The biggest problem I have with this game is that it undermines 2018 by having us play and get to know the dead woman Kratos/Atreus were grieving AFTER SHE ALREADY DIED. If the afterlife is just like the real world, where people can still die again and can fight and feel and think, but are just disconnected from the living, then... what is the point. Who knows what happened to Lysandra since the games seem determined to push her aside lmao, but Calliope in Elysium is so different from Faye's afterlife. Despite seeing Calliope, I can still feel Kratos's loss because the Greek underworld is a desolate, ghostly place. Even in Elysium, the spirits don't feel like living, breathing people, so Calliope's death remains a tragedy.
What's happening in Laufey looks completely different. It was already bad enough that Ragnarok forced some weird contrived dream visions of Faye to direct the plot, now this?? Faye was compelling in 2018 BECAUSE she was so mysterious, and then when she does show up the writers take the blandest, most generic possible route with her design and characterization. And not only that, but they're bringing the stupid mask back 😭 !! All this effort into making a Faye game and TV show, when the focus could have been on properly fleshing out the Norse trilogy. Instead, we got Ragnarok's ham-fisted Marvelesque dialogue, chirping magical animal familiars like something out of a kid's movie, terrible pacing, everyone ooc, etc.
All this is in the Faye trailer. The obligatory uwu animal sidekicks, the tell don't show style of writing, the tonal inconsistency, the CUBE... like... 'Frank?'.... seriously? In an ancient Norse setting??? Atp everything post 2018 is a complete bastardization of GOW to me, including Sons of Sparta, which I personally enjoyed. The dark tone isn't completely gone, but it's severely watered down. The Greek games were at least juvenile in an edgy way- that's what GOW was back then. But Ragnarok, SOS, and probably Laufey are juvenile in a way I can only describe as 'Disney.' I just don't understand why people like this, the same way I don't understand how people thought Ragnarok was well designed in its story and characterizations.
I will say, the gameplay itself looks sick. Faye comes across as a complete badass and I am actually interested to see what they do with her. I like that they don't shy away from her getting bloody and being an actual warrior. That 'Touch me again and I will kill you' scene was great. I just hope most of the game is like that, and minimizes all the other elements I've described here. Still, I doubt I'll buy it until its on sale.
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