God of War wins TGA's Game of the Year award!
- Thread starter Bundy
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WARNING SPOILERS
I personally think RDR2 deserved the GOTY, but i have to take issues with some of the things in your post.
The game did not have awful boss battles especially when compared to RDR which had none. The trolls were featured heavily, but they are mini bosses at best. The first boss fight with Baldur is widely considered the best setpiece in the game. The final boss with him is another fantastic multi level battle with some incredible setpieces. The dragon fight is nothing special but still was no where close to being awful as you described. The Valykries are some of the best bosses i have ever experienced in a game, ever. Sigrun is arguably harder than any boss in souls game and felt incredibly rewarding to beat. That leaves us with Magni and Modi which was an awesome fight and the Elf King which was pretty decent.
That's 6 unique fights not including trolls. All good to amazing. And again, that is not including the 8 valkyries you fight before Sigrun, or the Ancient trolls. The troll on the bridge has completely unique abilities too which make it a completely different boss fight but lets not include that either. You still have 6 great boss fights.
The optional realms are fantastic end game content. I have spent 100 hours doing Nilfheim and Musphelheim runs. Some of the best weapons and armors are awarded in those realms and pretty much all the upgrade materials are obtained from there too. They are both very rewarding and do a fantastic job making use of arguably the best combat engine this gen. The rest of the side content is absolutely fantastic. You have an entire island with a dragon to explore. Then you have around 9 completely optional smaller islands that evolve over time with newer puzzles and rewards. You have treasure quests that are fun to find. Hidden items that are fun to find. There is a lot of great optional content in this game even if the actual story behind these side quests arent Witcher 3 quality. But the gameplay is much better than Witcher 3 side quests so it evens out.
I personally thought the leveling up system was fine. It is tied to armor and weapon levels which is very similar to the light level system in Destiny so i felt right at home. I'd argue it's better than Destiny because the perks on the weapons and armors along with the stat bonuses allow for insane levels of customizations and builds. Again, this is where the optional realms and valkyrie fights come in because having a good build to counter these challenging encounters is essential.
NG+ is even better because the bosses and enemies have even more attack patterns, enemies can level up and heal themselves, and kratos has some fantastic new gear that gives even more customization and options. I used to stick with a runic build but on NG+ switched to a luck build that proc'd perks on pretty much every other hit.
So in terms of side content, i would say it's better than 99% of the games out there including GaaS games with end game content like Destiny and Division. There is room for improvements, some of the side content could have had a better story but they sent you to completely new areas and had a lot of hand crafted encounters. I thought Baldur and Freya were great characters so it's not like only Kratos and Loki got good character development. But yes, this is another place where they can improve next gen and yes, RDR2 had better characters and story, but lets' not pretend that GoW didnt have amazing story moments itself. Any other year, GoW wins best story for the following reasons:
1) Constantly evolving Relationship between Kratos and Loki.
2) Baldur's GOAT introduction
3) That entire 15-20 minute sequence when you go to get the blades is arguably the greatest bits of storytelling in a video game ever.
4) Baldur, Loki and Kratos confrontation on the mountain with Loki betraying Kratos and Kratos jumping on the dragon to rescue Loki, fighting Baldur on the dragon, crashing the dragon then using the bifrost to fly into hellheim all in one take in a span of 5-10 minutes. I fucking LOVE RDR2 but it didnt have any epic moments like this.
5) The entire ending sequence with Kratos, Loki, Freya and Baldur. 4 characters, two different relationships, all getting resolved amidst a fucking titan wrecking havoc in the background. Not to mention Loki summoning Jogmunder.
6) Kratos finally telling Loki about his past.
7) The Loki reveal
8) Thor post credit reveal.
These are absolutely incredible holy shit moments mixed in with some poignant father son moments like the E3 deer killing, Loki's first human kill, Loki's first Rage transformation and subsequent illness and finally the realization that he himself is a giant.
I think RDR2 is probably the best story told in a video game ever. Arthur is the greatest protaganist ever. And i say that as someone who has had a Snake username since early 2001 on video game forums. I would give it an oscar for best picture if i could. But to assert that GoW didnt have a good story, great characters, good bosses, and great side content is absolutely incorrect.
I personally think RDR2 deserved the GOTY, but i have to take issues with some of the things in your post.
The game did not have awful boss battles especially when compared to RDR which had none. The trolls were featured heavily, but they are mini bosses at best. The first boss fight with Baldur is widely considered the best setpiece in the game. The final boss with him is another fantastic multi level battle with some incredible setpieces. The dragon fight is nothing special but still was no where close to being awful as you described. The Valykries are some of the best bosses i have ever experienced in a game, ever. Sigrun is arguably harder than any boss in souls game and felt incredibly rewarding to beat. That leaves us with Magni and Modi which was an awesome fight and the Elf King which was pretty decent.
That's 6 unique fights not including trolls. All good to amazing. And again, that is not including the 8 valkyries you fight before Sigrun, or the Ancient trolls. The troll on the bridge has completely unique abilities too which make it a completely different boss fight but lets not include that either. You still have 6 great boss fights.
