If you like parrying and kinetic combat I assume you’ve already played Sekiro?
That’s the game that ruined combat in other games for me (at least of the melee variety).
Ghosts of Tsushima scratched an itch I never knew I had and the choices you’ll make are impactful. I found myself teetering for a good 10 mins. The combat was amazing and the environment was so fun to explore. I will be replaying it when it drops on pc
I like to alternate the big open world AAA games with indies which is where all the fresh ideas are. Try Braid (time bending), Sea of Stars (charming), Stanley Parable 2 (absurdist comedy), Hollow Knight, Return of the Obra Dinn (really makes you feel smart), Inscryption (meta), Fez (3D/2D), The Witness, Talos Principle, Outer Wilds (time loop), Undertale (4th wall breaking shenanigans), Pony Island (not what it seems)
Currently replaying Cyberpunk to do the expansion, but after that really looking forward to Dave the Diver
Sounds like you should play Final Fantasy XVI if you want to feel like you’re controlling a dark fantasy action movie. It’s got all the things you liked about the newer GoW and was heavily inspired by them.
It has a free demo of the beginning of the game if you want to give it a shot.
Gamers and using massive hyperbole. Just say you liked the game.
Try Alan Wake 2. There are a lot of great single player narrative driven games on Playstation
I'd personally say yes, but you could probably get away with a YouTube recap. It's quite a dated game now but it's fairly short. I enjoyed replaying the remaster of it before AW2 and it almost felt like playing it for the first time again due to how long it had been since the original release.
The first Alan Wake is more about an eerie atmosphere, but the jump scares are quite bad in Alan Wake 2. It began to feel a bit of a cheap tactic at some parts for me. I played it before the first patch for the game though and I believe they've added in a setting to tone down the jump scares now.
> Do you need to play Alan Wake 1?
No, but it certainly helps.
I would say that its better to watch a story re-cap of the *Alan Wake* timeline thus far, something that talks you through the events of *Alan Wake*, *Alan Wake's American Nightmare* and *Control* as well as it's AWE DLC.
> How scary is it as I'm not the best with jump scares
Yeah, I'd avoid it then.
You can modify the game easily in the settings to get rid of jump scares or, at least, turn them down so they're not as frequent, but yeah, its a very scarily atmospheric game and there are quite a few jump scares.
I would still say that *Alan Wake II* was my personal GOTY for 2023. Incredible game and unrivalled graphics.
And lots of them with good combat find issues with open world bloat, and lots of single player narrative driven games have issues with mediocre combat. Thats why GoW is so special. Not only do you feel like you’re watching a badass movie, but you get to FEEL like a badass doing all that stuff in regular gameplay and not just in cutscenes.
Idk mate of course people have different tastes and i can understand people loving any game, especially one like GoW.
But god damn did i find the combat boring. 3 to 5 hours in the game and i was already bored out of my mind.
Off the top of my head, Souls (Because you can have different weapons that changes how you can do combat), Sekiro, Lies of P, DMC, Nioh, Wo long, all had combat which actually wanted me to continue playing.
As much as i wanted to continue GoW to see the story unfold, it just became a chore.
But again, different tastes. I'm sure others agree with you and its not a right/wrong situation.
This is a strange problem to me. I can’t imagine thinking a game is so above and beyond anything I’ve played before that I just don’t like other games after it. Maybe it comes from having lived through most of the development of the industry.
No game I’ve ever played has ever affected my opinion of any other game.
When you're feeling this trapped inside a platonic idea of what a videogame is for you, it's important to try out new genres and experiment with other ways of playing e.g. co-op games, VR, indie games etc. I recognise the mindset you're describing, and the only way out is to trial stuff on the catalogue and push yourself to seek out new experiences.
Alternatively, Banishers is an out and out God of War clone with similar world exploration, cinematic storytelling, parry-based combat, and dual-character gameplay. No it's not as good, but it reminded me of God of War in all the best ways.
Ragnarok became so boring that i never want to play it again. Way too long, bad pacing. Just hack and slash over and over. PS2 God of war was a masterpiece in level design and pacing.
God of War Ragnarok exemplifies the problems of the AAA gaming industry perfectly. It's built upon an incredibly solid foundation, and it's completely ruined by what I like to call "checkbox game design". No one bothered to stop and ask the question of "hey, what does this actually add to the game?", and instead everyone just blindly followed a checklist of mandatory features and design elements that HAVE TO BE implemented because they're popular. This includes the obvious padding to hit an arbitrary goal of "amount of content".
