The difficulty curve thread

[DrBonifarz]

Greetings, fellow GoW players

This topic shall be a place to share and discuss how you experienced the game's difficulty curve. And with that, I don't mean rants or "git gud"s , but stories and observations about the game balance in GoW - also and especially during repeated playthroughs and NG+. GoW is 4 years old, and the difficulty scaling has been criticized from the beginning. But what do PC players say that recently enjoyed the game?

At which points of the game did things get significantly harder or easier for you?
What items, skills or tactics did you see as a game changer?
Did any of the above feel "imba", in the sense that it spoiled the game for you?
Or do you rather see balance issues in the way character levels affect combat?

I will make a start and share some of by observations below.

[acowsik]

Първоначално публикувано от ToveriJuri:

Difficulty is badly designed. Game just isn't challenging on anything but GMGOW. but the start of GMGOW is absolutely miserable. Enemies are spongy as hell fights take too long and the combat is boring because you have almost no tools.

On the other hand starting GMGOW on NG+ makes the mode too easy.

There is no well balanced difficulty in this game. The curve on GMGOW is absolutely jarring. Where I have an absolutely blast playing Ninja Gaiden I on Master Ninja or Devil May Cry on Dante must Die i'm not having very much fun with GMGOW.

Give Me A challenge feels like a normal mode for your typical action game which is not engaging enough. I think the game needs an in between setting for Give Me A Challenge and Give Me God of War where enemies aren't as spongy at the start, but then settles down close to GMGOW difficulty later on. That will give a smoother more sensible difficulty curve.

While I agree with you to some extent, GMGOW+ amps the difficulty and aggressiveness when it comes to the Valkyries.. they can now chain multiple attacks in quick succession and mix you up big time. If you arent quick enough to react accordingly, you are going to get nailed bad. Sigrun on GMGOW+ is a completely different animal. She is a real handful.

Also I have to ask you... did you play GMGOW+ having already acquired NG+ gear and upgraded them first or did you play that difficulty right off from your NG save. There is a difference.

[DrBonifarz]

Indeed, the starting conditions make a huge difference for GMGOW+. That's exactly the point of this topic.

I don't think an additional difficulty between GMGOW and GMAC would be beneficial. Rather, I suspect the rules for level difference penalties are a bit imbalanced (making the start relatively rough, but most following content trivial when overgeared).

Re: Spongy enemies - to me it never felt that way. Of course, you can attempt inefficient tactics once in a while. But usually you soon figure out how to adapt to enemies and environments. Even while constantly undergeared I never got the impression that enemies take too long to dispatch. At least so far.

[Peelsepuuppi]

Първоначално публикувано от acowsik:

Първоначално публикувано от ToveriJuri:

Difficulty is badly designed. Game just isn't challenging on anything but GMGOW. but the start of GMGOW is absolutely miserable. Enemies are spongy as hell fights take too long and the combat is boring because you have almost no tools.

On the other hand starting GMGOW on NG+ makes the mode too easy.

There is no well balanced difficulty in this game. The curve on GMGOW is absolutely jarring. Where I have an absolutely blast playing Ninja Gaiden I on Master Ninja or Devil May Cry on Dante must Die i'm not having very much fun with GMGOW.

Give Me A challenge feels like a normal mode for your typical action game which is not engaging enough. I think the game needs an in between setting for Give Me A Challenge and Give Me God of War where enemies aren't as spongy at the start, but then settles down close to GMGOW difficulty later on. That will give a smoother more sensible difficulty curve.

While I agree with you to some extent, GMGOW+ amps the difficulty and aggressiveness when it comes to the Valkyries.. they can now chain multiple attacks in quick succession and mix you up big time. If you arent quick enough to react accordingly, you are going to get nailed bad. Sigrun on GMGOW+ is a completely different animal. She is a real handful.

Also I have to ask you... did you play GMGOW+ having already acquired NG+ gear and upgraded them first or did you play that difficulty right off from your NG save. There is a difference.

I mean in my posts I already mention the difference between starting NG+ GMGOW and fresh GMGOW.