The optional realms are fantastic end game content. I have spent 100 hours doing Nilfheim and Musphelheim runs. Some of the best weapons and armors are awarded in those realms and pretty much all the upgrade materials are obtained from there too. They are both very rewarding and do a fantastic job making use of arguably the best combat engine this gen. The rest of the side content is absolutely fantastic. You have an entire island with a dragon to explore. Then you have around 9 completely optional smaller islands that evolve over time with newer puzzles and rewards. You have treasure quests that are fun to find. Hidden items that are fun to find. There is a lot of great optional content in this game even if the actual story behind these side quests arent Witcher 3 quality. But the gameplay is much better than Witcher 3 side quests so it evens out.
I personally thought the leveling up system was fine. It is tied to armor and weapon levels which is very similar to the light level system in Destiny so i felt right at home. I'd argue it's better than Destiny because the perks on the weapons and armors along with the stat bonuses allow for insane levels of customizations and builds. Again, this is where the optional realms and valkyrie fights come in because having a good build to counter these challenging encounters is essential.
NG+ is even better because the bosses and enemies have even more attack patterns, enemies can level up and heal themselves, and kratos has some fantastic new gear that gives even more customization and options. I used to stick with a runic build but on NG+ switched to a luck build that proc'd perks on pretty much every other hit.
So in terms of side content, i would say it's better than 99% of the games out there including GaaS games with end game content like Destiny and Division. There is room for improvements, some of the side content could have had a better story but they sent you to completely new areas and had a lot of hand crafted encounters. I thought Baldur and Freya were great characters so it's not like only Kratos and Loki got good character development. But yes, this is another place where they can improve next gen and yes, RDR2 had better characters and story, but lets' not pretend that GoW didnt have amazing story moments itself. Any other year, GoW wins best story for the following reasons:
1) Constantly evolving Relationship between Kratos and Loki.
2) Baldur's GOAT introduction
3) That entire 15-20 minute sequence when you go to get the blades is arguably the greatest bits of storytelling in a video game ever.
4) Baldur, Loki and Kratos confrontation on the mountain with Loki betraying Kratos and Kratos jumping on the dragon to rescue Loki, fighting Baldur on the dragon, crashing the dragon then using the bifrost to fly into hellheim all in one take in a span of 5-10 minutes. I fucking LOVE RDR2 but it didnt have any epic moments like this.
5) The entire ending sequence with Kratos, Loki, Freya and Baldur. 4 characters, two different relationships, all getting resolved amidst a fucking titan wrecking havoc in the background. Not to mention Loki summoning Jogmunder.
6) Kratos finally telling Loki about his past.
7) The Loki reveal
8) Thor post credit reveal.
These are absolutely incredible holy shit moments mixed in with some poignant father son moments like the E3 deer killing, Loki's first human kill, Loki's first Rage transformation and subsequent illness and finally the realization that he himself is a giant.
I think RDR2 is probably the best story told in a video game ever. Arthur is the greatest protaganist ever. And i say that as someone who has had a Snake username since early 2001 on video game forums. I would give it an oscar for best picture if i could. But to assert that GoW didnt have a good story, great characters, good bosses, and great side content is absolutely incorrect.
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It's really sad to read this thread and see loads of people trying to shit on God of War just because they didn't like it (or are anti-Sony fanboys). Even worse to see people shitting on other games in response. God of War and Red Dead are two of my favourite games of this gen. Why can't we just enjoy good games?
Think God of War just wasn't for you if that's how you feel about it tbh because I had the totally opposite experience with it.
The camera was tight but it totally worked fine, especially if you use the indicators for incoming attacks from behind. The enemy lunge distance was fine to dodge or block / parry if you learn the attack patterns and have good timing. I thought juggling was fine, especially when in combo with some of the special attacks and the cool downs were to stop people spamming them and making the combat far too easy. The RPG system was also fine but I like RPG's so felt right at home with handling different armour and items to buff stats.
The mistletoe thing was easy to see coming if you know the myths of course but nothing major, as for Atreus doing a 180, well he got cocky learning he was a God and like a lot of young kids might do, he thought he was better than others (the power went to his head) but it was character development and he learned from it.
The camera was tight but it totally worked fine, especially if you use the indicators for incoming attacks from behind. The enemy lunge distance was fine to dodge or block / parry if you learn the attack patterns and have good timing. I thought juggling was fine, especially when in combo with some of the special attacks and the cool downs were to stop people spamming them and making the combat far too easy. The RPG system was also fine but I like RPG's so felt right at home with handling different armour and items to buff stats.
The mistletoe thing was easy to see coming if you know the myths of course but nothing major, as for Atreus doing a 180, well he got cocky learning he was a God and like a lot of young kids might do, he thought he was better than others (the power went to his head) but it was character development and he learned from it.
This is exactly how it should go. You can even argue GOTY and direction to RDR2, but GoW is a great pick as it's the better playing game. But all the technical stuff, nothing is better than RDR2. No story is even close to RDR2. No performance is close to Arthur Morgan.
