Gaiff
Member
Decided to give the remastered version a spin on the good ol' PS4 Pro and damn does it hold up well.
The thing that struck me the most after a few hours is that there are no companions. It's just Kratos. I'll be the first to say that I appreciate Mimir's commentary and humor here and there but I absolutely do not miss the little shit that is Atreus. I go through levels and no one tells me a damn thing on how to solve the puzzles. The camera zooms in on important elements, then it's up to the player to figure out the rest. Granted, this is a double-edged sword because some puzzles are incredibly ambiguous while others are oddly specific. The dev at least respects its audience enough to let them think for themselves and not give hints that no one asked for.
The pacing is great and there isn't a dull moment. Between traversing gorgeous environments, you're met with combat encounters, puzzles, platforming, and traversal. The latter two are kind of missing from the modern games with the only traversal you do being "push direction to climb mountain". The platforming also isn't perfect by any means and the camera is sometimes questionable, leading to sections being harder than they should be but I appreciate the variety. Ragnarok basically boils down to; clear room, solve puzzle, repeat, which wears thin quickly for a game that is 30-hours long.
The bosses of epic scales are also kind of missing in the newer entries but this might be due to a camera limitation more than anything else. Can't have 300m long monsters and see them in all their splendor when the camera is this close to the player. It would still be neat to see a boss of the scale and epicenes of Poseidon but admittedly, this fight is lacking in terms of depth and is really just a visual spectacle to get the player pumped more than the game flexing its combat mechanics. Still, it's a nice way to end a level on a high and memorable note.
Despite the flaws, I'm still thoroughly enjoying my time with the game, perhaps even more than back in 2010 because AAA games like this just don't exist anymore. No long and slow walking sections, no 10-minutes-long cutscenes. The game seldom wrestles the control away from the player and there is almost no padding. It doesn't overstay its welcome. It's action-packed, well-paced, and delivers what the player wants in spades.
I know this might not be the most popular take as Ragnarok is beloved and still fresh. I'm also no fan of it but I was surprised at how enjoyable GOWIII is to this day regardless of my conflicted opinion on the latest entry. I had 2018 firmly at number 1 in the series but this might change after I beat this one again.
tl;dr GOWIII is still great, maybe even better than at the time of its release.
The thing that struck me the most after a few hours is that there are no companions. It's just Kratos. I'll be the first to say that I appreciate Mimir's commentary and humor here and there but I absolutely do not miss the little shit that is Atreus. I go through levels and no one tells me a damn thing on how to solve the puzzles. The camera zooms in on important elements, then it's up to the player to figure out the rest. Granted, this is a double-edged sword because some puzzles are incredibly ambiguous while others are oddly specific. The dev at least respects its audience enough to let them think for themselves and not give hints that no one asked for.
The pacing is great and there isn't a dull moment. Between traversing gorgeous environments, you're met with combat encounters, puzzles, platforming, and traversal. The latter two are kind of missing from the modern games with the only traversal you do being "push direction to climb mountain". The platforming also isn't perfect by any means and the camera is sometimes questionable, leading to sections being harder than they should be but I appreciate the variety. Ragnarok basically boils down to; clear room, solve puzzle, repeat, which wears thin quickly for a game that is 30-hours long.
The bosses of epic scales are also kind of missing in the newer entries but this might be due to a camera limitation more than anything else. Can't have 300m long monsters and see them in all their splendor when the camera is this close to the player. It would still be neat to see a boss of the scale and epicenes of Poseidon but admittedly, this fight is lacking in terms of depth and is really just a visual spectacle to get the player pumped more than the game flexing its combat mechanics. Still, it's a nice way to end a level on a high and memorable note.
Despite the flaws, I'm still thoroughly enjoying my time with the game, perhaps even more than back in 2010 because AAA games like this just don't exist anymore. No long and slow walking sections, no 10-minutes-long cutscenes. The game seldom wrestles the control away from the player and there is almost no padding. It doesn't overstay its welcome. It's action-packed, well-paced, and delivers what the player wants in spades.
I know this might not be the most popular take as Ragnarok is beloved and still fresh. I'm also no fan of it but I was surprised at how enjoyable GOWIII is to this day regardless of my conflicted opinion on the latest entry. I had 2018 firmly at number 1 in the series but this might change after I beat this one again.
tl;dr GOWIII is still great, maybe even better than at the time of its release.
Same people who thought insta-death QTE's were a good idea.