I played GMGOW fresh on PS3 when there was no NG+ In this version I played GMGOW+ only. But yes I've played both. I admit I never made it to Valkyries in either mode because both times I got bored around half way through. This game is too "cinematic" for good replayability, which is a shame. The changes they make to Valkyries sound like something I would enjoy a lot as one can see from my Steam profile, but I can't stomach the slow pace up to that point just to challenge some fun boss fights.

[acowsik]

Първоначално публикувано от ToveriJuri:

Първоначално публикувано от acowsik:

While I agree with you to some extent, GMGOW+ amps the difficulty and aggressiveness when it comes to the Valkyries.. they can now chain multiple attacks in quick succession and mix you up big time. If you arent quick enough to react accordingly, you are going to get nailed bad. Sigrun on GMGOW+ is a completely different animal. She is a real handful.

Also I have to ask you... did you play GMGOW+ having already acquired NG+ gear and upgraded them first or did you play that difficulty right off from your NG save. There is a difference.

I mean in my posts I already mention the difference between starting NG+ GMGOW and fresh GMGOW.

I played GMGOW fresh on PS3 when there was no NG+ In this version I played GMGOW+ only. But yes I've played both. I admit I never made it to Valkyries in either mode because both times I got bored around half way through. This game is too "cinematic" for good replayability, which is a shame. The changes they make to Valkyries sound like something I would enjoy a lot as one can see from my Steam profile, but I can't stomach the slow pace up to that point just to challenge some fun boss fights.

The Valkyrie armor and Zeus armor are the ones people go after and those only drop from defeating the Valkyries and you dont have either. On GMGOW+ they are a lot harder (the rest of the game is obviously a lot easier on NG+ with fully upgraded gear)

[DrBonifarz]

Първоначално публикувано от DrBonifarz:

I could finally give GmGoW+ a try without discovering any favors first. [...] did it get more interesting for whimpy level 6 Kratos with his underwhelming gear? Oh hell, yeah! [...] Now I am curious, if there will soon be a turning point where stronger gear will make things much easier again.

Time for another small update. Overall, the story-without-favors-run was a fairly balanced experience for me, with somewhat similar difficulty curves on gmGoW and gmGoW+. Some bits where easier on the regular run (i.e. most crowd fights), some felt easier on NG+ (e.g. stronger enemies, like the two travelers), but character progression never made the challenges pointless.

So how was the progression curve so far? Of course, the cod of war gauntlets made a big QoL improvement. And despite the low resources to start NG+, I was soon able to get decent gear. Actually, it was quite surprising to find myself at level ten already at the point when you fight Magni and Modi - with upgrades only on the amulet and armor (cod with traveler's chest, in this case). All (non-favor!) realm tears felt smooth from that point on, despite the timer. The story challenges were fair, with a somewhat difficult final encounter with Balder. Aye, he was way more annoying than the other story bosses. Though, the draugr pit at level six was clearly the toughest part in this run.

Now I am looking forward to begin with the favor content and see how much stronger Kratos gets, as he is severely lacking in the enchantments department so far (only random ones, plus mark of Q). I see the Valks will be much more fun then ever, as the attack patterns are not only more erratic, but also the timing seems way faster. Yeah, this will be fun for sure =)

[vfx]

Първоначално публикувано от acowsik:

Първоначално публикувано от DrBonifarz:

Relatively stress free? I see. That's the kind of boring I am trying to avoid, and daugr pit at level six was a really tough challenge, loved it. Maybe you should once give it a try :)


Nope, turns out you still get a frozen flame in NG+ when you meet Brok. From there, things seem to get a lot easier, mainly due to the phantastic perk on the Cod of War bracers. Well, let's see how this will go.

The draugr pit on GMGOW NG was hell... I didnt need a repeat on NG+... used my runics and cleared out the place in seconds

No, the worst place has to go to Niflheim realm tear 2 with the 3 witches spamming the nightmares on the first GMGOW run.

[acowsik]

Първоначално публикувано от vfx:

Първоначално публикувано от acowsik:

The draugr pit on GMGOW NG was hell... I didnt need a repeat on NG+... used my runics and cleared out the place in seconds

No, the worst place has to go to Niflheim realm tear 2 with the 3 witches spamming the nightmares on the first GMGOW run.