They got it as right as they could.
They got it as right as they could.
The mission structure sure didn't break the mold of the typical R* archetype. It's more noticeable since the game takes ages to complete. The world is really what makes that game special. God of War broke all that was set prior and did its own thing while pushing the series forward instead of being more of the same just with a new coat of paint. That being said, the game isn't perfect and I had issues with it as well. Overall my experience with it was more enjoyable than RDR 2. I still enjoyed that game despite that.
The term oscar bait doesn’t exist lol.
If we look at the past 4 TGA GOTY winners:
2014: Dragon Age Inquisition
2015: Witcher 3
2016: Overwatch
2017: BOTW
With exception of Overwatch, Oscar bait would probably mean huge open world 100+ hour games. Then RDR2 is more of an oscar bait than GOW, lol.
Anyway, both games are amazing and either of them could have taken it.
If we look at the past 4 TGA GOTY winners:
2014: Dragon Age Inquisition
2015: Witcher 3
2016: Overwatch
2017: BOTW
With exception of Overwatch, Oscar bait would probably mean huge open world 100+ hour games. Then RDR2 is more of an oscar bait than GOW, lol.
Anyway, both games are amazing and either of them could have taken it.
If you spent 20-30 hours on chapter 2 and 3, that's on you though. You can see the credits in 30 or so hours if you focus purely on main missions. It's also just a lot larger in scope then GoW in terms of story and characters. There's literally more members of the Van der Linde gang then there are characters in GoW just in general. Which could be fine, but if you cut out all the "uh oh, we can't get through this smoke, off to alfheim" stuff, you have at most 5 hours of actual important stuff.
Which is not to say RDR2's pacing is amazing or anything, I would have cut the island adventure side plot, but its also spinning a lot more plates.
Which is not to say RDR2's pacing is amazing or anything, I would have cut the island adventure side plot, but its also spinning a lot more plates.
There's a lot of fat in RDR 2 story as well, Valentine, the two families, Bronte, the Natives, it's all the same premise all over again. I believe that it wasn't neccesary to have three chapters focusing on the same idea of making money and laying low until something explodes.
To me RDR 2 is like your favourite long show, Game of Thrones is mine, there's always some seasons that goes on too long.
To me RDR 2 is like your favourite long show, Game of Thrones is mine, there's always some seasons that goes on too long.
I kinda thought the nominees were a bit weak but looking at the top games of the year on Metacritic, I can't think of anything that I'd really fight for. My choice from those would probably be Celeste though, maybe Spider-man. I never played RDR2.
I have a friend who LOVED God of War so I don't really mind it winning. There's a lot of love for that game even if you hear lots of negativity when it's talked about now. Of course discussion about it will be negative when the only recent discussion I can think about were threads around Joseph Anderson and Matthewmatosis YouTube reviews.
I have a friend who LOVED God of War so I don't really mind it winning. There's a lot of love for that game even if you hear lots of negativity when it's talked about now. Of course discussion about it will be negative when the only recent discussion I can think about were threads around Joseph Anderson and Matthewmatosis YouTube reviews.
The indicators were part of the problem. Why not use an auditory cue since you have two characters accompanying you the majority of the time. The entire decision reeks of "we couldn't zoom out the camera and keep visual fidelity" in other words they sacrificed good gameplay for journalist wooing visuals. During juggling enemies stay completely flat with no reasonable animation for reaction, it looks terrible and feels even worse.
God of War is amazing. It's a well-deserved win for the team at Santa Monica. I am glad it's one of the few games I've been able to beat in the last several years.
The fact that other amazing games came out this year and were also amazing spoke volumes on how much of a win this is for Santa Monica. I loved Spider-Man and Astrobot, I look forward to playing more of Red Dead Redemption 2, but God of War may just be my game of the generation so far.
Congrats, Santa Monica Studios!
The fact that other amazing games came out this year and were also amazing spoke volumes on how much of a win this is for Santa Monica. I loved Spider-Man and Astrobot, I look forward to playing more of Red Dead Redemption 2, but God of War may just be my game of the generation so far.
Congrats, Santa Monica Studios!
20-30 hours Is on the fast side, the game gives you zero reasons to rush those chapters and the game would be worst if you did, so no it's not on me, if you are beating RDR2 in 30 hours it's on you.
The important part of GoW is Atreus and Kratos relationship and setting up the world, it takes far more the 5 hours to build that, the journey to the highest mountain isn't the games story.
Also, despite all the characters only Arthur really develops well overtime and is as well written as Kratos and BOY!.
but none of them come close to Arthur and it sticks out. Whereas pretty much everyone is well done in GoWs much smaller cast, less likeable characters in GoW? Sure, but they are all pretty much well done (outside of Magni and Modi really).
The important part of GoW is Atreus and Kratos relationship and setting up the world, it takes far more the 5 hours to build that, the journey to the highest mountain isn't the games story.
Also, despite all the characters only Arthur really develops well overtime and is as well written as Kratos and BOY!.
Dutch is done well enough and John in the epilogue is good,.
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