Holy revival thread Batman!
Anyhow, i've finalllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy picked up God of War 3 and although i've only played roughly 30min of it, i have to say...
I am disappoint
.
Maybe i haven't hit the meat of the game yet or maybe i'm missing out on something major, but i'm facepalming at the fact this won Gametrailers Action/Adventure of the Year (2010) instead of Bayonetta (in fact, i'll just compare it point for point).
Graphics - Rather stunning, being very lush in a "macro" sense, although i feel it's lost a lot of finer detail. Bayonetta is very busy, but i've never lost track of where i am, or what i'm doing... God of War seems hell bent on piling as many people onto me such that it takes me a few seconds to realise i've been pounced upon (and it's a quick time event to break free) - maybe i just haven't gotten used to the fixed camera angle yet. Bayonetta has nothing on the scale of the levels in God of War, but i feel it's like the difference between a high resolution landscape photo, and a lower resolution panorama, the latter is more impressive to look at, but when you pick it apart, it's nothing like the former.
Gameplay - Apart from the platforming (which i'm not too bothered about), i would say Bayonetta wins hands down on this one. I didn't feel any "feedback" from the combat and the weapons didn't feel like they were really doing much. Contrast this to Bayonetta where every punch or kick has a nice resounding "thwack" and you can physically see the enemies stagger or have their armor crack and peel off. I think it's to do with the fact that Bayonetta's combat is very 1v1, almost like a duel with a single opponent whilst weaving in and out of other members of the group. God of War 3 on the other hand was built around AoE and taking out large groups of enemies... however like i said, i just don't feel any feedback from the combat. The only saving grace (IMO) was when i learnt the "Counter" move, which actually added an essence of skill (and the only instance of feedback) to the game, however the sheer amount of enemies and the far away fixed-camera angle made this very situational and only truly useable after i'd thinned out the ranks.
- I also got pissed off with the first boss fight since it doesn't really explain what you have to do. I mean i whacked it a load of times but that's all i seemed to be doing, there was no health bar to show i was doing the right thing, nor any visual cues to confirm this was indeed the correct choice of action (apart from it flinching every now and then, and the hit counter going up). The worst offender was when it had this Cone AoE attack nearly the size of the limited stage you were on... it telegraphed it well, however again there was no feedback as to telling you whether or not your "dodge" was the correct choice (i didn't take damage, but got blown to the back of the arena...). Compare this to Bayonetta where every attack can be dodged "easily" (if you see the telegraphs) and the extra reward of slow-mo if you dodge perfectly and if you're good enough, your combo doesn't get interrupted.
Anyhow, like i said, maybe i simply haven't sunk enough time into the game. ATM i'm just tired and really worn out from coming back from London today (and have had a rough 2 nights sleep previously) so maybe it wasn't the best experience. And maybe i've just got a massive bias towards Bayonetta (and for good reason might i add
).
The way it stands now, i'm disappointed that it's not been anything special (so far), but that said it seems to be exactly what i expected: a visceral "western" style hack n' slash/action adventure where the focus is more on feeling "cinematic" rather than on the actual gameplay. I'm not necessarily saying it's bad per se, i can see how it could cater to less... "serious" gamers who are more about the "storytelling" and the "experience".
