I just revived Mimir, so you’re passed where I am. I did have the Blades of Chaos spoiled for me though, so I knew that was coming. I did think it was going to be much more late game though.

I know photo mode is coming, but I really hope NG+ is something they consider.

I can’t say enough about how good the game is in basically every way. I’m enthralled by the story, and I find that really surprising. The world design is incredible. It is as you said. It’s perfect in size and scope, and the optional areas (the few that I’ve done, finding the Alchemist’s Ring and the old Dwarf King’s castle) are great. There really seems to be absolutely no filler in the game, in that even the optional stuff is fun and feels well worth seeing and doing.

And again, the art direction of the game is just incredible. Everything is beautiful, and they do an excellent job of transitioning between themes naturally but fairly quickly.

P.S. The dwarves are awesome. Maybe I’m just an immature child still, but Brok’s foul language cracks me up every single time.

Also, the game got me interested enough that I spent one of my Audible credits this month on Neil Gaimon’s Norse Mythology, which is basically just his retelling of the myths in a more traditional novel and easy to digest manner. He also narrates the audio book. If you’re into that sort of thing, it’s been great for the past two hours I’ve been listening.

Story & Characters.

I won't go too far into the story right now, but I will say that I care a lot more about what is going on than I thought I could ever care about a God of War game. Much like Horizon Zero Dawn, they build the story slowly, naturally, with confidence.

There's a moment early in this game where, if I wasn't already along for the ride, would have single-handedly sold me on the storytelling.

The game literally opens up with Kratos standing at (and chopping down) the last tree that Faye had marked for him. You don't know this yet, until the game feeds you the information little by little (both the what and the why), all leading up to Atreus seeing the hole in the ward spell.
He asks why she would do that, and right there, I waited for Kratos to essentially sell the storytelling short. But he didn't.
Normally, this is the moment where the writers would give us, the viewers, exposition under the guise of Kratos explaining things to Atreus... Instead, Kratos says nothing. The camera casually pulls up to him when Atreus asks, and focuses on his expression, before he turns and continues to journey.
If you've been paying attention, you know exactly why she did that. You didn't know it at the beginning of the game (and neither did Kratos), but you went along with it, because you were simply following instruction. But as the game slowly gives you the information, you know exactly what her motivations were, and what she had to do to ensure them. All that's left is to see if Kratos has also paid attention. And his expressions shows that yes, he knows what she did, and why. Saying a single word would have ruined the things leading up to it, but the writers were confident in their work, and all we needed was a single look to cap the storytelling up to that point.

It reminded me of subtle things that you see in some of the best experiences, such as in The Last of Us when Joel smirked at Ellie's spirit, and looked at his watch for a moment afterwards. it's the first small glimpse of happiness that we see from him, and that moment shows us why without saying a word.

The game is also really good at having small, throwaway moments come into play later (the obvious one that comes to mind is Atreus saying that things feel different in the woods), and it's just some of my favorite style of writing.

The one thing I wanted to highlight is how awesome the humor in this game can be. Not only is it genuinely funny, but they also use humor to smooth over the rough edges that can often come from trying to accommodate storytelling and game mechanics at the same time. The best example of this is the Dwarves. The way they just show up in the most impossible places and dismiss it like its no big deal is great. Even though they do eventually provide an in-universe explanation for their ability to get around the world, its still a great little nod to the silliness of finding "vendors" at the tops of mountains or in abandoned caves. My favorite moment so far is when Brok demands to see my Axe, then he smacks it with his hammer and hands it back to me. Kratos says "... what did you just do?" and Brok replies "IT'S BETTER" in a voice that is just dripping with sarcasm. It's such a great poke at the whole "stats going up" trope that runs through these games.

Yeah. It's weird how they repeatedly break the fourth wall... But not really, because it's in-universe. Like when I sold a chestpiece to Sindri, and he asked "Where were you keeping that?" in an incredulous tone. Sure, it's a joke about the invisible hammerspace where we keep the hundreds of items in our inventory... But in context, he's hesitant to touch anything that might be unclean, so he's really just trying to know where it's been.

It's good stuff!

Also, this game has some of the best scenes and sequences that go from 0-100 reeeeaaal quick. Meeting the Stranger, breaking stealth in Alfheim, finding the Dragon...

The game had tons of moments where you're forced to go all-in with every tool that you've got at the snap of a finger, right as you're about to drop your guard and get comfortable. I missed games that do that, and the best part is that none of these sequences are simple button-mashing moments. You're expected to be able to seriously adapt on the fly, and it makes the events that unfold feel truly rewarding.

So... I beat it. And it is fantastic.

The story stuff with cutting down the tree was a great way to open, but what really sold me was the first real boss fight. It was such a knock down drag out fight that ranged all over and required a variety of tactical strategies. It left me awed and wondering if that’s the opening fight, what am I gonna get going forward.

I also liked the hub and spoke design. All the little missions on the different islands are great. Each island is almost a Tomb Raider style puzzle.

One of my favorite things is how confident they are in their enemy types. This is demonstrated really well in Muspelheim. Not sure if any of you have gotten there yet, but once you do you’ll have fun.

Of course, one of the best things they did was make Atreus a well thought out well realized character. His range of emotions and actions throughout the game are incredibly well written and acted.

