What is Godfall?
Godfall is an action-RPG created by Counterplay Games and published by Gearbox that was just released on Microsoft and the new PS5 console this November 12th. Godfall for the PS5 and PC features a high fantasy setting where the world is split into various realms. Players will be taking the role of one of the last remaining members of the exalted Knight’s Order. The order’s goal is to prevent a major apocalyptic event. It features a single-player campaign and can accommodate three players in cooperative mode. If you want to see a more in-depth look at the game, here is a link to our Godfall preview article. We also have a list of the top PS5 games that you should consider buying. Get the game for PS5 Get it for PC
Godfall PS5 and PC Gameplay Review
So, now that we have a slight overview of what Godfall is, let’s talk about what went well and what went wrong. This part of the Godfall PS5 and PC review will talk about different aspects and see if Godfall has qualities that make it worth the purchase.
Performance
The game’s overall performance is incredibly lacking for a next-gen game. The various particle effects have severely hampered the frames, and it stutters and crashes every once in a while. This is a lie; what’s happening is that when your character defeats even a single enemy, the game will skip and stutter for around a second or two before it goes back to life. And if you’re an action junkie, this will harm your experience when playing the game. Last but not least in this section is the fact that Godfall is plagued with crashes every once in a while, taking you out of the game and forcing you to restart. It’s honestly an incredibly annoying thing that takes you out of the immersion the game puts you in the first place.
World and Environment
Next on the list of our topics is Godfall’s world and environment. For one, the world is incredibly saturated with golds, blues, and violets. These hues are prevalent depending on the world you’re in. You can be on a holy-looking land with all sorts of god rays going about, or you can be in a mysterious area with some blues and violets. The color palette is incredibly apparent and adds several, shocking contrasts to the various areas. And to be fair, it does work for Godfall due to the premise of the High Fantasy/Technology theme it has going on with it. However, as what will become apparent in this entire article, that’s where the good times end. If players pay a bit more attention to the incredible jaw-dropping visuals that the PS5 gives them, the various worlds that they can currently access in Godfall feel a bit claustrophobic. And this isn’t an exaggeration. The Open-World descriptor that the developers say they have for the game is kind of a lie. The areas are narrow, and there’s not enough space to dodge in (more on that later). There’s an incredibly linear path that players have to take in missions, and there’s no deviation nor open areas that players can explore around on, unlike, God forbid, Anthem where you can actually fly around in your suit.
Loot System
The game’s loot system is not as bad as Anthem, which is a pretty surprising thing if we put all things to consideration. The system is divided into various weapons, crafting materials, augments, accessories, and items, and each one has some effect on how players play the game. They can equip multiple weapons and accessories. These types of equipment have a tangible effect on the combat and on how they would go about fighting the various enemies that Godfall has to offer. The crafting system is also incredibly apparent and has a surprising depth to it. However, that depth isn’t that deep, and players would have a better chance to obtain better gear through fighting and taking weapons from slain enemies. This fact is a bit sad, as they could’ve added in better build variety there.
Story
The game’s story is… there? It is essentially a non-existent thing, and you can honestly and legitimately ignore the story and still have an okay time with the game. I would honestly talk about the story here, but it’s honest-to-God boring. Moreover, you can skip the various cutscenes. In addition to not having any cool set pieces or trailers, you have a pretty monotonous story. There’s really nothing to see in this part of the article so let’s just move on.
Combat and Missions
Next on the agenda is the combat, the part where Godfall is said to be great at. For now, let’s talk about the game’s missions before we get to the combat specifics. The game’s missions are incredibly linear and very unimaginative. They mostly consist of defeating these enemies, gather these materials, defeat this boss, et cetera, with no fresh takes. It’s honestly an annoyance and just loaded with tedium. So if you’re here for the combat, you’re in luck. The next part of this Godfall PS5 and PC review will talk about what’s good, bad, and ugly in the game’s main gameplay systems.
The Good
In terms of combat, there are quite a few things that aren’t panning out for Godfall. However, let’s talk about the positives first. There’s something that’s simple yet incredibly satisfying about Godfall’s combat. This isn’t saying that the game is basic because there’s quite a bit of stat stuff and gear for players to tinker around in under the hood. It’s kinda that the core of the game is pretty simple in itself: you smack the enemies with a big sword. To be fair, that spectacle of swinging said big frakking sword is animated incredibly well. The surface level combat, that’s tailored from light and heavy swings and attacks, shield parries, and dodges, is good and has some pretty hefty weight to it. This makes every blow land with a shattering impact that you can even feel from your end of the screen. In addition to this, the various skills that you can use in combat are pretty good. They have tangible and incredibly powerful effects in combat that players can make use of the moment they are unlocked. This is due to them being tied to weapons rather than what level the players are. This allows players to use these abilities immediately without fearing for any kind of penalty.
