supposed to be holding back his strength, in the old games that dude was fucking pissed off tryna kill anything he could. Now he’s just tryna protect his son and so he purposely doesn’t use all his power cause he’d go bonkers. And with how cinematic the game is you can imagine they want the gameplay to be fairly lore accurate.
@@froginabucket7294 first of all in the 2018-2022 games he’s pretty much only killing in self defense and atreus’ defense. Also it’s not a about being a, “better person.” It’s about not losing himself in his anger and going too far.
Yeah, I was expecting some epic show down and set piece with Thor like the previous games but the fight kind of just ends before it even gets started. Baldur had a more epic fight
@@Adi-mk2lq “spectacle” is just a fancy word for watching cool cutscenes. The second Thor fight IS the cutscene. But I totally get why some don’t like it, it’s just the kind of fight I like
I guess you're not popular enough or probably because you don't upload gaming walkthroughs or stream them idk why they didn't probably because you hated 2018 idk really know
I agree with everything you’re saying. To me, this game is super boring and the way you control KRATOS is super annoying, I got to the part where you fight Alva, turned it off and haven’t played it since, honestly a waste of 70.00. A big fan of 1, 2 and 3, these reboots just suck.
One of my complaints with this game was how Ragnarök suddenly falls into place: 1. Freyr disappears for a while and suddenly Alfheim agrees to go to war with Asgard. 2. The pig guy goes away and voila, we have Helheim with us. 3. No one talks to Jormungamdr but he too suddenly shows up to the fight. 4. Sif is incredibly polite for someone who's losing her realm and home. 5. No boss fight between Thor and Jormungamdr. It's just this bleak cutscene which I didn't even notice. 6. Most important! Kratos isn't even being a general in the final fight. He's not leading any army, he's just in single combat pretty much the whole time. 7. The purpose of the mask is not explained, and so breaking it felt confusing and wrong. But it's Atreus who did it, so I guess it's okay! 8. And the Giants never left their marbles to fight with Odin. Why?? It's so bizarre that Atreus kept them in his pocket the whole time when he should've brought them back to life for Ragnarök. The whole finale seemed... Easy.
this is so true also don't forget about Surtur who just agrees too easily to help cause Ragnarok. I expected a boss fight with him when he first pushed Kratos away, but no, he has nothing to live for moreover he has the heart of his lover (forgot her name), so no sacrifice is needed, how convenient Even Kratos is aware of this and says "this feels too easy" right before we fight two easy valkyries that served zero purpose to the story
@@suhaib9001 He says it feels too easy because he expected Odin to try and stop them. Which turns out to be true. Though I do agree that it felt a bit rushed at the end.
@@suhaib9001 at first, ngl, I thought Odin was disguised as Surtr because how easily he was convinced. I was also expecting a boss fight, but it seemed too easy. The ending did feel rushed. We didn’t even get Surtr do damage to Asgard, he was just in the background
I'm honestly surprised with how many positives he had about Ragnarok as well. I even agreed with some of his criticisms. Definitely thought he was just going to rant. Glad he made it more impartial.
@Andrew Espinosa Yeah, I agree. So I question why there are still fanboy dumbassess in the comment sections still complaining that this is a whiny, ranty critique with no points made. It's even more hilarious that some are getting so pent up about Mayo thinking he was being referenced by the game since this dude has actually made podcasts with game directors and personally has given feedback that other devs took seriously, and yet they say it's proof his a narcissist. Smh, if you're gonna come to already hate and not actually watch the video, then go away or otherwise don't be surprised when people only take your hate comment as a hate comment.
Finally good thread. No stubbornness from either side. He made valid points, but it depends on the player what they enjoy. No game is perfect for everyone. And true is totally different from og trilogy.
Yeah. Story about brainless brawl stuff. A guy came from Greece to have a quiet life but the local Gods are so bored and without anything better to do so they going berserk against Kratos just for fun. Like wtf.
@@ps4games164 bruh, Odin has to be one a THE MOST FREAKIN TYPICAL "bad king"s in caucasian mythos 😂😂😂 his behavior matched his voice *too well* and Ive seen so many people defend the BS with "oh, thats how odin was REALLY like in norse mythos".... but..... *why does that mean its Good and/or I Can't Think Its Utter Trash* ????? 🤔 it's a *GOD OF WAR* game lmaooooo
Yesss bro if atreas dies and we see kratos full of rage ready to destroy everything for vengeance maybe then the gamd was ac gonna be good,heck maybe even was gonna be good enough to be called GOD OF WAR GAME and fatherhood adventures
Never felt this conflicted about a game before. I actually really like the additions and improvements made to the combat. The problem for me is just how frequently the gameplay is interrupted in favour of the story. I would never call it a bad game but my god it's so pretentious at times.
It's a fuckin GOW game with a disney or marvel template. When I met odin for the first time in Ragnarok I was like wtf? This is Odin? This is how Odin sounds and talks? Wtf am I playing? Then the fact as soon as I get into Kratos learning/unlocking new stuff upgrading etc I have to play as annoying ass Atreus? I buy GOW to play as Kratos not anyone else. If they want me to play a different character then do a whole different game where I play as that character. Dont integrate playing a different character other than Kratos in GOW.
That’s how I felt after watching his 2018 video. I had just beat the game and just felt kind of bored. Whereas after each of the first 3 I usually played it over after beating it the first time.
You already felt that way but couldn’t communicate it even to yourself, so you need a talking head to do it for you. You’ve chosen a really bad head though.
Honestly the sections where you play as atreus and the absolute padding of the side quests makes me not wanna play the game again bc its like OMG i gotta sit through all these parts I hate
I hope we get rid of NPC hints soon. Hand holding is a failure of game design! These developers should never make assumptions about the player. It's one of the most basic fundamentals of gaming.
In 2030 all movies will be called games cuz randomly devs would insert "Press X to lift log" and "Press F to Pay Respects". And it will win Game of the Year and Oscar at the same time.
I think God of war Ragnarok was boring and depressing. I miss the old God of war style, I mean look at the boss fight of Odin vs the boss fight of Zeus.
@Lorenzo Sari Umm Why? That fight had incredible emotional intensity. Like you seriously want to bash the shit out of him, he has several phases that change up the boss fight and requires the player to be thoughtful of their attacks due to blocking spamming, utilising clones to encourage area of effect attacks, punishes the players negligence by constantly healing in the last phase and has unblockable attacks to encourage more defensive approaches beyond dodge and block. Seems a great boss to me
i actaully really liked odins bossfight in terms of gameplay, it was pretty hard, odin had alot of diffrent moves, and it had multiple phases. I think the presentation was a bit bland though
The biggest mistake with these Norse GoWs was the camera. Up close over-the-shoulder makes the entire game feel stiff and combat suffers greatly from it. It works for games like Resident Evil and Gears of War but not for action games imo.
They are tripping, they could have atleast did this for certain points when characters bond or etc. They could have mixed the traditional camera but want to grab folks emotions too much
Feel like one good addition would be if instead of wait time, runic attacks are filled by consecutive hits from weapons. So instead of just waiting around to use a powerful attack players are focused on combos and rewarded with a powerful attack. Still love the game tho
There's really no incentive to just 'wait around' though. In normal fights mobs will swarm you so you might as well thin the herd with your normal attacks, and (mini)bosses are usually very aggressive. It's not like players can just backpedal/turtle and wait for their runic attacks to become usable.
@@Jerry-dx3cb Yes, players can just wait for the runic attacks to become usable again. I'm one of them, and just spam them as I rotate weapons for boss fights because I want to get through the story faster instead of spending time and effort in the part of the game I am not interested in.
In the old GoW games, you follow an original and unique story of Kratos against the gods. And yes, it was lore inaccurate (Hercules being older than Perseus even thou Perseus is his Grandfather and so forth) but it was all done so *you* experience Kratos‘ story in the most fun and epic way possible. In the new games, you are now a character shoved into the story of the already existing story of Ragnarok and all you do is just do things to let the story of Ragnarok unfold. You don’t follow Kratos anymore doing his thing, you follow around Kratos being just another character in the story of Ragnarok
@@Enskyed ah yes, please tell me a story where a Mortal raged War against the Gods of Greece that was put in a game, or a hack and slash game in the style of God of War or anything like that before the age of 2005
@@fyrijou5202 They didn't make video games in ancient greece. Point is, the story at its core is literally just a greek tragedy, there's definitely unique elements but at it's core it's just that.
I’ve been playing GOW since 2006 and I just beat Ragnarok on GMGOW difficulty. I think it’s the last installment that I’m going to bother playing. I just got so sick of them saying “No, please! We don’t want to fight you!” and the writing in general. The entire game felt like one long feel-good group therapy session. And the end battle of Ragnarok itself in Asgard felt like it was 5 minutes with an extremely lame boss fight with Odin at the end.
Atreus was giving me Steven vibes from Steven Universe. "Preach non-violence against the violent, always reaching out to the literal genociders and abusers because it's good"
They should have never introduced thrud and sif. All thrud does in the game is flirt with atreus. Drunk thor scene was so unnecessary. When i saw it i was like ,"when did gow become like this". Humour is justifiable in the game but not excess of it. Gow games need to be bit serious than this. Odin talks way to modernly . In actual norse mythology aesir are very loyal to eachother. Thor and kratos fight was one of the most anticipated fights in gaming. But the hype was for nothing. The beginning of the game was really good, thor reviving kratos and trying kratos to bring him back to his older self. Everyone wanted kratos v thor 1v1 deathbattle. They showed that thor was bloodlusty(less then kratos) . It took kratos 7 seven games to change and you tell me thor was convinced by kratos under 3 sec talk? It's okay if kratos didn't keep mjolnir because its moveset would be very similar to leviathan axe. But what disappoints is that kratos didn't even lift mjolnir by his hands once. Instead game showed that he was struggling to lift it even though he swung mjolnir with his chain. But wanted kratos to bash thor's head with the hammer. Odin bossfight was a joke. First thor fight was good. Second thor fight was good but short, it should have been a deathbattle. Last important thing is that they were supposed to show strongest version of kratos in this game because cory said old kratos is stronger than young kratos. But in the game kratos said that when he was young he wielded every flavor of power imaginable and said he lost most of his powers after gow 3. And cory wont even say how old kratos is more strong meanwhile the game is telling us that he is not that powerful now. How are we supposed to believe that he is more powerful than his younger self. They didn't show anything big. We know kratos was holding back as already stated in the game. But we already saw dad of boi we wanted to see god of war.
@@blackmask5335 I understand wanting to see young Kratos again, but that would just be gow 3 all over again. We know what happened and how it negatively affected Kratos. Why would he do that to himself again?
@@blackmask5335 Even the character designs themselves were lackluster imo. I honestly enjoyed the fan art of the some of the characters than what we got from the end product. Also with the writing, everything just seems so much more preachy and annoying. There literally wasn’t a single scene where I didn’t roll my eyes during the dialogue.
The story is incredible up until about when Heimdall dies… I was so invested in the story I didn’t want to put the controller down, then it becomes a bit lackluster imo. Ragnarok was hyped up astronomically in gow 2018 as “the twilight of the gods” … “the end and the beginning” but in reality it was a 30 min skirmish. I do love how they concluded Kratos arc however, and thought the final 10 minutes or so picked things back up. All in all a great game but it definitely would have been better as a trilogy
I don’t understand how it took them 4-5 years to release basically a dlc of the 2018 game. Maybe they could’ve done a trilogy if it wasn’t going to take them over a decade.
I think what we're looking at though is not twilight of the gods and that we'll look at this as maybe the end of the beginning of the first trilogy of an overarching story and why they cut this to 2 games vs. 3 so it won't push out to 20 years. I think the tear in Odin's workshop area is a bigger reveal or has something to do with the story's actual endgame. Odin / Ragnarok isn't the final boss anymore than Zeus was, which is why this story feels less like a conclusion because it's not...they have a bigger overall story arch they're working on that will play out over future years.
There are some glaring plot holes in this game, one even in the very beginning where Kratos refuses Odins peace deal (which gets himself killed btw). There is a diary entry trying to fill that hole by saying the terms are unacceptable, but they actually aren't.
Its baffling how you cannot skip cutscenes when there are other story driven cinematic games like Witcher 3 and Red Dead Redemption 2 that allow you to skip dialogue and cutscenes.
It’s weirder considering they updated God of war 2018 to be able to skip cutscenes and have new game plus. I mean the old games you couldn’t skip them either but this one is significantly longer so it’s kinda a problem. Hopefully they update it
@@VarinderBhandal then it's probably a day one edition that forces players to watch the cutscenes and experience the game as they intended - as their interactive cinematic "experience", and speedrunners can have their fun next year.
@@royaltyfree9607 you can say you think the game is fantastic and that’s fine. But to assume the game is fantastic is a fact is just wrong and anyone can claim the opposite with the same amount of evidence
I watched Jacksepticeye's playthrough and even he being a chill guy was angry at the clunky camera and characters not shutting up during puzzles or combat encounters. Also I'm surprised Mayo didn't compare the Ragnarok war with Immora from the Doom Eternal DLC.
This game was so boring. My god the level of padding in this game is unprecedented. I couldn’t even get myself to Finnish the game. I simply saved myself 20 hours by watching the ending on RUclips.
@@blakseed he’s right. I’m playing these games since 2005 and never been this disappointed in a God of War game since. Hell this was almost as disappointing as R&C remake.
My biggest complaint with Thor and Odin is that they don't come off as who they are. Besides the hammer Thor has no presence or threat level to him. Odin comes off more as a strange crazy knowledge seeker. I wasn't expecting Odin to look mighty and impressive but considering what we were told I was expecting the ancient sorcerer type of character who was obsessed with having all the secrets of the universe to himself. That he was the only one to get them and that he didn't trust his family believing they were against him for the knowledge. Thor is hinted at having more to his character but it's never shown, rather we are constantly told by Thrud and Sif. Heimdalh is not really a moment where I felt the original Kratos. If anything the entire situation around Heimdalh everyone supported Kratos killing him, even Mimir was behind the idea, which made the head trying to stop him bizarre. Kratos claiming he was slipping into his old ways made me scratch my head because Kratos gets nowhere near the level of who he was, even at a God of War 2 level. If anything it seemed more like the story was actually pushing Kratos to become that person again but without the consequences of what that would mean.
