The return of the furious Spartan warrior was made well. God of War is already a great contender for game of the year and you shouldn't miss it. [Issue#285]
Once mastered, God of War’s combat is one of the most rewarding I have tried in a long time. Kratos becomes a hurricane of death and destruction, blocking, shield bashing, slicing, dicing, spinning around and throwing his axe at an enemy further away, while pummeling closer monsters with punches and kicks, and then recalling the weapon to catch two more draugr in the back, before going in for one of the several spectacular finishers. It’s fast, complex, addictive, and exhilarating, but I never once felt like I wasn’t in control.
God of War: A captivating journey, the best combat system I have ever experienced, and an unbelievable amount of polish
As a PC-Gamer, I came to the God of War-Franchise with a serious drawback: I had never played Kratos’ earlier adventures. I knew by cultural osmosis that I was tugging on the strings of a man who had murdered an entire pantheon, but I had not seen. That God of War still made me feel the soul-crushing weight of this unseen past, and Kratos’ anxiety about this past somehow infecting his son shows how superbly strong the writing and the performances on display are.
The script is not the only aspect of this game soaring to such sterling levels of quality.
From the very first scene, the art on display is dazzling. Majestic mountains crowned with eternal snow, winter-kissed woods, every environment is both unbelievably realistic and infused with fantastic, epic exaggeration, creating a land infused with magic. Kratos is a giant of a man, every muscle ever discovered chiseled to perfection, yet the play of emotions on his face is always perfectly relatable, as is everybody else’s. And the animations! Combat feels kinetic and weighty, yet blindingly fast at times, out of combat every step taken, every climb looks and feels real. I mean, I’ve missed the quiet confidence with which Kratos beaches his rowboat when playing other games, for crying out loud.
The soundscape is just as stellar: Effects are distinct, clear and punchy, the score plays on the player’s emotions in the background at one time only to sweep him up in epic swells the next, and the voice cast sells every line on the page and every emotion in the margins as if their life depended on it.
The script is, what lets them do that and I have already spoiled my opinion, yet let me reiterate: It’s wonderful. The game is essentially a road trip of a father and his estranged son with pretty much all the associated tropes, yet rendered so splendidly that I get misty eyes just remembering. Folded within this are a greek tragedy and the first act of an apocalyptic epic: There is so much narrative meat here, and all of it prime cuts. As for the dialogue: It sparkles, it inspires, it elicits emotions, it brings forth tears and laughter, it made me love the characters. I know no higher praise. Some sections might be a bit rushed at times, but that’s the only blemish I can see.
And so we come, finally, to the gameplay:
As befitting for the God of War, the main thing Kratos does is fight, and the gameplay system governing said fighting is, to my mind, the best of its kind bar none. It’s like you took the combat system of Dark Souls and dialed up both the impact of attacks and the speed up to eleven. Every button on the gamepad is relevant to combat, some of them even do double duty, giving the player a dizzying amount of options to act on and react to the encounters the game throws at him. On the higher difficulties, which I recommend to everyone up for their challenge, the game will make you make use of every one of these options, until combat feels like an intricate dance of slaughter.
Sometimes, though, Kratos has to explore the areas he has just depopulated, or even solve a riddle or two. These systems are much less uniquely excellent, but they don’t need to be. Exploration just works except for traveling by boat, which is the best of it’s kind in my experience. The riddles are hilariously limited in scope: The vast majority asks the player to figure out which part of the landscape to hit with which weapon, as if Kratos can’t help but interface with everything around him edge first. Yet it is impressive how much variety the puzzle designers wring out of this sparse instrument case. Both gameplay modes work well in providing a bit of variety and downtime between skirmishes and thus do their part in elevating the experience to dizzying heights.
Is God of War the Perfect Game, then? No. That’s not the kind of world we’re living in. The gear progression system is finicky and opaque, the optional grind fest Niflheim wasn’t fun for me, the map is less than helpful, and the highest difficulty, which mostly sits in the right side of Painfully Challenging, has a few insane difficulty spikes. I’m sure I could find a few more nits to pick, but they all fade away in an instant in front of one unshakable fact: God of War 2018 is the best third person brawler I have ever played.
TLDR: This high octane spectacle fighter is controller-breakingly awesome. If you want to know how good a game strong fundamentals and an incredible amount of polish can make, play this.
Almost perfect game,after plot there are annoying enemies with a lot of HP and insome places it's really dumb thing that you just can't jump or something
God of War is the best example of how you should manage the beginning of a new era for an established brand, in every entertainment media. It’s the pinnacle of Sony’s will to promote creative freedom for its first party studios. It’s a melting pot made of old school video game elements and technical mastery, a great script and revolutionary ideas.
God of War is the fourth "main" game in the franchise, but in so many aspects is also a first and by far a better game than the rest of them. Good story, great gameplay and fantastic voice acting make GoW something really special.
God of War very effectively achieves its mission to be a good reboot of the saga and a good sequel. Each one of the days of the five years of development of this new delivery is evident in the great values of production in each one of the sections, materializing perfectly in the constant sequence plane. Perhaps we only regret not having been presented with something truly original mechanically and not a mixture of ingredients that we have seen in other titles.
It’s ironic that a story about the value of discipline and restraint would feel like it needs more time in the editing room, but that’s the new God of War – promising but aimless. I like the new Kratos, but I hope his next adventure is more focused than this, and I pray that it actually gives him something interesting to do.
God Of War was one of the most enjoyable story experiences I've ever had in gaming. The dialogue and characters felt real, grounded and believable and the story resonated with me. My biggest issue with the game was the combat, while many gamers advocate the combat as being utterly amazing, I do not see the appeal and think it feels more like a button masher and Kratos feels less like a "God Of War" with the ability to crush mountains and more like he has fists made of sponge. The combat isn't terrible but in my experience is just below average, which is why it stops me from giving it above a 7.
SummaryHis vengeance against the gods of Olympus far behind him, Kratos now lives as a man in the lands of Norse Gods and monsters. It is in this harsh, unforgiving world that he must fight to survive… and teach his son to do the same. As mentor and protector to a son determined to earn his respect, Kratos is faced with an unexpected opportunit...