God of War Ragnarok Review | Best Game I Ever Played | Dad Review | Punchi Man Gaming

Yet to play this game so it won't be fair from my side to say anything about it. I don't know how true any of my opinions hold for this particular game but I have something to say about Sony's 1st party exclusives. No doubt Sony 1st party exclusive are blockbusters, extremely polished, never have a dull moment and even rival some of the best movies and TV shows when it comes to story telling. Which is understandable considering the number of amazingly talented studios Sony owns and the amount of money and time they throw at them to come up with these titles. The only problem is, that there is some serious lack of variety. All these games are 3rd person action adventure games that play very similar to one another and are becoming more and more predictable with each new release. They feature "go there, do that and do it that way only" kind of mission design with no replay value, invisible walls because "that's not how the story progresses", some beautiful no brainer environmental puzzles to solve with a companion NPC, spoon feeding players with so obvious tips that they never experience a "where to go now" moment and boss fights that will eventually end with a series of quick time events. Sony seems to have cracked a recipe that is loved by the masses and milking most out of it. They are too afraid to go out of their way, take risks and come up with some fresh ideas.

Don't get me wrong!! I absolutely love the summer holiday blockbuster kind of vibes Uncharted series has, Spiderman 2018 is the most realized Spiderman experience I ever had, God of War 2018 had some larger than life boss fights and The Last of Us feature some of my favourite video game characters. However, a decade old game design philosophy that desperately focuses on giving players a constant dose of dopamine doesn't inspire confidence anymore. That's why games like Breath of the wild, Minecraft, Dishonoured, Metal Gear Solid 5, Witcher 3 and Elden Ring have such a huge fanbase despite of not featuring a "polished cinematic experience". These games give you just enough tools to survive while making you feel like nobodies, reward exploration and experimentation, the world seems to exists and doing it's own damn thing with or without you and the game respects your intelligence by letting you figure things out your own way.