I miss the psp too. The whole handheld spinoff genre is kinda dead now. But it was cool because they could expand on the story but the games were kinda small for a full AAA experience
I enjoyed the game. Though when I swapped over to Atreus part of the game I felt myself wanting to go back to Kratos' side of the story, it felt to me like there was a lot of hand holding with Atreus and no chance of dying. And towards the end I felt as though the story fell apart a wee bit. Still a great game, visually amazing
That's because Atreus sucks as a character and has caused the story to do a complete nose dive from its original story. Atreus is single handedly one of the most repetitive and annoying characters to deal with. He is the jar jar binx of gow and many of the long time fans would agree
I like Atreus fighting and then i got to the moment during the end where he turns into a bear to protect Sindri. His rage meter doesn’t go down until all the enemies are gone. I realized that that the game will do that type of trick everytime they don’t want you to die or fail.
@@BphillipsARthat only happens for two moments, when he first turns into a wolf and when he turns into a bear. I think they do it because they just want to show off the power, even if you never actually use the bear again, which sucks.
You know what, Under the Mayo? I REALLY liked this review despite being negative about your previous one(about GoW 2018). It's well structured, with fair criticism and interesting suggestions on how to solve and/or allieviate some of its flaws, even acknowledging this games strengths. Bravo.
@@acethemain7776I mean the ultrakill community ultimately lost because there’s now actual benefits to doing well in ultrakill part 2. I love ultrakill, but not everything the fandom thinks is right and the devs showed that
What if you had the Atreus sections start in his favour and quickly become something Kratos should be able to do, but Kratos is not around. Actually having to struggle as Atreus would make you appreciate Kratos. If Atreus were to recognize how difficult it was and even grow from his experiences, maybe he would be a better character. Use the gameplay to reflect the character's struggle and have them grow
Believe me when I say, it definitely felt like those sections were made with GMGOW in mind. It is a struggle when playing as Atreus on that difficulty.
I hope people don’t just dismiss this review, you really tried to like this game as I did, but it just didn’t work. It’s not a bad game, a solid 7, without the puzzles, pacing problems and Atreus levels, an 8. Not amazing though
I think the reason why they made the Atreus sections so easy was to help speed up the section. Imagine his sections actually being difficult and the player struggling and possibly dying and having to repeat levels... They probably knew how boring the sections were but instead of removing or changing them, they just made them "easy" to get through.
I think Atreus was a fully powered up character right from the get go.. the animation cancel speed, turn speed etc.. whereas Kratos gets there in the end after the process of levelling up...
My biggest complaint is that ever since 2018 Kratos has felt like the dad of war bot the god. Coming from GoW 3 to this and kratos can’t even jump while struggling with regular enemies is just…saddening. The game is probably more enjoyable for those who never had the chance to play with kratos at full strength. That plus all the slow shambling and bloated cutscenes just makes it a movie to me with some combat
@@frogglen6350 it’s not a skill issue, why is everything a skill issue today? Combat isn’t more difficult on harder levels, enemies merely gave more health. This doesn’t make combat more rewarding when you win, just makes the combat scenario take more time bc enemies are spongy
@@frogglen6350 the issue isn’t dying more than usual, the issue is drawn out encounters that make kratos feel under leveled, thus making player progression less rewarding
Y'all really need to take off the rose tinted nostalgia glasses, this is just delusional. The combat system in the modern series obliterates the OG trilogy
@@b1thearchitect401 big disagree here. Variety and incentive to play well were present. Many different moves to chose, aerial combat, xp/blood mechanic with reward based on performance. Until yesterday it has been 10 years since i touched the originals, and yesterday i played them again (1,2) and realised that although not perfect, the old combat system is LEAGUES more fun, deep and intense. Im not even a hardcore fun of the series and even i can see that. Not saying the new games are bad, people like/love for a reason, but they do not TOUCH the old ones as hack and slash/character action games (however you call them).
@@thanospavel9970 You're completely and utterly ignoring the feel of the combat, which is massively less impactful and powerful in the old games, IMO the chains feel like they were barely making contact with enemies and minus the quick time event kill animations, those games had pretty floaty and low impact combat. Also while there might be mechanical incentives to encourage engaging with the deeper combos and mechanics, I rarely if ever found myself in those games actually using it, those games were tough, and there were a few blade combos that just felt objectively better than everything else, so you end up spamming to survive really tough encounters. In practice, I find GOW 2018 & Ragnarok, I actually use the full suite of moves available a LOT more often. - I'll give you credit though, both you and the creator of this video have a good point in regards to a combo system, I actually think a skill based reward system for high level play would work great in the new series and I'm kind of surprised they don't have it. I guess the increased focus on narrative means they don't want to alienate shitty players lol. But I'm happy the high difficulty settings are still VERY challenging and the game doesn't just purely cater to casual Uncharted fans.
@@b1thearchitect401 i fully agree with everything. I too always thought that the sounds in the originals could have been a lot more satisfying. And yes, i do remember some instances where the combat devolves to mashing (unless you are playing on higher difficulties but not many people do that on their first playthrough).Also, it is true that harder difficulties do make 2018 and Ragnarok even more fun (haven't played Ragnarok since it's not out on pc yet so I'm just assuming). I usually don't like Very slow paced games but 2018 was a good game. I can certainly say that the people that made it and Ragnarok have passion.
@@thanospavel9970 I don't mean to rag on the OG trilogy, as I think especially GOW3 still holds up as a really fun and still graphically impressive game, but yeah the main mechanical reason I prefer the new series is the FAR crunchier, heavier feel to combat. The Leviathan axe particularly just feels fucking awesome IMO (The new spear weapon actually feels powerful af too). Ragnarok is a big step from 2018 in terms of enemy encounter design and variety, as well as combo depth and variety. Definitely give it a shot when it inevitably comes to PC.
My main problem was the staging of the worlds, which in my opinion was a great strength of the predecessor. In the previous one in Alfheim, you got into a boat and sailed on this beautiful lake, and gradually worked your way towards the light. In Ragnarok, you're just teleported into a desert nobody knew about. It was fun exploring the desert but it felt kind of random and weird.
I think it’s that this game is missing the series’ signature “slow reveal/unlocking of a huge environments or obstacle”. Like how the old games were or how the 2018 one centered around Tyr’s temple and the Lake of the Nine. Little by little through environmental puzzles, and feats of strength you’d unlock the way forward where’s in Ragnarok you’re mostly always just going down these corridors with no overarching connection.
He is right about the quick turn animation glitch. It continues to happen after the patch. Very frustrating when the weapon of choice is switched out unexpectedly.
I hate how they treat Kratos. Everyone talks down to him, the writers nerfed the f out of him and he's constantly being upstaged by his extremely boring son.
How was Kratos nerfed? Didn’t he beat the previously untouchable Heimdall? He bodied Thor who towers over him. Just in the last game he flipped Tyr’s temple!
@@codafett what do you mean? Kratos struggled a lot. He even died a few times😂. And no one in Greece had abilities quite like Heimdall’s. And even then, when Kratos got that hit in, it was all over for him. Are you just misremembering these things or what?
@@1CursedXD1 inappropriate language is one of the requirements for it to be rated m for mature dingus. And ripping people in half with the blades is a lil to violent for a child
@@mosesmorales8601 I mean GoW 3 was rated M because you disembowel people and monsters and literally rip off someone’s head with your bare hands and there are naked chicks and blood everywhere too. This game is as close to “fantasy violence” as it gets, boohoohoo someone said the F word.
I hate how the axe is the only weapon that gets unique light and heavy attacks when the weapon is sheathed (or on the ground somewhere). I like being able to switch between the weapons in combat and it would've been cool if they added that feature to the blades and spear as well
Could be that your axe is actually thrown and recalled… the blades and the spear are kinda stuck to you via the chain and the ring on your finger for the spear. Like, even though you’re throwing the spear, it’s technically still in your hand lol. I agree though, like an L2 throw quickly followed by a light or heavy attack giving an additional unique attack would’ve been DOPE!
Also now the only weapon with stance attacks. The blades and bare handed stances were taken out while not giving any stance to the spear to begin with.
a thing that i really dislike is when i don't block once or do something and they say like "what good is the shield if you don't use it!" "the arrows!" like, kratos in no dummie, and i feel like they're calling me dumb when i don't some attack or something another thing, when you lock on an enemy and it runs so i gotta control my camera to look at it again and click R3 to lock again
I’ve been saying this for a bit now. But honestly…what sucks about this “Norse Mythology Saga” is the antagonists. Bro the gods suck in this realm. They are so weak and drop like flies. What is the point of introducing weaker antagonists? They could’ve made the gods so much cooler. Magni died WAAAAY to fast, Modi gets bullied the whole first game (literally), Baldur always loses, Thor’s fight just ends and when it gets cool…he leaves, Heimdall was the biggest let down if he century, and Odin was just lost because PLOT. There was zero challenge for them in these games. Kratos’s biggest adversary was raising his own son. If the next games will be in other realms and Kratos is just killing all the gods because he is Kratos I’m probably not gonna play it fr. That shit is boring. All this talk Kratos said in the first game like “there are consequences for killing a god!” fell flat because dude…these gods were complete, push over/gatekeepers. It’s fucking sad it really is.
They don't even feel godly, in the previous games, the gods were commanding, intimidating, and full of power. Like Ares literally massacres a whole army with his will and throws a piller across a desert at pinpoint accuracy to kill Kratos easily. When the gods die in GOW3, there are literal consequences as the world worsens from each death. Then we have this game where the gods are basically just Marvel caricatures of gods, which are just superpowered humans whose feats are pathetic compared to the original games.
Absolutely agree. Boss fights didn’t feel BIG in this game. The original trilogy had much better boss fights. It’s a shame the final act wasn’t as grand as it could’ve been
Bruh that's because the Greek and Norse pantheon is different. Greek gods all have some domain they're tied to (Posideon with Sea, Helios with Sun etc.), so they were more metaphysical and shit. Where as in actual Norse mythology, gods don't have anything like that, maybe except for Thor. Plus they're all mortal and can die of old age (they have to eat Idunn apples to prolong their life.). Ofcourse they're gonna be seen as weaker lol
As a player who came only for the story i found it really disappointment. Remember when someone called the serpent in 2018 gow? Thousands of theories were posted about it. The hype of the world serpent in the 2018 gow is meaningless now. And the most disappointing part is the mural painting like why tf did you even include it in the first place? Telling us every fucking minute that kratos is gonna die and not trying to tell us why the prophecy is broken ( oh but he didn't wear the mask let's put a mask issue so we escape this plothole) And what about tyr? We waited 4 years to know who really is the god of war of these lands. But hell no tyr is a yoga master And now Ragnarok mission is just running killing and defeating the final boss? Even marvel didn't had the balls to do this it was very rushed and with zero strong story moments I fell the story started to fall down when i reached about 50% of the story Ragnarok was a fucking disappointed Execuse my weak English it's not my mother language
Yes. I imagine there's plenty to be disappointed with in terms of story. I'm just disappointed in kratos' role in the plots of these games so it's for me to get into any other story aspects.
I interpreted prophecy being broken by Kratos' learning from the Fates that the future is written by our rigidity, and if you want to change what is coming you have to change yourself and Atreus rejecting the Mask and Odins obsession for knowledge that he doesn't need to know at any cost.
Just finished GOW Ragnarok and wasn't the biggest fan of it, felt like there were 2 steps forward and 1.8 steps back for me but sadly it looks like industry is going to keep pushing into the 'cinematic' experience moving forward. Just have to say man the Sony fanboys have been so damn cringe online recently. I saw a guy spam the comments of several GOW critiques freaking out over every comment that was even slightly critical of the game. If your opinion isn't "ZOMG 10/10 MASTERPIECE BEST GAME EVA!" then they absolutely lose it. Best of luck dealing with the mob since I very well know we are in the minority when it comes to the opinion of this game.
Fantastic break down. I'm glad to see some things were improved, but also disappointed there's still a lot wrong with it. I wasn't expecting a full revision of the gameplay style, but still. Loved how detailed you went. I'm sure I'll have very similar opinions when I finally get to this game. One thing I noticed watching your gameplay was how little blood and gore there is. Like this is still God Of War, I don't care how "mature" or "grounded" or "grown" it is, there is barely any blood. It's especially noticeable when you're fighting in snow or in water. This is an M Rated game series, why are they so afraid of blood, yet unafraid to drop F bombs all the time? I don't understand it at all.
@@GodofHatred and yet do you see blood pooling up anywhere? This was a problem with 2018 too. Most of the "blood" is blue or orange. And the bits of real blood, arent a lot. The snow should be covered in red. Water should be running with blood. In 2018, it even cuts away when you cut off Mimir's head - something the old games would have never shied away from.
I guess they are trying to make GoW more marketable. They tone down the violence/gore to make it more "family friendly" yet keep the language full off cussing to appear edgy. Absolutely shallow.
Bruh, I am not a fan of GoW Ragnarok either, but I don't know what the kind of twisted standard that you have is like if the lack of a barehanded skill tree is your biggest problem with the game.
@@ShadowbannedAccountyour main gripe with the game was a lack of an entire skill tree and the watering down of the unarmed combat? Bruh well my biggest gripe was the story took too much time with giving characters development and how Kratos isn’t yelling every five minutes, what a twisted standard you have bruh. Your biggest issue with the game should be MY biggest issue!!!!! Fuck you for enjoying the game >:(
I don't know how to feel about Atreus's sections of the game. I played it on GMGOW on my first playthrough and instead of being easy it became annoying and stressful because the little amount of damage he does and the overwhelming amount of fights that you have to go through, at least Kratos has some slow paced sections with some puzzles on the side, but Atreus is just fight after fight after fight nonstop over and over, there is even this really cute and wholesome scene of Atreus and Angrboda playing with rocks by throwing them on a lake, that is immediately interrupted by another fight, and they are not short, it is 5 draugrs and after you kill those you are faced to another 5 draugrs with some extra 3 snipers shooting you from above. It just becomes overwhelmingly annoying and not enjoyable at all.
i feel you, the enemies you fight as atreus on gmgow are so unbelievably spongy and have infinite poise. it makes atreus combat not fun and boring overall as it results to r1 spam and the occasional parry for every enemy
That’s because you played on the hardest difficulty. Harder doesn’t always make it a more enjoyable experience. In most games now a days harder difficulties means more annoying. It’s rarely ever truly balanced for harder difficulty. I know there are still as many fights on other difficulties I played on give me balance and that section was bearable. If you had played at a lower difficulty then you wouldn’t have had as much annoyance.
@@hellvelyn atreus was op in gmgow you might not have been utilizing his combos effectively. If you used sonic arrow and used his grapple attack (triangle) it was very very good
Multiple god of war personalities are referenced in Ragnarok. It's not far fetched to think that a scene that exactly recreates a montage from a GOW critique that has 750,000 views is a reference too.
@@dogico I talk about it in my follow up video about Atreus. Black Thunder has appeared as an easter egg. I believe Kaptain Kuba is in something, I don't remember.
