God of War - Put your experiences here

[ZedClampet]

Launches Friday. Hopefully I'm not the only one here who will be getting this game.

Metacritic average score of 118 reviews: 94
Metacritic perfect scores: 42
Voted Game of the Year by over 22 publications
Voted Best Game of All-Time by IGN readers

And according to this Destructoid article, the port is good.

As usual, if you've preordered, you can start downloading it now, but don't do that if you have decent Internet speeds. It takes much longer on launch day to unpack all that stuff than it does to just download the game.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I want to get it but with Elden Ring next month and the games I bought from the wintersales it might be a summer sale game for me, then again 50 isn't as bad as 60 or 70, so anything can happen.

 

[Ryzengang]

Currently preloading.. Very excited to try it out.

 

[DXCHASE]

I want to get it but with Elden Ring next month and the games I bought from the wintersales it might be a summer sale game for me, then again 50 isn't as bad as 60 or 70, so anything can happen.

Same boat here except instead of Elden Ring, i have Lost Ark and Destiny 2's The Witch Queen coming up.

 

[CParsons]

I'll probably be checking it out. Seems the review for it have been pretty solid. PCG gave it a 90 as well - https://www.pcgamer.com/god-of-war-pc-review/

 

[ZedClampet]

Just played the first 90 minutes and had a blast. PC port is very good, but still a little demanding. I was getting in the low 60's FPS on Ultra at 1080p on my laptop. I tried DLS, but all I noticed was the screen getting fuzzy, so I turned it off.

It's nothing at all like Uncharted or The Last of Us, but somehow it feels like those games. Sony really has this down to a science. And the amount of polish is unbelievable. I'd be surprised to learn there was even a single bug in the game.

Melee combat is more controlled than Witcher 3 and faster than the From Software games (faster is what I prefer). It's harder to dodge, but you can also stagger your opponent with a fast light attack. You can block with your shield and do some special attacks. Also, you can throw your axe and recall it. You can also command your son to fire his bow, which comes in very handy. Was struggling with the speed of a Revenant, but you could distract her by having "boy" shoot at her. I'm still early in the game, so I'm sure there's lots more.

So far the enemy variety is awesome. The AI tactics change with each enemy type, so you aren't just fighting the same way each battle.

Very involved in the story already, and I like having Krator's son with you. Makes the game feel less lonely.

There are four or five difficulty options. I picked the second one, which is basically "normal", but you can change the difficulty at any time. The game employs a checkpoint save system, but you can manually save at any time.

At one point, I actually thought Normal difficulty was going to be too hard for me, but I just had to get used to the controls. I may need to remap a couple of things that don't feel intuitive to me.

 

[Brian Boru]

Not for me, but sounds brilliant! Enjoy

 

[Zloth]

Coconut Monkey is going to need to sneak up on Kratos to get the PC Gamer logo back for the main page! (Geralt would be better at it, but he's STILL in that bath.)

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

So I picked it up.. Its amazing! Might even be the best looking game I've played to date. Runs at mix of Ultra/High on a 5700XT/Ryzen 5600X at over 60 FPS all the time as far as I can tell.

Only a couple of hours in, combat's a lot of fun. Deliberate and takes some thought to get through and I havent really started unlocking many skills yet. Just met the Heavy Draugr, enemy variety is getting very interesting managing different threats with different techniques forces you to alter tactics. Not button mashy at all on the difficulty below top. May get frustrated and lower it at some point but at the moment its great.

Its so good looking, I want to marry it.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

So I picked it up.. Its amazing! Might even be the best looking game I've played to date. Runs at mix of Ultra/High on a 5700XT/Ryzen 5600X at over 60 FPS all the time as far as I can tell.

Only a couple of hours in, combat's a lot of fun. Deliberate and takes some thought to get through and I havent really started unlocking many skills yet. Just met the Heavy Draugr, enemy variety is getting very interesting managing different threats with different techniques forces you to alter tactics. Not button mashy at all on the difficulty below top. May get frustrated and lower it at some point but at the moment its great.

Its so good looking, I want to marry it.

I had no idea until right now that Draugrs were something outside of the Elder Scrolls universe. Makes sense that they'd be in Skyrim, though, since it comes from Norse mythology.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Don't think I'd heard of Draugr before Skyrim either.

