God of War- The importance of flow and beautiful Combat. (Gaming)

by Korny , Dalton, Ga. US. Earth, Sol System, Tuesday, April 24, 2018, 12:52 (2192 days ago) @ CruelLEGACEY

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.