God of War Review

Released in April 20th, 2018 by Sony Interactive Entertainment, God of War is quite literally the best video games ever made. It cannot possibly be overstated how good the game really is.

Story Synopsis

Far from the Greek world and leaving behind his vendetta against the gods of Olympus, Kratos has settled down in the land of man, monsters and Norse Gods, Midgard. This new setting provides for many more adventures and a sense of relatability for the players and the storytellers. Being here, the player gets to explore the many realms of Norse mythology. From Alfheim, the home of the elves, Helheim, the land of the dead to Niflheim, filled with poisonous fog, the fire realm Muspelheim and the land of the Giants, Jötunheim, the world is massive for Kratos and his son Atreus. All the realms are connected to each other by the mythical tree Yggdrasil.

Access to the other realms like Asgard, home to the Æsir gods, Vanaheim, home to the Vanir gods and Svartelfheim, home of the dwarves, has been blocked by King of the Æsir gods, Odin.

The story begins with the funeral of Kratos’ wife, Faye, and the introduction of his son, Atreus. As the main antagonist, Baldur, brother of Thor, comes knocking on Kratos’ door. This forces Kratos to embark on a journey to fulfill his wife’s final wish, to scatter her ashes from the highest mountain top.

The Gameplay of God of War

There are no words to describe how badass it feels to be a God of War again. However, the developers decided to replace Kratos’ Blades of Chaos, with the Levaithon Axe. Throwing the axe and having it return to Kratos was perhaps the best decision the studio made.

The combat is flawless, except the fact that when compared to the other God of Wars, the boss fights feel underwhelming. With the exception of a few, the bosses are nowhere near as big as the ones in the previous games.

The flow of the fights is just beautiful. With a superb level of strategy, excellent perk and upgrades system, equipments and abilities, God of War has truly outdone itself.

The world is full of all sorts of creatures and monster for you to slay in this action-adventure. Trolls, revenants, dragons, gods, demigods and much more. But perhaps as a character, we have noticed major changes in Kratos.

Character Synopsis

From the end of God of War 3 to God of War 2018, there is a time when Kratos is wandering the world alone. He thinks it is for the best to be alone. As a character, Kratos has hit rock bottom emotionally. In the previous games, he was blaming everyone else for his faults. But here, he seems to have found the space to change as a person. Though, he still is not ready to deal with any of his internal problems, it’s good to see that he is trying to. He just doesn’t know how to.

Atreus plays the most important part here. He is the only thing that pulls out the humanity from within Kratos. As the story progresses, you can see so much character developments in Kratos, his bond to his son and how he views things now. To even see Kratos be there emotionally for his son at times when Atreus himself is overwhelmed by something dark, just feels right. This is why the players start to feel connected to the story as they watch the character’s emotional growth. The small feeling of redemption that Kratos gets is very satisfying to the player. The journey that he has set on is for that purpose only. Not to save everyone else, but to save himself.

How does it look?

What PS4 Pro users should know is that God of War has a new feature of two graphic modes- Performance and Resolution. The former renders that game at 1080p at fixed 60 fps, while the latter will run the game via 2160 checkerboard at 4K. Though the frame rate will be variable at 30 fps.

To get the sense of how beautiful the terrain of God of War actually is, run it on 4K. The visuals are trully astonishing. Though it is advisable to switch to the performance mode for the trick combat situations. While there is a compromise in both modes, it’s very good to have a choice. The game’s graphics are purely sensational. Since the whole game is done in one shot, it provides an incredibly immersive experience for the players. The excellent script, coupled with a no-cut camera, gives a very empathetic POV to the character. This is something you may or may not notice. It is very subtle but goes a long way in make this a unique experience.