If you focus on the summoner and kill that revenant first, the fight becomes less of a headache

[TinfoilDurag]

The only thing that makes this game "hard" is the camera. The fact that there's like 30 indicators around your character to warn you of BS coming offscreen lets you know the devs knew this. But they had to give us a "cinematic experience" and kept the FOV tight instead of making the game enjoyable

[ThriceCreamMan12]

Started the game originally on balanced difficulty, but bumped it up to GMGOW. Combat is a lot more punishing now, but damn it does feel good when you win. I just beat Magni and Modi on GMGOW and that took like 15 tries. It was so satisfying when I learned you can just throw the axe at Modi when they do that stupid combo move.

[The Brown Hornet]

It got easier after I figured out how to beat those knights with the Swords. I figured I'd better git good with upgrades and armors. Overall I didn't find the game too difficult, Kratos is overpowered

[Dixon Sider]

This game had perfect balance. Everything was brutal and every fight was exciting.

[NeonBaron]

Първоначално публикувано от vfx:

Първоначално публикувано от acowsik:

Thats what I did and I had never played the game before on PS4 so I went in blind. Died a lot but I wanted the challenge and the feeling of being able to 100% the game on GMGOW was just amazing.

That was what I did on the PS4 back in 2018. I had never played any God of War games before and jumped straight into Give Me God of War. I died so many times to the very first Draugr fight. Must have taken 45 minutes to pass the first part.

Between PS4 and PC I'm on my 4th playthrough. It's like a whole new game on PC with high framerate that the fighting is so enjoyable.

same man same, fighting the Valkyries in particular at give me god of war difficulty was just a blast but it feels less punishing than some of modern games meant to make you suffer.

Never understand why the hardest difficulties these days make you beat the game in one life that seems just masochistic

[DrBonifarz]

Found some time to look into the post-story content, i.e. doing some first favors on gmgow+

Първоначално публикувано от acowsik:

Първоначално публикувано от vfx:

No, the worst place has to go to Niflheim realm tear 2 with the 3 witches spamming the nightmares on the first GMGOW run.

If you focus on the summoner and kill that revenant first, the fight becomes less of a headache

Just got there and this encounter was so much easier than obtaining the anchor you need to get there. Conveniently, the summoner is the first of the three revenants, and an array of arrow guided runic attacks should take care of it rapidly. And actually, I was surprised those realm tears do not have a timer on gmgow+. Did not matter, the fight was short and required no rage.

In return, a challenge that I found surprisingly difficult was the trial in Muspelheim with 100 enemies. Boy, it's easy to mess up at some point here XD

For the valkyries, I will have to check back later. I already find myself facing a brute force approach to overcome some of the first I tried - no good practice indeed. Lots of fun ahead for sure :D

[Kobi Blade]

Difficulty felt the same from beginning to end, cause of gear progression, I can only see it getting hard if you don't take care of your gear.

NG+ is pretty much easy mode, you get overpowered gear then... There are however extremely annoying enemies.

After re-buying on PC, I just play around with the enemies, only play seriously during the time trial challenges in end game.

[MegaElixir]

Първоначално публикувано от DrBonifarz:

Greetings, fellow GoW players

This topic shall be a place to share and discuss how you experienced the game's difficulty curve. And with that, I don't mean rants or "git gud"s , but stories and observations about the game balance in GoW - also and especially during repeated playthroughs and NG+. GoW is 4 years old, and the difficulty scaling has been criticized from the beginning. But what do PC players say that recently enjoyed the game?

At which points of the game did things get significantly harder or easier for you?
What items, skills or tactics did you see as a game changer?
Did any of the above feel "imba", in the sense that it spoiled the game for you?
Or do you rather see balance issues in the way character levels affect combat?

I will make a start and share some of by observations below.

I played this game about 3 years ago on the hardest difficulty "Give Me War" on the PS4 on my first play through . it took me about 3 weeks to beat. I recommend playing on the hardest difficulty because it it so rewarding for each battle. The start of the game before the world opens up is by far the hardest part of the game because you dont really have the gear and experience point system fully at your disposal. After that the game is a cake walk for the most part unless you try to fight enemies that are many levels above you.