In the current generation of gaming, many games strive to be the one that’s the complete package. They want to be the game with tight gameplay that’s fun and never boring, a story that gets you invested from the start and keeps you engaged for its entire duration, and cutting edge graphics that will further push the boundaries of how good games can look. A lot of games take big steps towards reaching this goal, but end up falling short in one way or another. God of War is that rare game that not only achieves these goals (amongst others), but surpasses them in ways that no one could have expected.
Story has never been the strongest aspect of any God of War game. That’s not to say that their stories have been bad, but that they’ve simply been serviceable. They were vehicles for you to have fun cutting down hordes of enemies and interacting with Greek gods, but there was never much depth or emotion to be gleaned from them. With this new entry in the series, that’s not the case at all.
Taking place many years after the end of God of War III, Kratos is living in the lands of Norse mythology. He has a son named Atreus, and a wife who has died just before the start of the game. Upon burning her body and gathering her ashes, Kratos and Atreus set off on a journey to fulfill her dying wish: to have her ashes released from the highest peak in all the realms. It’s a premise that’s not only much simpler than in past games, but also more personal and emotional. The smaller scale is a nice change of pace for a series where your goal is typically to kill some larger than life figure because they screwed you over, leading you to travel through a number of large scale environments.
One thing that really benefits from this smaller scale are the characters. The cast is greatly reduced from past God of War games, making everyone more memorable. For the first time in the series, I can actually remember the names of all the characters that play a role in story. What’s even better is the fact that not only do they all play important roles in the story, but they’re all people that you’ll care about and want to learn more about. That’s high praise that I never would’ve thought I’d be able to give to a God of War game, but the writers here have really created some fantastic, well-written characters.
With a smaller scale, the story, as well as the player, is really allowed to focus in on Kratos and Atreus as people. If you weren’t a fan of Kratos in the past due to his anger driven personality and the fact that he was almost always screaming at someone, you’re going to feel differently now. In this game, Kratos is a vastly different person than we once knew him to be. While he does still scream, it’s mostly during combat and very rarely in a normal conversation. Instead, we’re shown a Kratos that’s capable of other emotions; one that clearly still carries the weight of his past on his back at all times, and who longs to be better as a result.
From the opening moments of the game as you prepare for his wife’s funeral, it’s evident that he is in mourning for a woman that he dearly loved and cared about. He’s angry that she’s gone, but he’s also sad and just wants to do the last thing she’s asked of him. It’s such a jarring thing to see him being so reserved, quiet, and caring, but at the same time, it’s a great thing to see as well. He also now has the responsibility of raising their son by himself and keeping him safe, adding more layers of depth to who Kratos is and why he’s the person he is now.
Atreus is a fantastic character as well. There were fears that he would be an annoying child companion that players would end up not caring about and just rather not have in the game. Those fears turned out to be completely wrong though. Atreus is very intelligent, having knowledge of the world that he learned from his mother, and he’s also skilled with a bow and arrow as well. And while he is a child, he isn’t this kid that’s constantly making terrible jokes, asking questions that are dumb, or simply talking to talk.
Atreus is a child that’s going into the wide open world for the first time in his life. He’s seeing things that he never thought he would see, which excites and amazes him, he’s also being forced to grow up very quickly due to the nature of their journey. He’s also going through his own grieving process, made even harder because of how distant his relationship with Kratos is. Their relationship is a complex one. They need one another to complete this journey, but they don’t know very much about each other. There’s a heavy strain on their relationship, but it evolves in interesting ways as the game progresses, and it’s fun to see them interact with one another throughout the game.
Many of their interactions are serious, but there are plenty of light-hearted ones as well. A particular favorite of mine came during a puzzle I was trying to solve. It involved Kratos carrying a stone from one room to another so that Atreus could use it to open a path. It was probably the third stone like this that I had picked up. Upon grabbing it, Atreus asks, “Are you gonna carry that around with you everywhere?”, to which Kratos responds in a way that only a parent can, “I just might.” It’s funny, but it’s emblematic of their individual personalities, and the relationship that they have.
One of the biggest changes to the game is the combat. With the camera now pulled in close behind you at all times, battles aren’t as massive as in the past. You’re never going to be going up against more than about five or six enemies at any point in time, making the fights more intimate. This doesn’t mean that fights aren’t difficult though. It’s still very easy for you to get stomped on by enemies, even at the start of the game when things are still relatively easy. Because the camera is so close to you, you can’t see every enemy at the same time. Thankfully, there are indicators around Kratos that show where offscreen enemies are, that way you’re always aware of their location. The indicators even change color when you’re about to be attacked, giving you a heads up as to when to dodge out of the way.
To also help with your situational awareness, a simple press down on the D-Pad will make Kratos do a quick 180-degree turn, so you can easily get sneaky enemies back in your sights. In order to be successful and survive in fights, you have to constantly be aware of who’s where on the battlefield and keep yourself from getting overrun by enemies. This makes the fights consistently engaging and exciting, even by the end of the game.
The star weapon of the game is the heavily advertised Leviathan Axe, and by god it’s probably one of my favorite weapons to have ever used in a video game. It’s a powerful, quick hitting weapon that can freeze enemies, as well as be thrown at them from a distance. Once it’s thrown though, you aren’t completely helpless. You can fight enemies with your fists and shield, and while you won’t do as much damage as with your axe, you can fill an enemy’s stun meter much quicker than you would with your axe. Once it’s full, you’re able to do a powerful, gruesome attack that more often than not kills your target in one hit.
The coolest thing about the axe though is the fact that once it’s thrown, it can be called back to you whenever you want with the press of a button. This ability single-handedly helps make it one of my favorite weapons ever. It never gets old throwing the axe and recalling it. The sound it makes when you throw it, when it makes impact, and when it comes back into your hand is so great. Add on the controller vibration when it lands in your hand, and it makes you feel incredibly connected to the axe.
