'You are not ready...'
I am well aware that this game came out three months ago, but I'm going to review it anyways.
I'm not a gaming insider and have no horses in the race and no reason to kick anyone's tires. I'm just a guy who remembers being five years old, playing [I]Super Mario bros. 3[/i], at that time knowing the warp zone (somehow, with no internet...I forget how I learned it) and the eight and nine year old kids I was hanging with saying 'Holy shit, does this kid know the warp zone!?'
I've been a gamer for over 30 years, and I hope to be gaming for 30 more, if I live that long.
This review is also spoiler free.
I'm of the belief that good games are made up of the same four components as they were in the days I was a little shit playing around on level three of world one almost thirty years ago:
[b]Gameplay
Story
Graphics and Sound
Replayability and Bang for your Buck[/b]
And it is by these metrics that I will be scoring games.
So let's get to [I]God of War[/I], also known as [I]God of War 4[/i] and [I]God of War (2018)[/i], the critical darling of the second quarter 2018 PS4 season which has been selling like crack in New York City in the late 1980's.
TL:DR: It's a very good game.
[b]Gameplay:[/b]
Tremendous and extremely fun with a great level of challenge. Just playing on regular difficulty ('Give me a balanced experience'), there have been several fights that took me five or six attempts and rethinking my approach to get through.
I have also heard that the launch version of the game lacks the crucial new game plus feature, but that it's going to be patched in sometime soon. It's always nice to be able to revisit a classic and breeze through it in a weekend with your best weapons and gear to get a better appreciation for the story and to find things you may have missed the first time.
This reimagining of the franchise ditches the previous 'scenic' camera perspective for an over-the-shoulder camera similar to what we see in games like [I]Horizon: Zero Dawn, Mass Effect 1-3[/I] and where it first started a decade and a half ago in [I]Resident Evil IV[/I]. I mean it's a good camera but it's hardly perfect. It allows for a greater degree of control over Kratos, though you can no longer see him chewing the scenery and unleashing devastating combos across a large area.
Some people don't like it, but the introduction of a 'quick turn' by pressing any direction on the D-Pad helps the player and prevents you from being ambushed, though it's not always practical, but more on that in a bit.
Combat is highly satisfying, first with the Leviathan Axe, which Kratos can throw by holding L2 and tapping any of the two right side shoulder buttons, and then retrieve, like frickin' Thor by pressing triangle.
Image (gif) : https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSxBJdkX8gw2ySnimhojQUiI6XD9u2wV6h3yiu4TbQxHTJu9DUI
Add to that your Guardian Sheild, your son Atreus being able to pepper enemies with arrows and later melee attacks, and some legendary weapons you can get mid quest and the player has a ton of combat options. Put it all together and you have a highly satisfying combat and battle mechanic in place.
Let me give you a scenario:
Kratos and Atreus enter a room and after a short cutscene a tough enemy drops in. In the space of a few seconds you can parry his attack with your sheild, knock him back with a few strikes from (secret late game weapon) and have Atreus smack him with a few arrows before switching to the Leviathan Axe and hammering him with a devastating runic attack...and if you did enough damage, you can sprint up to him, tap R3 and hit him with one of the game's signature finishers.
It is all very awesome...But its not perfect.
Using the D-Pad to turn around gets difficult when you're swarmed by multiple enemies, as you will be.
If you build improperly you can put yourself at an early disadvantage (do not neglect building Atreus) and make things harder for yourself.
Experience Points used to get new skills and perks are hard to come by unless you do quests (which aren't always available) and the camera isn't movable to a large degree.
Similar to the mechanic in [I]Horizon: Zero Dawn[/I], Kratos can sprint by holding down L3, and I find this mechanic as awkward here as I did there, slippage is a problem during marathon gaming sessions.
God of War isn't a true open world game; the map is very big but its really more of a central hub from which you connect to multiple smaller worlds, but similar to problems encountered in [I]The Witcher 3[/i], the map zoom can make things difficult when you need to get to a precise location - for instance, aside from the main quest, quest markers aren't very noticeable. Having maximum map zoom can't be much more than a few extra lines of code, it should have been in there.
Both the axe and the secret weapons obtained later allow for puzzle solving, but the puzzles are largely the same; freeze this block, climb over it, retrieve your axe and repeat. Once you get the secret weapons, take one thing from this place and put it into another place and repeat.
But in spite of that, combat is still very fun, the game is never boring and it plays well, offering challenge without too steep a learning curve but at the same time never being too easy.
[b]Story:[/B]
You start in a humble abobe with your son Atreus.
Things happen.
Kratos is Kratos, but his son?
The boy is kindhearted though at times lacks social graces and tact - like most of us when we were kids I imagine. When Atreus and Kratos set off on their journey he is sickly and weak, but over time he grows adept and confident, even at a point too confident when he learns his true nature.
Before you go saying 'How is a Greek God in Norway?', ask yourself 'How is it that Geralt has superhuman strength, reflexes and stamina but a 10-foot fall instantly kills him?' or 'If Horizon: Zero Dawn takes place in Utah and Colorado why are there jungles?', enjoy it first and ask questions later.
Throughout the adventure you meet memorable characters and fight epic battles (though sadly nothing is really on par with the God killing brawls of the original series).