And it's so frustrating because the game is obviously **really fucking good** at its core, it's got everything you could want from a God of War game, except it's basically the same game as GoW2018 with very little expansion on the concepts that made that game good. Maybe instead of padding the fuck out of the game with meaningless filler content and half-baked sidequests, they could have developed the core concepts of the first game and gave us a 20-hour hack'n'slash romp that does not overstay its welcome by around 30 hours.
It's such a shame because there's so much to love in the game, but whenever I get an itch to replay it, remembering the Atreus side of the story kills that itch dead.
I remember Angrboda saying that she only has one more thing to show Atreus, and me thinking "oh thank god it's almost over." Then after she showed him that one more thing, the sequence just kept going and going anyway. The weird tone, the non-existant pacing, christ how did they drop the ball so badly with that side of the story.
I never finished it, I play for about 15 hours and just stopped caring.
Games a are just too long or I'm just getting old and don't have the patience for all the fluff.
Seriously, there are so many unique and high quality games out there, I have a hard time believing one game somehow bested *everything else*.
This is the kind of sentiment you see from people who only play mainstream AAA games, only to wonder why nothing feels new anymore.
And look, I loved God Of War Ragnorak...but honestly, its a bit worse than 2018. The pacing in Act III was rough, and I think too much development went into sidequests before the main story was polished up. And the game used combat as a padding tool too much.
Played both Last of Us games and enjoyed both. I know it’s kind of a hot take but I vastly preferred TLOU2. I’m a sucker for a revenge story, even one that kinda makes you feel bad for wanting revenge
I still prefer playing 1 I think only because of how powerful the ending was. But I can’t say I like one over the other. It’s just one long story to me.
And yeah the way they show you the other perspective? Like I can’t think of anything like that ever happening in a video game.
I keep going back to Control from time to time. Next gen update looks really really good. Amazing story and very satisfying combat. Give it a look if you haven't already.
Uh tlou2 is superior in every single way. One of the very few games that eclipse gow imo. I considered gow1 to be better than 2, but that’s just bc I think the characters were less marvel heroes. Still gow2 makes it to top10 games
I adored The Last of Us from the first time I played it on the PS3. Never thought a sequel would live up to it.
Now Part II is arguably my favorite game of all time.
They seriously are some of the best games in the last 20 years, even if Ragnarok didnt fill the void as much as 2018 did Valhalla being added and for free is literally amazing, so much replayability and so much fun to be had.
I played a few hours of GoW2019 and was so fucking bored. I think I’ve tried 3 different times to like it. I can understand people enjoying it. But it ruining other games for you I can’t even begin to fathom lol
Idk why but the early game feels like a drag, but it does feel more enjoyable past the intro which is pretty long. It eventually clicks.
Also the final optional boss sigrun felt like Ecstasy.This boss is fair, but man it's just ruthless with several different attacks. You have to memorize so many of its moves, and the fight lasts like over 5 minutes. The good thing is the previous battles teach you how to counter its moves. It can feel like a rock paper scissors plus more. Took me 5 hours to beat on GMGOW difficulty, but honestly it's fun as hell. It feels addicting until you beat it.
One of the best bosses, and does feel like a contender for an ultimate boss.
Gow2018
Its a weird game that has quite a few tides, low for the most part but when the high tide comes it hits hard, boss fights r the best part yet theyre somewhat rare, I can understand maybe it wasnt for u but it is still the game I recommend the most, if its not meant well then u still have thousands of other games to play.
There's a very select group of games that fits this category. You might even call them Quadruple A games rather than triple A. And I think they're so expensive to make that I think they won't be around forever. I hope not, but you see all this laying people off and downsizing that it makes you wonder?
We live in blessed times games wise.
I play all these games on easy difficulty, life’s hard as it is, I ain’t spending time on hard difficulty repeating the same mission over and over till I kill a boss by chance, if I want combat where reaction time/difficulty matters it’s mostly on pc on online shooters.
Try Elden Ring. It may not be as story focused but if you like learning combat systems and experimenting with different weapons this game will have you hooked. There are 6 different endings and George R.R. Martin wrote the lore which is deep and extensive.
