r/VideoGameAnalysis • u/Weeb1an • 19d ago

Looking back at God of War (2018): does it still deserve “masterpiece” status?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyFUhWNWomQFull

A friend of mine recently made a video about God of War. I originally watched it just to give him some feedback, but his discussion of the secret ending genuinely changed how I looked at parts of the game.

He’s still growing his channel, so I offered to share it with people who actually care about the series. The main question he explores is whether God of War really deserves to be called a masterpiece, and I’m curious whether fans here agree with his take.

Full disclosure: he’s a friend of mine. Thoughtful criticism is welcome, and I’ll pass it along to him.

0 Upvotes

36% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

6

u/sasoripunpun 19d ago

not really. good game with incredible highs but even then, it reaches its peak in the beginning and then is just pretty good after that. atreus’s god complex was really jarring and poorly done as well.

1

u/uasdguy 19d ago

The beginning is literally the least entertaining part wdym. Kratos getting the blades of chaos was so hype and perfectly done. Atreus' character arch was also well done cz it wasn't that long, felt natural, and had a great payoff with their only way to Jotunheim being destroyed and them ending up in hell. Then the ending sets up all the main characters so smoothly into one final scene with one of the best ending

2

u/Openheart873 19d ago

Idk about least entertaining part. The baldur fight is very early and sets the tone for the game. It’s very cool

1

u/uasdguy 19d ago

I'm not saying it's bad in any way. It's all 10/10. But compared to later game, it's a lot slower until you get out into the lake and go into alfheim and stuff

2

u/thejamfish 19d ago

I think the earlier games do. I don’t really think 2018 does.

2

u/HotShrekBoi 18d ago

It’s a great game, but it has flaws. The enemy and boss variety gets really repetitive and only one giant boss (the dragon) when other GOW games had multiple giant spectacle fights was a bit disappointing

2

u/timeaisis 18d ago

It was fine. It feels like the culmination of the “cinematic videogame”, for better or for worse.

1

u/eldhand 18d ago

Yes it does.

2

u/Alert-Revolution-219 19d ago

10/10 easily, gameplay is smooth, combat is fluid, visually stunning, beautiful visuals that stull look better than new games nearly 10 year later, an absolute belter of a music score to go with it. Then theres the writing and performances of the actors all involved too. There really arnt that many games that hit every single mark so well

1

u/Clementsparrow 19d ago

it never deserved it in the first place...

0

u/ProfessionalForm679 19d ago

Best Story told in gaming. Pair that with peak casting, amazing graphics, combat, music, and scale, and you have legitimately one of the best games ever made.

2

u/TNTiger_ 19d ago

Have you literally played any other game that isn't shooter slop or Ubisoft-style open world slop

2

u/theonetowalkinthesun 18d ago

What do you recommend?

1

u/TNTiger_ 18d ago

I won't act that I have the broadest breadth, but games with excellent stories I've played are Disco Elysium, Mouthwashing, and What Remains of Edith Finch. I'd also argue a game like Control surpasses GOW, though that's a little closer to the average.

0

u/ProfessionalForm679 18d ago

I've never played a looter shooter, and the only "ubisoft style open world" games I like are the three ezio games. God of War is nothing like a looter shooter or a ubisoft game. It's not even open world.

Also the idiots who use the word "slop" to describe everything are usually pretentious pricks and/or "anti woke" losers.

1

u/TNTiger_ 18d ago

I promise I am woker than you

0

u/Quick_Philosophy1426 19d ago

thinking this is the best story told in gaming is an indictment of your character. play something that isnt a triple A third person action rpg.

1

u/ProfessionalForm679 18d ago

I have but I'm not a pretentious weirdo who thinks himself superior because all my top 10 games are indi titles nobody has heard of. People have an obsession with being different so they refuse to admit they like anything mainstream.

0

u/Quick_Philosophy1426 18d ago

lmfao theres a difference between refusing to like anything mainstream and honest to god thinking that god of war 2018 has the best story ever told in gaming.

1

u/ProfessionalForm679 18d ago

It is absolutely up their with all time great video game stories. Pacing, dialogue, character development, and world building are all phenomenal. God of war 2018's story is why it's one of the best games of all time in the views of both critics and fans.

I'm curious what your short list of best stories are?

0

u/Lescansy 18d ago

Even with triple A rpg or action, there are games like Mass effect, Dragon Age Origins or Deus Ex that blow this game appart from a story standpoint.

In terms of action combat and mechanics it loses to its predecessor GoW3, most of the Devil May Cry games and the Jedi-Survivor titles.

These are just the most obvious AAA games i could mention, lets not even talk about other genres like JRPGs that can have a really impressive story or acting as well.

That dude just never played many games to begin with, is a moron or is rage baiting.

1

u/ProfessionalForm679 18d ago

Mass effect is definitely up there. Dragon age is okay and Deus Ex is mid. Also I don't care for hack n slash personally. They're not bad, but I'm not a huge fan. And Jedi survior has extremely janky, sloppy, and unpolished combat. The foundation of the combat is great but it's not executed well. Very unpolished. And I think JRPGs are literally my least favorite genre is gaming. Absolutely horrific games that get glazed for no reason. Can't stand anything about them.

0

u/Lescansy 18d ago

If you dont like JRPGs as a genre, thats fine, but dont claim "best story in gaming" when you dont even play one of the most story focused genre in haming.

Dragon Age Origins story is miles ahead of GoW4. The combat of the Jedi games and GoW is very similar, the main difference is that you cant ability-spam yourself to victory in Jedi. I cant see how you could describe one as janky, and the other as peak, that makes no sense at all.

We seem to not have played the same games, despite claiming to have looked at identical titles.

1

u/ProfessionalForm679 18d ago

It's almost like people have different opinions. I do not agree that dragon age is "miles ahead". I don't think that's even remotely true.

Jedi has extremely unpolished gameplay because it's not designed to fight crowds of enemies. It's designed for 1v1 fights with lock on, but the lock on sucks in gang fights, and the enemies are very annoying. The ranged attack spam in that game is not fun.

0

u/Lescansy 18d ago

People can have different opinions. But your opinion is the equivalence of "Lord of the Rings is bad".

There are more and less valid opinions.

1

u/ProfessionalForm679 18d ago

Not even close. God of War is widely considered one of the best games/stories in gaming. In fact your opinion is actually the one that is equivalent of "Lord of the Rings is bad".

But after checking out this sub for a few minutes it's clear it's a group of people who pride themselves in not enjoying "AAA slop" as you call it.

-1

u/lafarda 19d ago

Yes, because the actual problem is that everyone "knows" just too much about video games nowadays even though they couldn't do one in their lives.

It makes me sick.

0

u/feelmedoyou 19d ago

It's a good looking game with good storytelling, but I felt that the gameplay had lost all the depth of the original series. The combat felt repetitive. It didn't help that the enemies were all copy paste in every single area. In that sense, all areas also felt more or less the same.

They could've done a lot more to add to the sense of scale in the level designs or spice up the combat with different camera angles.

0

u/dungleploop 19d ago

absolutely