Platform: PlayStation 4

Developer: Santa Monica Studio

Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Release Date: April 20th, 2018

Genre: Action, Hack-and-Slash

Reviewed by Nips

At long last, it is here. Years of waiting, years of endless speculation, and a seeming lifetime of anticipation has preceded the release of 2018’s God of War. The beefy Greek badass Kratos has finally ascended the realm of Greece and makes his grand entrance into the pantheon of gods from ancient Norse mythology in this latest installment to the iconic and highly-acclaimed God of War series.

To be honest, I’ve never really considered myself a huge fan of hack-and-slash, button-mashing games such as those in the God of War series. I thought of myself as being above such garish displays of viscera, gore, and ultraviolence. But, not long before the release of God of War 2018, I finally picked up God of War III, and was quite impressed with what I got. So I figured what the hell. Being a snob is overrated anyway. Let’s jump headfirst into the new God of War.

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Long before its release, the creators of God of War, Santa Monica Studio, hinted that this new game would take place within ancient Norse mythology, Kratos haven taken up residence among the gods of Scandanavia. God of War begins with Kratos and his son Atreus preparing for the funeral of his late wife. Her dying wish? To have her ashes spread at the highest peak of all the nine Norse realms. Awesome.

Needless to say, Kratos’s stay among the likes of Thor, Odin, and Baldur does not go unnoticed for long, and the powerful Aesir tribe wastes no time in making things difficult for the Greek god and his son. Thus, the events of God of War kick off in spectacular fashion, as the path to the mountain is fraught with dangers, wonders, enemies, as well as potential allies.

The first thing that stood out to me about God of War was the combat. No longer is Kratos surrounded by hundreds upon hundreds of enemies, viciously swinging his iconic Blades of Chaos through series of incomprehensible button-mashing; instead, this installment in the God of War series seems much more willing to slow things down, rarely presenting Kratos with more than a handful of enemies at a time. On top of that, the camera, which once took a faraway orthographic perspective, has now been reigned in by quite a bit, resting just over Kratos’s shoulder in a manner similar to Resident Evil 4 or Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. This means that where the player’s relationship to enemies was once clear and explicit at all times, enemies can now surround Kratos and take him by surprise, giving the combat more of that moment-to-moment tension and oomph that wasn’t really present in the previous three titles.

While this camera perspective alone changes quite a bit about the combat, there are a few things about the way it feels that doesn’t quite convince me that this was the best decision. For sure, God of War is a much more polished game than Hellblade–since the latter was created by a smaller team–and this shows in the combat, as well. Unfortunately, God of War displays a lot of those same ganky pitfalls that Hellblade had, so it’s hard to help feeling that the developers didn’t really know all of the reasons why they wanted such a tight camera angle, apart from its sole function of switching things up a little. The best things I can say about the camera angle is that it opens God of War to more engaging puzzles and better level exploration and it at least makes the combat feel different.

So the combat of God of War is a lot different, but even more striking is the fact that Kratos’s traditional Blades of Chaos are nowhere to be seen, replaced instead by a mighty axe of great majesty and power. This axe, named the Leviathan Axe, also contributes to the inherent patience and slow pacing of God of War. Kratos holds this weapon in one hand, inflicting frost damage rather than fire upon the enemies that he strikes. This being a magical axe, not only can Kratos slash his enemies to bits with it, but he can also chuck it at them and then call it back, toppling enemies as it flies into his hand!

This mechanic feels very good and it’s really exciting when you use it correctly, but I often can’t help but feel that it wasn’t utilized in as many creative ways as it could have. 95% percent of the time, the only reason to use the call-back method is to simply retrieve your axe so you can throw it again. The game doesn’t reward the player all that much for hitting enemies on the axe’s return, and furthermore this mechanic is very rarely used in puzzles. My verdict: The axe is cool, but horribly under-utilized for how central it is to the main game.

Not only is the combat and game feel different in God of War, but progression has also changed quite a bit as well. The first, most obvious example of this is that the game is a lot less linear than any of its predecessors. As usual, you have your typical linear, overarching narrative that encompasses the rest of the game, but along the way the player can pick between a pretty tidy amount of side quests and treasure hunts to complete along the way.

People often refer to the “lake area” of this game as being the branching point, and that’s the moment when things really open up, giving the player a wealth of opportunities and choices. On top of that, the player can travel to a nice handful of the nine realms from Norse mythology, including the likes of Helheim (the land of the dead), and Yotenheim (the land of the giants), lands that more often than not feature quests and side-narratives of their own. Of course, the sweeping majority of these side-quests are pretty basic; “Go here, fight some things, come back, receive your reward.” There’s not a whole lot of nuance there, you know?

By far, the most fun side-quests in God of War are the ones where you show up to an undiscovered area and just start exploring it out of sheer curiosity, unraveling its secrets along the way. These areas are typically well-crafted with good puzzles, enticing the player ever forward with the promise of loot and challenge. The puzzles typically aren’t all that hard, but they’re at least interesting; way more interesting, in fact, than the ones featured in the previous God of War titles. There are even a few that creatively utilize the Leviathan Axe’s unique abilities, but I do wish there were more. At the end of the day, however, I am at least thankful that God of War represents an improvement in terms of quests and puzzles.