28:05. Thank you. Jesus fucking Christ. This game should be called God of Puzzles. I don't know why nobody ever brings it up in reviews but the amount of puzzles in this game is beyond frustrating
I also don’t like how Kratos looked with full metal armor, but you can actually change the appearance of your armor without changing the stats and boosts
I personally think DMC3’s camera style did it best: some fixed camera combat, and most combat encounters with a smart camera that automatically adjusts to the action (sort of like ninja gaiden) but gives you the option to move it around if you so please. I think this game would’ve been really cool to have that sort of camera as an option
What's more disappointing than walking and talking is reading the comments section and people attacking each other. If people don't like the game and it offended you, don't attack them. If people like the game and expresses it, don't attack them. We're all side dishes for the Mayo. Listened from start to finish. Very very nice review
Honestly don't get what all the noise is about, the video itself is very civil, but the comment section is on fire Much of these are takes that needs to be talked about at least in game design perspective
Fair and good points. I like that you point out the areas which you consider flawed and take effort to demonstrate it from footage from the game. Really appreciate it. Also, I like that you, unlike many others also show the games strengths instead of just trash talking about the game. Showing downsides with objective analysis lets us see a perspective and decide for ourselves whether we play the game or not. What I have learned though from not only from this game, but also from 2018 and others, if you want to enjoy the games best moments, you also need to be able to tolerate the worst parts. That kinda sucks but there is no perfection.
It actually cracked me up about how pissed you got at the Angrboda and jotunheim section of the game. But after a while of playing that part and hearing that 5 times already, I wanted to just end the game then and there. I probably already requested this, but would u do a review on the 2011 Warhammer 40k Space Marine game? I think you'll enjoy it's hack and slash + third person shooter vibe.
Space marine is cool. I played it a couple hours. But like a lot of games I just kinda see why people like it and lose interest. I don't have much to say.
if nost space marine i think he could critique Darksiders series as it is one of the underrated series with the same genre of GoW (though it has drastic changes between games)
@@millionshadesofdarkness2165 Some people enjoy a good rant. There is a subtle difference between an annoying cry and a funny rant that I'm sure you'll be able to recognize some day 🙂
@@TheEmperorRaidou Eh, he's got some legit criticism, but he complains too much. He should present it as something he would prefer, rather than complaining that it "isn't GOW".
I really liked the video. It's always nice to see you go into detail about game systems and seeing what works and what doesn't, along with your explanations for what you look for in these sorts of games. Third-person action games with over the shoulder cameras are very common in the triple A industry (cinematic or otherwise), and it made sense when you explained the difference between Kratos’s gameplay and Atreus’s gameplay in Ragnarok. I can also understand your points about the unskipable Atreus sections, plus the platforming sections with no possibility to fall off the cliff, either accidentally or on purpose. I myself have vivid memories of how challenging platforming sections could be in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Those sections were a pain to get past but satisfying when you figured out what to do. Though, I did think that the bar fight was a tiny bit charming at the time.
Me and bros always laughed in Prince of Persia when we'd die and the main character would go "no no no no, that's not how it happened" always cracked us up for some reason. Its the small things man!
I feel like they should have done what devil may cry did with the camera. Have it so that off-screen enemies wont hit you with melee attacks until they step in view.
Then my question would be why even implement this type of AI mechanic in the game? What you’re doing is creating fake tension for players that don’t know about this fact. The better solution would be to improve the camera and not only does it not create fake tension but you increase the challenge of every combat encounters. We should be fixing the root of the problem, not creating different mechanics just to put a bandage on the issue which can so easily be abused by the player
@@jesspeed While enemy won't initiate an attack off-screen, DMC had it camera so far away that getting enemy out-of-view is actually harder than just keeping them on screen, and enemy is fast enough to get in view even if you tried to keep them out. Moreover, DMC combat heavily relies on the Lock on system to execute moves that require motion-input like High-time so enemies will be on-screen either way. The only time we can really abuse this system is when playing as V since he doesn't really fight. But the most important part is that the camera system is ignored by bosses, so it doesn't really matter to keep them out of view.
I actually like the camera in GOW. There are prompts to make you aware of incoming attacks off camera. Pulling the camera way back like in the old games might help, but I prefer it the way it is. It would be jarring to aim your axe throws or bow shots from a further perspective, not to mention that you’d be missing out on the incredible details and overall brutality of the combat. My tip for anyone struggling with the camera is to never use the lock-on feature and increase the sensitivity of the right stick so you can swing the camera around quicker. There is no reason to lock onto enemies (I feel like they only added it to the game to appease people who would’ve whined about it otherwise). You can even attack enemies around you by using the left stick. Not sure why the reviewer seems to believe that the enemies have to be directly in front of Kratos to attack them; simply untrue. DMC is an awesome game too, but this is a different game. Just remember the fundamentals; take care of ranged enemies early, don’t allow yourself to get pushed against a wall, and don’t mash buttons without expecting to get punished for it.
This is the kind of game I’ll watch someone play on RUclips. I don’t have the patience for walk n talk sections. It completely kills the replay value for me.
@Mike C besides the atreus thing he's got valid criticisms especially about the story pacing. It can get in the way when I want to enjoy the ganeplay which he acknowledged how much they improved upon. Not as unhinged as his gow 2018 review so I wouldn't feel some type of way about this one
@@lukelmaooooopeople tend to point and laugh at takes they disagree with, without considering the video as a whole and the context behind it. 'Bad take' is pretty meaningless here
@@matthewlugo2417 I’m not expecting every question to be answered. I just don’t want more being piled on while continuing to be so vague about what we wanted answered.
Aside from the Atreus sections being a drag and unskipable, I disagree with what you said. But you put great effort into this video and I appreciate it!
90% of the critiques you have for this game (and GOW 2018) could apply to pretty much every PlayStation exclusive. - restrictive 3rd person over the shoulder camera - Tacked on EXP/RPG systems - repeated snow settings or forest settings - hours of cutscenes - empty open worlds with generic side content - forced walking and talking - context sensitive jumping and climbing with no real input or danger - Invincible companion characters - bonus points if you're playing as a chick with a bow They're all the same game wearing a slightly different hat, and they're all boring.
It feels like Cory's vision was abandoned. Eric was only told he needed to do 3 bullet point then could do whatever he wanted. None of what Cory planned came to be I dont think. It should have been a trilogy and a ps5 exclusive.
You know what would of been brave? For them to make atreas ask the question: "why are you black?" Like I'm pretty sure atreas has only seen about 10 humans in his life and when he sees a black person he just acts like its something he is used to. He asked sindri why brock is blue.
I really liked this review, I love both games,but I acknowledge that they have issues and you made a lot of good points and suggestions on how to improve them just a few things I'd like to say so bear with me: 1. I actually really loved how Odin was portrayed in this game. He's this selfish tyrant that hides his true agenda behind multiple layers of manipulation. He praises, insults and threatens all in the same breath and all of his plans usually have more than one angle to them. And the fact that he presents himself as this benevolent approachable and slightly goofy old man just makes him increasingly more disturbing when you're constantly reminded how he makes everyone around him *miserable* , especially Thor. Its implied , told and even shown multiple times that Thor was emotionally and phisically abused by Odin for decades and turned to drinking to avoid having to face the fact that his father is a monster that only sees him as a tool. Hell , one of the first scenes we get with Odin was him chastising Thor for "being no fun anymore" when Odin knows *exactly* why Thor swore off drinking. It genuenly makes the Aesir gods come off as this family that has been phisically and emotionally abused by a tyrannical grandfather, who scarred multiple generations in his need for control. Its a very different take from the Olympians ,who were all collectively shitty to each other, and a different take from other versions of Norse mythology, but a really good one in my opinion 2. I personally didn't mind Atreus. In fact I love how his actions mirrored a younger Kratos. Heimdall put it really well, he didn't do many of the things he did to "help people" , he did them for himself. And the fact he gets scolded, told off and humiliated throughout the game shows that the writers knew what they were doing and that Atreus needed to learn that his actions have consequences. And yeah, the Ironwood section legitimately made me want to turn off the game and come back later. I appreciate the story significance, the introduction of Angrboda and the boss towards the end but slowing down the game's pacing to that if a goddamn *glacier* for a glorified walk and talk section with occasional combat is unacceptable 3. Kratos's emotional moments showing off his developement were S tier. Literally not much else to say. His collective journey is literally one of the best in video game history don't even @ me 4. While I loved the combat in this game , way more than the first one, and the abundance of genuenly good bosses helping that along I would be lying if the Alfheim secrions didn't make me want to tear my hair out. The light elves, while well designed, dart all aorund the arenas or hit you with tracking ranged attacks and make the camera a pain in the arse to work with Again, the boss fights are where this game shines.
I realize now once the last of us came out and did successfully alot of studio saw that and relazied what if we made our games less of a game and more like a movie. I enjoy 2018 and ragnarok seem look but the gameplay for these games to me feels off compared to the older the games. Story wise I enjoy kratos development from ascension to ragnarok but gameplay wise they should have suck with the older combat and build aopn it hell ubi use the same parkour system for multiple game but once they change it everyone was wondering why. The older system works it up to the developers to mix things up because if it ain't broken don't fix it
Gamers will never be happy. If they change it up like with GoW 2018/Ragnarok, they'll say "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", but when they don't innovate like in CoD, they'll say they're milking the formula smh lol.
Honestly, I loved Ragnarok. BUT, I was disappointed with the boss fights. They’re not as epic as they were in the original trilogy. My brother, after finishing, said that no matter how good these new GoW games are, nothing beats the Poseidon fight from GoW3 and I.. agree. The boss fights were very simple in this game, especially the final fights. Kratos vs Thor should’ve been a long fight and on a big scale. Even fighting Odin wasn’t impressive at all. Also, I really wish they would implement the camera from the Arkham series, closeup when not in combat, but the camera zooms out when in combat. But loved the game nonetheless and can’t wait to see where they take Kratos from here on out!
I can’t get over how much this guy reads my mind about the game but explains it in so much more detail. Couldn’t agree more about almost everything he said. Oh man the camera angles 🙄
Cutting this from a trilogy to two games was a massive mistake. The final sections of the game felt so rushed. Ragnarok should have been huge with multiple titan sized fights. Instead we fight some nameless soldiers, then Thor and Odin in a muddy front yard and it just ends.
first it was used for the unwinnable heimdal fight, used again for the thor fight, and used again for the phase 1 odin fight. thor and odin should have had new stages and showed that they could destroy a realm with the power they wielded.
Modern games suck because the average person is too stupid to handle a game with any depth to it. Devs and Publishers can't afford to make an experience that isn't shallow these days because they'll lose money
Fair take, and just like with the 2018 review, I appreciate that you take the time to point out the potential for amazeballs stuff, even while admitting that potential gets burned out by the blah. Also, you probably didn't intend to evoke this reaction when you were recording this, but at the 23:40 mark where you start ranting about the 2nd Atreus section, I was legit thinking, afterwards "My god, did I just listen to Mayo have an acute rage stroke in real time?" It was as if my hand was on your forehead, and I could feel the vein swelling with anger, about to burst. All that said, hats off, and keep on doing what you do. Cheers.
18:20 I honestly doubt that was about you. The part where he had a bad attitude and repeatedly said whatever was a pretty memorable section of the first game for every player. And the fact that this bit came right after Atreus watched himself murder Modi and blow up at Sindri makes it pretty clear to me that this is just meant to show how he's bothered by his own past attitude and behavior. I do not think it was a dig at you.
People can say it isn't. I think it was a joking acknowledgment that they saw my video. That's all. There are several easter eggs and tributes to personalities in the god of war community. And it wouldn't be the first time someone referenced me in their game.
@@underthemayo Maybe, either way good video. Takes a lot of work to make a hour lng review that I can still enjoy even if I don't 100% agree with it. Nice job.
Yeah it most likely wasn't about him. It seems he just wants to feel acknowledged and is inserting himself into the discussion to feel important. Could be wrong but most likely that's what this is. Solid video otherwise tho.
Atreus being a cocky teen after learning he is a god was a major plot point of the first game, and it serves the same purpose in this scene. Atreus is bothered by his own past behaviour. It is not about you Mayo. Even if they would put an easter egg in the game for you, it’s not gonna be a fucking cutscene in the main story. It is hilarious that you would even think thank.
It's not a cutscene. It is one moment of a cutscene that was a clear joke. And you mention atreus being a cocky teen as a plot point... because?? You're saying "He's annoying because being annoying is part of the story that they wrote." So what? It still sucks.
@@underthemayo - Cutscene or "part of a cutscene" you know what he meant quit being so childish - Atreus literally had a section in the first game where his ego inflated after learning he was a god and Ragnarok Atreus acknowledges those as "bad memories" showing that him acting that way wasn't good. -It's called character growth Mayo good God. Sadly knowing you, it's no surprise your subjective dislike of Atreus combined with you reductionist and often hollow criticism devalues it down to "He's annoying because being annoying is a part of the story" 'iT sTill SuCks" - It has absolutely nothing to do with you and over inflated and delusional sense of importance to the GOW franchise. The fact you even considered it says a lot about you -All things like this do is demonstrate just how much of a joke of a "critic" you are about 70% of the time
@@underthemayo Atreus in 2018 is annoying because of the contrast between his personality and Kratos' attitude. Atreus is a kind and very curious child, but he feels his father's teachings steers him towards a different path(which is not Kratos' intention, he's just doing his best to grow Atreus despite not knowing how to do that, besides the spartan way), one which he doesn't have a say. So, like any child, he tries to get his authority back by being what most kids are best at-being dicks. The scene shows how Atreus, now more conscious about basically everything, can see how really wrong and annoying his line of thought was(and not just a reference to your video, a view you have no proof of). About the god part, the intention was to see how power can corrupt a person(especially one that feels being belittled), but it was way too rushed to have an impact
@@underthemayo are you being intentionally dense to skip over his very accurate statement of your over inflated ego? You say 'it's a clear joke' but the way you say it in the video, you definitely sound serious. Like you think you're so important game devs would bother programming cut scene moments as a pop at you. Its hilariously out of touch
You made great point about old cut scenes used to more in 90 seconds and actually made the game better. Vs the cinematic cut scenes of today there is no competition. I wish i had video game time machine. Stay up and God bless.
@@limabarreto911 Listen I give hope a long ago, and I live to see every series of games to I love go to complete shit. Like The Last Of or Dying Light 2. And after disappiont after disppiont I say fuck it. There no hope, only go back to the past is all you can do.
