Calling this game built from a Ueda-blueprint seems like a giant stretch, & was probably why I was so confused reading your post as though it didn’t even belong in the thread. Like you’re really reaching for something/anything to complain about since it’s turned out be an Actually Good game
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Has it though
I have seen nothing of this game but isn’t it taking its cues from the Naughty Dog format? Is your argument that Uncharted et al treat Ueda as a primary inspiration? I mean I guess kinda sorta
It is the best Western beat-em-up ever made, for one thing.
that I could easily accept
I think the Ueda thing is meant to convey that 3D games are doing things with big scale now more than ever. The promise of 3D early on was knowing that eventually technology would improve to the point where video games could do massive scale at real time. The promise of seeing a distant point in the game and being able to go right to it in real time without interruption. The Team Ico games were some of the first to show that consumer hardware combined with technical ingenuity was reaching the point where large-scale-at-real-time was becoming possible. And that was exciting for lots of reasons to the people who have an interest in 3D graphics and/or video games so that’s where the design trend headed for a while.
Though it does seem like the current moment is sort of the apogee of the trend. We’ve figured out how to wring massive scale out of relatively old hardware and have developed a whole stable of artistic design/computer engineering tricks specifically around doing large scale really well. The promise of 3D graphics has been fulfilled.
The design space for 3D games is still wide open since you can now do just about anything you can imagine. Technology-wise though it seems we’re already looking for the next frontier, which is where the renewed interest in VR comes from. The promise of VR though is total immersion indistinguishable from reality and that’s a good long way away probably.
As an aside, debating whether God of War 2018 (or any game or piece of media for that matter) is “Actually Good” or not is a joyless endeavor that only bears bitter fruit. It’s either your thing or it isn’t, and due to it being an “industry juggernaut” will be influential for better or worse regardless of anyone’s personal opinions. I enjoy my time with it therefore it is good but this is just as valid a statement as someone saying it’s bad because they don’t like Kratos’ smoldering generic rage-face.
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sort of, yeah. I mean, the original god of war was obviously running on the jak and daxter engine, so that’s not even new. it’s the idea that all middlebrow big-budget productions are now a somber-graphical-novel-style affair focusing on the bond between you and an NPC partner except also with ultraviolence and skill trees on the side that makes me 
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I just wish that something that seems so heavily extrapolated out of the early aughts was greeted with more skepticism
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I’m also about as ambivalent about “a game about fathers and sons and masculinity and mutual acceptance that mostly involves snapping nameless dudes’ necks but you get to solve a trivial puzzle sometimes” as I was about “a game about a killer ninja lady who has PTSD but you get to solve a trivial puzzle sometimes”
like, Uncharted plus Serious Themes is excruciatingly heavy handed, and I don’t even like Uncharted that much to begin with
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yeah but this axe is pretty fuckin sick
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aren’t you a fan of rainbow six siege though? what’s your ambivalence level re “a game about war and dudes shooting other dudes and killing in stylish amusing ways in foreign locales?” at least there seems to be some level of emotional involvement here behind the violence instead of just murder-killing as pure aesthetic.
moment to moment theres probably more actual lightheartedness in this game than any other triple a graphoc novel game
oh yeah I’m not like boorishly opposed to violence or anything, I’m opposed to boorishness
In the what must be 10+ hours I’ve played (is there any way to check playtime?) the development of their relationship feels surprisingly understated, with the player gradually inferring what their family life must have been like by the way Kratos handles teaching Boy how to do things and the way Boy talks about the things he’s learned from his mother. But I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that most of their character interactions are Boy jabbing his dad for being so grumpy rather than any dramatics. For the past few hours all I’ve gotten from the two of them have been Kratos telling parables to Boy and Boy explaining to Kratos how much he sucks at telling these stories.
I think people assume the game has some somber and dramatic plot about family but it’s actually a breezy and light adventure story. At least so far.
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My opinion is, I think, nobody’s going to beat Naughty Dog at their own game and they should probably stop trying. People say this combat is good so why not attach it to something goofy and hilarious, what is the value add here when I could play the best-acted videogames in history instead
that reminds me that I’ve been thinking about trying lost legacy even though I didn’t even finish 4, it just wore me down too much playing itself after 10 hours
mostly it seems very similar to the dishonored 2 : death of the outsider deal where they actually fixed all of their design crutches in the spinoff after they made a new-gen blockbuster
Oh for real play Lost Legacy! It’s easily the best Uncharted yet, all killer no filler.
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Chuckin’ axe combat’s been lookin too good, so I picked this up for a few hours through “Challenge” difficulty.
It gives much better force feedback than rubbery whip blades, and wants me to actually care about what’s happening on screen, so even if heavy handed on the “real feels” for a reinvention of the brand I’m digging it.
Forgot to do this…! The few things there are kinda minimal already, but with the gorgeous environs and perspective (plus mostly seamless and one shot), it’d be best.
By now, the locations and frequency of color trimmed chests kind of betrays the rest of a “mature/realistic” aim. Resources and objects need to have some indication for players but next levels of immersion require a design compromise leaned in favor of more natural placement and discovery in the environment. That kind of effort for AAA would be highly unusual though.
BTW… has anyone also wondered that the way you use axe and shield looks stupidly as Thor and Captain America from MCU use the hammer and shield accordingly?
No seriously… really looks (and what I expect to feel like) to control Thor’s hammer, and how he breaks falls with the shield… really gives me the “Winter Soldier’s cap throwing himself from the Triskelion” vibe.
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it’s even more stupidly similar after seeing Infinity War.
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