Good
- the co-op combat to build stagger between Arteus and Kratos is fun. Stagger kills were very satisfying to pull off.
- many varieties of ways to fight. Hand-to-hand, chains of chaos, and axe. Each has their own unique play style, and uses for certain types of enemies. Cool upgrades on each weapon as well, giving diversity to the way you want to fight. Every attack felt powerful.
- the semi-open world was great. Not as linear as the old gows, but also not too big of a sand box to get overwhelmed.
- parrying system was awesome. The reaction time they gave felt fair, and everytime I got a parry, it was satisfying, and if I didn't it usually felt fair.
- rage mode was a useful way to clutch out fights, like an X factor. Also very satisfying to use.
- characters voices and acting were designed very well. All movement and expressions felt real. The dwarfs were a nice comic relief.
- Puzzles were generally fun to solve. Not too difficult, not too long.
- throwing the axe around was fun.
- There is a lot more focus on story, and the story was very interesting. The focus on parent and child dynamics was interesting.
- the upgrading system was just the right amount of complexity for me. I would have hated if GoW went the route of heavy RPG like Assassin's creed did. Luckily it did not.
- side stepping and dodging ability was well integrated into the combat. Side stepping then counter attacking an enemy felt seamless.
Bad
- the game felt a tad short, ended a little abruptly.
- I don't like how the devs let you continue a boss fight in the middle if you died. It feels like cheating, like using a save state. I would have preferred restarting the boss fight from the beginning.
- Would have liked to see more characters mentioned and make more cameos from the past, like Zeus, Athena, Gaia, Pandora, and the other Gods. Athena was a big part of Krato's story, yet she only showed up once in a vision.
- not a lot of epic sky combat where Kratos is flying all over the place and fighting a huge monster. This only happened in like one or two fights. GoW 3 had a lot of these epic fights.