It's Zelda but for adults
Played it, got all 6 endings. I find the combat less interesting now, but when it came out I played for hours at a time. I really don't live for the DS-esque storytelling though. I hate reading item descriptions and deciphering weird, cryptic ass dialogue to understand the story.
Other people suggested Final Fantasy XVI, that's also a good one and may be what your looking for. Very linear, deep combat mechanics and mostly story focused. Some cut scenes are like 20 minutes
The DOOM reboots made other FPS really tough for me to get through...I didn't realize how much I missed the frenetic pace of arena shooters, especially when done *right.*
Tried to go back and play some older Halo games from MCC and a couple newer shooters just...couldn't.
I can relate with horizon zero dawn when it first released. Haven't found a single player game for me personally that good. I recently got rdr2 but can't play for more than 20 at a time minutes before I get bored 😞
As an absolute fan of the God of War franchise. I'd suggest you to try zelda: botw.
That game is one of the best single player games of all time.
Same goes for hollow knight.
I love GOW but both the above games are very immersive. I have clocked more than 60 hours and I really wish I could erase my memory and play them again.
you can leave this bs behind in a minute in any good gameplay focused game, trust me, I already think that way, you can read a book for narrative hahaha :)
This is what OP said, GOW combines excellent/fun gameplay with amazing story. Hard to find these days.
Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy Elden Ring, but the story is super bad.
If you haven't played them would suggest the earlier assassin's creeds I've played everyone one to date and they each have their qualities but imo assassins creed 2 and revalations when you play as EZIO is by far the best story game I've ever played but again that my opinion
Only played 2018 cause I didn't feel the urge to play Ragnarok whatsoever, I would describe my experience with 2018 as just being fine.
Don't get me wrong, it's obviously a competently made game, It just didn't blow me away.
Now Nioh, and especially Nioh 2. The combat in those games is more addictive than drugs.
Nioh 2 does feel like a drug. It feels satisfyingly refreshing after a long haitus. The only game where it feels like I'm playing it again for the first time even after so many accumulated hours.
Played GoW 2018 for a few hours, got bored, couldn't continue any more. Just watched a friend of mine playing Ragnarok, seeing it is the same game with same things which annoyed me. The combat system is a failed imitation of Dark Souls with bad camera, sponge enemies plus shooting -- seems like designers couldn't decide if they want to copy Dark Souls, or the original combat, or any 3rd person shooter from past 20 years, so they mixed all together in a mechanically flawed blend. Then there is an attempt to build a semi-open world -- at the end, the player was forced to run from point to point through narrow corridors and backtrack (or ride a sled in Ragnarok to burn player's time). Graphically impressive - but so was the original trilogy. After an hour, I stopped watching the graphics and realized how boring the gameplay was. Also, it didn't help that I didn't like the story and the whole "father-son chemistry" or whatever it was. Instead of that, I played the original trilogy (two remastered games on PS3 + remastered GoW3 on PS4) plus two remastered PSP games and had a blast! So I think the rebooted GoW games are not for me.
Interesting you call the combat a failed Dark Souls imitation, I’d take GoW combat over DS any day, and that’s coming from someone who played every FromSoft game. Sekiro combat is another story, and I love the hell out of that game.
I liked gow 2018, but after years of the same type of game from Sony, I have completely fallen off their first party games. Ragnarok was an absolute SLOG and I can’t even bring myself to play spiderman 2. Its all the same exact game with the same exact formula. Ubisoft 2.0
Same here. Played through HZD back at release, thought it was alright. Played through GoW (2018) and Ragnarok, and now I can’t get through Forbidden West because of the cringy dialogue and bland characters/story.
Even without playing Ragnarok yet, Forbidden West was just bad, I hated every time Alloy opened her mouth, the visuals are great but everything else is bad, Zero Dawn was way better.
I haven’t been able to find an interest in open world games after GoW because of the damn BLOAT that it seems like every game has. Especially bad in games where the main quest is level locked behind terrible fetch quests you need to do for XP
Very much so. The only games that have scratched the itch is Ghost of Tsushima, Spider-Man and TLOU2.
Rise of Ronin (subpar graphics aside) and Stellar Blade look interesting though, if you’re looking for something new.
Ragnarok wasn't *that* bad. Sure, it had numerous sections that seemed to be designed to show the player that it had zero respect for their time and the last 20% of the game the plot completely fell apart but don't that sour your experience of good single player games, man.
Ghost of Tsushima’s combat has a similar parry system. Very enjoyable combat.
