A luxuriously crafted gameworld ... but I did not enjoy the combat
If I could rate this game in sections it would be:
Visual design: 5/5
Graphics 4/5
Story and narrative: 2/5
Gameplay: 2/5
The visual design and graphics are the two most noticeable positives with this game. It looks stunning and the game-world is richly and wonderfully designed. There's plenty of variety too, in scenery and colour-pallet. From an artistic point of view then, the game is an impressive and quite remarkable achievement.
I liked the writing as far as the creation of the game-world is concerned, with all the different characters and all the lore. However, the main storyline and narrative did not interest me to any extent. I wanted the spectacle and "epic-ness" of the previous God of War games, as simplistic as those might have been in comparison. God of War 2018 is certainly a more mature and intellectual take on this franchise. For me though, that did not translate into either "fun" or interesting. It's a bit like expecting Conan but getting Game of Thrones instead, or expecting Star Wars and getting Battlestar Galactica. Put simply: it was boring to me.
I can accept an uninteresting storyline in a game if I enjoy the gameplay, but that was not the case with this particular game.
What I absolutely did not enjoy was the combat. It was obviously inspired by Bloodborne and other games like it. It relies far too much on perfect timing with blocks and parries. To the point that it just made me angry to play the game. I hated the 3rd-person camera angle, and there were far too few healing potions around. The combat was not a fun experience at all for me. Switching to "story mode" changed nothing, since it obviously didn't change the mechanics.
Almost as bad, the abilities you can choose from and level up were boring. There was nothing fun and cool to choose from, nothing spectacular. It had the effect of making the combat feel dry and 'meh'. I wasn't exactly jumping with enthusiasm when I could level up or upgrade.
All in all. If you enjoy Bloodborne-type games and boring storylines this might be worth a look, otherwise you should probably stay away.