The problem is that majority of Sony/GOW fanboys can't think for themselves. They would have liked this game anyway no matter what the studio made. They were already very biased in it's favour before it even came out that's why they can't seem to accept that this game, the plot, the gameplay, the ending etc is underwhelming & disappointing
Finished the game the other day after avoiding all reviews and today I was like ‘how sad is Mayo? Let’s go find out….’ Great honest review, something that greatly helped my enjoyment of the combat was the addition of gyro aim, since my right thumb lacks dexterity and I normally have to play games on easier difficulties. I went in on ‘challenge’ difficulty for half the game, until multiple enemy encounters frustrated me with cheap hits and I went down to balance. So I agree wholeheartedly with your combat critique and the padding. Thanks for the enlightenment and entertainment Mayo!
Yeah I really miss the old style. I'll admit I liked 2018 a lot but after playing it again and playing ragnorok it feels so stiff compared to the old ones. Ragnorok doesn't feel like a new experience either, it feels like a really big dlc to 2018 especially because of how much stuff was recycled like animations and mechanics and the visuals don't look improved in any way which is something most sequels, even of the same generation, have done to some extent. Ragnorok is supposed to be next gen vs 2018 and it looks exactly the same quality wise.
GoW 3 recycled GoW 2 animations. GoW 2 may have recycled GoW 1 animations, but I can't remember, it's been too long since i played. But GoW 3, without question, recycles enemies and kill animations from previous entries. I always found GoW 3 to be a mediocre experience, except for the Titan parts. GoW 2, though, is the best in the series. GoW 2>2018>Ragnarok>>>>GoW 3>GoW 1
@@purringbluzzmuffin8030 the old games are better than 2018 and Ragnarok in every way, and I don’t need to explain if you are really a Gow fan, cause these new games don’t even feel like a God of war game, the camera angles making you stare at Kratos back for the entire game and the combat is not fun at all and I don’t even like this new Kratos, I would take Gow1 and 2 and 3 anyday
@@purringbluzzmuffin8030 i am not gonna say anything about the old games being better than the new ones i am not an old player but 2018 over ragnarok ,ragnarok was objectively better in every except pacing and the atrues sections
The dlc argument is EVERYWHERE for almost every sequel nowadays. What do people expect? And besides, almost all of the effects ts were revamped. Many attacks were changed too so it isn't even true
To add to your points in the video; Asgard looks no better than earth. In the old games, olympus was a ENCHANTING and covered in marble and gold. The gods look like humans. No more glowing tattoos, no white eyes, no fire hair, just people. The scale is a joke. Armored Kratos looks fat. Shirtless too though. Blades of chaos can never be as good with this combat system. That was the most iconic weapon of the series...maybe even action games in total. Depiction of gods...they look broke compared to how Greek gods were portrayed; in dressing, houses and lifestyle. Looks like I'll be buying the old collection and watching new entries on youtube🥴.
I still cant believe they resumed ragnarok with 15 minutes of battle in asgard, and also mimir said surtr was the key to win ragnarok but in the end kratos killed odin like he was nothing, after that surtr destroys asgard for no reason.
@@magicmamba915 No it's not 😂 mechanically the Odin fight did nothing new gameplay wise such as introducing new elements yet seen during the playtime of Ragnarok. It was just regular Ragnarok combat.
@@magicmamba915 I wouldn't say it's better or deeper. There are certainly more move sets some of them being rehashed elements from the Thor fight and other various variants from creatures etc. It's just not a grand spectacle of a boss fight that the series is known for. 2018 did a much better job incorporating spectacle in the final boss battle. Mechanically speaking I'd say the fight with Hades in God of War 3 was better and it's not even top of the list on gw3 for me. It had a couple different locations including new elements that change the way you navigate the environment etc.
That's pretty wild. It didn't feel nearly as clunky as a lot of these other games we have releasing nowadays and the story besides a rushed ending was still excellent
I forgot about the existence of the Thor's sons boss fight in 2018. I should have mentioned that. That fight was okay. Good on new game plus but just okay otherwise.
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Oh no. Look at all these contrarian snowflake haters think that they are right because of some random guy's negative review of a great game.
Boo hoo.
Stfu this game is amazing
curious but you should try out wh40k darktide
@@theskorpio1 "Oh no! Criticism! How scawy 😢"
@@george2p isn't the guy in video doing same
If gow 1 was released in this time of cinematic gameplay, they would've literally forced us to climb kronos for 3 days or some sh*t
They literally changed it so that it doesn’t take a long time for the players to get there tho they really wanted to make us climb it ourselves at first. It just says so much about devs care in the past compared to now
i can't imagine going through Pandora's Temple with this tight close up camera angle
The sensitive snowflakes would be running to boycott GoW 1-3 if they released today
@@firepenguin38you mean liberals?
@@TropicaIJay yes or anyone else who finds things sensitive like that. I understand maybe monitoring younger kids. Yes mainly liberals to answer that. Ever played Arkham city? I know it's off topic here, but I gurantee you they would complain about Talia or Catwoman and it the game could be patched now it would.... That is what I'm playing atm lol
20 years ago climbing were cutscenes, 10 years ago climbing was ascending Mount Olympus, today it’s holding the circle button while moving the left analog stick.
today is just moving the stick, you can't fall no more
One thing I will always miss about the older Greek games is the sense of scale. That's the risk that comes with turning the game into a grounded "over-the-shoulder" style. You lose those dynamic levels like the Poseidon fight while climbing Gaia. Or the Chronos fight. It's a shame. Sometimes I imagine an alternate world where the Norse games were made in the gameplay engine of GoW3. That was the most polished game in the original trilogy. Still play it 12 years later!
Chronos fight? Kills foder enemies 5 minute QTE'S rinse repeat for 3 games nice 👍
Word makes me wanna play them again which I'll definitely do
@@javierduque7809 It wasn't just "fodder enemies and QTEs," that's a very shallow interpretation of the level. There was also lots of cool platforming involved. Yeah, there were fodder enemies, but the spectacle was really impressive and much more memorable than copy/pasted Troll ogres. There are many bosses in the GoW trilogy that had strategy/etc, not all of them were QTEs/fodder. Chronos was one of those QTE fights, but it was really memorable because the fight was whole level itself. You are literally climbing/platforming him.
RIGHT! There was not one set piece in this game half as cool as mount Olympus or hades.
@@javierduque7809 oh yeah because half of this game isn’t walking and listening to dialogue or watching a cutscene, just to then fight fodder enemies lol 😂
Atreus has completely ruined the game for me. I could handle him in 2018 as he was just a side character you could largely ignore, but now he has dedicated big chunks of gameplay. Add to that, as a whiny teenager he's even more annoying than as a child. It's like buying a "Batman" game and then being forced to play as Batman's child, who wants to do that?!?
They are preparing the game for young gamers to buy third part.
@@RESURRECT2unfortunately kinda wrong, it’ll ruin the game, Kratos isn’t for young viewers
Yah he needs to be cut out or die
Nobody
@@fiendtrip7483 Atreus is
Ironwood felt like 4 hours for me. It just went on and on. Someone described the giant boss fight as a Kingdom Hearts boss fight and that’s pretty accurate
Even Ironwood felt like the Kingdom Hearts 2 prologue. No longer playing the main character, much more limited move set, you’re stuck with other characters you don’t have any attachment to, you have loads of cutscenes interrupting gameplay and you don’t really know where it’s going or why you’re there.
I am also one of those players who love GoW for the combat and doesn't care about the story so much. I finished GoW 2018 10 times, just for perfecting the entertaining combat. The Ironwood is one reason why I won't finish Ragnarok 10 times. That section just steals a whole evening from me on every playthrough. It is such a huge pain in the ass. I am sick of all those people solely consider GoW as a heartbreaking family drama... I WANT COMBAT AND GORE GODDAMIT!!! I hope they let us skip all that soap opera bullshit with the New Game+ update.
that would be synthetic man he has a wayy more brutal and harsh review on gow ragnarok
I completely agree. I absolutely hated this section on the game and I couldn't wait for it to End. Unless they make an option to skip the Atreus sections or at least Ironwood in New Game Plus, I don't ever see myself replaying the game.
@@joshalan5125 they shouldve kept the option to skip cutscenes like WTF is up with that anyways
These games are really lacking in the epic department, in gow1 you fight a giant sea serpent on a boat in the middle of a storm, in gow3 you fight poseidon and his seahorses while atop gaia and kratos always had to come up with some creative or unusual way to deliver the final blow. I understand 2018 and ragnarok trying to be more "personal" and "emotional" but these things are not mutually exclusive.
In Gow Ghost of Sparta You fight another Giant Sea Monster too and in Gow Chains of Olympus you fight a Giant Creature
The point about pseudo-interactive talking scenes resonates with me. People used to complain when every game wanted to be labelled "cinematic" by having lots of cutscenes and less gameplay. So they allowed you to walk around during cutscenes, but there often isn't anything meaningful you can do.
Worse yet you typically can't skip those types of "cutscenes".
useless cut scenes shouldn't exist
i miss the nostalgic feeling of playing videogames where it suddenly shifted into a cutscene like in jade empire or warcraft 3, where it took you out of the game engine for a minute and you were just as interested in the story being shown as you were in how they were animating it, walking simulator mode while you have to mash R1 or walk as an npc talks are fucking boring.
DMC 3 did it best, cutscenes at beginning and end of mission / post boss battle, inbetween is pure gameplay / puzzle solving, makes it really easy to jump in and play a good mission.
@@christopherjones5700 you mean like the CGI in GoW1/GoW2
Where is all the scale? We use to climb giants and bring them down uniquely. It’s like they’re scared of a large battle with a large enemy.
In God of War 2 Trailer Kratos is Fighting Two Giant Enemies
2018 has scale with its destruction like in the Baldur fight and with the Dragon
@@ethanreddy6551the Baldur fight was long and boring, with too many cutscenes. And the Dragon fight is just a movie, dodge or parry, do some damage, throw a ball, do some damage. All that repeating. Little sense of agency. I felt telegraph. It could not compare to the hydra fight in GoW 1, because in that fight there are not much useless cutscenes.
@@Account.for.Comment the fights were more cinematic in 2018 which frankly outweigh the epicness of any of the Greek games
@@ethanreddy6551 cinematic? No, just a lot of cutscenes jumble togethef. One, cinematic is not a value, if anything, it became a minus because player agency is sacrificed. Two, the cinematography was boring = zoom-in and zoom-out, rince and repeated. There was even less misc-en-scene than the first GoW, where the frame had meaning due to the fixed camera. The 3rd person shooter view, made frame worse. Three, GoW 2018 felt like a chore and scripted event, whereas the old GoW felt like the players earn that event after bashing the god.
I miss when Kratos had wings, he had a bow, Medusa's head. He had a huge arsenal of weapons. In this game the blades of chaos don't feel as brutal or strong like they did in the first 3.
Because will make the new axe toy look like shit which by default are, just comparing how kratos was Spiderman with baldes of chaos doing such brutal epic moments with it and now they try to pseudo replace it with just a fk axe it like making a secondary weapon of gow 2 or 3 the main weapon , a fk axe could never replace the blades of caos
@@jaotrx7163 Well damn lmao
@@jaotrx7163I mean the axe isn’t weak just cause you don’t like it. It went on par with mjolnir and froze its lightning, which I feel like is as good a feat as the blades ever got. Also for them being weaker, kratos is supposed to be holding back his strength, in the old games that dude was fucking pissed off tryna kill anything he could. Now he’s just tryna protect his son and so he purposely doesn’t use all his power cause he’d go bonkers. And with how cinematic the game is you can imagine they want the gameplay to be fairly lore accurate.
@@marcom9299he still rips the limbs off of his enemies,how does ripping a werewolf’s jaw off less forcefully than normal make you a better person
@@froginabucket7294 first of all in the 2018-2022 games he’s pretty much only killing in self defense and atreus’ defense. Also it’s not a about being a, “better person.” It’s about not losing himself in his anger and going too far.
Thor kinda felt underused for how badass he was and how he is basically a kratos if he was a tool for Zeus
Yeah, I was expecting some epic show down and set piece with Thor like the previous games but the fight kind of just ends before it even gets started. Baldur had a more epic fight
You spent entire sections fighting along side Thor and get two boss fights against him
@@eriknorman1690if ur talking about the second fight, I actually like that one a lot
@@zoravarsandhu8296 its mechanically good but it lacked spectacle or eye candy if you will
@@Adi-mk2lq “spectacle” is just a fancy word for watching cool cutscenes. The second Thor fight IS the cutscene. But I totally get why some don’t like it, it’s just the kind of fight I like
Sorry this took so long, everyone. For some reason Sony didn't send me an early review copy!
OH REALLY!? I WONDER WHY!?
@@emojiko1124 😂😂😂😂😂
Oh no. Look at all these contrarian snowflake haters think that they are right because of some random guy's negative review of a great game.
Boo hoo.
@@emojiko1124 hahahahahahaha
I guess you're not popular enough or probably because you don't upload gaming walkthroughs or stream them idk why they didn't probably because you hated 2018 idk really know
I agree with everything you’re saying. To me, this game is super boring and the way you control KRATOS is super annoying, I got to the part where you fight Alva, turned it off and haven’t played it since, honestly a waste of 70.00. A big fan of 1, 2 and 3, these reboots just suck.
Alva?
One of my complaints with this game was how Ragnarök suddenly falls into place:
1. Freyr disappears for a while and suddenly Alfheim agrees to go to war with Asgard.
2. The pig guy goes away and voila, we have Helheim with us.
3. No one talks to Jormungamdr but he too suddenly shows up to the fight.
4. Sif is incredibly polite for someone who's losing her realm and home.
5. No boss fight between Thor and Jormungamdr. It's just this bleak cutscene which I didn't even notice.
6. Most important! Kratos isn't even being a general in the final fight. He's not leading any army, he's just in single combat pretty much the whole time.
7. The purpose of the mask is not explained, and so breaking it felt confusing and wrong. But it's Atreus who did it, so I guess it's okay!
8. And the Giants never left their marbles to fight with Odin. Why?? It's so bizarre that Atreus kept them in his pocket the whole time when he should've brought them back to life for Ragnarök.
The whole finale seemed... Easy.
this is so true
also don't forget about Surtur who just agrees too easily to help cause Ragnarok. I expected a boss fight with him when he first pushed Kratos away, but no, he has nothing to live for
moreover he has the heart of his lover (forgot her name), so no sacrifice is needed, how convenient
Even Kratos is aware of this and says "this feels too easy" right before we fight two easy valkyries that served zero purpose to the story
@@suhaib9001 He says it feels too easy because he expected Odin to try and stop them. Which turns out to be true.
Though I do agree that it felt a bit rushed at the end.
Yea, it was pretty dissapointed
Did Ragnorok even happen
@@suhaib9001 at first, ngl, I thought Odin was disguised as Surtr because how easily he was convinced. I was also expecting a boss fight, but it seemed too easy. The ending did feel rushed. We didn’t even get Surtr do damage to Asgard, he was just in the background
I absolutely love God of War 2018 and Ragnarok, but this video does have legitimate and valid critiques.
