There is a moment foreshadowed in the opening scenes, one which I will not spoil, that, when it reaches completion about halfway through, simply got my blood boiling. It’s a perfect encapsulation of everything that is the new God of War. The cinematic quality—the lighting, music, dialogue—the weight of the reality of what Kratos both gave up and needs again, and even the subtly of the tipping balance between the order Kratos desires for his life and the chaos he needs to complete his goal fuel the broader themes of the game and the moment itself. It’s fantastic and says just about everything that needs to be said. But for the sake of argument:
Story: Stranger in a Strange Land
God of War has grown up. Make no mistakes. This is still Kratos, albeit a humanized version. You can see the rage boiling below the surface. You can hear the age and wisdom in his interactions with the world. You watch and listen to him reflect on his life, the atrocities he’s committed in previous games, but always with a sense of what he is doing now.
The story bears all the markings of the typical journey motif. Kratos and his son Atreus have a mission to accomplish, take mom’s ashes to the top of the highest mountain, and there are going to be several obstacles keeping them from achieving their goal. The narrative unfolds with expert pacing. Never once did I feel like it was lagging or ripe with filler. What starts as a slow boil eventually, ala God of War style, erupts out over everything dragging any and all around into it.
However, I felt like the game started out with one direction, but in the end chose a lesser path. This is not bad if, as is clearly the case, this game becomes the first in a line of sequels; but it is not the self contained story it wants you to believe. Sure, there is a central antagonist, a central mission, and a central focus on developing a small cast of characters. Yet the scope of the narrative tries to border both the games broader narrative strokes and the tiny detail it wants to paint between father and son.
Still, you get to know these characters over the course of the 30+ hour campaign. And we get to watch them grow and be reflected in each other—one of the highlights of the game. The writers pull you through multiple emotions before the game is over, and I appreciated almost every moment of it. The end was not what I had hoped. The story folds in on itself in a way that makes internal sense, the existential fear of the the sins of the father being blanketed on the son, but I’m not sure some of these beats needed to be told. It felt anticlimatic after all Kratos and Atreus had endured, but the inevitable sequel will fix any need for intensity.
Combat:
It’s hard to talk about combat without spoiling a few things. It’s funny, the combat, for the most part, has changed drastically, yet it still feels like God of War. The former combo system, replete with combo chains and arial combat, has for the most part been abandoned. The camera angle is fixed to Kratos’s back, which makes controlling a crowd more challenging, even with wide sweeping attacks. And although combat still feels fast and frantic, it also somehow feels slower.
The whole things works, however, and it works well. Alternating weapons to match enemy types kept me cycle through my arsenal and engaged in every combat scenario. Enemies are diverse enough to keep it somewhat interesting, although later in the game you start to notice the pallet swaps. The quicktime events have not been abandoned, but they have evolved. A simple click of R3 usually engages the animated “overkill,” as opposed to the multiple button mini games of the past. I’m glad they kept this element in the game, and I’m glad it took on a new form. At times I found them visceral, but I always found them enjoyable.
The most notable thing about the new system is the absence of a jump button and the tired and true arial combat. You can still launch enemies to a degree, but expect to spend more time on crowd control. It’s a delicate balance, but once you get used to spinning (there’s a dedicated button for this that I highly recommend you use) and attacking and spinning and throwing and commanding Atreus to shoot and spinning and pounding things with your shield and fist, well, it feels almost like the ballet of past games.
Also, the game starts out with a nice difficulty curve. It feels like Kratos has been resting on his laurels for a while, has gotten a bit old. But the RPG elements of the game give you the stretch to grow more powerful, and by the end of the game I found the final fights (and even the final boss) to be too easy. The difficulty is scalable, so I could have easily ramped it up a bit, but I try to play things on the recommend level. As such, I suggest that the default difficulty is simply too easy.
Missions & Crafting:
Although it may not look like it, there is a lot to do in Midgard. Most questing takes place in and around the Lake of Nine, but you do get the option of traveling to other realms as you progress in the game. Apart from the “bonus dungeon” feel that some of the other worlds have, completing tasks around the Lake of the Nine is enjoyable. Helping out souls, fetching things for the Dwarven smiths, solving environmental puzzles (and thank you from the bottom of my heart for all of the puzzle-platforming) are all packed with world building dialogue, beautifully crafted environments, and plenty of combat. In fact, my only compliant is that I wanted more—especially the environmental puzzles. I would gladly swap out hunting down Odin’s birds for a few more dungeons and brain teasers.
There was a time in video games when upgrades did nothing cosmetically. Then there was a time when upgrades were only cosmetic. I think we have entered the happy medium. Although the crafting system does not rise above similar systems in other games, it is solid and serves its purpose. Don’t expect it to elevate beyond materials fetch quests, but that seems to be where these systems are in games right now. Plus, most of the items runs tie in nicely with some of the side missions, so it never really felt cumbersome. I imagine future iterations will expand on the formula and give us something with more depth. Having said that, I liked the look of the new armor and weapons. I like that the axe et al grow in beauty and complexity as they gain in strength. I understand that the developers probably wanted to lock out the power of the weapons by only putting essential items along key narrative regions, but I would very much like to upgrade to the point that I truly felt like a god tackling lesser beings—for the record, I almost reached that level in the game.
In The End:
The new God of War is an absolutely fantastic game—one everyone should play. It’s deep, stylish, and the combat is simply enjoyable. Although the world itself constantly begs a larger story, the one we get is worth every minute. I will buy the inevitable sequel on day one. This, however, is not saying much: I’ve bought and played them all on day one as well. With that, let’s just say that this is another excellent entry into the series, and a clear contender for the number one spot.
A. D. Bowen 