God of War

amazing game; a little more subdued and less absurd than its predecessors but the endearing father-son dynamic makes up for this jarring tone shift. in fact, I think I actually enjoy the tone of this game more because it feels more authentic and nuanced than the mindless thrill ride attributed to its predecessors - not to say this game doesn't have its spectacle, it absolutely has its moments.

also, the combat is fucking amazing... the combat is very methodical and strategic blah blah blah.. also Kratos's axe has a real weight to it

the looting, crafting, and armor/weapon system fucking suck though. the needlessly complicated user interface amplifies this problem - everything is so cluttered and unintuitive to find.

overall a super fucking good game, very excited to play its sequel

So much fun, I found myself completely immersed in the world and story, despite the fact that the mythology is only really a backdrop in this game. The actor for the boy did a great job, and you could really feel Kratos' progression as a character. Combat-wise, everything felt great with the exception of some unnecessarily difficult outlier parts, and I would totally play this one again. Probably my second favorite God of War game after 3.

I’ve always been fairly skeptical of the God of War games; the over indulgence of violence, the one dimensional characters, linear design choices, and catering to quick time events has always held me back from being interested in the classic games. This new God of War game had me curious since it seemed to want to challenge all of those design tropes I’d just listed off by introducing an open world, more fluid gameplay elements, and more of a focus on deeper character development rather than flashy over the top violence. I’m happy to say that they’ve executed this surprisingly well and have turned me – a skeptic – into quite the fanboy.

First the story; I hated Kratos. What a shallow and totally obnoxious man he was in the original games… But years later he retreats to the realm of Norse mythology, there he finds a new loving wife and has a son with her; attempting to bury his past to which he’s become ashamed of. The thing that took me off guard is that this game’s story has really nothing to do with Norse gods or killing mythological figures; even though there are many Norse gods you encounter and hear about on your journey they simply aren’t important here. What’s truly important is the development of Kratos both as a person and as a father, then there’s his son Atreus’ development into a mature and responsible man. The game begins right after the death of the family’s mother whose dying wish is to scatter her ashes atop the highest peak in all the realms. This becomes the game’s sole purpose with every other story element being a means to that end. There’s quite a lot of friction and touching moments between Kratos and the boy throughout the game, Atreus feels as though his father is just a brute bully and doesn’t love him or trust in his abilities, while Kratos struggles to teach Atreus discipline and honor all the while hiding his true past from him.

The father-son dynamic is the real meat of this game’s narrative but there are plenty of great supporting characters who all have their own interesting stories to tell and even experience their own growth thanks to the main duo. All of these characters work to really bring out the game’s world and make it feel organic; I loved the two dwarf brothers Brokk and Sindri who despise each other initially but gladly aid Kratos and Atreus by upgrading their gear using unmatched skills as blacksmiths. There’s the lovely witch Freya who has a heavy backstory and wishes to help if only to redeem herself from her past sins, then you’ve got the severed head Mimir who graciously guides you through your journey telling many historical tales of the realm’s past. Lastly there’s the gang of God’s who serve as a hindrance to Kratos and Atreus, namely the meddling Baldur and Thor’s dipshit sons (Magni and Modi). While Odin and Thor were both referenced a great deal within the game it’s a bit unfortunate that they never actually show up, however this is hardly a mistake on the game’s part considering once again that the story really isn’t about Norse gods.

There’s so much more I could talk about here but I gotta move on to the rest of the game’s features. So like I said before this game has an open world design where you spend much of your time exploring the realm of Midgard, namely the large Lake of Nine where you traverse via canoe and the large mountain you initially presume is the tallest peak in all of the lands. If you’re familiar with Norse mythology then you may be aware that there are nine realms or universes layered over top of one another with Midgard connecting them at the centre, so by using the ancient travel room within the god Tyr’s temple you’re actually able to travel between most of the 9 realms in this very game which is a super cool concept. Sadly 4 of them are inaccessible likely duo to DLC reasons, however the amount of explorable areas given to you within the bass game is sufficient. I was actually quite shocked at how much quests and compelling side content there is available to you, the world is just laced with tons of peripheral stories and collectables that it easily doubles your total play time. My personal favourite of the side objectives being the hunting of the highly revered (yet corrupted) Valkyrie soldiers led by their queen Sigrun; the later named being one of the most challenging boss fights of 2018 so far.

The combat here definitely feels more like an action RPG over the cinematic hack and slash style of the previous games. The first weapon Kratos has at his disposal is the leviathan axe which works a lot like Thor’s hammer as you can call it back by pressing triangle, honestly this feature is infinitely satisfying, so to is the ability to freeze or burn enemies with elemental attacks. I don’t wanna get into spoiler territory but I’ll just say that the leviathan axe isn’t the only weapon Kratos utilises in this game, your capabilities become pretty insane around the midpoint of your journey. Atreus is also fairly vital in combat as he can stun and distract enemies for Kratos and unleash powerful runic summons. There’s a large amount of special moves and upgrades to find and achieve, almost to the point where you begin to forget that certain perks even exist, but I suppose it’s better to have more options than less. The variety of enemies you face is decent enough, but I did find it a bit unfortunate that the game really doesn’t introduce new enemies or challenges after the halfway point of the game so much as it just ramps up the quantity and/or complexity in enemy waves. I kinda wish there was a bit more of a boss presence too, there are a small number of bosses in the game but only a couple really stand out, and the main antagonist/final boss battle is particularly weak.

Visually God of War is one of the most stunning PS4 games to date with an incredible attention to detail placed into the environments; I also thought the audio design and voice acting lived up to AAA standards, the same standards that Sony first party games have set for the industry as a whole. This whole game emits that sense of quality and depth you come to expect, only areas for improvement I’d say are keeping the combat and challenges feeling fresh with more diversity in the enemies as well as having a more conclusive ending. It’s fairly noticeable where they’ve left loose ends in the plot for DLC purposes and that rubs me the wrong way only slightly. But over all I feel like the developers just nailed so much of what they were going for, especially when it came down to making me feel emotionally connected to Kratos; a character of whom I’d previously mocked for being a one dimensional lunatic. This is a definite recommendation for PS4 owners, even if you hated previous God of War games I’m tellin ya that this is a very different experience, and one to remember.