Why You Should Play
- Beautifully crafted open world to explore.
- Tons of combos and combat mechanics to learn and master.
- Brutal combat that stands above the fold.
- An expertly crafted story that sheds new light on Kratos, the Ghost of Sparta.
The God of War series has always been strong, and after the last game, Sony decided to take a break from Kratos’ story and let things simmer for a while. Now, after a few years away, Kratos is finally making his return, and it’s bigger and better than ever. Unlike previous games in the series, though, God of War reimagines the story, focusing more on the relationship between Kratos and his son than the hate that Kratos had for the Greek Pantheon. It’s a great change of pace that leads to some beautiful moments, and throughout the gore-filled and brutal battle scenes, forgiveness, redemption, and parental guidance ring true.
Related: How Old is Kratos in God of War Ragnarok?
Gameplay
The God of War series has always focused on combat and solving puzzles to continue. That’s still the main focus of gameplay when it comes to God of War, but fans of the series will notice that the latest iteration of the story features less quicktime events—which were very popular in the original games. Now, there are still quicktime events, but they are scattered throughout the game very well, which means the combat always feels fluid, and you are freed from hard to complete quicktime events that could make combat unbearable. It’s a good mix between the free combat attacks and the more timed events, and it creates a good feeling all around as you battle enemies and take them down.
Unlike previous God of War games, the latest entry in the series features a massive open world with nine different realms for players to learn about and explore. There’s a ton of lore in the game about the Norse world, and it’s so well done that it never feels out of your way to look around for collectibles and other lore-based items.
When it comes to traversing the world, there are myriad ways to get around. You can jump, travel in a boat, and even make use of a nifty fast travel system (that we won’t touch on too much because we don’t want to spoil it). From a gameplay stand point, though, God of War is everything that fans would expect of it and more.
Visuals and Performance
We played through the game on a PlayStation 4 Pro and the game runs very well, all while bringing the world to life with realistic and beautiful visuals. There’s a lot to like about the game world in God of War, and nothing that you come across ever looks halfway done. It’s clear that a lot of work went into bringing the world to life, and it really shines as you take on massive enemies and deal with hordes of lower tier enemies, all without ever hitting any kind of FPS hiccups. The game itself is well optimized and runs well on the PlayStation 4 Pro. Although we haven’t played it on the original PlayStation 4, we’ve seen nothing so far to warrant any kind of worry for players who don’t own a PS4 Pro.
Game of the Week
God of War is bigger and badder than the series has ever been, and Kratos’ latest story has more to offer than ever. The story is exceptionally well written, and offers a message not seen before in the series. The brutal battles are still here, with new enemies, ways to take them down, and even new Gods to defeat.
All around, God of War is a fun time, and the massive open world means that players can get lost for hours while they journey with Kratos and Atreus through the nine realms. It’s not hard to see why we’ve chosen God of War as the Prima Games Game of the week.
If you’re planning on picking up the game, make sure to get the official Prima Games God of War strategy guide available now.
Related: How Long Does God of War Ragnarok Take to Beat? – Answered