This ability to throw the axe can lead to some really creative combat situations. For example, you can be up against five enemies. You rush up to one and start slicing them up. In the distance, you see an enemy getting ready to hit you with a projectile attack, so you throw your axe at them to freeze them in place. Since they’re frozen, you can now focus on the enemies that are closer to you with some hand-to-hand combat. You take out two enemies when you notice that two others are charging you, so you get into position and recall your axe, which flies through the charging enemies, damaging them and stopping them in their tracks, giving you the opportunity to capitalize and take them out. It’s this creativity that makes combat so fun and rewarding.
Kratos also has his Spartan Rage ability at his disposal as well. This charges up by attacking enemies, but it takes some time to build up. When activated, he becomes nigh invulnerable, attacking enemies with increased speed and power. It’s a good thing to use as a last resort to get out of a tricky spot or bring an enemy’s health down quickly, but it’s not something that’s overpowered.
Equipped with his bow and arrows, Atreus is also a vital part of combat in the game. By pressing the square button, you can make Atreus shoot arrows at whatever enemy you’re targeting. This puts his input in the fight in your hands. At the start of the game, his shots are weak and mostly serve to distract enemies and take some of their attention away from you, so it can be easy to forget to use Atreus since he doesn’t shoot arrows on his own. But once the encounters start becoming more difficult as you progress through the game, and after some upgrades to his abilities and armor, he becomes an invaluable tool in your arsenal that can make a difference in fights when combined with your own skills. It also helps that he can’t die either, so that’s something you never have to worry about.
Speaking of upgrades, the game has a surprisingly deep level of customization. Kratos has a number of different stats in this game that play a factor in combat. Just as in past games, you can upgrade your weapons and abilities to make them more powerful. In addition to that, both Kratos and Atreus have armor pieces and weapon enhancements that can be bought, customized, and upgraded. Each of these items that you buy has a level associated with it. A higher level item will bump up Kratos’ level, making him stronger and more capable when it comes to fighting later enemies. It’s very RPG-esque to say the least.
These items also have a perk of some sort attached to them, as well as stats that they increase. How you choose to upgrade your father-son duo and where you choose to focus your strengths is completely up to you. If you want to focus more on increasing your health and your defense, that’s totally viable. It’s just as viable to focus on having high strength and Runic (magic) stats. There is no one right way to build your character for the journey through the world, and that’s great because it means that the Kratos and Atreus I ended the game with could be very different from the ones you ended the game with.
Unlike past titles in the series, the game isn’t done once you finish the story. There’s a vast world for you to still explore after you’ve completed the main quest. In a major shake up for the series, the game takes place in a semi-open world. It’s not a full open world, but you have a main hub that’s surrounded by a number of different paths for you to take, leading you to different side quests, optional bosses, as well as more armor pieces and weapon enhancements.
With your boat, you can travel the world and explore much of this side content as you play through the story, and it never detracts from the main quest, nor does it feel like it’s at odds with what’s happening in the story. It teaches you more about the world, feeding you info on why some of the gods are the way that they are, and on battles that happened in the past, amongst other things. These tales are always exciting to hear about, and I frequently found myself sitting in the boat upon arriving at my destination to hear the stories to completion.
Once this side content first became available to me, I found myself going down each path I could and doing whatever side quest I came across before returning to the main path. After making some progress with the main story and gaining new abilities, I would return to the side stuff and see what new things I could come across, now that I had new tools at my disposal. It took me about 20-25 hours to finish the main story, and I feel like there’s still about 10-15 hours of content left for me explore and challenge in the world, if not more.
Even with all the time I’ve put into the game, and how much I perceive to have left ahead of me, I still find myself having a blast. The combat hasn’t gotten tiring or boring, and the characters haven’t become annoying in any way, shape, or form. I love that I can be doing side content this deep into the game, and continue to hear stories about the past of this world and the mythological figures that inhabit it. And even when I return to locations that I’ve already been to more than once, I still find myself just wowed by how great things look.
Everything about the game is utterly jaw-dropping, and had me audibly marveling at just how amazing it all looked from start to finish. Whether it be the details on Kratos’ character model, the size and scale of massive beasts that reside in the world, or the many vistas that you come across, God of War is a technical marvel. I played on a standard PS4 with a 4K HDR TV, and it still blew me away. This game is truly a showcase for the power of the PS4, and I can only imagine how it looks on a PS4 Pro. In addition to the fantastic graphics is the incredible score by composer Bear McCreary. The score is powerful, rousing, and captivating, and a true step up from the score of past games. The voice acting also deserves praise too, with everyone straight up killing it with their characters.
One other technical aspect that I loved was the new camera. Formerly a fixed camera that would move where the developers wanted it, the new game sees the camera moved behind Kratos. This puts us on his level, allowing us to be closer to him in a literal sense, but also a metaphorical sense. The game also employs a “single shot” take on the camera as well. What I mean by this is that once you start the game, the camera never cuts away to something else, aside from when you die. It seamlessly transitions between cutscene to gameplay without taking you out of the moment and away from the characters you care about, making you feel more connected to and invested in what’s happening.
God of War is not the game I was expecting it to be. I was expecting it to be a great game, but what I got instead was a straight up masterpiece. With a deep story, exciting combat, a beautiful, large world full of fun things to do, and a deep, rewarding customization system, this game is a major step up over the past. It’s a true testament to the talent, passion, and dedication of the team over at Sony Santa Monica that God of War is the masterpiece that it is. They’ve created one of my favorite games of all time, and definitely one of the best games of the generation.
TheComfySpot 