It’s been interesting to break down God of War, probably the current best in single-player 3D. They don’t use it in the last hit in his axe chain – the hit where his axe launches them back and they seem to be conveying that nothing can stop his movement, unlike the earlier hits where it conveys friction and a force opposing your arms.
Interestingly they don’t do sophisticated camera shake, like pushing the camera in the direction of the hit. Instead they’re happy with a simple up/rebound.
And it’s all very different from fighting game hit pause, which is longer (>200ms as opposed to always 100ms) and does stuff like wiggle characters up and down).