God of War on the PS4 isn't just a masterpiece, it's the beginning of a new era in game design. The game entices all that is good about a video game, and we will go over all of these points in this post. Please note that this does contain spoilers.
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Right in the beginning of God of War, you can sense the change in Kratos from a bloodthirsty God-killer to a wise man that has learned from his mistakes and is trying to get away from his past. The story begins with Kratos chopping down trees marked by Faye (Kratos' Wife) for her cremation. As Kratos chops down the tree with The Leviathan Axe, the bloodsoaked bandages covering the scars left by the chains on The Blades of Chaos start to fall off, with Atreus (Kratos' son) not knowing the true nature of his father Kratos rewraps his forearms. Later on in the story Kratos and Atreus hunt deer and end up fighting a troll. Atreus loses his temper and Kratos decides that Atreus is not ready for the Journey.
As the story progresses Kratos finally ends up revealing to Atreus that they are Gods, expecting his son to be furious Kratos is surprised to see the delight on Atreus' face and all the questions he has to ask. But unfortunately, the sudden change from mortal to Godhood goes straight to Atreus' head and he becomes disobedient and hot-headed, he makes mistakes and nearly costs Kratos his life. This is what I love about God of War, the characters feel real, the dialogue feels natural and is interesting.
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With the change from fixed camera angles to a third person view camera, the gameplay has a drastic difference. The combat is immersive, fun and very enticing. Throughout the whole game, I was never bored with the combat and gameplay mechanics, I loved feeling powerful against smaller, less intimidating enemies yet scared of the bigger enemies and bosses. The runic attacks are also a very welcome future in my eyes it adds that classic feeling of "Damn this looks so cool" you get when watching an action movie with effects. The feeling I got when Kratos got his Blades of Chaos out was a massively overwhelming feeling of nostalgia and "I can't wait to try these things again after five years".
Unlike most games of this era it has no micro-transactions, don't get me wrong I'm not saying micro-transactions are bad, they're just not done right, but seeing as this is a single player game people do not want to pay extra for things they do not need.
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Ragnarök. No really that's next, the story of God of War causes Ragnarök to happen 100 winters or so earlier, (Ragnarök being the Apocalypse in Norse mythology where Thor and The World Serpent, Jörmungandr battle to the death causing total destruction of Midgard). How Santa Monica Studios handles the sequal to a near perfect game is beyond me, but one thing is for certain, the God of War series is back and here to stay for a long... loonngg while.
Thank you so much for reading. If you agree or disagree with any points, feel free to let me know in the comments.
Have a wonderful day!