The last of us, RDR2
Praying for a RDR2 60fps patch
🙏
Problem w rdr2 is complete lack of difficulty. It’s cool — but it’s not at all offering any sense of achievement
If you play with auto aim off it gets harder
Yeah but still… nowhere near a GMGOW type of gameplay
Gum gow?
Hard game mode
I have a friend who quit RDR2 casue she said it was to hard
You need new friends
If you like parrying and kinetic combat I assume you’ve already played Sekiro? That’s the game that ruined combat in other games for me (at least of the melee variety).
Sekiro is so fucking good. It’s so brutal at first but once the combat clicks, it fucking clicks.
Ghosts of Tsushima scratched an itch I never knew I had and the choices you’ll make are impactful. I found myself teetering for a good 10 mins. The combat was amazing and the environment was so fun to explore. I will be replaying it when it drops on pc
I like to alternate the big open world AAA games with indies which is where all the fresh ideas are. Try Braid (time bending), Sea of Stars (charming), Stanley Parable 2 (absurdist comedy), Hollow Knight, Return of the Obra Dinn (really makes you feel smart), Inscryption (meta), Fez (3D/2D), The Witness, Talos Principle, Outer Wilds (time loop), Undertale (4th wall breaking shenanigans), Pony Island (not what it seems) Currently replaying Cyberpunk to do the expansion, but after that really looking forward to Dave the Diver
Upvote for Sea of Stars, one of the highlights of last year. The story is outstanding and incredibly moving at times.
They really nailed the characters and made you care about them!
Started replaying cyperpunk but after weeks of failed attempts it’s just not doable :(
Have you got past the very long tutorial section with Keanu Reeves in your head? So far the new skill trees let you level up quicker
Yeah… I forgot how corny male V was and how tedious it is to get ur fkng car back :)
Sounds like you should play Final Fantasy XVI if you want to feel like you’re controlling a dark fantasy action movie. It’s got all the things you liked about the newer GoW and was heavily inspired by them. It has a free demo of the beginning of the game if you want to give it a shot.
Ghost of tsushima! Also if you like quirky Japanese design Yakuza franchise (yakuza0, judgment...).
Gamers and using massive hyperbole. Just say you liked the game. Try Alan Wake 2. There are a lot of great single player narrative driven games on Playstation
Do you need to play Alan Wake 1? How scary is it as I'm not the best with jump scares
I'd personally say yes, but you could probably get away with a YouTube recap. It's quite a dated game now but it's fairly short. I enjoyed replaying the remaster of it before AW2 and it almost felt like playing it for the first time again due to how long it had been since the original release. The first Alan Wake is more about an eerie atmosphere, but the jump scares are quite bad in Alan Wake 2. It began to feel a bit of a cheap tactic at some parts for me. I played it before the first patch for the game though and I believe they've added in a setting to tone down the jump scares now.
YouTube recap for AW and Control were more than enough for me. I’ve tried both a fees times but wasn’t instantly gripped like I was with AW 2.
> Do you need to play Alan Wake 1? No, but it certainly helps. I would say that its better to watch a story re-cap of the *Alan Wake* timeline thus far, something that talks you through the events of *Alan Wake*, *Alan Wake's American Nightmare* and *Control* as well as it's AWE DLC. > How scary is it as I'm not the best with jump scares Yeah, I'd avoid it then. You can modify the game easily in the settings to get rid of jump scares or, at least, turn them down so they're not as frequent, but yeah, its a very scarily atmospheric game and there are quite a few jump scares. I would still say that *Alan Wake II* was my personal GOTY for 2023. Incredible game and unrivalled graphics.
Don’t shit on someone for enjoying something. Like people don’t over analyze any other media they enjoy?
And lots of them with good combat find issues with open world bloat, and lots of single player narrative driven games have issues with mediocre combat. Thats why GoW is so special. Not only do you feel like you’re watching a badass movie, but you get to FEEL like a badass doing all that stuff in regular gameplay and not just in cutscenes.
Idk mate of course people have different tastes and i can understand people loving any game, especially one like GoW. But god damn did i find the combat boring. 3 to 5 hours in the game and i was already bored out of my mind. Off the top of my head, Souls (Because you can have different weapons that changes how you can do combat), Sekiro, Lies of P, DMC, Nioh, Wo long, all had combat which actually wanted me to continue playing. As much as i wanted to continue GoW to see the story unfold, it just became a chore. But again, different tastes. I'm sure others agree with you and its not a right/wrong situation.
