The opinion of someone who is 60 years old? Nothing is for everyone you know.

The bolded part confuses me quite a bit, because whether or not something is a "masterpiece" is entirely subjective. The OP is arguing that, to him, the game isn't as good as others have said it is. You're essentially saying "Your opinion is invalidated because a whole bunch of people have different opinions."

O/T: As others have said, I think OP would be benefitted by a bit more brevity. I do think it's entirely fair to analyze the game's story this heavily, especially when the narrative and characters are some of the main selling points of the game and have been praised consistently, but I feel that you'd be better served by listing one or two main complaints, and then going through and explaining how these are embodied in the game. If you want to focus on inconsistencies in the narrative's tone, then it might be better to state that up front and pick a few examples that last maybe a paragraph or so. As it stands, getting a seven paragraph summary of the opening scene (which most of the people reading this will already be familiar with) with so many of the details (relevant to your argument or not) included just makes it harder for people to understand where the argument is going, as well as more likely to stop reading. Personally, I had to re-read a couple of times to figure out specifically what the major complaints were.

I'm getting a TLoU vs GoW vibe here, I'm going to have to say that GoW has impressed me more so far. That's coming from a huge TLoU fan.

Well.... I sure as hell don't agree with you. But then again we are all entitled to our opinions.

Haven't got the enrgy to touch on everything you said so I will just tackle the first one, the Map.

Ever played a game called Soul reaver? legacy of Kain Soul Reaver to be exact. Games like those didn't even have a map, and that brings me to one of the issues I have with modern gaming. Oversimplification of systems. You want a map that literally draws out an architectural plan of everything. Issue with taht is that it totally kills the elemnt of exploration and enviroment traversal becomes nothing more than a chore.

Having an abstract map makes a world of difference to me, even better having that then having the witch compass that just points you in the right direction.

As for everything else, I will point out that I have played both GoW and TLOU. And not only are both games nowhere near alike, but everything about GOW apeals to me more.

but hey, thats just me.... I am glad enough being in a time when i can play games like GOW, Horizon and TLOU anyways.

Without Bruce, I am not sure about the quality of the gameplay of TLOU2. I am afraid it'll going to be too much a movie with a story and not enough a game. Remember, TLOU was directed by both Straley (focused on the gameplay and others stuff) and Druckmann (creative director, story). We'll see. But the cutscenes I have seen from TLOU2 didn't reassure me. We have only seen cutscenes and zero gameplay.

TLOU is one of my favorite game BTW.

Address the argument, not the arguer.

There's not really that much more I need to add. That is the perfect example of the problem I have with the game. If you're going to make a serious stab at a narrative driven game (within the body of an open world game of course) then you have to find ways of retaining the narrative beats, the emotional context and the way you want the player to play/feel/interact. The boat and the stories told there are a perfect example of how to 'avoid' the problem, but there are many more linear moments that jar badly simply because the writers reached for the easy way out instead of contextualising them. Lines that essentially just state: 'I'm angry now, I'm sad now, I'm fighting inner demons now' etc. 

If you start a narrative sincerely, which this game clearly does occasionally, then you have to treat the journey through to its conclusion with equal sincerity. You can't just expect the player to think: 'Ok, where was I? Oh, yeah, I'm sad now.' There was unique chat between Kratos and Atreus throughout several mini journeys in the game so there's no reason to waste those, but they do. It's as if they've viewed the cutscenes as the story and the chat as secondary to the story, only there to give pointers or fortify what we should already be able to work out for ourselves. It's why TLOU is a masterpiece. We only need a simple glance at a watch and we are there emotionally, and that was contextual because it also told us he wasn't just thinking of his daughter, he was starting to see Ellie as a father, something he later then fights to hide with anger and the line 'you sure as hell ain't my daughter'. He initially thinks he's done that for what's best for Ellie but yet another simple look over to Ellie tells us -- now he's in a moment of calm -- he realises why he was angry and begins the process of coming to terms with it. This narrative ends with him telling Ellie to get up on his horse. Again, all we needed to see the final conclusion of his reignited Fatherliness. In TLOU the lines he delivers has nothing to do with saying 'OK, Ellie, I was a bit harsh back there. I'm sorry.' In GOW it would have been. 

I call it the David Cage syndrome, much to the chagrin of many. 

I disagree with most of that.

A world map that's too good or convenient will only encourage you to lean on it more and playing the game thru a menu screen versus exploring naturally.

I think that you're just nitpicking the narrative and dialog. The game is definitely a masterpiece but I wouldn't call it the best game of the gen or anything.

I'm annoyed that because of quest bug in "The realm of Fire" that I can't go into these huge optional areas. Also, backtracking is more annoying to me because they'll lock you out of area so you can't go back for a long time. Normally, backtracking isn't something that normally bothers me.

I feel the game overall is a masterpiece and this is coming from someone who hates the god of war series. 1,2,3,PSP entires ranged from mediocre to just ok at best. They weren't that great at all and were mostly over hyped. This entry however after playing it showed that the changed was much needed.

I've stated multiple times before I played it that I wanted to wait and see it for myself before jumping on the hype train that people seem to want to do for every new release before they even play it. Based off the mixed reaction from old school GOW fans and new school, this game was going to be either something special or a mixed bag.

Having played it I can say from the cinematic way its directed scene by scene,music,pacing,story that this is indeed up their with masterpieces such as Breath Of The Wild,Odyssey,Uncharted 4(albeit i do not like the series that much). It's up there with the juggernauts of this generation.

So while I disagree with you on the notion that this game isn't a masterpiece. I however feel you're justified in saying it isn't one,because at the end of the day that is your own opinion. People giving you a hard time for your own opinion,id just ignore them to be honest. They're just overly invested in a product. Keep doing you and having your own opinion.

Let this thread go out silently. In a nutshell the OP arguments is basically like this. Example: Bosses are too weak on Easy Mode.