I'm honestly surprised with how many positives he had about Ragnarok as well. I even agreed with some of his criticisms. Definitely thought he was just going to rant. Glad he made it more impartial.
@Andrew Espinosa Yeah, I agree. So I question why there are still fanboy dumbassess in the comment sections still complaining that this is a whiny, ranty critique with no points made. It's even more hilarious that some are getting so pent up about Mayo thinking he was being referenced by the game since this dude has actually made podcasts with game directors and personally has given feedback that other devs took seriously, and yet they say it's proof his a narcissist.
Smh, if you're gonna come to already hate and not actually watch the video, then go away or otherwise don't be surprised when people only take your hate comment as a hate comment.
I doubt that
And when i say things like he did people attack me in every damn gow video because i butthurt everyone ( like always)
Finally good thread. No stubbornness from either side. He made valid points, but it depends on the player what they enjoy. No game is perfect for everyone. And true is totally different from og trilogy.
My only complaint is the story is SOFT
I expected something really dark & intense
Yeah. Story about brainless brawl stuff. A guy came from Greece to have a quiet life but the local Gods are so bored and without anything better to do so they going berserk against Kratos just for fun. Like wtf.
@@ps4games164 bruh, Odin has to be one a THE MOST FREAKIN TYPICAL "bad king"s in caucasian mythos 😂😂😂 his behavior matched his voice *too well* and Ive seen so many people defend the BS with "oh, thats how odin was REALLY like in norse mythos".... but.....
*why does that mean its Good and/or I Can't Think Its Utter Trash* ????? 🤔 it's a *GOD OF WAR* game lmaooooo
thats what happens when you hire marvel phase 4 writers lmao.
Yesss bro if atreas dies and we see kratos full of rage ready to destroy everything for vengeance maybe then the gamd was ac gonna be good,heck maybe even was gonna be good enough to be called GOD OF WAR GAME and fatherhood adventures
@@ps4games164 I literally just watched all the cutscenes for all three games as a refresher and that's literally not what happened at all
Ironwood and Angrboda make me think that this game isn’t worth ‘Game of the Year’ anymore.
that whole section looks like it was written by a 14 year old
The only reason for Ironwood was to have an afroamerican character in game to check that diversity box.
@@monsterboomer8051 that’s because Sweet baby Inc. got their hands on Ragnarok
Never felt this conflicted about a game before. I actually really like the additions and improvements made to the combat. The problem for me is just how frequently the gameplay is interrupted in favour of the story. I would never call it a bad game but my god it's so pretentious at times.
It's a fuckin GOW game with a disney or marvel template. When I met odin for the first time in Ragnarok I was like wtf? This is Odin? This is how Odin sounds and talks? Wtf am I playing?
Then the fact as soon as I get into Kratos learning/unlocking new stuff upgrading etc I have to play as annoying ass Atreus? I buy GOW to play as Kratos not anyone else. If they want me to play a different character then do a whole different game where I play as that character. Dont integrate playing a different character other than Kratos in GOW.
@@nucklehead718 truth
@@nucklehead718 haha than never play tlou2 after you played tlou1 😅😅
@@chaTzon I have played tlou loved it. Heard and saw the bs they did in tlou2 so I didnt bother playin it.
@@FourLionsClips ty
It's nice to hear someone explain something you could feel intuitively the whole time through the game
The whole time I was playing..I was like…is this it? This doesn’t feel epic or Ragnaroky at all!
@The Unguided Millenial That's what happens when you rush the story by ending it in a second game rather than building up the story with a trilogy.
@@YEY0806 I don't think I could take 3 of these games. Maybe it is good they ended it in 2.
That’s how I felt after watching his 2018 video. I had just beat the game and just felt kind of bored. Whereas after each of the first 3 I usually played it over after beating it the first time.
You already felt that way but couldn’t communicate it even to yourself, so you need a talking head to do it for you. You’ve chosen a really bad head though.
The end of this game was very underwhelming. I thought we were leading up to a great ending but it was another game of thrones let down
Honestly the sections where you play as atreus and the absolute padding of the side quests makes me not wanna play the game again bc its like OMG i gotta sit through all these parts I hate
Yeah NG+ is a hard pass for me.
I hope we get rid of NPC hints soon. Hand holding is a failure of game design! These developers should never make assumptions about the player. It's one of the most basic fundamentals of gaming.
True
The backseat gaming was so annoying.
I honestly just wish there was a way to turn it off, like they do with all the other accessibility stuff
Preach
True, but when you take too long to do something, that’s when NPC hints start getting reasonable.
@@personperson1254 nah, they do it after basic actions consistently.
In 2030 all movies will be called games cuz randomly devs would insert "Press X to lift log" and "Press F to Pay Respects". And it will win Game of the Year and Oscar at the same time.
We've really lowered the bar in terms of what fits the definition of a game...
That would be pretty shit honestly not being able to just watch a movie instead you have to press a button to watch it.
Today these games directors just want to make a movie, I mean game to gain awards
I hope you don’t mean that gow is in that category because it’s a lot more than button smashing QTE to trigger the next cutscene
Idiocracy really wasn't just any movie
I think God of war Ragnarok was boring and depressing. I miss the old God of war style, I mean look at the boss fight of Odin vs the boss fight of Zeus.
Zeus is not even that good of a boss lol
@@lorenzosari577 both odin and Zeus are pretty rad bosses imo.
@Lorenzo Sari Umm Why? That fight had incredible emotional intensity. Like you seriously want to bash the shit out of him, he has several phases that change up the boss fight and requires the player to be thoughtful of their attacks due to blocking spamming, utilising clones to encourage area of effect attacks, punishes the players negligence by constantly healing in the last phase and has unblockable attacks to encourage more defensive approaches beyond dodge and block. Seems a great boss to me
Get over yourself
i actaully really liked odins bossfight in terms of gameplay, it was pretty hard, odin had alot of diffrent moves, and it had multiple phases. I think the presentation was a bit bland though
its so colorful and plays like a movie, the game is really boring and doesn't have the grit that the ps2/3 era games brought
The biggest mistake with these Norse GoWs was the camera. Up close over-the-shoulder makes the entire game feel stiff and combat suffers greatly from it. It works for games like Resident Evil and Gears of War but not for action games imo.
Is it just me or does Freya’s hair keep getting in the way during combat?
They are tripping, they could have atleast did this for certain points when characters bond or etc. They could have mixed the traditional camera but want to grab folks emotions too much
Feel like one good addition would be if instead of wait time, runic attacks are filled by consecutive hits from weapons. So instead of just waiting around to use a powerful attack players are focused on combos and rewarded with a powerful attack. Still love the game tho
Combat balanced around a mechanic where you build your runic attacks through combat would be a lovely direction.
There's really no incentive to just 'wait around' though. In normal fights mobs will swarm you so you might as well thin the herd with your normal attacks, and (mini)bosses are usually very aggressive. It's not like players can just backpedal/turtle and wait for their runic attacks to become usable.
@@Jerry-dx3cb Yes, players can just wait for the runic attacks to become usable again. I'm one of them, and just spam them as I rotate weapons for boss fights because I want to get through the story faster instead of spending time and effort in the part of the game I am not interested in.
@@keanuxu5435 so you're not interested in the gameplay... which is the main part of the game
@@Slavic_Snake No. I was only interested in the dev's version of Norse Mythology, which is great and refreshing.
In the old GoW games, you follow an original and unique story of Kratos against the gods. And yes, it was lore inaccurate (Hercules being older than Perseus even thou Perseus is his Grandfather and so forth) but it was all done so *you* experience Kratos‘ story in the most fun and epic way possible.
In the new games, you are now a character shoved into the story of the already existing story of Ragnarok and all you do is just do things to let the story of Ragnarok unfold. You don’t follow Kratos anymore doing his thing, you follow around Kratos being just another character in the story of Ragnarok
It wasn't original or unique.
@@Enskyed it was, keep malding
@@fyrijou5202 It literally was not, it's based on the run of the mill greek tragedy.
@@Enskyed ah yes, please tell me a story where a Mortal raged War against the Gods of Greece that was put in a game, or a hack and slash game in the style of God of War or anything like that before the age of 2005
@@fyrijou5202 They didn't make video games in ancient greece. Point is, the story at its core is literally just a greek tragedy, there's definitely unique elements but at it's core it's just that.
The Atreus sections were the worst thing in GOW Rag 🙄 we need to be able to skip those
I’ve been playing GOW since 2006 and I just beat Ragnarok on GMGOW difficulty. I think it’s the last installment that I’m going to bother playing. I just got so sick of them saying “No, please! We don’t want to fight you!” and the writing in general. The entire game felt like one long feel-good group therapy session. And the end battle of Ragnarok itself in Asgard felt like it was 5 minutes with an extremely lame boss fight with Odin at the end.
Atreus was giving me Steven vibes from Steven Universe.
"Preach non-violence against the violent, always reaching out to the literal genociders and abusers because it's good"
This game should be directed by Zack Snyder.
They should have never introduced thrud and sif. All thrud does in the game is flirt with atreus. Drunk thor scene was so unnecessary. When i saw it i was like ,"when did gow become like this". Humour is justifiable in the game but not excess of it. Gow games need to be bit serious than this. Odin talks way to modernly . In actual norse mythology aesir are very loyal to eachother. Thor and kratos fight was one of the most anticipated fights in gaming. But the hype was for nothing. The beginning of the game was really good, thor reviving kratos and trying kratos to bring him back to his older self. Everyone wanted kratos v thor 1v1 deathbattle. They showed that thor was bloodlusty(less then kratos) . It took kratos 7 seven games to change and you tell me thor was convinced by kratos under 3 sec talk? It's okay if kratos didn't keep mjolnir because its moveset would be very similar to leviathan axe. But what disappoints is that kratos didn't even lift mjolnir by his hands once. Instead game showed that he was struggling to lift it even though he swung mjolnir with his chain. But wanted kratos to bash thor's head with the hammer. Odin bossfight was a joke. First thor fight was good. Second thor fight was good but short, it should have been a deathbattle. Last important thing is that they were supposed to show strongest version of kratos in this game because cory said old kratos is stronger than young kratos. But in the game kratos said that when he was young he wielded every flavor of power imaginable and said he lost most of his powers after gow 3. And cory wont even say how old kratos is more strong meanwhile the game is telling us that he is not that powerful now. How are we supposed to believe that he is more powerful than his younger self. They didn't show anything big. We know kratos was holding back as already stated in the game. But we already saw dad of boi we wanted to see god of war.
@@blackmask5335 I understand wanting to see young Kratos again, but that would just be gow 3 all over again. We know what happened and how it negatively affected Kratos. Why would he do that to himself again?
@@blackmask5335 Even the character designs themselves were lackluster imo. I honestly enjoyed the fan art of the some of the characters than what we got from the end product. Also with the writing, everything just seems so much more preachy and annoying. There literally wasn’t a single scene where I didn’t roll my eyes during the dialogue.
The story is incredible up until about when Heimdall dies… I was so invested in the story I didn’t want to put the controller down, then it becomes a bit lackluster imo. Ragnarok was hyped up astronomically in gow 2018 as “the twilight of the gods” … “the end and the beginning” but in reality it was a 30 min skirmish. I do love how they concluded Kratos arc however, and thought the final 10 minutes or so picked things back up. All in all a great game but it definitely would have been better as a trilogy
I don’t understand how it took them 4-5 years to release basically a dlc of the 2018 game. Maybe they could’ve done a trilogy if it wasn’t going to take them over a decade.
I think what we're looking at though is not twilight of the gods and that we'll look at this as maybe the end of the beginning of the first trilogy of an overarching story and why they cut this to 2 games vs. 3 so it won't push out to 20 years. I think the tear in Odin's workshop area is a bigger reveal or has something to do with the story's actual endgame. Odin / Ragnarok isn't the final boss anymore than Zeus was, which is why this story feels less like a conclusion because it's not...they have a bigger overall story arch they're working on that will play out over future years.
There are some glaring plot holes in this game, one even in the very beginning where Kratos refuses Odins peace deal (which gets himself killed btw). There is a diary entry trying to fill that hole by saying the terms are unacceptable, but they actually aren't.
@@spacejunk2186 Given Kratos bias against Gods and their words, it would be unbelievable if Kratos actually took a peace deal and trusted Odin.
@@spacejunk2186 looks like somebody forgot about Kratos’ past. He will never make a deal with a god after what he went through. Never again
Its baffling how you cannot skip cutscenes when there are other story driven cinematic games like Witcher 3 and Red Dead Redemption 2 that allow you to skip dialogue and cutscenes.
It’s weirder considering they updated God of war 2018 to be able to skip cutscenes and have new game plus. I mean the old games you couldn’t skip them either but this one is significantly longer so it’s kinda a problem. Hopefully they update it
Its because the whole point is to see the game in one fluid cut, breaking u0 the scenes would go against that
@@VarinderBhandal then it's probably a day one edition that forces players to watch the cutscenes and experience the game as they intended - as their interactive cinematic "experience", and speedrunners can have their fun next year.
my brother in christ its a story driven game, thats the strongest part of it, why the fuck do you want to skip the cut scenes
@@glyph__ exactly!!!!!!!
Playing Ragnarok reminded me how much better God of War 3 was.
It feels so good to see someone to give a fairly honest review for a game that is pack full of overly bias fanbase
Thought I was the only one who saw through the triple a psyop
“Overly bias fanbase”? You mean people who like the game because it’s fantastic?
@@royaltyfree9607 you can say you think the game is fantastic and that’s fine. But to assume the game is fantastic is a fact is just wrong and anyone can claim the opposite with the same amount of evidence
But the mAsTerPIecE.....
@@royaltyfree9607 fine for you.its a very nice game.but no god of war.thats all we say and hate.just took the gow title and make a NEW GAME!
The second mission with Atreus almost broke me.
Why bro
@@isaac-ga I don't remember, it was 3 months ago lol
@@jaake6019 I mean it wasn't that bad like u said it's argt ya kratos gameplay is better but Atreus section isnt bad
Is that the one in Ironwoods or whatever it is called? Playing through that segment made me doubt whether I would ever want to replay the game.
@@Tazza19931 ya that riding on a yatch section right? It's too long
I watched Jacksepticeye's playthrough and even he being a chill guy was angry at the clunky camera and characters not shutting up during puzzles or combat encounters.
Also I'm surprised Mayo didn't compare the Ragnarok war with Immora from the Doom Eternal DLC.
I was thinking the exact same thing while playing the final mission lol
The camera is honestly one of my biggest problems with the new games, I miss the old games camera it worked much better
True on both fronts
I hate that troll man.
