In the name of God of War.
On the evening of November 4, “Avengers 4”, which has been released for three years, premiered on CCTV Movie Channel, and immediately topped the entire network ratings list. Even if this film was always criticized by various film critics when it was released, it still did not hinder the public’s love for this film.
After clearing “God of War: Ragnarok” (hereinafter referred to as “God of War 5”) ahead of schedule, it gave me the same feeling: a commercial blockbuster with a very high degree of completion.
In this new journey of Kratos and his son Atreus, I can see a lot of things that are highly anticipated or not imagined:
The still shocking BOSS battle performance can be discussed in large and small themes, jokes about each other, and various tributes to the previous works of the series.
In most respects, “God of War 5” is worthy of the industry’s highest industrial level, and it landed smoothly in a posture that everyone expected.
So compared with the new “God of War” that turned upside down four years ago, can it still bring players the shocking new experience?
1
First of all I need to admit that this question is actually a bit redundant.
After the new “God of War” boldly overthrew the big framework of the “Greek trilogy” of the “God of War” series and started to build a new system, “God of War 5” has no reason to throw the hard-built wheels aside and discard them. All they need to do is to build on what has been proven before, and make the wheels a key part of a car.
Early review two weeks ago
Here, I have briefly talked about the combat system of this game. After the transition from ACT to ARPG, the new “God of War” gave a good start to the new gameplay of the series. In “God of War 5”, this combat system that takes into account the elements of RPG has become more mature and rich through patchwork.
The two weapons, Chaos Blade and Leviathan Axe, will accompany players from the beginning of the story, and in the middle of the game, players will also gain a brand new weapon. The 3 weapons still have independent skill trees, which are divided into multiple genres according to the style of play, and can also cooperate with each other. With the accessories of weapons, suit attributes and rich skills, it is enough for players to build a set of unique styles of play.
For those players who loved certain skills in the previous game, but suffered from their insufficient strength, the skills in God of War 5 also added a proficiency system. After repeated use of a skill, it is possible to increase the level to unlock additional bonus options. Elemental influence, time control, or real damage can all be a way to reinforce this “one trick”.
Of course, it’s not just players who gain more skills. The types, skills and numbers of enemy soldiers have also improved a lot compared to the previous game. Even the judgment form of enemy moves, in addition to the two types that can be blocked and cannot be blocked in the previous work, has also added a new type that requires shield moves to interrupt. With the various terrain props on the battlefield, the battle form of “God of War 5” has been painted with richer colors after taking over the bright background of the previous work.
It’s just that under the dazzling battle scenes, the problems left over from the previous generation of games still exist.
“God of War 5” still uses the over-the-shoulder perspective, which is very valuable for a fast-paced fighting game. While it presents an unparalleled sense of presence, it also brings certain limitations to the combat perspective.
Just like the unsatisfactory giant battle in the previous work
For example, the super-sized BOSS battle that players have been looking forward to, will have many limitations due to perspective. This may also be one of the reasons why this work still fails to reach the height of the “Greek Trilogy” on the scale of super-large BOSS battles.
Even if you don’t mention special boss battles, this problem will also be exposed in ordinary-scale battles. In fact, in the previous work, players often encountered the situation of caring for the head and the tail because of the limited field of vision. The solution of the production team at that time was to give the player a “quick turn” action to deal with the enemies attacking from all sides at the same time.
However, in “God of War 5”, the key position of the down button was assigned to a new weapon, and the more commonly used “quick turn” was replaced by the uneasy “shoulder button + down button” combination. Especially in the later process, the types, numbers and tricks of the enemies became more and more complicated, and this problem was further magnified, which often made me fall into the embarrassing situation of being suddenly killed by an invisible attack behind me when I was concentrating on solving a few enemies in front of me. .
Reminders from arrows and companion shouts are not enough
But in general, the combat system of “God of War 5” still has a super high degree of completion, and under the solid framework of the previous game, they have not given up trying to break through.