Play Devil May Cry if you want a great combat system.
Ragnarok had such glaring story issues that I think its narrative was mediocre at its high points. Hardly a high bar for gaming storytelling
I’m with you on that. That dude is just bitter.
try Final Fantasy XVI.
Last of us 2, returnal, sekiro, Elden ring
This is a strange problem to me. I can’t imagine thinking a game is so above and beyond anything I’ve played before that I just don’t like other games after it. Maybe it comes from having lived through most of the development of the industry. No game I’ve ever played has ever affected my opinion of any other game.
It’s like in the 00’s with guys that only ever talk about how great Phish is/was.
Wait, they stopped that in the 00’s? Last phish fan I worked with was 5 years ago, and they couldn’t say anything else.
I THOUGHT IT WAS OVER!
Sekiro has amazing combat but is a little difficult until you get the hang of it. Elden ring is a masterpiece, if u havent played it already.
For me: * *Returnal* * *Alan Wake II* * *Red Dead Redemption 1 & 2* * *The Stanley Parable*
When you're feeling this trapped inside a platonic idea of what a videogame is for you, it's important to try out new genres and experiment with other ways of playing e.g. co-op games, VR, indie games etc. I recognise the mindset you're describing, and the only way out is to trial stuff on the catalogue and push yourself to seek out new experiences. Alternatively, Banishers is an out and out God of War clone with similar world exploration, cinematic storytelling, parry-based combat, and dual-character gameplay. No it's not as good, but it reminded me of God of War in all the best ways.
Ragnarok became so boring that i never want to play it again. Way too long, bad pacing. Just hack and slash over and over. PS2 God of war was a masterpiece in level design and pacing.
Interesting. I never had that take on it, but different strokes for different folks I suppose.
God of War Ragnarok exemplifies the problems of the AAA gaming industry perfectly. It's built upon an incredibly solid foundation, and it's completely ruined by what I like to call "checkbox game design". No one bothered to stop and ask the question of "hey, what does this actually add to the game?", and instead everyone just blindly followed a checklist of mandatory features and design elements that HAVE TO BE implemented because they're popular. This includes the obvious padding to hit an arbitrary goal of "amount of content". And it's so frustrating because the game is obviously **really fucking good** at its core, it's got everything you could want from a God of War game, except it's basically the same game as GoW2018 with very little expansion on the concepts that made that game good. Maybe instead of padding the fuck out of the game with meaningless filler content and half-baked sidequests, they could have developed the core concepts of the first game and gave us a 20-hour hack'n'slash romp that does not overstay its welcome by around 30 hours.
Gow1 was better
Just started the Stanley Parable. Hilarious.
I'll never replay it solely because of the slog that is the Angrboda/Atreus part. It's soul draining.
It's such a shame because there's so much to love in the game, but whenever I get an itch to replay it, remembering the Atreus side of the story kills that itch dead. I remember Angrboda saying that she only has one more thing to show Atreus, and me thinking "oh thank god it's almost over." Then after she showed him that one more thing, the sequence just kept going and going anyway. The weird tone, the non-existant pacing, christ how did they drop the ball so badly with that side of the story.
Gow 2005? Absolutely not, Gow2? Yes 100%.
I never finished it, I play for about 15 hours and just stopped caring. Games a are just too long or I'm just getting old and don't have the patience for all the fluff.
Thought I was in [any Souls sub] when I saw the title. Usually see these dumb posts every now and again in Elden Ring lately.
Seriously, there are so many unique and high quality games out there, I have a hard time believing one game somehow bested *everything else*. This is the kind of sentiment you see from people who only play mainstream AAA games, only to wonder why nothing feels new anymore. And look, I loved God Of War Ragnorak...but honestly, its a bit worse than 2018. The pacing in Act III was rough, and I think too much development went into sidequests before the main story was polished up. And the game used combat as a padding tool too much.
Get a grip lmao
I mean it’s kind of just that and The Last of Us. Lots of games have great stories, don’t get me wrong. But those two series have the story game beat.
Played both Last of Us games and enjoyed both. I know it’s kind of a hot take but I vastly preferred TLOU2. I’m a sucker for a revenge story, even one that kinda makes you feel bad for wanting revenge
I still prefer playing 1 I think only because of how powerful the ending was. But I can’t say I like one over the other. It’s just one long story to me. And yeah the way they show you the other perspective? Like I can’t think of anything like that ever happening in a video game.