Yeah, the camera was annoying especially for the second part of the Odin boss fight with Atreus and Freya.
This game was so boring. My god the level of padding in this game is unprecedented. I couldn’t even get myself to Finnish the game. I simply saved myself 20 hours by watching the ending on RUclips.
Is there Finnish mythology in the game my guy?
This game is the result of making a game for everyone. Then the game suffers terribly.
Play it. Might change your opinion.
@@blakseed I have it and I am forcing myself to finish it.
@@secretmulletman7984 Don't.
Play good old PS2 games. :^)
@@595no agreed
@@blakseed he’s right. I’m playing these games since 2005 and never been this disappointed in a God of War game since. Hell this was almost as disappointing as R&C remake.
My biggest complaint with Thor and Odin is that they don't come off as who they are. Besides the hammer Thor has no presence or threat level to him. Odin comes off more as a strange crazy knowledge seeker. I wasn't expecting Odin to look mighty and impressive but considering what we were told I was expecting the ancient sorcerer type of character who was obsessed with having all the secrets of the universe to himself. That he was the only one to get them and that he didn't trust his family believing they were against him for the knowledge. Thor is hinted at having more to his character but it's never shown, rather we are constantly told by Thrud and Sif.
Heimdalh is not really a moment where I felt the original Kratos. If anything the entire situation around Heimdalh everyone supported Kratos killing him, even Mimir was behind the idea, which made the head trying to stop him bizarre. Kratos claiming he was slipping into his old ways made me scratch my head because Kratos gets nowhere near the level of who he was, even at a God of War 2 level. If anything it seemed more like the story was actually pushing Kratos to become that person again but without the consequences of what that would mean.
Thor comes off like a beaten dog trapped in a corner
@@JoshuaKevinPerry Agreed. It annoyed me how he couldn't think or stand up for himself.
@@calvinm1866 that's the point, it's to show how Odin can so easily manipulate people.
His wife Even said how Odin sees his family only as tools.
@@ItsjustTNT123 Yeah.....I played the game, dude.
God you people are so dense
I still prefer the original trilogy and the PSP games over 2018 and Rangnarok
Same
Real
Yea like ten fold. I could not even beat 2018. Stay up and God bless.
Same
Same
The OG trilogy will always be the best
I miss the psp too. The whole handheld spinoff genre is kinda dead now. But it was cool because they could expand on the story but the games were kinda small for a full AAA experience
I enjoyed the game. Though when I swapped over to Atreus part of the game I felt myself wanting to go back to Kratos' side of the story, it felt to me like there was a lot of hand holding with Atreus and no chance of dying. And towards the end I felt as though the story fell apart a wee bit. Still a great game, visually amazing
That's because Atreus sucks as a character and has caused the story to do a complete nose dive from its original story. Atreus is single handedly one of the most repetitive and annoying characters to deal with. He is the jar jar binx of gow and many of the long time fans would agree
I like Atreus fighting and then i got to the moment during the end where he turns into a bear to protect Sindri. His rage meter doesn’t go down until all the enemies are gone. I realized that that the game will do that type of trick everytime they don’t want you to die or fail.
I listened to podcast or background noise during some Atreus segments, they really slow the game down at inconvenient moments.
@@BphillipsARthat only happens for two moments, when he first turns into a wolf and when he turns into a bear. I think they do it because they just want to show off the power, even if you never actually use the bear again, which sucks.
@@theantsaretakingover yes, it’s essentially a playable cutscene. They want you to go apeshit
You know what, Under the Mayo? I REALLY liked this review despite being negative about your previous one(about GoW 2018). It's well structured, with fair criticism and interesting suggestions on how to solve and/or allieviate some of its flaws, even acknowledging this games strengths. Bravo.
Thanks.
b-but the ultrakill community already owned him, surely that means that every opinion of his is now invalid.
@@acethemain7776I mean the ultrakill community ultimately lost because there’s now actual benefits to doing well in ultrakill part 2.
I love ultrakill, but not everything the fandom thinks is right and the devs showed that
@@britzmann Did you even watched the video? ☠️
@@underthemayo Tbh I'm just sad that I can't play it lol
What if you had the Atreus sections start in his favour and quickly become something Kratos should be able to do, but Kratos is not around. Actually having to struggle as Atreus would make you appreciate Kratos. If Atreus were to recognize how difficult it was and even grow from his experiences, maybe he would be a better character. Use the gameplay to reflect the character's struggle and have them grow
Believe me when I say, it definitely felt like those sections were made with GMGOW in mind. It is a struggle when playing as Atreus on that difficulty.
I hope people don’t just dismiss this review, you really tried to like this game as I did, but it just didn’t work. It’s not a bad game, a solid 7, without the puzzles, pacing problems and Atreus levels, an 8. Not amazing though
I agree game is alright but it was supposed to be afl glorious game why why Barlog 😭 why you left us.
Agreed
I think the reason why they made the Atreus sections so easy was to help speed up the section. Imagine his sections actually being difficult and the player struggling and possibly dying and having to repeat levels... They probably knew how boring the sections were but instead of removing or changing them, they just made them "easy" to get through.
I dunno, I think it may have backfired. If it had some challenge maybe players would have been more engaged
I think Atreus was a fully powered up character right from the get go.. the animation cancel speed, turn speed etc.. whereas Kratos gets there in the end after the process of levelling up...
non sense. Just make Atreus sections good so no one is wanting to speed up and you don't have to even worse by making easier
I prefer a struggle over a breeze. They were fun but there wasn't enough challenge
That makes no sense
My biggest complaint is that ever since 2018 Kratos has felt like the dad of war bot the god. Coming from GoW 3 to this and kratos can’t even jump while struggling with regular enemies is just…saddening. The game is probably more enjoyable for those who never had the chance to play with kratos at full strength. That plus all the slow shambling and bloated cutscenes just makes it a movie to me with some combat
@@frogglen6350 it’s not a skill issue, why is everything a skill issue today? Combat isn’t more difficult on harder levels, enemies merely gave more health. This doesn’t make combat more rewarding when you win, just makes the combat scenario take more time bc enemies are spongy
@@frogglen6350 a larger commentary on enemy sponginess needs to be addressed, yes I’m glad you agree
@@frogglen6350 the issue isn’t dying more than usual, the issue is drawn out encounters that make kratos feel under leveled, thus making player progression less rewarding
The new combat feels painfully slow really the only thing that was improved is graphics. story, gameplay, music I prefer the original titles.
@@frogglen6350 og gow enemies are not that spongy like the ones.
Older games were waaaaay stronger in the gameplay department, such a shame.
Y'all really need to take off the rose tinted nostalgia glasses, this is just delusional. The combat system in the modern series obliterates the OG trilogy
@@b1thearchitect401 big disagree here. Variety and incentive to play well were present. Many different moves to chose, aerial combat, xp/blood mechanic with reward based on performance. Until yesterday it has been 10 years since i touched the originals, and yesterday i played them again (1,2) and realised that although not perfect, the old combat system is LEAGUES more fun, deep and intense. Im not even a hardcore fun of the series and even i can see that. Not saying the new games are bad, people like/love for a reason, but they do not TOUCH the old ones as hack and slash/character action games (however you call them).
@@thanospavel9970 You're completely and utterly ignoring the feel of the combat, which is massively less impactful and powerful in the old games, IMO the chains feel like they were barely making contact with enemies and minus the quick time event kill animations, those games had pretty floaty and low impact combat. Also while there might be mechanical incentives to encourage engaging with the deeper combos and mechanics, I rarely if ever found myself in those games actually using it, those games were tough, and there were a few blade combos that just felt objectively better than everything else, so you end up spamming to survive really tough encounters. In practice, I find GOW 2018 & Ragnarok, I actually use the full suite of moves available a LOT more often. - I'll give you credit though, both you and the creator of this video have a good point in regards to a combo system, I actually think a skill based reward system for high level play would work great in the new series and I'm kind of surprised they don't have it. I guess the increased focus on narrative means they don't want to alienate shitty players lol. But I'm happy the high difficulty settings are still VERY challenging and the game doesn't just purely cater to casual Uncharted fans.
@@b1thearchitect401 i fully agree with everything. I too always thought that the sounds in the originals could have been a lot more satisfying. And yes, i do remember some instances where the combat devolves to mashing (unless you are playing on higher difficulties but not many people do that on their first playthrough).Also, it is true that harder difficulties do make 2018 and Ragnarok even more fun (haven't played Ragnarok since it's not out on pc yet so I'm just assuming). I usually don't like Very slow paced games but 2018 was a good game. I can certainly say that the people that made it and Ragnarok have passion.
@@thanospavel9970 I don't mean to rag on the OG trilogy, as I think especially GOW3 still holds up as a really fun and still graphically impressive game, but yeah the main mechanical reason I prefer the new series is the FAR crunchier, heavier feel to combat. The Leviathan axe particularly just feels fucking awesome IMO (The new spear weapon actually feels powerful af too). Ragnarok is a big step from 2018 in terms of enemy encounter design and variety, as well as combo depth and variety. Definitely give it a shot when it inevitably comes to PC.
My main problem was the staging of the worlds, which in my opinion was a great strength of the predecessor.
In the previous one in Alfheim, you got into a boat and sailed on this beautiful lake, and gradually worked your way towards the light.
In Ragnarok, you're just teleported into a desert nobody knew about.
It was fun exploring the desert but it felt kind of random and weird.
I think it’s that this game is missing the series’ signature “slow reveal/unlocking of a huge environments or obstacle”.
Like how the old games were or how the 2018 one centered around Tyr’s temple and the Lake of the Nine. Little by little through environmental puzzles, and feats of strength you’d unlock the way forward where’s in Ragnarok you’re mostly always just going down these corridors with no overarching connection.
That desert no one knew about WAS the lake it’s gone due to fumble winter.
@@Agentcalifornia26 oh
@@Agentcalifornia26No it’s behind the lake / temple.
@@kartoffelchip4490it isn’t the lake
He is right about the quick turn animation glitch. It continues to happen after the patch. Very frustrating when the weapon of choice is switched out unexpectedly.
I hate how they treat Kratos. Everyone talks down to him, the writers nerfed the f out of him and he's constantly being upstaged by his extremely boring son.
How was Kratos nerfed? Didn’t he beat the previously untouchable Heimdall? He bodied Thor who towers over him. Just in the last game he flipped Tyr’s temple!
@@thatoneguy1232 He would've never struggled with someone like Heimdall in Greece.
@@codafett what do you mean? Kratos struggled a lot. He even died a few times😂. And no one in Greece had abilities quite like Heimdall’s. And even then, when Kratos got that hit in, it was all over for him. Are you just misremembering these things or what?
Are you missing the young kratos who would fight the gods fiercely, or kratos who would do stupid shit that YOU want him to do.. understand then talk.
@@BJ4lmao What?
This game legitimately made me question why it is rated M for mature.
Because it cusses and is violent
@@mosesmorales8601 Oooooo bad woordsss. It’s barely violent enough to be M you ain’t even killing people half the time
@@1CursedXD1 inappropriate language is one of the requirements for it to be rated m for mature dingus. And ripping people in half with the blades is a lil to violent for a child
@@mosesmorales8601 I mean GoW 3 was rated M because you disembowel people and monsters and literally rip off someone’s head with your bare hands and there are naked chicks and blood everywhere too. This game is as close to “fantasy violence” as it gets, boohoohoo someone said the F word.
@@1CursedXD1 😒
I hate how the axe is the only weapon that gets unique light and heavy attacks when the weapon is sheathed (or on the ground somewhere). I like being able to switch between the weapons in combat and it would've been cool if they added that feature to the blades and spear as well
I agree but I think it’s just because of the controls and there is not enough buttons for blades of chaos without it being annoying
Could be that your axe is actually thrown and recalled… the blades and the spear are kinda stuck to you via the chain and the ring on your finger for the spear. Like, even though you’re throwing the spear, it’s technically still in your hand lol. I agree though, like an L2 throw quickly followed by a light or heavy attack giving an additional unique attack would’ve been DOPE!
I mean...you throw the axe at people and it needs to come back to you. The spear and the blades of chaos don't do that.
@@mickeybat5816 true. I'd argue you could either just punch with em in hand or just be able to sheath em.
Also now the only weapon with stance attacks. The blades and bare handed stances were taken out while not giving any stance to the spear to begin with.
a thing that i really dislike is when i don't block once or do something and they say like "what good is the shield if you don't use it!" "the arrows!" like, kratos in no dummie, and i feel like they're calling me dumb when i don't some attack or something
another thing, when you lock on an enemy and it runs so i gotta control my camera to look at it again and click R3 to lock again
I’ve been saying this for a bit now. But honestly…what sucks about this “Norse Mythology Saga” is the antagonists. Bro the gods suck in this realm. They are so weak and drop like flies. What is the point of introducing weaker antagonists? They could’ve made the gods so much cooler. Magni died WAAAAY to fast, Modi gets bullied the whole first game (literally), Baldur always loses, Thor’s fight just ends and when it gets cool…he leaves, Heimdall was the biggest let down if he century, and Odin was just lost because PLOT. There was zero challenge for them in these games. Kratos’s biggest adversary was raising his own son. If the next games will be in other realms and Kratos is just killing all the gods because he is Kratos I’m probably not gonna play it fr. That shit is boring. All this talk Kratos said in the first game like “there are consequences for killing a god!” fell flat because dude…these gods were complete, push over/gatekeepers. It’s fucking sad it really is.
They don't even feel godly, in the previous games, the gods were commanding, intimidating, and full of power. Like Ares literally massacres a whole army with his will and throws a piller across a desert at pinpoint accuracy to kill Kratos easily. When the gods die in GOW3, there are literal consequences as the world worsens from each death.
Then we have this game where the gods are basically just Marvel caricatures of gods, which are just superpowered humans whose feats are pathetic compared to the original games.
They all seem like disowned children of Greek gods.
I mean to be fair you could say that about the og trilogy
Absolutely agree. Boss fights didn’t feel BIG in this game. The original trilogy had much better boss fights. It’s a shame the final act wasn’t as grand as it could’ve been
Bruh that's because the Greek and Norse pantheon is different. Greek gods all have some domain they're tied to (Posideon with Sea, Helios with Sun etc.), so they were more metaphysical and shit. Where as in actual Norse mythology, gods don't have anything like that, maybe except for Thor. Plus they're all mortal and can die of old age (they have to eat Idunn apples to prolong their life.). Ofcourse they're gonna be seen as weaker lol
He's correct about not wanting to play it again. There's noway in hell I want to do the Atreus missions again.
