If you’re a parent, you probably have two lingering fears, and chances are neither of them are giant spider crabs. Speaking from experience, I’ve laid awake countless nights wondering if my past actions would affect my son in a negative way. Additionally, I fear the unexpected loss of my wife, leaving me to raise this life we have created a partnership to raise alone. This is a large focal point of the narrative behind the newest entry in the God of War series, which works as a sequel and a reboot in equal parts as the title takes place a number of years after the events of God of War III, with an aged, tired Kratos living the quiet life in the land of the Norse gods. Not only are we treated to new mythology, which ties in with the past games, the overall style has changed, featuring an open world ripe for exploration, with a one-shot camera and combat that is akin to an accessible Dark Souls clone.

The story picks up a short time after Kratos’ wife passes, with our hero and his son Atreus setting off on a journey to spread her ashes at the top of a mountain peak, per her wishes. Before they can set off on their mission, a stranger arrives that sets the stage for most of the conflicts throughout the rest of the game. After a close, extremely cinematic battle, they are on their way. While the previous games in the series followed Kratos on his quest for revenge against the gods, this story is a much smaller, personal story that focuses on Kratos’ past, his relationship with his son and the secrets he’s kept from him, with the Norse gods peppered in occasionally and setting the stage for what I am assuming will be a number of sequels. The story is solid and conveys the uneasy relationship our duo has in a meaningful way. It’s a welcome change and worthy of much of the praise it has received, but it’s far from perfect. I spent my 20+ hours with the main story expecting Thor or Odin to show up to throw down with our hero, which never truly comes to pass and leaves the finale feeling a bit anticlimactic.

As I stated earlier, the number of gods you encounter is on a much smaller scale than previous games, with most of the boss battles being larger creatures, which were nothing short of cannon fodder in past games. While these are still thrilling, a number of the encounters go on much longer than they rightfully should and can become stale. You can only deplete a characters life bar so many times with it refilling before wanting to throw something other than the Leviathan Axe, which is Kratos’ new tool of destruction; opposed to previous entries, this is the only weapon you’ll use for about half of the game. Don’t get me wrong, the new combat is fun and refreshing (calling back the Axe similar to Thor’s hammer never gets old) once you get the hang of the new control scheme, but the variety the past games offered in terms of weapons was on a much grander scale. This iteration only has a total of two true weapons that can be customized and upgraded like in the past, which can make the combat a bit less thrilling. The violence has also been toned down quite a bit; while there is still a lot of blood and gore, you won’t see our protagonist strangling anyone with their own innards on this outing.

Exploration will be a big part of the game, as the title has a fully-fledged open world that can be explored as you see fit, with Metroidvania inspired mechanics in place to keep you revisiting past areas looking for stray chests, upgrades, or side quests after the proper equipment is acquired. All of this can be done post-game for those of you who prefer to stay focused on the main objective; however, there is no option for a New Game Plus, which hopefully will be added in an update. There are plenty of side missions and post-game content to keep you revisiting the title, as well as the additional difficulties, so there are replay options in place.  For those of you worrying about Atreus being a lackluster companion that you must babysit, rest assured he is a more than capable companion who often helps in combat and uses his bow to access areas that are blocked off early in the game. While he can be a bit of a jerk at times, I haven’t cared this much about an AI companion since Ellie in The Last of Us.

I remember getting God of War III at launch and being in awe of the visuals, which look extremely tame in comparison to the newest release. This is hands down one of the best looking games I’ve ever seen. The visuals pack an impressive amount of details and are relatively bug free, with only a few minor glitches being present, one being one of Kratos’ eyes rolling around while the other was static, as if he was possessed by a demonic force. While we are on the subject of eyes, they were one of my favorite aspects of the visuals, with the pain and toll of being a god present in Kratos’ eyes.

While this will likely be on many gamers’ Game of the Year lists, I feel it is a bit short of the perfection that other sites or reviews have deemed. I do feel this is worth anyone with a PS4’s money, and is a great jumping off point for the new style the series has implemented. I for one will be keeping an eye out for the inevitable follow up and look forward to the improvements that will be added to the sequel.

 9 out of 10

Pros

• Stunning Presentation
• Welcome Changes to the Past Formula of the Series
• Father/Son Relationship Works Well

Cons

• Anticlimactic Boss Battles/Ending
• No New Game Plus
• Lack of Weapon Variety

God of War was developed by SIE Santa Monica Studio and published by Sony. It launched on PS4 April 20th, 2018 for $59.99. The game was not provided to us for review on PS4. If you’d like to see more of God of War, check out the official site.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.

 

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