When I was playing God of War and God of War II, I didn't think to myself, "I wish I had a companion." I liked going out there on my own and brutalizing every creature in sight. Now let's build on those and call it a day." If that is the case, at least provide temporary pickups, like spears and halberts that actually do have reach. The devs may have just decided, "We've got the close range weapon that can be thrown, we've got the ground pound and we've got the sidekick whose bow the player can aim. I wonder if they're gonna give you alternate melee weapons or if that's not realistic enough anymore. You're gonna be running up to enemies a lot and throwing it constantly. The old games had a dodge roll, but if you're gonna go in the cinematic, realistic direction, then replace it with something more practical, like a speedy dash, combined with a slight duck where appropriate.Ī hand axe doesn't have enough reach for the long-range combat God of War is known for. I did like the shield from the new trailer, though. I didn't use most of the combos in the old games, but I would hope the combat is a little more fleshed out than hack left, hack right, hack left, hack right, power jump, repeat, QTE. They probably went with an over-the-shoulder view because it's more "cinematic" and it allows them to make the environments prettier. Apparently, platforming isn't realistic enough. The levels are more realistic and the camera is so zoomed in that it's impossible to create satisfying platforming. I expect the combat to be slowed and the adventure elements to be simplified just because the player can now barely see around them without turning the cam. With the camera pulled back, the player has a better view of the action and the environment and can more easily take care of enemies on multiple sides. At one point, I noticed them moving from the left closer to the center, despite Kratos aiming all his power there. It looks like they'll wait their turn if they're not in the zoomed picture. Even when Kratos was up against many enemies in the new trailer, the field of view was small. It will have some of the same camera problems as the slower-paced Dark Souls. You can tell by the way it turns upward when the boss raises his foot. They've also locked the camera to the enemy like in Dark Souls. The standard attack is probably bound to R1 to compensate. The field of view is so small that the player will have to adjust the camera constantly. You can barely see the enemies around you as you're hacking. Over-the-shoulder cameras are better for slow, mechanical shooters.
This zoomed in walk and talk movie game isn't God of War. I would have carried those things over to a reboot, set in a different pantheon with a different deity of war as the protagonist. How they all combined to create a mythic adventure. (There were a few originally for PSP, which have been ported to PS3.What I liked about God of War was the spectacle, the fast-paced beat 'em up action, the grand environments, the (linear) exploration, the over the top brutality, the epic score, the puzzles.
Pick up a PS3 (or a PS NOW subscription) - the entire rest of the series is on PS3, PS4, or both. It's the only one from the series that's hard to play on modern(-ish) systems, and for good reason.
It's set after the first game, so I'd say: Play the first game, then read this wiki article, and then don't bother. The plot might actually be non-canonical anyway, even if it matters. I've now found a game-breaking bug pretty close to the end of the game, so that's fun. After a level and a half, I'd have to restart the emulator. The one I finally got working had no fullscreen (though it would've looked like a vertical video anyway), no save states, no cheats, no mods, none of the things you find with more popular systems and games.Įither the emulator or the games are buggy as hell. Keep in mind, the fact that it in any way resembles a God of War game is a massive accomplishment for a platform whose killer app was Snake.Įmulators are nowhere near the quality that they are for other platforms, like NES. Also, aside from the menu, I had no music and very little sound. It's short, easy, and is very shallow in gameplay and plot. "Surprisingly good for J2ME" is a very very low bar. Long answer: It was surprisingly good for a J2ME game, probably one of the best games for that platform, but: