There is something comforting about unashamedly playing a straight-up video game in the hellish year of 2020. At a time of year when we need entertainment to "forget the world is on fire and chill out," "Godfall" is often the stress-free tonic our shredded nerves need. It may not be sophisticated, and it may not be soulful, but I can agree with the kind of "headless" fun that this third-person brawler offers. Well, sometimes.

Welcome to Godfall: a routinely safe and sometimes likable adventure, but impossible to like. It's so immersive that you don't need to YouTube six guides to get through the tutorial, and it prevents you from falling into an existential crisis every 20 minutes.

I'll get to its flaws later, but there's not much in this self-proclaimed "looter-turner" to actively provoke my gnashing of teeth. Main complaint. There is too much repetitive busywork to get to the end, even though the game is fairly straightforward, like a generic hack-and-slash action mixed with boss-rush elements.

The high fantasy setting and simple loot system may be derivative, but "Godfall" rarely becomes completely off-putting.

The story is told mostly in stilted cutscenes, with knights chatting with large floating faces and hooded blacksmiths in hub areas between missions, but it's one-note and easily skipped.

You play a powerful being who is embroiled in a seemingly eternal fracas with his brother Marcos. Your brother is obsessed with ascending, and it is your job to fight in the realms of earth, water, and sky to prevent him from reaching god-like status. How do you stop this godlike ascension? By killing hundreds of Marcos' cronies and half a dozen of his most trusted aides, who will naturally serve as bosses throughout the campaign.

"Godfall" is a game that does its best to keep you in a good mood. Clearly inspired by From Software's library and the PS4 "God of War" reboot, its flashy third-person sword-and-shield scraps love to empower you at every turn. But unlike "Dark Souls" and "Sekiro," "God of War" is terrified of turning its nose up at failure.

I put half a dozen lives into some of the bosses, but there was never a moment that hit me with a barbaric level of challenge, like the Guardian Ape fight in "Sekiro," for example. For a man in his mid-thirties with a rapidly receding hairline, I have no complaints about the almost obstacle-free flow of progression. Still, with no meaningful challenges throughout most of "Godfall's" 10-hour campaign, it's easy to mentally check out

with many of the skirmishes. Perhaps it is because it is usually not that difficult, but the combat in "Godfall" is usually convincing. Much of its inherent hassle-free charm comes from the animations. The game is truly handsome in motion. From the operatic dodge maneuvers, which vary slightly depending on which class you are playing, to the bloody thrusts with blades and hammers, there is little in "Godfall's" combat that does not look elegant.

The variety of weapons is perhaps the biggest selling point. As far as classes are concerned, the dozens of different Valor plates that can be unlocked and equipped are consolidated into a series of fancy armor sets with slightly different status effects. No matter how pretty the equipment is, it won't make a significant difference in how the battle unfolds.

Not so with Godfall's weapons. While most fights can be handled effortlessly when they are relatively sharp, the choice of swords and pointy tools of destruction will certainly affect the enjoyment of the melee. Greatswords, dual blades, and warhammers all vary widely in both animation and effective damage range. Combining the two weapon slots on the knight allows you to find the one that best suits your style of play.

The spear-like polearm is favored by cautious players who prefer ranged attacks, while the hammer serves players who seek unrestrained destruction Godfall introduces a new weapon every few minutes. Defeating enemies and opening the abundance of chests will yield a conveyor belt of fresh items. As a result, certain classes of weapons are likely to become favorites, and blades and spears never gain long-term attachment. At least the names are great. The "man-catcher Renzai" and "Shame on Lehar" are my current favorites. I'm not sure what the latter did, but it's naughty Reher.

Credibly, the combat in "Godfall" throws up some unique ideas to spice up the often predictable action. Polar attacks are a good example. This unlockable skill prompts the user to switch to another weapon once the main weapon is fully charged, thereby increasing the damage output of the second sword for the next 30 seconds. It's a cute system that rewards improvised experimentation.

Shatterfall is another novelty in gameplay that encourages you to think on your feet: like Sekiro, enemies have a stagger bar that temporarily stuns you if you surpass it; in Godfall's case, the game asks you to fill this meter with light attacks. If you hold back from delivering a heavy blow and hit with a series of less powerful attacks, and the shatterfall bar fills up, you can instantly kill the beast in front of you with a heavy blow. This is a clever risk-reward feature, but too bad most fights are too easy to take full advantage of it.

It's also a shame that so many of them are shitty and gritty. At least three points in the campaign, which is hardly long, you are forced to repeat past missions and Raid Light Hunt quests in order to collect a magical MacGuffin called a Sigil. Forced to repeat past missions and raid-lite hunt quests in order to collect a magical MacGuffin called Sigil. It is both backward and shamelessly padded as game design that these eye-catching and usually exciting big bad encounters take much less time than the tedious fetch quests that precede them.

In Godfall's defense, this is a very beautiful quest. The art direction may not be to everyone's taste, but it is super glossy and saturated, no matter how much you tone down the color settings on your monitor. Killing goblin-like creatures and armor-clad fantasy beasts in the royal gardens interspersed with ornate courtyards and glistening cherry orchards is certainly easy on the eyes.

If you've recently spent a grand on an Ampere graphics card, or plan to invest in AMD's Big Navi line, there aren't many games that will give that shiny GPU a better workout than "Godfall". As gorgeous as it is, it lacks imagination, but there's no denying the technical finesse on display here.

Godfall is a puzzling game. It made me grind my teeth, but I never once thought to put down the pad. Three-player co-op is recommended to reduce repetition, but inexplicably, Godfall's multiplayer does not support online matchmaking. Gorgeous and holo-drunken, but rarely stimulating to the brain or fingers.