But the story itself in contrast to the brutality of the combat is intimate and human, because this time around Kratos isn't a killing machine, but a father, and features fully fleshed characters who have realistic motivations and actions. Absolutely top notch voice work by Christopher Judge as Kratos shows both his capacity for brutality but also his wisdom and restraint. He doesn't kill because he wants to, he kills to protect his son and heir.
Not too big and not too small and plotted well, the story moves from quest to set-piece to quest to set-piece seamlessly, and its really not so much the story of Kratos reflecting on the things he's done as it is a coming of age story for Atreus - who is an infinitely more useful companion than Ellie was in [I]The Last of Us[/I].
It's not [I]Chrono Trigger[/I], but the story is more than satisfying.
[b]Graphics and Sound:[/b]
The soundtrack was composed by Emmy award winner Bear McCreary, and it's good.
Video:
Alternating between austerity and fury, God of War has, like other action games before it, taken the [I]Breath of the Wild[/I] approach and has scored for ambience and immersion as opposed to scoring for specific characters and scenarios, a move I approve of.
The effects are on point as well. Every slash of the Leviathan axe sounds just like it should, and while Christopher Judge deserves praise for his stoic portrayal of Kratos, its Alistair Duncan's Mimir, with his heavy Scottish accent and impeccable comic timing, who is the real hero.
Graphically the game is gorgeous, with snowy mountains, boreal forests and intricate temples, the environments stand out - even the damn fast travel screen is gorgeous. Kratos and Atreus also look great, and in combat their movements are fluid and sexy, but one small complaint is that the enemies don't have the same level of polish and uniqueness as the two heroes of the story.
Nevertheless, I play on a standard PS4 on a 40" TV. I'm sure playing on a Pro in 4K with a 70" TV can change some of this, but graphically there is very little to complain about.
[b]Replayability and Bang for your Buck:[/b]
With games off the shelf costing about $70 USD these days (although in the country I reside in, the price I paid for it clocks in at just under $44) AND DLC content and season passes bringing purchase prices north of $100, players want a game that they can look back on and say that it was money well spent.
While we're at it, I hate the DLC 'fad', if it can even be called that. I'd rather wait a few extra months for a complete game than have to pay more of my hard earned money to buy pieces of it later, but that's an article for another time.
As mentioned earlier in this review, while the launch version of the game didn't have a new game plus feature, it seems that the Santa Monica Studios ran out of weed and realized players like the feature, confirming it will be patched in TBA during their E3 presentation*.
Source: https://wccftech.com/god-of-war-new-game-plus/
And that this new game plus will possibly feature additional content.
The story itself isn't the best story in gaming, but it's full of interesting characters and epic battles and is definitely worth a revisit. The main storyline clocks in at anywhere between 20 hours if you go minimalist to over 50 if you explore and unlock the myriad secret chests, shrines, runes, dragons and sidequests. It's not a game you can dump 200 hours into like [I]The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt[/I] but it's meaty enough to keep most players busy for 2-4 weeks.
...and it's really just too awesome. I can see myself playing this game every year or two.
[b]Closing Thoughts and Final Score:[/b]
Before I close this review I would just like to say that I purchased my PS4 last summer - I like to wait a year or two before buying new consoles because they're cheaper, the launch bugs have been worked out and there's a larger selection of good games - and between this game, [I]Assassins Creed: Origins, Horizon: Zero Dawn, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Nioh[/I] and the [I]Far Cry[/I] games...I am extremely impressed with it so far. If the PlayStation 2 is the best console ever and the Super Nintendo is the second best, the PlayStation 4 is tracking very well.
Their first entry into the series made a huge splash in 2005 and the series was well received until the last main entry in 2010.
[i]God of War[/I] changes the chemistry of some of what made the original games what they were, but stays familiar in enough ways to re-establish the series as a tent pole franchise. Its the type of game you buy a console for.
Not only that, it opens up many new possibilities for the series; will the next game continue in Norway eventually leading to a battle Royale between Kratos and Odin? There was nothing left in Greece for Kratos (because he killed everyone), and if he's not taking it to the Norse pantheon, where else? A God of War set in India with Kratos vs. Vishnu? Kratos goes to Mexico and takes the fight to Mictlantecutli? Duking it out with Jupiter in Rome? Taking out Allah (okay, that probably won't happen...)?
There's enough material there to keep making God of War games for the next thirty years.
And I hope to someday play them.
As this is my first review (I will review both new and classic games), I should give you some perspective on how I score games. These are my benchmarks:
10: If in the future a perfect game comes along it will receive this score.
9.5 and up: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
9: Super Mario Galaxy 2, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
8.5: Mass Effect 2, Horizon: Zero Dawn
8: Final Fantasy X, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
7.5: Suikoden V, Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
7: Assassin's Creed: Origins, Devil May Cry
Anything less than 7/10 is mediocre.
With its incredible combat, well-drawn characters, gorgeous presentation and great replay value being more than enough to overshadow the mundane puzzles, good but not great controls, no map zoom, pedestrian enemy design and relative lack of epic boss fights,
I feel more than comfortable giving
[I]God of War[/i] a score of [b]8.8/10[/b].
Frozen Flame out ....
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