God of War ***Spoiler Thread*** (Gaming)

by Korny , Dalton, Ga. US. Earth, Sol System, Monday, April 23, 2018, 13:18 (2186 days ago) @ CruelLEGACEY

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.