And all these quests circle around God of War’s central story. This story is good. In fact, this story is better than good; it’s amazing. To recap a bit, after the first handful of God of War games (spoiler alert, but if you’re reading this review and don’t know what this series is about what are you even doing), Kratos has virtually killed off the entire pantheon of Greek gods, including his own father, Zeus. In an effort to escape the horrors of his previous life, Kratos moves to Scandanavia, taking up residence among the gods of ancient Norse mythology in the realm of Midgard. Along the way he finds himself a wife and a son, the latter’s name being Atreus. This newest God of War title begins with the untimely funeral of Kratos’s wife, and now Kratos, the cold and solemn man that he is, must take up as Atreus’s only parent as the duo try to fulfill the mother’s dying wish.

Right from the start, Atreus’s inclusion is a welcome addition to God of War. No longer is the player subjugated to Kratos’s grim silence as he trudges through the game’s story; Kratos now has a new character to bounce personalities off of. While Kratos is the strong, silent type, Atreus is the inquisitive, ever-talkative type, and their unique banter adds a lot of charm and characterization to the God of War series that simply wasn’t there before. Aside from Atreus, God of War features a tidy helping of friendlies that provide for interesting cutscenes with witty banter and enjoyable interactions. A lot of dialogue and story was written for this game, and it shows itself at even the most unexpected of times, really drawing attention to how much work was afforded this game at every level of production.

Needless to say, Kratos’s time in Midgard isn’t peaceful for very long, and he soon finds that fulfilling his late wife’s final wish will not be as easy as he thought. This involves interacting with the likes of Baldur, Freya, and Magni in a struggle for survival, making plenty of colorful friends and enemies along the way. As the story progresses, the game is more than happy to divulge some tidbits about the Norse mythos, stories, and characters in the form of journals, character interactions, and narration. This is a very welcome inclusion, and it seems like this is the highest attention to accuracy and density of lore afforded any God of War game so far. I seriously feel like I came out smarter on the other side of this game, and I can’t really say that for very many other games out there. _{Except for The Witness.}

So, 2018’s God of War differs from the rest of the series in terms of its combat style, characters, and side quests. On top of all this, God of War is probably the most RPG title of the series to date. The combat system is highly customizable with armor as well as armor and weapon upgrades that result in a mind-blowing possibility of combinations and combat styles. On top of that, there are a significant amount of unique moves that you might or might not even use throughout the entirety of your playthrough. The developers did this through the much more highly restricted amount of available moves at any one given time. This may be a bit of a drag for the fighting game, button-mashing type of gamer who loves having an infinite number of combos at their disposal, but as a gamer who typically doesn’t much like that type of gameplay, I found God of War’s novel sparseness to be quite refreshing and easy to grab a hold of.

There’s a real sense of general progression as Kratos gets just slightly better a little bit at a time along the way, and this is accomplished in no small part through some serious fine tuning efforts on the part of the developers. Aside from this, once you have the full move list at your disposal, there are an impressive amount of ways you can put it to use, dispatching enemies with simple combos or stringing together seemingly unrelated moves to absolutely ravish your opponents.

On to the graphics and overall atmosphere. There’s no getting around it: God of War looks amazing! Just look at it! I had no idea that my PS4 could produce graphics like this! The environment looks stellar, the effects are impressive, and when you get up real close to the characters you can see every pore and fold in their skin! Seriously, the biggest star here is the skin rendering, featuring an unbelievable clarity in the pores and textures. Granted, running this game works the crap out of the fan in my old-ass console, but damn if this game isn’t a right piece of eye candy. Games like God of War have really helped the PlayStation 4 age super well, as this late into the console’s life cycle its titles are just getting more and more good looking.

Accentuating the updated graphic style, God of War features a rather impressive cast, including (and I’m honestly surprised by this), a change in the lead character’s voice actor! That’s right, Kratos is no longer voiced by the distinct actor Terrence C. Carson, replaced instead by Christopher Judge. While reminiscent of the previous Kratos, who was youthful and quick to anger, this new Kratos is much more solemn and reserved, the distinct low rumblings of his voice telling a story of loss and maturity. I never was a huge fan of Kratos’s original voice, since it sounded a little exaggerated, so I’m naturally a fan of this subdued and calm Kratos.

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And there we have it. After years of hiatus, Santa Monica Studio returns with 2018’s simply named God of War, which is quite probably the most groundbreaking title of the entire franchise, elevating an already iconic series to legendary status. This fantastic feat is done through a considerable amount of oomph granted by updated mechanics that really slow things down, more heavily emphasizing the moment-by-moment encounters. The star of the show, though, is Kratos’s new Leviathan Axe, which can freeze enemies as well as be thrown through the air and called back like a mythic boomerang.

All of God of War’s changes fall squarely on top of a gripping story about a father and his son, as Kratos navigates this unfamiliar landscape tainted even further by the relationship he had with his own father, Zeus. Santa Monica Studio has single-handedly delivered at once their most poignant and fun God of War game to date.

Nerd Rating: 8.5 out of 10