2
After the release of the new “God of War” in 2018, many players are willing to call Atreus, who traverses the battlefield without fear of any danger, the real God of War. So in “God of War 5”, we can finally control the “God of War”.
Atreus becomes the protagonist controlled by the player, and it is not as simple as simply swapping positions with Queters.
After three years of Fenbull’s winter opened by the death of the previous work, the god of light Balder, the milky and milky son has also grown into a little adult in the voice-changing period. Independence and growth are eternal topics about adolescence, belonging to the growth of Atreus, and naturally it will not always happen under the protection of Lord Kui.
So as the story progresses, Atreus will leave his father and embark on a path that belongs to him alone. It’s just that when he leaves Kui Ye to fight alone, there are still reliable companions around him.
It is rare to travel alone
Since Atreus became the main character, the “partner” that he always occupied in the previous work was vacant, which enabled “God of War 5” to bring many various NPC characters to the protagonist’s car. In addition to assisting players with their unique skills in battle, they will also become our chat objects along the way. While showing the psychological activities of the protagonist at various stages, they also give players the opportunity to learn more about them.
For “God of War 5”, the challenge of rolling out a group portrait in another branch of the story is also obvious – the new “God of War” one-shot performance will become more difficult to handle. But in this regard, God of War 5 performed quite well.
The official promotional image drawn by the artist for the game during the promotion period
As the storyline jumps back and forth between the two protagonists, the game relies on the intersection of their many encounters to transition perfectly in the language of the camera. But the plot cannot be compromised in order to support its presentation. There is always a need to switch roles, but they are separated by thousands of miles. At this time, the production team cleverly introduced another film technique: matching editing (match editing).
cut).
Typically, matching cuts are used to help viewers focus on two similar things in the shot, and complete the scene transition without cutting logic or emotional lines. In the game, because everything in front of the camera is virtual, two similar things can completely become the same object in different scenes.
For example, a knife that can represent both a wife and a mother
Therefore, on the “fake one-shot cut point” that originally had to switch perspectives, the patch used to trap the leaks instead achieved a very game-specific technique, using flawless matching editing to achieve these narratives Brilliant performance.
In the 25 to 30 hours of the mainline process, “God of War 5” can always reach out a hand, grab the player and immerse it. Whether it is the PS5 controller feedback that can feel the collision of the chains, the BOSS battle performance that is still at a stable level, or the “racing scene” that complements the soundtrack, it can relieve the fatigue of killing monsters and break through all the way, and continue on the road full of energy.
The variety of vehicles in “God of War 5” is far beyond imagination, and people can’t help but look forward to the appearance of “God of War Kart”
Although the process practice of this work is basically the same as that of the previous work, it is far ahead of the previous work in terms of satiety. This is due to the fact that the game has deleted a lot of processes that are in line with the settings, but are also obviously dragging time. Teleportation no longer needs to circle back and forth around the Temple of Tyre in the Lake of the Nine Realms, and some unskilled puzzles have been greatly reduced or simply deleted.
Along the way, the partners headed by our “trouser belt chat” Mimir kept a conversation full of dry goods and fun with us. Even when we were flying around looking for treasure chests and smashing jars, our son and other teammates didn’t forget to complain that the old father “has always been so curious”, just like saying it directly to the players behind the fourth wall.
In terms of the immersive experience of the game, “God of War 5” doesn’t have much to be picky about. The only thing left to be tested is the most important plot.
3
Unlike the new God of War, which paved the way for the new series, God of War 5 clearly faces more challenges after deciding to cut the trilogy down to two.
It not only has to undertake the story that has just been unfolded in the previous one, and tell the story full of foreshadowing; it also has to bring all the bright lines and dark lines back to one place, and draw the final curtain for Kratos and his son’s adventure in northern Europe. . It is obviously not an easy task to complete both in one work at the same time.
In the new “God of War” in 2018, the core issue that the plot needs to clarify most is the process of mutual understanding between father and son. The 25-hour mainline process before the action completed this task brilliantly.