Forgot to mention I'm also using FSR ultra quality which still looks great. Not usually a screenshot type but I'm tempted to try and get some with GOW.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Got a bit further in, just got out of Alfheim and back to Midgard. Seems the graphics gave taken a turn for the worse in Alfheim, not bad but just looks much more like a PS4 game than the beginning of the game. Kratos model is still amazing, and the textures of the rocks and mountains in the distance were incredible in the first few hours. But going through Alfheim the game started to look its age.

Combats still good, picked up some runes and started upgrading equipment and it looks like there's some scope for slightly different playstyles, although obviously not as varied as a full RPG.

Most surprising is how the relationship between Kratos and Atreus is coming along. Totally get why people were calling it Dad of War, clever way of keeping the essence of the caricature that Kratos is and making him a little more relatable.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Got a bit further in, just got out of Alfheim and back to Midgard. Seems the graphics gave taken a turn for the worse in Alfheim, not bad but just looks much more like a PS4 game than the beginning of the game. Kratos model is still amazing, and the textures of the rocks and mountains in the distance were incredible in the first few hours. But going through Alfheim the game started to look its age.

Combats still good, picked up some runes and started upgrading equipment and it looks like there's some scope for slightly different playstyles, although obviously not as varied as a full RPG.

Most surprising is how the relationship between Kratos and Atreus is coming along. Totally get why people were calling it Dad of War, clever way of keeping the essence of the caricature that Kratos is and making him a little more relatable.

Yeah Alfheim graphics seemed a bit fuzzy to me outdoors, and I took an FPS hit too. Indoors it's fine though. The game is really amazing, and there's tons of stuff to do. I accidentally got into the final campaign battle, so finished with only about 50% completion, but have now defeated the 8 Valkyries and am very near 100%. The Valkyries take some doing to figure out and take down, the Valkyrie Queen, which I've read is much tougher, is going to be very hard to beat.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Yeah Alfheim graphics seemed a bit fuzzy to me outdoors, and I took an FPS hit too. Indoors it's fine though. The game is really amazing, and there's tons of stuff to do. I accidentally got into the final campaign battle, so finished with only about 50% completion, but have now defeated the 8 Valkyries and am very near 100%. The Valkyries take some doing to figure out and take down, the Valkyrie Queen, which I've read is much tougher, is going to be very hard to beat.

Just got back to Midgard from Helheim, combat feels a bit more mashy with the blades but then again I also haven't got many moves with them yet.

I found the Valkyries place on the map, but there's nothing there yet. Haven't been to Musphelheim yet but Ive picked up the rune fragments or whatever it is to go. Also have a couple of fragments for the other place I cant remember the name of.

Agreed its a really great game, loads to do and none of it seems like busy work yet. Still really liking the story too, just great all round tbh.

 

[Time.E]

God of War was the bomb when I was a kid. The first experience I remember was seeing the commercials for it on TV and being like "Wow! I have to play that!" Back when I was a console gamer... I still haven't tried it on PC. Now I'm shocked it wasn't included in this list of sword games. Thanks for making this threat I just found it and it's bringing back so many memories.

I want to get it but with Elden Ring next month and the games I bought from the wintersales it might be a summer sale game for me, then again 50 isn't as bad as 60 or 70, so anything can happen.

I don't lame you one bit for waiting for Elden Ring. That game looks amazing!

 

[Frag Maniac]

Just got back to Midgard from Helheim, combat feels a bit more mashy with the blades but then again I also haven't got many moves with them yet.

I found the Valkyries place on the map, but there's nothing there yet. Haven't been to Musphelheim yet but Ive picked up the rune fragments or whatever it is to go. Also have a couple of fragments for the other place I cant remember the name of.

Agreed its a really great game, loads to do and none of it seems like busy work yet. Still really liking the story too, just great all round tbh.

All the Valkyries are in hidden chambers with one of those diamond shaped seals over the door. They're not that hard to find, and you only need the chisel to break through the seal, which you should have by now. It's recommended you be at least level 6 before taking on Valkyries though, better yet as much as level 8. One mistake I made was not using the storm effect on my Talisman, which limits the damage you take and does normal and frost damage. I kept fumbling with it not being able to activate it most of the time. Then I found out you merely have to have the shield up, then hit the key to activate it, which shows on the HUD when the shield is up. DOH!, I'm like Homer Simpson on the 1st playthrough. In my defense however, there's not much time to look at the HUD when you're fighting Valkyries, and they were the only fights where I really needed it.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

All the Valkyries are in hidden chambers with one of those diamond shaped seals over the door. They're not that hard to find, and you only need the chisel to break through the seal, which you should have by now. It's recommended you be at least level 6 before taking on Valkyries though, better yet as much as level 8. One mistake I made was not using the storm effect on my Talisman, which limits the damage you take and does normal and frost damage. I kept fumbling with it not being able to activate it most of the time. Then I found out you merely have to have the shield up, then hit the key to activate it, which shows on the HUD when the shield is up. DOH!, I'm like Homer Simpson on the 1st playthrough. In my defense however, there's not much time to look at the HUD when you're fighting Valkyries, and they were the only fights where I really needed it.

