Hello and welcome to the first of a new article series where I focus on reviewing titles that have spent a few years sitting on shelves or taking up hard drive space in digital libraries. Today I will be discussing the God of War semi-reboot that was released a whole four years ago now.

Developed by Santa Monica Studio and Jetpack Interactive, the game was originally published by Sony as a PS4 exclusive. This past year the title was made available on PC where I was finally able to get an opportunity to play it.

Although the game has connections to the previous three mainline games, I believe this entry can still be enjoyed even without much prior knowledge of the series. This game was meant to reinvigorate the franchise and tell a different kind of narrative from the previous installments.

The story follows newly widowed Kratos and his son Atreus as they journey through the world of Midgard on a quest to spread the ashes of Kratos’ newly deceased wife. Their journey is meant to take them to the tallest peak in the realms, where they will spread her ashes per her wishes. Along the way, their journey is fraught with peril as they battle against creatures and important deities from classical Norse mythology. It is a simple enough premise in concept, but the execution here is certainly standout.

I love the evolution of Kratos’ character in this game. He is presented as a man haunted by his violent past, struggling to hold back his anger and adapt to his new role as a father. This is a stark contrast to the man of pure rage and destruction presented in the first three entries. Game director, Corey Balrog discussed how a theme of Kratos’ tale in this game was, “breaking the cycle of violence, distrust, and deception that his family, the Greek pantheon perpetuated for so long.” You can read more about the concept behind the game’s narrative here.

It is this new relationship between a father and his son that carries the narrative. I was concerned Atreus might be a little annoying at first, but I found myself genuinely caring about him throughout my adventure. His fragility as a naïve, weak child adds a great sense of danger to the encounters as Kratos himself is virtually indestructible. In contrast, the player doesn’t know the limits of Atreus’s strength so when he gets hurt it feels impactful and when he makes a mistake you want to help him.

Another aspect of this game I would like to give special praise to is the soundtrack. The main theme is incredibly epic with booming, somber vocals that perfectly capture the tone of Norse mythology and culture. The soundtrack also does a lot to emphasize story beats, often woven subtly into the background during reflective moments or blasted loud during big fights.

The level of immersion this game manages to create is astounding because of the smooth mix of gameplay and solid character-focused writing. Past entries in the God of War franchise focused on a more hack-and-slash RPG style of gameplay with fixed zoomed-out camera angles. These elements are still present in this iteration but with slight modifications. The camera has zoomed to a fixed over-the-shoulder perspective which brings you a lot closer to the bloody and extremely satisfying combat.

The gameplay also transitions into cutscenes instantly with no load screens, making for an even more cinematic experience, especially during boss battles. Additionally, Kratos no longer begins the game with his trademark Blades of Chaos and instead is equipped with the equally cool Leviathan Axe.

Combat is the main gameplay element here and is simple enough but with just the right level of depth to stay engaging every time. You have a light attack, heavy attack, block, and roll. You also have access to ranged light and heavy attacks as Kratos can send the Leviathan Axe flying into skulls before recalling it to hand.

After a little playtime, you also get access to Runic attacks. These are special magic attacks that can be collected through mini-boss fights and general exploration. Furthermore, Atreus himself can aid you in combat by firing arrows to stun enemies. He can also extend your combos with grapples and even call minor summons.

This is all complemented by an RPG-style progression system and absolutely phenomenal sound design. Every chop of the Axe feels heavy. Enemies scream and recoil as it crunches through them. Every enemy also has a meter that rises as you land consecutive successful hits. Raising this meter to the maximum level then allows you to finish enemies off with a variety of brutal, gore-filled takedowns.

These never get old no matter how many times you see them. They do a lot to give the player a sense of the godly power that Kratos possesses as you rip enemies in half, crush skulls with your bare hands, or impale giants with a huge pillar of stone. Apart from combat, there are a few puzzle sections that usually revolve around opening complex locks, accessing new areas of the map, or evading dangerous traps. However, most puzzles are pretty simple and I was able to breeze through them in minutes.

Boss battles are intensely cinematic and have a great mix of quick-time events and gameplay. The opening boss fight in particular is easily one of my favorite encounters in a video game. On the other hand, my biggest complaint with the game was also tied to the boss battles. I wish there had been slightly more variety as one boss is recycled three separate times with only slight adjustments.

I also found the final boss itself to be pretty dissatisfying and a little too easy. This caused the ending of the game to feel somewhat lackluster for me as I kept anticipating another foe to appear until the credits started to roll. You could tell the developers wanted to save more major characters for potential fights in the sequel.

As someone who grew up by the tales of Greek, Norse, and Egyptian myths I absolutely adore the concept here. The core gameplay was incredibly immersive and fun. However, if I take a moment to separate the subjective bias I have to acknowledge the linearity of the design, there are a few issues. Most of the time you are always going towards the main objective marker. There are plenty of other side quests and collectibles, but a majority of them are forgettable and one of the best is only available after completing the main story.

This will be a big issue for some players. I’m typically a more narrative-focused gamer myself so it didn’t hamper my enjoyment much. Hopefully, the sequel can flesh out the open world with more interesting rewards and side narratives apart from the main story. I greatly enjoyed my time in God of War and I definitely think I will end up replaying it at some point to experience this beautiful narrative again. If you love action games don’t skip this one.

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God of War

$49.99

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• Fun satisfying combat
• Father- Son narrative
• Beautiful Soundtrack and Graphics

Cons

• Relatively linear gameplay
• Uninteresting sidequests
• Disappointing final boss