The theme of this work “Wolf and Bear” is actually “Father and Son”
In “God of War 5”, this father-son relationship problem, which has been solved to a certain extent, will usher in further discussion. As mentioned earlier, when the son reaches the adolescence of self-awareness, the quarrel between the father and the son is inevitable, not to mention that Atreus’ father is Kratos with an extremely strong character.
In the narrative of this theme, “God of War 5” is not stingy with the plot of the plot. Not only from the perspectives of the two protagonists, it shows the thoughts of each of them wanting to think about each other in their own way, but also through the stories of other characters in various ways, it reflects more comparison samples of family relationships, and tells it in a three-dimensional way. Okay it.
Just in addition to this, there are many topics that I want to discuss in “God of War 5”: the relationship between free will and fate prophecy, or what can be called a real “God of War”, but the space left for them is not like “God of War” “Father and Son” is so abundant, it always makes people feel bad.
This may be the downside of the trilogy ending in two.
There is a widely circulated theory that “God of War 5”, originally subtitled “Winter of Fenbull”, will end before Ragnarok.
Especially in the later stage of the game, the progress of the plot has accelerated a lot, so that many of the content that should have been highlighted can only be conveyed in one sentence, even the different settings of the time flow rate in different realms in the previous work, the mysterious trumpet and the people. The foreshadowing of Yemengarde’s crossing and other foreshadowings can only be considered reluctantly recovered.
Many times the atmosphere is already in place, but the grand scenes you imagined in your mind don’t give you a chance to scrutinize, only to quickly move on to the next scene after a quick glance. If you still use the analogy of “Avengers 4”, it is as if all the heroes have opened the portal to assemble the battlefield, but it is a pity not to give them a shot.
This also leads to the fact that in some characters in the later period, the motivation of the characters’ behavior is not sufficient enough, and it is suspected of forcibly happening for the sake of the plot. In contrast, the plots and dialogues in many branch lines are more full.
In the main line process of “God of War 5”, there are reasonable explanations for the appearance of the sub-plots. Either you did something wrong and distracted yourself, or you distracted yourself before the war came. There are not many games where the world is about to be destroyed, and as a result, you are willing to help your neighbors find pets.
In the form of dialogue, the protagonist and partner will ask us if we want to solve the branch line, which not only retains the sense of substitution but also leaves the decision to the player. Not only that, but most of the plots in these branch lines are very in line with the current situation and the theme of the main line.
It is worth mentioning that the characters controlled by the protagonist in the branch lines before and after the completion of the main line may change. The best branch line experience is actually interspersed in the main line.
But overall, although the story of “God of War 5” has not been comprehensive, it still presents a complete and wonderful narrative.
Obviously, many plots have been set up to take care of everyone’s feelings as much as possible. For example, in the handling of one of the key plots, I thought that the protagonists would be tolerant to the end following the progress of the general trend. But it may be worried that some players will feel too “Virgin”, and another character is arranged to help the players vent in an emotional way.
Just like a large-scale top commercial blockbuster that cannot fail, if you are serious about the details of the plot, you can pick out a lot of points for consideration. But in every aspect that needs to be done well, it does touch the standard line of top students.
In a work of the level of “God of War 5”, it is not easy to do this. In the end, Santa Monica Studio chose a completely reasonable approach, so that the game that is both a sequel and an end game landed in the most stable manner, which may also be a good ending for “God of War”.
4
When the new version of “God of War” was just released in 2018, producer Cory Barlog was moved to tears because the game received unanimous praise from the media with an average score of 94. After 4 years, new producer Eric
Williams also wept again because of the good score of 94 points.
The first time I cried, I was burdened with the question of the production manpower’s decision to make bold innovations and backlogs; this time the producer’s cry, in my opinion, may still be difficult to complete the task successfully under the tight schedule.
Producer of two new series “God of War”
Just like the “What is God of War” discussed in this game. The same title can be either the Spartan soul who slaughtered the Quartet regardless of the commoners, or the rational old father who cares about the Nine Realms.
From God of War to man, and then from man to God of War, it is worthy of the name of “God of War”.
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