God of War | PS4 Review

Kratos was in dire need of a new beginning. Six games fired off rapidly between 2005 and 2013, with diminishing returns along the way. Luckily, this newest entry was given the time to breathe and come back to reinvent our tattooed hero. God of War presents a new take on the character, and it mostly pays off.

Years removed from his genocide atop Mt. Olympus, Kratos is a world-weary older man. He’s managed to put some kind of life together in the Nordic regions of the world, even starting a new family despite how the last one turned out. Atreus is Kratos’s son, but there’s definitely distance between them. This new version of Kratos may have left most of his rage behind, but other emotions don’t come as easily to him. The game begins with the recent death of Kratos’s wife, and her final request brings the father and son closer together. They need to get to the peak of the highest mountain in all the realms, but of course it won’t be that easy.

New Tools for a New Man

Good thing Kratos has a brand new weapon to dispose of the fiends in Norse mythology. The Leviathan Axe, despite its dumb name, quickly reaches into the pantheon of all-time great video game weapons. It carries a heft to it that’s easy to appreciate, and it’s a perfect complement to the new over-the-shoulder camera in this God of War.

The combat is much more deliberate here than in past games, with much less of a focus on combos. It’s now more about positioning and using every tool in your disposal. Atreus can help out with arrows and even a few extra tricks later on, and is excellent at distracting or stunning foes. Kratos himself has multiple fighting styles, each lending plenty of options complete with skill trees. There are special attacks, launchers, dodges, and blocks. There’s a depth to the combat I found surprising, which was welcome. Every fight matters in this game. You need to constantly be at your best to survive, because negligence will be the swift death of Kratos. No fight felt like a throwaway, and it kept me engaged throughout the entirety of the 35-40 hours I played.

Exploring the Nine Realms

The exploration is certainly more exciting here than in past God of War games. No longer is it a tightly controlled, linear experience. The world of Norse Gods is far more open than that of Greece. This is much more of an Action-RPG with a classic hub-and-spoke style of world. It makes the world feel a lot more interesting, and gives you plenty to do.

Whether all of that stuff is worth doing is more up for debate. Excellent side characters Brok and Sindry, who are also the merchants/blacksmiths of the game, provide the quality content. Their side quests, or “favors” as the game calls them, have long-running narratives attached. Combined with the fact they usually take place in entirely new areas, they definitely stand out. It’s also a great excuse to spend more time with these dwarven brothers, who are a highlight of the game. Less interesting are the side quests for restless spirits. These have little stories attached to them, but are filler in a game that is already massive. It’s usually an excuse for Kratos and Atreus to get into some combat, but as there is already so much combat in the game, they come off as wholly unnecessary. The loot you get is never worth it, and quickly replaced.

The Dead Need No Trinkets

Loot is another big aspect of this game, with entire optional areas focused exclusively on farming items to upgrade and farming new armors. Mileage may vary on this depending on how much you like seeing numbers go up, but this part of the experience helps to make God of War feel bloated or overdesigned. Outside of talismans, it’s really about picking the gear that looks the coolest. There are stats attached to everything, but the combat is so focused on player skill that it felt as though the differences the stats made were minimal at best. In fact, it really just felt like a way of gating the player out of certain fights until later in the game.

The talismans do allow for a little creativity, some letting you slow down time on a careful dodge for instance, but that’s about as much customization I felt in the game. The skill trees can be fully unlocked in a normal playthrough with the ludicrous amount of XP the game throws your way. Most of the abilities in the skill trees were some pretty simple things most games just give you, such as parrying. It didn’t feel like I was working towards these skills, or speccing my Kratos the way I liked. It felt like I was checking boxes off a list.

Too Big for its Own Good

The bloat in God of War extends into the main storyline as well. I like a slow-paced story just fine, but God of War occasionally takes it to the extreme. The intro hours begin to drag before reaching the more open areas of the game, but this is quickly forgiven. Less easy to forgive is the roadblocks placed before Kratos and Atreus.

As mentioned before, the main quest of the game is ascending to the highest peak in all the realms. But unfortunately there are stumbles along the way. Impassable obstacles stop our heroes dead in their tracks, and they (therefore the player) must go hunt down a couple McGuffins to proceed further along. So it’s back down from wherever you were on the mountain to go track down some items that will help in some vague way. There’s even once when you’re derailed into finding an item, only to find out there are two OTHER things you have to get first.

Now these sections sometimes lead into good character moments, but those moments could’ve been reached without this forceful extension of the game. I know it’s blasphemous to suggest a game be shorter, but God of War is severely in need of it. It doesn’t attempt to tell its story efficiently at all. Now again, those character moments are great. They just could’ve been reached in a better way. There’s one 3-4 hour section of the main story that could’ve been scrapped entirely with no detriment to the plot.

A Father and Son Road Tale

In the end though, it’s worth it. The story and its characters are phenomenal. There are monumental things that occur that have been wisely kept out of all marketing and make for incredible surprises. Some of the big endgame plot twists are so obvious if you know Norse mythology at all, that you’ll guess them two hours into the game. But it really doesn’t diminish their importance to Kratos and Atreus, and that’s what we’re here for. You’ll find yourself attached to Dad Kratos immediately and want desperately to see what’s in store next for these characters. It’s one of rare endings in video games that absolutely nails it

God of War is easy to recommend to anybody that owns a PS4. It’s not a system seller, but it is very good. It may not bring a single original idea to the table with its gameplay, but all of it is polished to fine sheen. If you’re a believer in dollars-to-gameplay ratio, you’ll be hard-pressed to finder a better deal in single-player these days. It is longer than it needs to be, has too many systems that feel superfluous, and is full of filler. But the combat is intense, the characters are engaging, and the plot has plenty of payoff. If you have an interest in seeing where Kratos has gone, definitely check it out.