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God of War Review

  • Developer: SIE Santa Monica Studio

  • Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment

  • Genres: RPG, Action, Hack'n'Slash, Adventure

  • Platforms: PS4

  • Release date: ​

    • April 20th, 2018

  • Playtime:

    • 45 hours for platinum trophy

    • Around 25 hours for story completion

  • Reviewed on regular PS4

After years of “mindless” hack’n’slash combat and killing enemies in the most gruesome manner possible, Kratos settles down to a quiet life, this time accompanied by none other than his own son, Atreus. With the death of his (second) wife, Kratos and Atreus set off on a journey to spread her ashes at the highest peak of the nine realms but, as expected, it’s not an easy journey and pretty much nothing goes as planned. What transpires during this time is a truly epic journey, with plenty of room for both Kratos and Atreus to grow as individuals, along with their relationship.

In what capacity did the God of War series change with this new entry? Well, pretty much all elements suffered modifications: storytelling, combat, core systems, the camera, world structure, even the mythology tackled has finally changed, to Norse mythology. There’s a lot to dig into, so let’s start with the combat. If before God of War had an almost Warriors-like combat where you could pretty much spam attacks, now Kratos doesn’t even have his trademark Blades of Chaos. Instead, with the introduction of the brand-new Leviathan Axe, and the change to an over the shoulder camera, Kratos’ brawls end up feeling much more personal and immersive to the player, almost to the point of a first-person game instead of a third-person one.

Speaking of the Leviathan Axe, right from the get-go it proves to be a worthy successor to the trademark Blades of Chaos. Not only does a huge axe make Kratos look stronger and more menacing than before, from a design point of view it’s a brilliant addition to the combat. Due to the versatility of the Axe, Kratos can, not only, completely destroy enemies in close combat but also (literally) freeze enemies hit by an Axe throw while fighting the rest with his bare hands until he recalls the Axe with a press of a button, possibly hitting enemies as it travels back to Kratos’ hand. On top of it all, the Axe just sounds way too good no matter if you’re splitting enemies in half, throwing it at the head of an enemy or just simply recalling it. The other addition to gameplay is the presence of Atreus, who makes use of bow and arrow during fights. Since Atreus can’t die, only be “downed” for a few seconds, he provides a great distraction to enemies during battle, allowing Kratos to focus on smaller groups of enemies.

With combat out of the way, let’s move on the world structure and design. Honestly, when combined with the way story is presented, the structure chosen suits the game very well. As some people would put it, the game follows a MetroidVania structure of sorts, that is, as the game progresses and new powers are unlocked, Kratos and Atreus gain access to what was previously inaccessible areas. The thing is, this is not an open world game, period. Rather, it has a hub of sorts with tons of branching paths that are, at first, submerged. As the story progresses and Kratos interacts with the World Serpent, the water level progressively lowers, making new areas appear but also modifying, to a certain extent, already accessible areas. What these branching paths lead to are sort of intricately designed small sandboxes. Beyond the extraordinary environments the story leads the player through, if the time to explore these branching paths is invested, the player will find a handful of meaningful side-quests that tell unique stories (in some cases even end up intertwining later on) along with completely different environments and experiences that were never featured in the critical path. Each time I found a new area, I was always filled with joy and excitement to find out what awaited me.

And now for the systems. The new God of War game features a handful of RPG elements, from simple experience and skill trees to more Destiny-esque power leveling. On the more straightforward side of things, the player will be rewarded with (lots of) experience points as quests are completed and enemies killed, which can be used to unlock skills for both Kratos and Atreus. These are specially useful for Atreus early on since they are quite cheap and improve his efficiency during combat considerably. On the more “complex” side of things, there’s color-coded loot with power leveling involved, but not like in Diablo or Destiny where gear drops come left and right. Rather, as side-quests are completed and certain story points reached, armor can either be rewarded directly or made available for crafting. Because it’s not possible to just “farm enemies to get a better chest piece”, when you craft a new armor piece it will be a decisive improvement to your overall build, boosting your stats such as strength and defense, but also increasing your overall level. I referenced Destiny before because this level is not something that goes up with experience points, it’s actually an average of your gear pieces’ levels. But do not worry, you’re not working to get to 330 Power Level or anything absurd like that, my final endgame build only managed to reach level 9 so, throughout the (around) twenty five hours that take to beat the story, you’ll slowly be able to increase your level as you upgrade your weapons and acquire new gear. The color coding is just meant to fulfill its design purpose: to give the player a sense of progression and achievement as it acquires rarer pieces of gear (in this case the player is eyeing the gold-tier pieces of armor).

On the topic of the storytelling, if all the other aspects of the game are almost tuned to perfection, the storytelling somehow manages to go beyond that level. The way the characters interact with each other, the character’s dialogue, the banter during the boat travels between areas, the way the lightning is able to set the atmosphere during tense moments, the way the characters are animated, all these and many other aspects allow this epic story to shine through its many high moments but, above all, these aspects allow the relationship between father and son, between Kratos and Atreus to be portrayed in a way that the majority of games can’t accomplish. This way, from the very beginning when Kratos and Atreus are forced to set off on their journey thanks to an unexpected guest, until the very end, Kratos and Atreus keep evolving, not just as separate people, as Kratos learns how to open up to his son and Atreus learns of his own nature and how to deal with that, but as their relationship grows and the father is able to recognize and respect the son’s growth and vice-versa.

There is still another very important point in God of War that I’ve only mentioned briefly so far: the camera. You see, in games with such an emphasis on storytelling or any game at all, there are bound to be camera cuts. The protagonist falls unconscious, some time passes, anyway, it’s almost certain camera cuts will appear. However, God of War commits to and achieves a no-cut camera from the very first second of the game until the very last. Of course, this means there’s a lot of camera play during battle and cutscenes to make sure the action is always shown on screen, but what this accomplishes is a fluid gameplay that makes it feel like the game never stops and every small detail is captured in camera. Because there’s not even cuts to transition to and from cutscenes, normal gameplay and cutscenes end up looking the same (which is definitely a compliment in this game), something that makes it hard to distinguish between actual gameplay and when a cutscene is playing. Everything ends up blending so smoothly that cutscenes manage to feel engaging instead of a break in gameplay or a “waiting time” until it’s needed to pick up the controller again. For sure, after a successful attempt with such positive results, the no-cut camera will for years be remembered in the gaming industry as a triumph of Sony Santa Monica and God of War, but most importantly, of the medium as a whole.

One last point I want to mention in this review is the endgame. After the story is concluded, there are other realms to explore, namely Muspelheim and Niflheim. Both of these offer distinct endgame challenges that put every skill of the father-son duo to the test. Without spoiling too much, these are something that just make the game a complete package after finishing an amazing campaign. After completing the campaign which is something focused on the story, now the player has a perfect opportunity to just go all-out in combat while being tested under specific conditions. Besides these two Norse realms, there is an extra challenge that spans across all realms available in the game. Again, without wanting to spoil too much, if Muspelheim and Niflheim are endgame content, this is endgame for the endgame, where the challenge is simply 1 on 1 fights (rather 2 on 1 fights counting Atreus), forcing the player to be as well geared as possible to withstand the coming battles.

What else can be said about God of War? This latest game changes up the series completely making it more personal and intimate while retaining its trademark gruesome and viciousness, adding on top of it an incredible story, RPG elements and the unbelievable no-cut camera. Still, this game introduces a brand-new weapon, the Leviathan Axe, that will for sure be remembered as dearly as the Blades of Chaos, for both the intelligent design it is associated with but also just for the straight up fun combat it allows. All in all, God of War is a game for the ages that will leave an important mark in gaming history.

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