Worst thing about playing generational greats
Such was my excitement at the new God of War Laufey trailer, I have replayed GoW (2018) and GoW Ragnorok over the past two months. I’ve platinumed them both a few years ago on ‘normal’ difficulty, and dropped to Story for Sigrun and Gna because they were so damn difficult.
In the years between I’ve played lots more melee combat games and fancied a challenge so completed both games, including Sigrun and Gna, on Give me god of war. It was a fantastic experience. The difficulty meant I had to fully engage with all the systems, upgrades and equipment. I had to think about builds and strategies. Encounters became puzzles to solve based on enemies and the tool set I had available. I had to memorise move sets and execute almost perfectly for minutes at a time to beat the hardest bosses. I died a lot on those bosses but it felt fair when I did die. Excellent gameplay, side content, and of course, story and performances by all. Christopher judge is superb. Particularly in 2018, which is more tightly focused on Kratos and Atreus, the weight and subtlety of the voice acting and facial animation is still remarkable 8 years later.
I’ve tried new game plus and decided it’s time to move on now - but how do you follow such great games? What can you possibly put on your plate to eat next after such a culinary delight?
Part of me wants to try and find something similar - third person melee action, lots of side content and a cinematic story (black myth springs to mind), but anything I pick seems doomed to pale in comparison .
I’ve struggled to get into a game after similar months long affairs with leviathans like Metaphor, Elden Ring and Tears of the Kingdom. I tend to try lots of things and nothing sticks for a while.
How do you deal with this? Do you follow an enormous, all consuming masterpiece with something similar because you liked the genre so much?Or with a palette cleanser of a title, in a different genre?
Also suggestions for what to play next gratefully received!