I haven’t played since the previous game came out, but this feels a lot more nimble than I recall it being before. You can move and turn a lot faster than I expected and it makes the combat feel better. Not sure if the FOV is also bigger or not. This might all just be me remembering the old game being worse than it was.
I’m playing on hard difficulty (Give Me Mercy or whatever) and it actually not that hard at the beginning here. This could be partly because I already have experience with the game system, but I think they’ve also tuned enemy health so they don’t take nearly as long to kill. Although, it’s way easier to kill enemies barehanded than with your axe, because barer hands builds a ton of Stun meter but also causes as much hitstun as the axe. Here’s to hoping the axe isn’t already overshadowed as a tool right from the outset.
Combat segments aside, the beginning of the game is real boring. I’m sure it will do something eventually, but right now it doesn’t have any new ideas in these first couple of hours. Lots of sad trudging through the snow while Kratos and Atreus get mad at each other, like the old game. “QTE” fights with people getting thrown through trees. It’s the same stuff you already saw in the last game and it doesn’t feel like it’s changed in any way, which would probably be more bearable if it wasn’t so focused on story.
But it’s also way more videogamey than I expecting. Lots of UI pops shouting at you about missions and quests and completing obejctives and unlocking new lore entries and picking up loot. A world map with icons. Lots of menus and numbers in the pause screen, which has a horribly unintuitive UI. And look at this bear! I kind of expected a sense of realism but instead of it’s just Kuma from Tekken doing an 8-hit string.
Here’s a segment from the very beginning (with a handy featuer that can show your controller inputs) of my trying to walk left and right through an area when the game doesn’t want me to.