The Bad
Other than these things that are mentioned, the game is incredibly scuffed when it comes to combat. This game is reminiscent of the combat from the Monster Hunter series. And we mention this in a bad and scuffed way. However, let’s not talk about that, and let’s talk about the camera first. The camera is incredibly tucked into the player. The Field of View that the players have in the game is so bad, you can’t see all the enemies that you’re fighting. There’s a high chance that the enemies in the game can go behind the player character and shank them with their sword and the player wouldn’t be the wiser. Now, this wouldn’t be a problem if, like with the God of War reboot, they have a great warning system in play. Unfortunately, this is far from the case. The enemies don’t have telegraphed maneuvers before they attack, neither do they have audio cues that warn players that an attack is coming their way. They only do a slight wind up, and that’s it. Add in the incredibly small UI pointers, and you have a recipe for getting backstabbed frequently. They could’ve done something similar from the Dad of War game where they have someone like Mimir telling the player about attacks or something. Another option would have been to make the UI pointers bigger. Hell, they could do away with the over the shoulder camera and just make a third-person camera if they don’t want to deal with bigger UI pointers. Unfortunately, that ain’t the case.
The Ugly
If you’ve made it past the bad UI and camera and think it’s fine, then you ain’t seen nothing yet. Another thing that negatively impacts the game’s combat is the fact that they don’t have any kind of animation canceling, similar to Monster Hunter. As for what that means, it means that if you swing your giant ass Hunting Horn to smack the biggest MOFO on the block, you pretty much have to commit on that swing because you ain’t got anything to cancel it with. That kind of thing works in Monster Hunter because your only opponent is the giant monster on the block, and nothing else. That doesn’t work on Godfall because you’re not fighting a giant enemy. You’re fighting against multiple small enemies, and that makes the entire world’s difference. This makes a big appearance on one boss, in particular, the Solaris Ascendant. Now, here’s a spoiler for the ones that haven’t gone to his fight yet, but the Solaris Ascendant has two main attacks. First, he has several swipes that he’ll do when the player gets close. This is pretty OK to dodge, and would only be a problem if the player is a bit too greedy. Unfortunately, this would be the case if there’s animation canceling. Since there is no such thing in the game, you’re screwed if he attacks you while you’re in the middle of attacking him.
More on The Lack of Animation Cancelling
Animation Cancelling is an absolute godsend in any fighting or hack-&-slash game. It allows players more depth in the combat and gives them the ability to tailor themselves to the situation, dodging, blocking, or even attacking when the opportunity allows. This kind of mechanic would’ve been a great addition to Godfall. That is if the developers thought about adding it in. This all comes to a head on the bosses, with special emphasis on our buddy the Solaris Ascendant. The Solaris Ascendant, as we’ve already stated, has two attacks. We’ve talked about the swipes, now let’s talk about the lasers. The lasers are used with the Ascendants jumping to the air and firing his lasers all over the place. Now this renders him in a stationary position in the air, which would be a great time to pepper him with ranged attacks. That is if Godfall even has consistent ranged attacks. Unfortunately, players wouldn’t be able to do anything about it even IF they have ranged attacks since the lasers are firing at you. And if they’re in the middle of an attack, they can dodge due to having no animation canceling. Add in the fact that these lasers leave burning trails of fire, and well you have a scuffed boss fight. There’s a metric ton more to talk about in this game so we’re just going to leave it here. Just know that they do have some good ideas going in, but they have to add in some ideas from different games and genres if they want to make the combat something that people can enjoy.
Online Playability
Last on the agenda is the game’s online playability. If we’re being honest here, Godfall’s online play is pretty OK. The game allows you to team up with two other players to bash enemies in with your weapons. Unfortunately, that’s where the good stuff ends. The servers that the game has is scuffed, lag is very much a possibility, not helped by all the particle effects flying around (which we’ve talked about in the performance section). However, this wouldn’t be as bad of an issue if they have better servers. Unfortunately, this doesn’t end there. The developers have the weirdest idea to make Godfall an online-only experience, even if the game has more emphasis on singleplayer gameplay. This impacts the game incredibly, as you need to have an internet connection to play the game. This facet alone is responsible for limiting its player base.
What Could be Done to Improve the Game?
For one, they should add in animation canceling. This is pretty much one of the best things that they can improve the game’s combat by a huge margin. They could also tweak the camera a bit, or make the enemies have telegraphed attacks and a better UI for warning players on where the attacks are coming from if they don’t want to do that. All of these changes are necessary to give players an ample amount of time to react accordingly to the situation they’re in. Next, we need to talk about the constant stuttering and crashes that the game has. The game needs to either tone down the various particle effects that hamper the FPS, or they can improve the game so that it can handle that many particle effects happening on the screen. They also need to fix the stuttering and crashing that the game has as well, but one step at a time here. Next, they need to add more variety to the game’s missions and world design. Overall, the game’s missions and worlds lack a distinct oomph to it. The missions are very generic, and the worlds feel limited, even though they look cool. Other improvements would be on the various Valorplates. They advertised that these Valorplates will have a great effect on how a player plays the game. They should give the Valorplates better and more distinctive effects, similar to Warframes on Warframe so that players are incentivized to collect them all.
Godfall PS5 and PC Review Final Verdict
All in all, Godfall is a game that has some potential. The recipe for a good next-gen console game is there, but it’s hampered by the various problems that the game has post-launch. If the developers don’t want the game to fail, they better nut up like Hello Games on No Man’s Sky and work on the game ASAP, or else Godfall’s going to go down the Anthem route. That concludes our Godfall PS5 and PC review, if you wish to play this game, you may do so by following the links above.