As a player who came only for the story i found it really disappointment. Remember when someone called the serpent in 2018 gow? Thousands of theories were posted about it. The hype of the world serpent in the 2018 gow is meaningless now. And the most disappointing part is the mural painting like why tf did you even include it in the first place? Telling us every fucking minute that kratos is gonna die and not trying to tell us why the prophecy is broken ( oh but he didn't wear the mask let's put a mask issue so we escape this plothole)
And what about tyr? We waited 4 years to know who really is the god of war of these lands. But hell no tyr is a yoga master
And now Ragnarok mission is just running killing and defeating the final boss? Even marvel didn't had the balls to do this it was very rushed and with zero strong story moments
I fell the story started to fall down when i reached about 50% of the story
Ragnarok was a fucking disappointed
Execuse my weak English it's not my mother language
Yes. I imagine there's plenty to be disappointed with in terms of story. I'm just disappointed in kratos' role in the plots of these games so it's for me to get into any other story aspects.
Thats right man. I explain some of those questions. Horn is coming soon btw
I interpreted prophecy being broken by Kratos' learning from the Fates that the future is written by our rigidity, and if you want to change what is coming you have to change yourself and Atreus rejecting the Mask and Odins obsession for knowledge that he doesn't need to know at any cost.
Just finished GOW Ragnarok and wasn't the biggest fan of it, felt like there were 2 steps forward and 1.8 steps back for me but sadly it looks like industry is going to keep pushing into the 'cinematic' experience moving forward.
Just have to say man the Sony fanboys have been so damn cringe online recently. I saw a guy spam the comments of several GOW critiques freaking out over every comment that was even slightly critical of the game. If your opinion isn't "ZOMG 10/10 MASTERPIECE BEST GAME EVA!" then they absolutely lose it. Best of luck dealing with the mob since I very well know we are in the minority when it comes to the opinion of this game.
Fantastic break down. I'm glad to see some things were improved, but also disappointed there's still a lot wrong with it. I wasn't expecting a full revision of the gameplay style, but still. Loved how detailed you went. I'm sure I'll have very similar opinions when I finally get to this game.
One thing I noticed watching your gameplay was how little blood and gore there is. Like this is still God Of War, I don't care how "mature" or "grounded" or "grown" it is, there is barely any blood. It's especially noticeable when you're fighting in snow or in water. This is an M Rated game series, why are they so afraid of blood, yet unafraid to drop F bombs all the time? I don't understand it at all.
????? How is there no blood or gore? Almost all the kill animations in the game are kratos literally slicing dudes in half or decapitating them
@@GodofHatred and yet do you see blood pooling up anywhere? This was a problem with 2018 too. Most of the "blood" is blue or orange. And the bits of real blood, arent a lot. The snow should be covered in red. Water should be running with blood. In 2018, it even cuts away when you cut off Mimir's head - something the old games would have never shied away from.
I guess they are trying to make GoW more marketable. They tone down the violence/gore to make it more "family friendly" yet keep the language full off cussing to appear edgy.
Absolutely shallow.
@@zawarudo8991 it's extremely weird. Bayonetta 3, on a NINTENDO console, has gore. Bayonetta literally rips her own heart out in some scenes.
‘I would have done this differently’ is not a valid critique.
Good vid, my biggest problem with Ragnarok was the removal of the Barehanded skill tree.
the combat in general especially the combos felt too samey imo
Bruh, I am not a fan of GoW Ragnarok either, but I don't know what the kind of twisted standard that you have is like if the lack of a barehanded skill tree is your biggest problem with the game.
@@ShadowbannedAccount ok, what was your issue with it then lol?
I personally prefer the combat system from god of war 2018 than ragnarok
@@ShadowbannedAccountyour main gripe with the game was a lack of an entire skill tree and the watering down of the unarmed combat? Bruh well my biggest gripe was the story took too much time with giving characters development and how Kratos isn’t yelling every five minutes, what a twisted standard you have bruh.
Your biggest issue with the game should be MY biggest issue!!!!! Fuck you for enjoying the game >:(
I don't know how to feel about Atreus's sections of the game. I played it on GMGOW on my first playthrough and instead of being easy it became annoying and stressful because the little amount of damage he does and the overwhelming amount of fights that you have to go through, at least Kratos has some slow paced sections with some puzzles on the side, but Atreus is just fight after fight after fight nonstop over and over, there is even this really cute and wholesome scene of Atreus and Angrboda playing with rocks by throwing them on a lake, that is immediately interrupted by another fight, and they are not short, it is 5 draugrs and after you kill those you are faced to another 5 draugrs with some extra 3 snipers shooting you from above. It just becomes overwhelmingly annoying and not enjoyable at all.
i feel you, the enemies you fight as atreus on gmgow are so unbelievably spongy and have infinite poise. it makes atreus combat not fun and boring overall as it results to r1 spam and the occasional parry for every enemy
you just suck at the game 😂
I died 5tines ore so on give me no mervy...way to easy
That’s because you played on the hardest difficulty. Harder doesn’t always make it a more enjoyable experience. In most games now a days harder difficulties means more annoying. It’s rarely ever truly balanced for harder difficulty. I know there are still as many fights on other difficulties I played on give me balance and that section was bearable. If you had played at a lower difficulty then you wouldn’t have had as much annoyance.
@@hellvelyn atreus was op in gmgow you might not have been utilizing his combos effectively. If you used sonic arrow and used his grapple attack (triangle) it was very very good
The arrogance required to think a big budget flagship series is including digs at one specific youtuber is astounding
Multiple god of war personalities are referenced in Ragnarok. It's not far fetched to think that a scene that exactly recreates a montage from a GOW critique that has 750,000 views is a reference too.
@@underthemayo it's extremely far fetched actually, and I don't remember other youtubers getting referenced in the game
@@dogico I talk about it in my follow up video about Atreus. Black Thunder has appeared as an easter egg. I believe Kaptain Kuba is in something, I don't remember.
@underthemayo Mayo, I mean this in the best way, but I think you're severely overestimating how important your opinion is to the GOW writers. 😂
it's just a theory... a game theory :)
28:05. Thank you. Jesus fucking Christ. This game should be called God of Puzzles. I don't know why nobody ever brings it up in reviews but the amount of puzzles in this game is beyond frustrating
The actual Ragnarok event was SO UNDERWHELMING... I'm still in disbelief about how lame it was
Almost 2 years later and that shit still has me disappointed
I also don’t like how Kratos looked with full metal armor, but you can actually change the appearance of your armor without changing the stats and boosts
How?
@@SBeh-yq7crfully upgrading armor will allow you to make it look like other armors while keeping you're stats
I personally think DMC3’s camera style did it best: some fixed camera combat, and most combat encounters with a smart camera that automatically adjusts to the action (sort of like ninja gaiden) but gives you the option to move it around if you so please. I think this game would’ve been really cool to have that sort of camera as an option
DMC3 is one of my favorite games ever. Spot on
it has rooms where the camera can be frustrating though, but most of the time yes
Wait a sec, I just realised Assassin's Creed games did that, too. Free, behind-your-back camera for roaming and a higher, wider camera for combat.
@@roadroad1695 What game doesn't?
It also had the low key feature of enemies in front of you attacking.
Ones behind had a way lower rate.
What's more disappointing than walking and talking is reading the comments section and people attacking each other.
If people don't like the game and it offended you, don't attack them.
If people like the game and expresses it, don't attack them.
We're all side dishes for the Mayo.
Listened from start to finish. Very very nice review
This is why I stay away from console war shenanigans.
Wow, an actual intelligent commenter, how unfortunately rare
Honestly don't get what all the noise is about, the video itself is very civil, but the comment section is on fire
Much of these are takes that needs to be talked about at least in game design perspective
Video game fans try not to be toxic challenge (IMPOSSIBLE)
Agreed
Its horrible
The best parts of God of War are the parts that focus on Kratos. You'd literally have to be Santa Monica Studio not to understand that.
Fair and good points. I like that you point out the areas which you consider flawed and take effort to demonstrate it from footage from the game. Really appreciate it. Also, I like that you, unlike many others also show the games strengths instead of just trash talking about the game. Showing downsides with objective analysis lets us see a perspective and decide for ourselves whether we play the game or not.
What I have learned though from not only from this game, but also from 2018 and others, if you want to enjoy the games best moments, you also need to be able to tolerate the worst parts. That kinda sucks but there is no perfection.
It actually cracked me up about how pissed you got at the Angrboda and jotunheim section of the game.
But after a while of playing that part and hearing that 5 times already, I wanted to just end the game then and there.
I probably already requested this, but would u do a review on the 2011 Warhammer 40k Space Marine game? I think you'll enjoy it's hack and slash + third person shooter vibe.
Space marine is cool. I played it a couple hours. But like a lot of games I just kinda see why people like it and lose interest. I don't have much to say.
@@underthemayo fair enough
if nost space marine i think he could critique Darksiders series as it is one of the underrated series with the same genre of GoW (though it has drastic changes between games)
because the more popular it is the more you dislike it, elitism
This is actually a great review. Detailed and nuanced. Shame most people that disliked probably haven't even watched the first 10 minutes.
Video is good but the first 10 minutes was the most whiny, crybaby complaining about a game i ever heard in my life😂
@@millionshadesofdarkness2165 Some people enjoy a good rant. There is a subtle difference between an annoying cry and a funny rant that I'm sure you'll be able to recognize some day 🙂
The title turns a lot of people off, I’m sure. It implies that the review will be mostly negative, and no one wants to watch an hour-long rant.
@@lukelmaooooo but hes right tho. Don't get mad at him for stating fax about your favorite walking simulate
@@TheEmperorRaidou Eh, he's got some legit criticism, but he complains too much. He should present it as something he would prefer, rather than complaining that it "isn't GOW".
I really liked the video.
It's always nice to see you go into detail about game systems and seeing what works and what doesn't, along with your explanations for what you look for in these sorts of games.
Third-person action games with over the shoulder cameras are very common in the triple A industry (cinematic or otherwise), and it made sense when you explained the difference between Kratos’s gameplay and Atreus’s gameplay in Ragnarok.
I can also understand your points about the unskipable Atreus sections, plus the platforming sections with no possibility to fall off the cliff, either accidentally or on purpose.
I myself have vivid memories of how challenging platforming sections could be in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Those sections were a pain to get past but satisfying when you figured out what to do.
Though, I did think that the bar fight was a tiny bit charming at the time.
Me and bros always laughed in Prince of Persia when we'd die and the main character would go "no no no no, that's not how it happened" always cracked us up for some reason. Its the small things man!
Yeah shut up no one cares
I feel like they should have done what devil may cry did with the camera. Have it so that off-screen enemies wont hit you with melee attacks until they step in view.
Then my question would be why even implement this type of AI mechanic in the game? What you’re doing is creating fake tension for players that don’t know about this fact. The better solution would be to improve the camera and not only does it not create fake tension but you increase the challenge of every combat encounters. We should be fixing the root of the problem, not creating different mechanics just to put a bandage on the issue which can so easily be abused by the player
@@jesspeed this isnt new dead space had the same idea where enemies were docile untill you had the cemra pointed at them
@@jesspeed While enemy won't initiate an attack off-screen, DMC had it camera so far away that getting enemy out-of-view is actually harder than just keeping them on screen, and enemy is fast enough to get in view even if you tried to keep them out. Moreover, DMC combat heavily relies on the Lock on system to execute moves that require motion-input like High-time so enemies will be on-screen either way. The only time we can really abuse this system is when playing as V since he doesn't really fight.
But the most important part is that the camera system is ignored by bosses, so it doesn't really matter to keep them out of view.
they kinda do that, enemies behind you are less aggressive
I actually like the camera in GOW. There are prompts to make you aware of incoming attacks off camera. Pulling the camera way back like in the old games might help, but I prefer it the way it is. It would be jarring to aim your axe throws or bow shots from a further perspective, not to mention that you’d be missing out on the incredible details and overall brutality of the combat. My tip for anyone struggling with the camera is to never use the lock-on feature and increase the sensitivity of the right stick so you can swing the camera around quicker. There is no reason to lock onto enemies (I feel like they only added it to the game to appease people who would’ve whined about it otherwise). You can even attack enemies around you by using the left stick. Not sure why the reviewer seems to believe that the enemies have to be directly in front of Kratos to attack them; simply untrue.
DMC is an awesome game too, but this is a different game. Just remember the fundamentals; take care of ranged enemies early, don’t allow yourself to get pushed against a wall, and don’t mash buttons without expecting to get punished for it.
This is the kind of game I’ll watch someone play on RUclips. I don’t have the patience for walk n talk sections. It completely kills the replay value for me.
Exactly, at this point they might've as well made it a movie
@@samuel_eee4744 when people refer too this game as a “movie” its clear that they haven’t played it.
@@JamesRobertson844 i never referred to this game as a movie ever
@@samuel_eee4744 “they might’ve as well made it a movie” 💀
Exactly, it's what I did
The amount of hand holding in video games nowadays is kind of insulting tbh. Especially during battles.
Gotta say this review was a lot more fair than I thought it was
Maybe on paper but the way he comes across a whiny little baby
He holds back as much as kratos does in this game
He doesn't want 2019 review backlash again 🤣
@Mike C besides the atreus thing he's got valid criticisms especially about the story pacing. It can get in the way when I want to enjoy the ganeplay which he acknowledged how much they improved upon. Not as unhinged as his gow 2018 review so I wouldn't feel some type of way about this one
@@lukelmaooooopeople tend to point and laugh at takes they disagree with, without considering the video as a whole and the context behind it. 'Bad take' is pretty meaningless here
The agraboda section was torture. I dropped the game for a good minute. It was SO bad.
This game left me with more questions than answers. And the questions that I did have were never answered.
Check me out. Maybe i can help out. Mayne. Idk
Thats cause writing an ending is hard alot ppl dont know how to. It takes a brilliant writer to answer every question left by them
WHO BLEW THE FUCKING HORN
@@matthewlugo2417 I’m not expecting every question to be answered. I just don’t want more being piled on while continuing to be so vague about what we wanted answered.
@Kiweel Tyler i get that, im not saying it cant be done im just saying it takes good writer to be able to clean up as it were
Aside from the Atreus sections being a drag and unskipable, I disagree with what you said.
But you put great effort into this video and I appreciate it!
90% of the critiques you have for this game (and GOW 2018) could apply to pretty much every PlayStation exclusive.
- restrictive 3rd person over the shoulder camera
- Tacked on EXP/RPG systems
- repeated snow settings or forest settings
- hours of cutscenes
- empty open worlds with generic side content
- forced walking and talking
- context sensitive jumping and climbing with no real input or danger
- Invincible companion characters
- bonus points if you're playing as a chick with a bow
They're all the same game wearing a slightly different hat, and they're all boring.