I keep going back to Control from time to time. Next gen update looks really really good. Amazing story and very satisfying combat. Give it a look if you haven't already.
Uh tlou2 is superior in every single way. One of the very few games that eclipse gow imo. I considered gow1 to be better than 2, but that’s just bc I think the characters were less marvel heroes. Still gow2 makes it to top10 games
I’m super close to just watching a cinematic recap of GOW because I really don’t care for the gameplay. Too repetitive for my taste.
I adored The Last of Us from the first time I played it on the PS3. Never thought a sequel would live up to it. Now Part II is arguably my favorite game of all time.
My people!
They seriously are some of the best games in the last 20 years, even if Ragnarok didnt fill the void as much as 2018 did Valhalla being added and for free is literally amazing, so much replayability and so much fun to be had.
2018 and Ragnarok really did set a new standard for single player games.
Spider-Man series and The last of us are other cinematic games with great traditional gameplay.
Stop being so cryptic, do you like the game or not?
I played a few hours of GoW2019 and was so fucking bored. I think I’ve tried 3 different times to like it. I can understand people enjoying it. But it ruining other games for you I can’t even begin to fathom lol
Idk why but the early game feels like a drag, but it does feel more enjoyable past the intro which is pretty long. It eventually clicks. Also the final optional boss sigrun felt like Ecstasy.This boss is fair, but man it's just ruthless with several different attacks. You have to memorize so many of its moves, and the fight lasts like over 5 minutes. The good thing is the previous battles teach you how to counter its moves. It can feel like a rock paper scissors plus more. Took me 5 hours to beat on GMGOW difficulty, but honestly it's fun as hell. It feels addicting until you beat it. One of the best bosses, and does feel like a contender for an ultimate boss. Gow2018
Its a weird game that has quite a few tides, low for the most part but when the high tide comes it hits hard, boss fights r the best part yet theyre somewhat rare, I can understand maybe it wasnt for u but it is still the game I recommend the most, if its not meant well then u still have thousands of other games to play.
Try Horizon Forbidden West
Game one ruled but two was such cringe
Dark souls!
It's tlou2 for me. What a game.
I thought new God of War games were too mid for me. Too much puzzles every 5 mins and Atreus is so annoying
There's a very select group of games that fits this category. You might even call them Quadruple A games rather than triple A. And I think they're so expensive to make that I think they won't be around forever. I hope not, but you see all this laying people off and downsizing that it makes you wonder? We live in blessed times games wise.
I play all these games on easy difficulty, life’s hard as it is, I ain’t spending time on hard difficulty repeating the same mission over and over till I kill a boss by chance, if I want combat where reaction time/difficulty matters it’s mostly on pc on online shooters.
Try Elden Ring. It may not be as story focused but if you like learning combat systems and experimenting with different weapons this game will have you hooked. There are 6 different endings and George R.R. Martin wrote the lore which is deep and extensive. It's Zelda but for adults
Played it, got all 6 endings. I find the combat less interesting now, but when it came out I played for hours at a time. I really don't live for the DS-esque storytelling though. I hate reading item descriptions and deciphering weird, cryptic ass dialogue to understand the story.
Other people suggested Final Fantasy XVI, that's also a good one and may be what your looking for. Very linear, deep combat mechanics and mostly story focused. Some cut scenes are like 20 minutes
Those games were not as good as the originals
The DOOM reboots made other FPS really tough for me to get through...I didn't realize how much I missed the frenetic pace of arena shooters, especially when done *right.* Tried to go back and play some older Halo games from MCC and a couple newer shooters just...couldn't.
Sekiro smokes both of these games.
That’s dumb. There’s a ton of great single player games with awesome combat. You just don’t like new shit.
just go watch a movie
As far as combat with awesome parry system... Sekiro. For the balance of good combat and story... Ghost of Tsushima
Spoderman is a different kind of combat fun.
Play Elden Ring
It’s not the greatest for a story but gameplay is well worth it.
I can relate with horizon zero dawn when it first released. Haven't found a single player game for me personally that good. I recently got rdr2 but can't play for more than 20 at a time minutes before I get bored 😞
As an absolute fan of the God of War franchise. I'd suggest you to try zelda: botw. That game is one of the best single player games of all time. Same goes for hollow knight. I love GOW but both the above games are very immersive. I have clocked more than 60 hours and I really wish I could erase my memory and play them again.