Yea I'm level 5 and just tried the one below the Freyas house today. Turns out its pretty tough! Almost had it 3 times out of 10 or something but gave up in the end, if I'd had a resurrection charm would have won. Fun fight though took a while to get bored of losing. Ended up leading off with Atreus upgraded wolf summon then hitting her with the light Ice ray rune. Follow that up with the heavy rune jump that freezes the draugr she summons straight away and you can get a few hits in on her again. If she didnt summon again every time her draugr die off it wouldnt be too bad. Atreus' upgraded arrows are really strong. I dont think I have a Storm talisman, in fact I'm using a legendary one that boosts all my stats but I'm not really sure what its active effect is as it doesnt explain it. Should probably play with that a bit in fights.

Got into the Musphelheim trials as well, gave up on the third sword when you have to kill 100 enemies, didnt really appeal at that moment.

Are all the Valkyrie fights the same? I found the one near the house is empty but not tried others yet

 

[Frag Maniac]

Yea I'm level 5 and just tried the one below the Freyas house today. Turns out its pretty tough! Almost had it 3 times out of 10 or something but gave up in the end, if I'd had a resurrection charm would have won. Fun fight though took a while to get bored of losing. Ended up leading off with Atreus upgraded wolf summon then hitting her with the light Ice ray rune. Follow that up with the heavy rune jump that freezes the draugr she summons straight away and you can get a few hits in on her again. If she didnt summon again every time her draugr die off it wouldnt be too bad. Atreus' upgraded arrows are really strong. I dont think I have a Storm talisman, in fact I'm using a legendary one that boosts all my stats but I'm not really sure what its active effect is as it doesnt explain it. Should probably play with that a bit in fights.

Got into the Musphelheim trials as well, gave up on the third sword when you have to kill 100 enemies, didnt really appeal at that moment.

Are all the Valkyrie fights the same? I found the one near the house is empty but not tried others yet

No, not all Valkyries are the same, in fact the one you were talking about, Kara, is the only one that can summons other enemies to fight with her. They generally have different attacks too, it's mainly their unblockable distant attack that is most different. Geirdriful for instance, is the only one who's unblockable distant attack sends out a wave that doesn't harm you, but blinds you (same effect Dark Elves use, but by different means). Some distant unblockable attacks can be thwarted by Atreus' arrows though if you shoot them in time. So don't constantly spam his arrows, always save some for when the Valkyrie launches into the air, because that is when they are about to do a powerful unblockable distant attack.

Kara is deceiving, she seems tough because of the enemies she can summons, but she herself is one of the weakest Valkyries, and that's also why you were nearly able to kill her at level 5.

 

[Frag Maniac]

So far the enemy variety is awesome. The AI tactics change with each enemy type, so you aren't just fighting the same way each battle.

For those whom can stomach Give Me God of War difficulty, the hardest one (which I'm not sure I can yet), the AI get even more varied. In that mode, certain enemies will out of the blue start powering up, and they also have a purple aura around them when doing so. If you're alert and quick enough, you can stop this process when they start powering up by attacking them. If not, you'll be dealing with an enemy whom may have developed a purple health bar at that point, who's suddenly advanced a level or 2.

On Give Me God of War you also have to deal with some Nightmares that can actually posses other enemies and make them stronger and more aggressive. When this happens, you have to keep stunning them until their stun meter is full, then the Nightmare jumps out of them, or kill them, but when they're raging, it's better to stun them to slow them down.

I also found out that on Give Me God of War, the best way to play is to try attacking only one enemy at a time, unless you can send a couple of them in the air, then manage to knock both over a ledge or into water or lava, because once an enemy is engaged, they'll come after you, some relentlessly so.