Two last things:

First, a pro tip: It is very easy to accidentally wander into a Valkyrie when nearing the top of the mountain. Do not do this. And certainly don’t try for half an hour to beat her. I got close with mastering her attack patterns, but most of her attacks were one or two hit kills and it took me a silly-ly long time to realize I’d taken a wrong turn and hadn’t run into the most massive difficulty spike ever.

Second: When you do beat the game, have fun exploring and doing more quests and stuff, but be sure and go home.

I saw this jiff today on Reddit highlighting a small moment in the game's combat:

Like we were discussing before, the game's controls take a lot of getting used to. They start off feeling a bit unnecessarily complex for the combat early in the game, and you can manage by following a simple quick-attack + block/parry combo.

But that's not what the game wants you to do, and before long, you'll realize that this strategy will get you killed real quick as soon as your enemies close the distance and surround you. So you have to mix it up. You have to learn what moves fit your playstyle, and how you can adapt your playstyle to make the best use of your moves. More importantly, you have to become faster at picking and choosing the enemies that you have to prioritize, because some do heavy damage, some are fast, and some will pick at you from a distance.
So you have to keep learning, getting better, and you have to mix it up. And the great thing is that the more you do it all, the more you realize how beautiful the combat can flow. It becomes a dance, and you realize that doing awesome things that look incredibly cool are also the best way to play the game from a practical standpoint.

At the same time, there's something really satisfying about being a badass, rather than just having the game present you as one, or asking for button prompts to showcase some scripted fight sequences. The way the game is organic about everything except for finishers (which you have to earn) keeps everything genuinely exciting, and you end up wanting to chain together the moves, because you get great stuff like the gif above, without it being fake.

I remember that moment in Alfheim, where the hive becomes aware of us and makes a last-ditch effort to overwhelm us as we make a mad dash to free the Light. Kratos tells Atreus to go all-out, because "you won't miss!". I took that as my cue to spam everything I had, because, as Kratos pointed out, there's so many enemies swarming, that you kind of have to unleash everything in your arsenal at once. And it worked, and both felt awesome, and it looked awesome.

The only other game that I can think of that rewards you for organically chaining together as much awesome without stopping is Titanfall 2 (and to a more numbers-based degree, the Devil May Cry/Bayonetta games).

It's good stuff that makes me want to fight just for the sake of fighting.

Holy cow. God of War is an absolute ride. What an incredible experience.

The final Baldur fight was great. His switching between fire and ice vulnerability to force the player to use both weapons was brilliant. It's honestly something I wish the game leaned on a bit more. It does a decent job of it (The encounter with the fire and ice trolls at the same time, where you can lure them into killing each other is fantastic), but I would still have liked to seem them play with it more.

I'm amazed that they made me care about Kratos and a God of War story. And it was excellent. I think it hit on every level that it was supposed to, nothing felt cheesy or bad. The pacing gets a little wonky at the end with it just continuing to introduce MacGuffins to chase down, but I was enjoying the game and wanting it to continue so much that even that didn't bother me.

I loved the way the game ended. The actual story ending was good, but artistically, rolling credits on the right side of the screen while you still control Kratos as you walk out of the temple and back down the stairs as he explains the meaning of the name Atreus to his son . . . it was just fantastic.

I'm looking forward to mopping up the stuff I haven't done yet. I freed two dragons during my playthrough, and I freed one Valkyrie, Gunnr. I also fought Eir and Kara, but got my ass handed to me, so I left them and continued the main quest. I got 30 some odd ravens, and I haven't even been to Niflheim yet.

I hope the photo mode patch comes soon. Or maybe I hope it comes in like two months, as that will give me a good reason to start a new save and go through the whole game again.

Mine is the shield gong ranged attack:

Cory Barlog has been doing the rounds, it seems. Lots of folks have long spoiler-filled shows with him this week. They're worth watching/listening to.

Here's Kinda Funny's:

Here's Easy Allies':

Here's Giant Bomb's (a podcast, rather than a video, and is mostly spoiler free):

Giant Bomb Presents: God of God of War

Some good stuff in there, and it's good to know (if obvious) that there's definite plans to continue the series. Sounds like there's some big plans for the story, and that this first game really is just laying the groundwork.

What are everyone's loadouts looking like?

Here's what I'm using at the moment:

Light Runic Attack:
Charge of the White Bear

I love using this charge to close the distance on an enemy. Once it's upgraded, you can also use R2 to follow up the charge attack to do a sort of ground smash that has an area of effect. It's great for closing the distance on a mob and dealing a big damage hit right off the bat, and works equally as well for dealing good damage on a strong enemy.

Heavy Runic Attack:
Ivaldi's Anvil

This attack it just a big area of effect attack that freezes low tier enemies and does good damage on higher powered enemies. I use it a lot to just save my ass if I get overrun by a trash mob.

I'm using Cyclone of Chaos and Tartarus Rage as my light and heavy runics for the Blades of Chaos. I don't have too many opinions on those yet, as they're the only two runic attacks I have unlocked for the Blades, so I haven't been able to experiment with anything else. The Cyclone is great for mobs, and Tartarus Rage is just a big slam attack that deals decent damage.

I'm also using the Boar Stampede summon for Atreus. It's maxed out stun damage, so it's great for locking down enemies, which I've found more useful than trying to make Atreus a big damage dealer (although that might be totally possible with a different summon).