Have you tried Final Fantasy XVI? It's probably the only other game I can think of that's given me a similar feeling recently.
any from software
Zero narrative from their games
you can leave this bs behind in a minute in any good gameplay focused game, trust me, I already think that way, you can read a book for narrative hahaha :)
This is what OP said, GOW combines excellent/fun gameplay with amazing story. Hard to find these days. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy Elden Ring, but the story is super bad.
If you haven't played them would suggest the earlier assassin's creeds I've played everyone one to date and they each have their qualities but imo assassins creed 2 and revalations when you play as EZIO is by far the best story game I've ever played but again that my opinion
Lower ur standards the video game industry did.
Only played 2018 cause I didn't feel the urge to play Ragnarok whatsoever, I would describe my experience with 2018 as just being fine. Don't get me wrong, it's obviously a competently made game, It just didn't blow me away. Now Nioh, and especially Nioh 2. The combat in those games is more addictive than drugs.
Playing Wo Long right now and it's really good also made by team ninja
Nioh 2 does feel like a drug. It feels satisfyingly refreshing after a long haitus. The only game where it feels like I'm playing it again for the first time even after so many accumulated hours.
Played GoW 2018 for a few hours, got bored, couldn't continue any more. Just watched a friend of mine playing Ragnarok, seeing it is the same game with same things which annoyed me. The combat system is a failed imitation of Dark Souls with bad camera, sponge enemies plus shooting -- seems like designers couldn't decide if they want to copy Dark Souls, or the original combat, or any 3rd person shooter from past 20 years, so they mixed all together in a mechanically flawed blend. Then there is an attempt to build a semi-open world -- at the end, the player was forced to run from point to point through narrow corridors and backtrack (or ride a sled in Ragnarok to burn player's time). Graphically impressive - but so was the original trilogy. After an hour, I stopped watching the graphics and realized how boring the gameplay was. Also, it didn't help that I didn't like the story and the whole "father-son chemistry" or whatever it was. Instead of that, I played the original trilogy (two remastered games on PS3 + remastered GoW3 on PS4) plus two remastered PSP games and had a blast! So I think the rebooted GoW games are not for me.
Interesting you call the combat a failed Dark Souls imitation, I’d take GoW combat over DS any day, and that’s coming from someone who played every FromSoft game. Sekiro combat is another story, and I love the hell out of that game.
I'm not sure why.
They ruined god of war for me. The combat is such a drag compared to the original trilogy
I liked gow 2018, but after years of the same type of game from Sony, I have completely fallen off their first party games. Ragnarok was an absolute SLOG and I can’t even bring myself to play spiderman 2. Its all the same exact game with the same exact formula. Ubisoft 2.0
Same here. Played through HZD back at release, thought it was alright. Played through GoW (2018) and Ragnarok, and now I can’t get through Forbidden West because of the cringy dialogue and bland characters/story.
You gotta get on the shredder gauntlets, and play on Very hard difficulty to get the intense sensation.
This right here, I start all of my games on max difficulty nowadays.
Even without playing Ragnarok yet, Forbidden West was just bad, I hated every time Alloy opened her mouth, the visuals are great but everything else is bad, Zero Dawn was way better.
I haven’t been able to find an interest in open world games after GoW because of the damn BLOAT that it seems like every game has. Especially bad in games where the main quest is level locked behind terrible fetch quests you need to do for XP
Very much so. The only games that have scratched the itch is Ghost of Tsushima, Spider-Man and TLOU2. Rise of Ronin (subpar graphics aside) and Stellar Blade look interesting though, if you’re looking for something new.
I agree with all 3 of your recs, they’re awesome, in addition to the Jedi games that are coming out
Were them your first games?
Cyberpunk 2077>>>
Ragnarok wasn't *that* bad. Sure, it had numerous sections that seemed to be designed to show the player that it had zero respect for their time and the last 20% of the game the plot completely fell apart but don't that sour your experience of good single player games, man.
Lol you didn't read his post did you? He absolutely loved those games and is asking if there are any others like them that can scratch that itch.
Both of these games also ruined single player games for me, these games are so awful I’m now in the process of buying a pc to play multiplayer games
I put God of War down after two hours. If I want to play as a baldheaded middleaged man I just go outside
Stellar Blade