So there's many ways things can get ugly quick on Give Me God of War. It's easy to assume on first look, that the game is easier than previous GoW's, mainly due to having Atreus to assist, but there's a lot going on with Give Me God of War mode. I've been watching All The Shinies' narrated Give Me God of War 100% guide, and I have learned a ton. The guy is pretty good, but he's also good at avoiding tragedy when things go bad.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

No, not all Valkyries are the same, in fact the one you were talking about, Kara, is the only one that can summons other enemies to fight with her. They generally have different attacks too, it's mainly their unblockable distant attack that is most different. Geirdriful for instance, is the only one who's unblockable distant attack sends out a wave that doesn't harm you, but blinds you (same effect Dark Elves use, but by different means). Some distant unblockable attacks can be thwarted by Atreus' arrows though if you shoot them in time. So don't constantly spam his arrows, always save some for when the Valkyrie launches into the air, because that is when they are about to do a powerful unblockable distant attack.

Kara is deceiving, she seems tough because of the enemies she can summons, but she herself is one of the weakest Valkyries, and that's also why you were nearly able to kill her at level 5.

Managed to kill I think Gunnr (By the Giants body) fairly easily by parrying a lot of her attacks and then decided to search for others. No dice the others all smashed me multiple times, although i did get within a feather of killing the one on the mountain path, straight after that she kept killing me in seconds so I guess I annoyed her.

They're really fun fights, have to learn the timings and tells and mix up dodging, parrying and rolling. Feels like home.

After that went back to Helheim, Epic journey there but the boat stuff was a bit meh, my least favourite section so far. The Blades are just so button mashy its not as fun as the axe. Might also be a little over-leveled as I've done quite a lot of exploring and have a lot of Epic gems and so on.

I like the sound of the harder difficulty as you describe it, I think its amazing when games actually make things harder mechanically rather than just adding HP and reducing damage. I dont think I'll get there though, I'm not that good that it wouldnt take me several playthroughs to get there and I dont think I would want to do that, respect if that's your thing and all.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Managed to kill I think Gunnr (By the Giants body) fairly easily by parrying a lot of her attacks and then decided to search for others. No dice the others all smashed me multiple times, although i did get within a feather of killing the one on the mountain path, straight after that she kept killing me in seconds so I guess I annoyed her.

They're really fun fights, have to learn the timings and tells and mix up dodging, parrying and rolling. Feels like home.

After that went back to Helheim, Epic journey there but the boat stuff was a bit meh, my least favourite section so far. The Blades are just so button mashy its not as fun as the axe. Might also be a little over-leveled as I've done quite a lot of exploring and have a lot of Epic gems and so on.

I like the sound of the harder difficulty as you describe it, I think its amazing when games actually make things harder mechanically rather than just adding HP and reducing damage. I dont think I'll get there though, I'm not that good that it wouldnt take me several playthroughs to get there and I dont think I would want to do that, respect if that's your thing and all.

Yeah Gunnr is one of the 2 I was able to beat with no rage or resurrection stone, the other was Eir. I think it was more due to just getting better at figuring out how to fight them, than how tough they were though, as they were 2 of the ones I did last. I also nearly had Rota with no rage or resurrection too, but she suddenly took me down to near death with an instant jump into a neck stomp attack. So if you think you have Rota beat when she's down really low on health, be wary of that.

The only thing I have left to do to get 100% completion is beat the Valkyrie Queen Sigrun now, but she is way harder than I anticipated. She has every attack all the other Valkyries have, and way more health. Some of her unblockable attacks are also very fast and hard to see coming. After numerous tries last night, I couldn't get her down to less than about 1/3 of her health remaining, and that was with 2 full meter Spartan Rage attacks. Basically most Valkyries are about a 2 min fight once you figure them out. Their Queen is more like an 8-9 min fight, and a lot harder to figure out, and way harder physically.

So yeah, normally I do try to progress to the hardest difficulty, and even add challenges beyond that many times, like no upgrades and such. These type games are not really my forte though. After seeing how hard this Valkyrie Queen is, if I ever do manage a walkthrough of the game, it may be on 2nd hardest difficulty and just the main campaign, without this optional stuff. I have a passion for various types of games, but not hours of suffering just to beat 1 boss. That is a Dark Souls type vibe I've never been into. I may very well eventually try a main campaign run on Give Me God of War, but it probably wouldn't be anything video worthy even if I could manage it.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Just got Olrun, wasnt too bad on second try, used a resurrection stone though. Was maybe a bit easier for me because I like to dodge and counter. Did Sindri and Broks quest for the armor in and made the defence models, I think Broks so that might have helped as well. Haven't been back to any others to try again yet.

