God of War (PS4)
I'm glad wonderwes posted RDR2 because it made me think it was OK to post a super-popular game. I just finished the main campaign this weekend, and this game blew me away. I've owned the game for a long time, but never got around to playing it. I was a big fan of GOW 1-3 on PS2/PS3: the action was always fluid and satisfying, the graphics and story were always well done, I always played through to the end and really enjoyed the experience. But after 3 games I felt like I knew what I was getting, and never made a priority to try the new one, and only started on it because a friend raved to me.
Well, I was wrong, I had no idea what I was in-store for. GOW 4 is a complete overhaul of the series, with a new setting/lore (Norse gods instead of Greek), but more importantly the series feels completely different. The combat is much more
heavy, for lack of a better term - while you and enemies both still move fast, button mashing will get you killed quickly here. You need to learn the attack pattern of your enemies, know which ones you can attack directly vs. those you need to block/counter vs. those you need to attack indirectly or with range. Instead of the fast and wide-AOE of the blades of chaos from the first game, this time your main weapon is an axe that hits harder but generally doesn't have the wide, sweeping attacks that hit 3+ enemies at a time. The camera is over the shoulder and much tighter to Kratos this time as well - the combat feels closer to Dark Souls than to the original GOW games. The change in combat made the game much more challenging for me: I played at the 3-out-of-4 difficulty level, and died many many times, but was always able to figure out a tough fight and progress, usually after 1 or 2 tries, occasionally after 4 or 5 but that was rare and never more than that (although I haven't beaten the most of the toughest optional side-bosses yet).
From an immersion perspective, it's easily the best looking console game I've ever played. The graphics, cut scenes, and voice acting and story were all great.
Also, while the game was a departure/evolution from the original GOW titles, having played the originals enhanced my enjoyment of this game, both from a story/evolution of a character perspective, but also having the contrast in gameplay with some overarching similarities.
Couple of plot-spoiler points:
I do think they could have had more, and more varied bosses. There are two or three "very strong enemy" templates that get deployed throughout the game, with them gaining new attacks or companions in later versions. Also for two strong-enemy types in particular you kill several of them throughout the game, I wish they had invested in varying kill animations. Kratos's boss kills were legendary in earlier GOW games, and while the ones you get are great here, they get repetitive.
Overall I loved it. It's one of the very few games I wish I could plop down $20-$30 more for for DLC, but alas they have none and no plans for it. Will just have to wait for the sequel. If you liked previous GOW games, or just generally had thought about checking it out but haven't got around to it, I highly recommend. It was epic. 10/10.