You describe Sony games since PS3 era
It feels like Cory's vision was abandoned.
Eric was only told he needed to do 3 bullet point then could do whatever he wanted. None of what Cory planned came to be I dont think.
It should have been a trilogy and a ps5 exclusive.
Half the world cant even get a ps5 lol
@@YOBLACKHOMIE1 you're full of shit.
Supply is normal now even Sony said that. Theres heaps in every online and physical retailer.
? Sony would make way less money. Nice take.
Cory was the one who wanted 2 games. He said making a third game would of taking too long. It's bizarre/
@@awsomeboy360 explains why the ending is so rushed
You know what would of been brave?
For them to make atreas ask the question: "why are you black?"
Like I'm pretty sure atreas has only seen about 10 humans in his life and when he sees a black person he just acts like its something he is used to.
He asked sindri why brock is blue.
Cringy incel.
@@johnmiller2444 true, its not like is you saw a purple person for the first time in your life you would have any questions.
Actual dumb fuck.
Agreed
@@mrman-yj3bn she's Brown. But I mean I guess it would make sense
She's from Detroit, it's not that uncommon there actually.
I really liked this review, I love both games,but I acknowledge that they have issues and you made a lot of good points and suggestions on how to improve them just a few things I'd like to say so bear with me:
1. I actually really loved how Odin was portrayed in this game. He's this selfish tyrant that hides his true agenda behind multiple layers of manipulation. He praises, insults and threatens all in the same breath and all of his plans usually have more than one angle to them.
And the fact that he presents himself as this benevolent approachable and slightly goofy old man just makes him increasingly more disturbing when you're constantly reminded how he makes everyone around him *miserable* , especially Thor.
Its implied , told and even shown multiple times that Thor was emotionally and phisically abused by Odin for decades and turned to drinking to avoid having to face the fact that his father is a monster that only sees him as a tool. Hell , one of the first scenes we get with Odin was him chastising Thor for "being no fun anymore" when Odin knows *exactly* why Thor swore off drinking.
It genuenly makes the Aesir gods come off as this family that has been phisically and emotionally abused by a tyrannical grandfather, who scarred multiple generations in his need for control.
Its a very different take from the Olympians ,who were all collectively shitty to each other, and a different take from other versions of Norse mythology, but a really good one in my opinion
2. I personally didn't mind Atreus. In fact I love how his actions mirrored a younger Kratos. Heimdall put it really well, he didn't do many of the things he did to "help people" , he did them for himself. And the fact he gets scolded, told off and humiliated throughout the game shows that the writers knew what they were doing and that Atreus needed to learn that his actions have consequences.
And yeah, the Ironwood section legitimately made me want to turn off the game and come back later. I appreciate the story significance, the introduction of Angrboda and the boss towards the end but slowing down the game's pacing to that if a goddamn *glacier* for a glorified walk and talk section with occasional combat is unacceptable
3. Kratos's emotional moments showing off his developement were S tier. Literally not much else to say. His collective journey is literally one of the best in video game history don't even @ me
4. While I loved the combat in this game , way more than the first one, and the abundance of genuenly good bosses helping that along I would be lying if the Alfheim secrions didn't make me want to tear my hair out. The light elves, while well designed, dart all aorund the arenas or hit you with tracking ranged attacks and make the camera a pain in the arse to work with
Again, the boss fights are where this game shines.
I realize now once the last of us came out and did successfully alot of studio saw that and relazied what if we made our games less of a game and more like a movie. I enjoy 2018 and ragnarok seem look but the gameplay for these games to me feels off compared to the older the games. Story wise I enjoy kratos development from ascension to ragnarok but gameplay wise they should have suck with the older combat and build aopn it hell ubi use the same parkour system for multiple game but once they change it everyone was wondering why. The older system works it up to the developers to mix things up because if it ain't broken don't fix it
Agreed. The success and impact of Last of Us is definitely a gift & curse.
Gamers will never be happy. If they change it up like with GoW 2018/Ragnarok, they'll say "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", but when they don't innovate like in CoD, they'll say they're milking the formula smh lol.
@@Axxxel_in_Harlem Gamers are diverse, just like movie fans, and movie fans are the most basic guaranteed money pumping to cater to
Honestly, I loved Ragnarok. BUT, I was disappointed with the boss fights. They’re not as epic as they were in the original trilogy. My brother, after finishing, said that no matter how good these new GoW games are, nothing beats the Poseidon fight from GoW3 and I.. agree. The boss fights were very simple in this game, especially the final fights. Kratos vs Thor should’ve been a long fight and on a big scale. Even fighting Odin wasn’t impressive at all. Also, I really wish they would implement the camera from the Arkham series, closeup when not in combat, but the camera zooms out when in combat. But loved the game nonetheless and can’t wait to see where they take Kratos from here on out!
Nope. I think Gow 2 Statue of Rhodes Boss Fight was more Impressive and That Statue Messed up Kratos and Gave him Paranoia
I can’t get over how much this guy reads my mind about the game but explains it in so much more detail. Couldn’t agree more about almost everything he said. Oh man the camera angles 🙄
Cutting this from a trilogy to two games was a massive mistake. The final sections of the game felt so rushed. Ragnarok should have been huge with multiple titan sized fights. Instead we fight some nameless soldiers, then Thor and Odin in a muddy front yard and it just ends.
first it was used for the unwinnable heimdal fight, used again for the thor fight, and used again for the phase 1 odin fight. thor and odin should have had new stages and showed that they could destroy a realm with the power they wielded.
Modern games suck because the average person is too stupid to handle a game with any depth to it. Devs and Publishers can't afford to make an experience that isn't shallow these days because they'll lose money
Fair take, and just like with the 2018 review, I appreciate that you take the time to point out the potential for amazeballs stuff, even while admitting that potential gets burned out by the blah. Also, you probably didn't intend to evoke this reaction when you were recording this, but at the 23:40 mark where you start ranting about the 2nd Atreus section, I was legit thinking, afterwards "My god, did I just listen to Mayo have an acute rage stroke in real time?" It was as if my hand was on your forehead, and I could feel the vein swelling with anger, about to burst. All that said, hats off, and keep on doing what you do. Cheers.
Hopefully you aren’t talking about the first video. He had some terrible arguments in that one.
@@SoyboyPeter His GOW 2018 part 2 video and this one are good.
18:20 I honestly doubt that was about you. The part where he had a bad attitude and repeatedly said whatever was a pretty memorable section of the first game for every player. And the fact that this bit came right after Atreus watched himself murder Modi and blow up at Sindri makes it pretty clear to me that this is just meant to show how he's bothered by his own past attitude and behavior. I do not think it was a dig at you.
People can say it isn't. I think it was a joking acknowledgment that they saw my video. That's all. There are several easter eggs and tributes to personalities in the god of war community. And it wouldn't be the first time someone referenced me in their game.
@@underthemayo Maybe, either way good video. Takes a lot of work to make a hour lng review that I can still enjoy even if I don't 100% agree with it. Nice job.
@@hamos4744 I try to entertain, and at least get people to understand the criticism even if they don't agree.
Yeah it most likely wasn't about him.
It seems he just wants to feel acknowledged and is inserting himself into the discussion to feel important.
Could be wrong but most likely that's what this is.
Solid video otherwise tho.
@@underthemayo they don't even know who you are
Not even gonna bother playing it even if offered free and in the meantime, I continue playing old games.
Atreus being a cocky teen after learning he is a god was a major plot point of the first game, and it serves the same purpose in this scene. Atreus is bothered by his own past behaviour. It is not about you Mayo. Even if they would put an easter egg in the game for you, it’s not gonna be a fucking cutscene in the main story. It is hilarious that you would even think thank.
It's not a cutscene. It is one moment of a cutscene that was a clear joke.
And you mention atreus being a cocky teen as a plot point... because?? You're saying "He's annoying because being annoying is part of the story that they wrote." So what? It still sucks.
@@underthemayo - Cutscene or "part of a cutscene" you know what he meant quit being so childish
- Atreus literally had a section in the first game where his ego inflated after learning he was a god and Ragnarok Atreus acknowledges those as "bad memories" showing that him acting that way wasn't good.
-It's called character growth Mayo good God. Sadly knowing you, it's no surprise your subjective dislike of Atreus combined with you reductionist and often hollow criticism devalues it down to "He's annoying because being annoying is a part of the story" 'iT sTill SuCks"
- It has absolutely nothing to do with you and over inflated and delusional sense of importance to the GOW franchise. The fact you even considered it says a lot about you
-All things like this do is demonstrate just how much of a joke of a "critic" you are about 70% of the time
@@underthemayo Atreus in 2018 is annoying because of the contrast between his personality and Kratos' attitude. Atreus is a kind and very curious child, but he feels his father's teachings steers him towards a different path(which is not Kratos' intention, he's just doing his best to grow Atreus despite not knowing how to do that, besides the spartan way), one which he doesn't have a say. So, like any child, he tries to get his authority back by being what most kids are best at-being dicks.
The scene shows how Atreus, now more conscious about basically everything, can see how really wrong and annoying his line of thought was(and not just a reference to your video, a view you have no proof of).
About the god part, the intention was to see how power can corrupt a person(especially one that feels being belittled), but it was way too rushed to have an impact
Everything about this game was made for Mayo. Even the ones that were totally not made for him.
@@underthemayo are you being intentionally dense to skip over his very accurate statement of your over inflated ego? You say 'it's a clear joke' but the way you say it in the video, you definitely sound serious. Like you think you're so important game devs would bother programming cut scene moments as a pop at you.
Its hilariously out of touch
You made great point about old cut scenes used to more in 90 seconds and actually made the game better. Vs the cinematic cut scenes of today there is no competition. I wish i had video game time machine. Stay up and God bless.
Bideo?
@@Arnie935 ty for spell checking. Fixed.
Time machine? Just play the older the games? Like what there still there.
@@DasVicks63 If a virtue was lost, is it wrong to expect developers bring it back? Saying to just go back doesn't help anyone.
@@limabarreto911 Listen I give hope a long ago, and I live to see every series of games to I love go to complete shit. Like The Last Of or Dying Light 2. And after disappiont after disppiont I say fuck it. There no hope, only go back to the past is all you can do.
The problem is that majority of Sony/GOW fanboys can't think for themselves. They would have liked this game anyway no matter what the studio made. They were already very biased in it's favour before it even came out that's why they can't seem to accept that this game, the plot, the gameplay, the ending etc is underwhelming & disappointing
Finished the game the other day after avoiding all reviews and today I was like ‘how sad is Mayo? Let’s go find out….’ Great honest review, something that greatly helped my enjoyment of the combat was the addition of gyro aim, since my right thumb lacks dexterity and I normally have to play games on easier difficulties. I went in on ‘challenge’ difficulty for half the game, until multiple enemy encounters frustrated me with cheap hits and I went down to balance. So I agree wholeheartedly with your combat critique and the padding. Thanks for the enlightenment and entertainment Mayo!
Yeah I really miss the old style. I'll admit I liked 2018 a lot but after playing it again and playing ragnorok it feels so stiff compared to the old ones. Ragnorok doesn't feel like a new experience either, it feels like a really big dlc to 2018 especially because of how much stuff was recycled like animations and mechanics and the visuals don't look improved in any way which is something most sequels, even of the same generation, have done to some extent. Ragnorok is supposed to be next gen vs 2018 and it looks exactly the same quality wise.
GoW 3 recycled GoW 2 animations. GoW 2 may have recycled GoW 1 animations, but I can't remember, it's been too long since i played. But GoW 3, without question, recycles enemies and kill animations from previous entries. I always found GoW 3 to be a mediocre experience, except for the Titan parts. GoW 2, though, is the best in the series. GoW 2>2018>Ragnarok>>>>GoW 3>GoW 1
@@purringbluzzmuffin8030 the old games are better than 2018 and Ragnarok in every way, and I don’t need to explain if you are really a Gow fan, cause these new games don’t even feel like a God of war game, the camera angles making you stare at Kratos back for the entire game and the combat is not fun at all and I don’t even like this new Kratos, I would take Gow1 and 2 and 3 anyday
@@purringbluzzmuffin8030 i am not gonna say anything about the old games being better than the new ones i am not an old player but 2018 over ragnarok ,ragnarok was objectively better in every except pacing and the atrues sections
@@Adi-mk2lq Ragnarok had no innovation.
The dlc argument is EVERYWHERE for almost every sequel nowadays.
What do people expect? And besides, almost all of the effects ts were revamped. Many attacks were changed too so it isn't even true
I think this video has really good pacing. Since you bring up what you like more I'm pretty sure people will understand your video more
I wasn't sure it did, but thank you. Pacing is hard to nail when working this fast.
To add to your points in the video;
Asgard looks no better than earth. In the old games, olympus was a ENCHANTING and covered in marble and gold.
The gods look like humans. No more glowing tattoos, no white eyes, no fire hair, just people.
The scale is a joke.
Armored Kratos looks fat. Shirtless too though.
Blades of chaos can never be as good with this combat system. That was the most iconic weapon of the series...maybe even action games in total.
Depiction of gods...they look broke compared to how Greek gods were portrayed; in dressing, houses and lifestyle.
Looks like I'll be buying the old collection and watching new entries on youtube🥴.
Bbbut they mmmust be re...re...relatable and m... m...mature.
I roll my eyes every time someone says that.
I still cant believe they resumed ragnarok with 15 minutes of battle in asgard, and also mimir said surtr was the key to win ragnarok but in the end kratos killed odin like he was nothing, after that surtr destroys asgard for no reason.
The Odin boss fight will go down in history as one of the most disappointing boss battles in the entire God of War series.
@@murrproductions9654mecahically Odin is one of the best bossfights in the series
@@magicmamba915 No it's not 😂 mechanically the Odin fight did nothing new gameplay wise such as introducing new elements yet seen during the playtime of Ragnarok. It was just regular Ragnarok combat.
@@murrproductions9654 yes but overall Odin moveset is better and deeper then any boss from old trilogy .
@@magicmamba915 I wouldn't say it's better or deeper. There are certainly more move sets some of them being rehashed elements from the Thor fight and other various variants from creatures etc. It's just not a grand spectacle of a boss fight that the series is known for. 2018 did a much better job incorporating spectacle in the final boss battle. Mechanically speaking I'd say the fight with Hades in God of War 3 was better and it's not even top of the list on gw3 for me. It had a couple different locations including new elements that change the way you navigate the environment etc.
Ragnarok is hands down one of the worst gaming experiences I've had.
It's a good Movie though
That's pretty wild. It didn't feel nearly as clunky as a lot of these other games we have releasing nowadays and the story besides a rushed ending was still excellent
Then why you buy it then?