Next time I get a chance I'm going to head on with the main story then try some more Valkyries maybe one the axe is fully levelled. I like the idea of beating all them so I might try and see how long it stays fun for me.

I also like a lot of different games too, including Souls games. I do think there's a tiny bit of Souls in GOW combat, although theres also obviously a lot of God Of War in it too. I'm starting to feeling like I'll be done with after one play through though, espeically considering next week is Elden Ring. Still fun exploring, I've done a lot more of the extras than I usually end up doing in action games, and I'd like to craft some more armors to get the achievements just for fun so lets see.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Just got Olrun, wasnt too bad on second try, used a resurrection stone though.

Yeah Olrun was my first Valkyrie. I ended up using 2 full rage attacks, a Berserker resurrection stone, and my storm talisman effect that also acts as a protective barrier because I was down to really low health. I found out later I would have been better off just standing in the center of the arena with shield up, dodging and countering her attacks, then attacking in the short window thereafter. I guess I'm just too impatient with them.

I really hate that dodge requires a double tap of the Space key, which often takes too long to avoid being hit even if you see the red ring prompt. Despite the GoW series changing from ridiculous QTE combat and isometric view, to a true 3D view where you are just given onscreen attack warnings, this is still a game where visual reactions aren't enough, you have to memorize their attack patterns. That puts a lot of strain on an old fart like me who's reflexes and memory are aged.

I'm finishing up my Halo Infinite walkthrough, and only have the final boss fight left. After retrying each segment, I managed to get through the prior 2 missions The Road and House of Reckoning with no deaths (until I got to Escharum, where I had a few), linking them together at Saving Progress checkpoints I was able to quit game at. I beat "Blademaster" Jega in 10 sec in House of Reckoning, and the 2 Elite Hunters in Silent Auditorium in under 1:30, having gotten to the point I'm currently at by the same method with no deaths.

The Harbinger boss fight will no doubt be a different story though. I plan on just keeping record on through the first waves, and edit out the deaths later, then use Instant Replay for the final wave. The final wave takes me too many tries to keep recording non stop. I hope to get it all captured, edited, and uploaded today, then post it sometime tomorrow.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Yeah Olrun was my first Valkyrie. I ended up using 2 full rage attacks, a Berserker resurrection stone, and my storm talisman effect that also acts as a protective barrier because I was down to really low health. I found out later I would have been better off just standing in the center of the arena with shield up, dodging and countering her attacks, then attacking in the short window thereafter. I guess I'm just too impatient with them.

I really hate that dodge requires a double tap of the Space key, which often takes too long to avoid being hit even if you see the red ring prompt. Despite changing from ridiculous QTE combat in isometric view, to a true 3D view where you are just given onscreen warnings, this is still a game where visual reactions aren't enough, you have to memorize their attack patterns. That puts a lot of strain on an old fart like me who's reflexes and memory are aged.

Those golden circle missile attacks are pretty hard to dodge, especially when she raises up its 50-50 whether its going to be that or the magic missiles youre supposed to block. I played on a PS4 controller like I do all melee games, dodge maybe a bit easier to do there too, just one button.

Finished the game, didn't realize the axe only went to level 5 as there was still an option to level it in the menu. It was great and I recommend it to anyone with even a slight interest. Its accesible enough for anyone to play even if you only have a passing interest in 3rd person melee, but complex enough that its interesting for those who want to learn how to play it.

I'd probably play a bit more but I just started on Elden Ring which is also very good so far. Probably wont play Halo Infinite for a long time though it does sound fun.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Those golden circle missile attacks are pretty hard to dodge, especially when she raises up its 50-50 whether its going to be that or the magic missiles youre supposed to block. I played on a PS4 controller like I do all melee games, dodge maybe a bit easier to do there too, just one button.

Finished the game, didn't realize the axe only went to level 5 as there was still an option to level it in the menu. It was great and I recommend it to anyone with even a slight interest. Its accesible enough for anyone to play even if you only have a passing interest in 3rd person melee, but complex enough that its interesting for those who want to learn how to play it.

I'd probably play a bit more but I just started on Elden Ring which is also very good so far. Probably wont play Halo Infinite for a long time though it does sound fun.

I don't recall Olrun having a missile attack. The Queen though fires 3 projectiles that kind of look like swerving missiles.

Yeah I really hate it when devs crap out on KB/M players and give them a more fiddly control scheme than they use for gamepads. There's no excuse for it either, because it's gamepads that have far less bindings.

So did you beat all the Valkyries, or 100% the game?