Almost everyone at Kotaku is playing God of War, and we cannot stop talking about it. Here’s what we’re saying.
Here’s something I need you to know about Jason Schreier. He will sometimes drop messages like this into slack with no provocation or follow up:
Jason Schreier
Jason Schreier
He offers no details. He sits directly to my left, so I get this taunting in real life, too. “Gita,” he’ll say to me, “God of War is excellent.” He wears me down until I buy these games just so I can know what the heck he’s talking about.
In the case of God of War, I’m so happy I did. This game really surprised me, and I haven’t been able to tear myself away from it. Almost everyone else who’s playing it on staff is having the same reaction.
My own reaction to the game was pretty similar to Cecilia’s.
Cecilia D’Anastasio
Other staffers have all found their own things to be enthusiastic about. Especially Tim.
i love #GODOFWAR so much . . . every time A Certain Enemy Type shows up i scream “YES!!!” like thor in that scene in “thor ragnarok” when he’s like “we know each other!” uh try to guess what type of enemy i mean lol
— tim rogers (@108) April 21, 2018
i have not been so inspired to get super-good at a game in a long time. i guess i got so good at #GODOFWAR in My Own Peculiar Way that i always aim the axe at the ground next to an enemy so i can retrieval-damage them. i’d post more examples if not for, you know, spoilers pic.twitter.com/Em0bS5c74V
— tim rogers (@108) April 18, 2018
I’ve played like 60 hours of this game and throwing/recalling the axe still hasn’t gotten old pic.twitter.com/kRyfXYxA9q
— Kirk Hamilton (@kirkhamilton) April 20, 2018
Small thing but I appreciate it. Enter the space and vista back to where you were. Very Dark Souls, in some ways. Honest geometry. pic.twitter.com/3d07QL3TWl
— Heather Alexandra (@transgamerthink) April 24, 2018
Even though our reactions have been largely positive, that hasn’t stopped us from poking fun at Kratos and his anger problems.
kratos, buying milk: SOY
— Eric Van Allen (@seamoosi) April 23, 2018
atreus: oh no, this elevator won’t stay still. maybe we could..
kratos: silence boy
atreus: you’re just gonna throw your axe aren’t you
kratos: you’re just gonna run your mouth aren’t you
…….
kratos, *throwing axe*: RAWR!— Heather Alexandra (@transgamerthink) April 24, 2018
atreus: *snuffles once*
krato: TAKE SOME NASONEX BOY— Heather Alexandra (@transgamerthink) April 23, 2018
I’m writing up my God of War tips post, and tbh some of these could just be general life tips pic.twitter.com/lRJHyEvX6R
— Kirk Hamilton (@kirkhamilton) April 18, 2018
Wandering around God of War making sure I didn’t miss any quests like a lonely middle-aged dad in a Home Depot with nothing to buy
— chris person (@Papapishu) May 1, 2018
God of War is finally making me understand what it must have been like for my dad to take me to Home Depot with him when I was a kid…
— Polimayo (@polimayo) April 14, 2018
In talking to Heather, she’s said that there’s a lot of things about the game that frustrate her. She’s still taken the time to take a lot of amazing screenshots, though.
As for Kotaku boss Stephen Totilo, he managed to ruin the game for himself by accident:
Dumbest gaming move I’ve made in 2018: got stuck finding one of the runes for one of those Nornir chests, Googled very specifically for it and yet managed to click on a video that, in the process of revealing where the other rune is spoiled one of the coolest surprises in the game. And to think I’d avoided any spoilers for a full week after release. Whoops!
What moment was that, you ask? The one we had a spoiler chat about. Whoops indeed, Stephen.
As far as complaints, Cecilia has one, and I’m with her on that.
Cecilia D’anastasio
Best of luck to Cecilia in her impending exit from video games.
Update — 3:27pm: Kotaku features editor and busy man Chris Kohler, who missed my cut off for stories, has this anecdote to add:
The moment I keep thinking about is when I first started doing sidequests. There’s a dialogue sequence where Atreus talks about all the people they’re helping, and Kratos tells him “we do not help people.” Atreus asks, basically, then why are we leaving the main quest line and doing sidequests?
And Kratos says something like, “because the artifacts we find will improve our equipment.” They’re literally just doing a baked-in commentary on, if you will, ludonarrative dissonance, explaining why Kratos would even do a sidequest. It’s just this hilarious three-car pileup of story, gameplay, and fourth-wall breaking. Whoever put that in is very smart.
Thanks Kohler! And don’t think I’ll forget about this the next time I’m late on a draft.
Comments
5 responses to “Kotaku Reacts To God Of War”
Did you forget to actually include Heather?
“In talking to Heather, she’s said that there’s a lot of things about the game that frustrate her. She’s still taken the time to take a lot of amazing screenshots, though.”
*includes exclusively screenshots*
When something receives such glowing praise I’m always interested in the criticisms that do manage to float to the surface, So I was quite interested in whatever criticisms Heather has.
I’m feeling pretty claustrophobic in the linear gameplay atm in GOW.. I am hoping it lives up to all this hype. Preferring Yakuza 6 so far…. Just not feeling the review love is warranted.
Waiting for the inevitable articles about
“God of War is over-rated”
“Why we hate God of War”
“God of War wasnt a good as you think it is”
“God of War: the most over hyped game of the generation”
“Did God of War ever deserve all its praise?”
The best part will be all the irony.
That’s probably not going to happen because it’s actually really good. If they do, it’ll probably be obvious clickbait.
From the start where the mechanics feel so satisfying. Your axe feels exactly like you expect Thor’s hammer would feel like from the Marvel universe and returns to your hand with a satisfying thunk. The combat feels brutal, gritty and engaging. Then there’s really smart design decisions like the fact that the camera never cuts away. There are times when it pans away a little bit to take in a scene, but it’s all “one take”, giving it a real sense of presence. Pacing is excellent, and dialogue is frequent and almost always either interesting or amusing and delivered cleverly whenever there’s a lull in the action. What’s more, the voice of Kratos is the voice of Christopher Judge, better known as Teal’c from Stargate, and it’s brilliant casting, because he pretty much defines gruff laconic.
It’s honestly great.
I didnt say it wasnt great – I am highlighting that Kotaku most likely will turn on the game like they seem to turn on most things – especially once the vocal minority opinions start their criticism.
The game is great and really fun, but I seem to be making my own fun trying to imitate Christopher Judge’s voice lines to the amusement of my gf who is preoccupied with the sims and blogging about it in the next room.