I would argue that the gameplay is pretty solid for an action adventure that leans heavily into action RPG territory, but perhaps not enough to carry it the whole way through if you dont care about the story
Such an insanely mediocre game that got propped up by journos because its a violent father simulator (ala Bioshock Infinite/The Last of Us), and the revisionist history of "God of War finally has a good story" from people who never even played the original games.
And the gameplay is so mindnumbingly boring, GoW never had deep combat but atleast it was cool and fun. I genuinely cannot understand playing any classic beat-em-up/hack and slash and thinking "Yes, GoW 2018 has great gameplay!"
I think it is an alright game but I pretty much agree, it absolutely should not be higher than the original trilogy. The gameplay is such a step down in terms of intensity and spectacle (even when judged on its own merits it's pretty limp), and the writing (which is supposed to carry the game) is way more mediocre than what I was led to believe.
And the gameplay is so mindnumbingly boring, GoW never had deep combat but atleast it was cool and fun. I genuinely cannot understand playing any classic beat-em-up/hack and slash and thinking "Yes, GoW 2018 has great gameplay!"