I am not a parent. I aim to be someday, but at present, I don’t truly understand the implicit responsibility, fear, love, anger, disappointment, and pride that comes with it. I think the best and simplest thing I can say about God of War is that I have learned more about being a parent in these 30 hours than I have in the rest of my life. Perhaps not how to be a good parent, but a parent nonetheless. I will keep this spoiler free past the opening chapter of the game. You absolutely need to experience the story on your own.
The “gimmick” of God of War, which is actually a critical piece of the game’s presentation, is that it is all done in one shot. Like the recent film 1917, the camera never switches views, never breaks shots, never takes its focus off the action. If you make it through the entire game without dying you won’t see a single load screen, ever. There is no fading out and no panning up. The camera is constantly shifting angles, distances, temperature, and focus but never breaks. This is the absolutely critical piece of my selling point — God of War is living in an epic. When I say epic, I am referring to the stories of Hercules, or Gilgamesh, or Beowulf. A legend. God of War is a story being told to you by a wizened old bard, pipe in hand, around a fire in ancient Scandinavia. A story of a foreign God trying to find home in a place that couldn’t be further away from it. Realizing that you cannot run from your past forever — eventually you must kill it.
I was unfamiliar with God of War until I played this game. I don’t think I even knew Kratos’s name, let alone his backstory. So discovering his past crimes alongside Atreus was an incredible experience for me. I think there is something distinct and different for both fans of the series and newcomers here. If you haven’t played the previous games, I advise you to go into it blind.
The story begins as Kratos and Atreus pay respects to Faye, Atreus’s late mother. Her body has barely finished burning on the pyre when a Stranger approaches Kratos, looking to pick a fight. First appearing to be a scrawny, weak man, The Stranger is quickly revealed to be a murderous God hell-bent on ending Kratos. Barely defeating him, Kratos and Atreus grab Faye’s ashes to fulfill her last wish, to be “spread from the highest peak in all the realms.” The story follows this disconnected father and son on their journey across the realms to fulfill a deeply personal quest. To an outsider, fighting draugr, demons, ogres, hags, and dragons to reach a mountain and spread your mother’s ashes may be considered trivial. To the two of them, it is everything.
Combat is reliant on one of two weapons, the Leviathan Axe and the Blades of Chaos. The Blades only become playable about halfway through the game, so until then you’ll be utilizing your axe and Atreus’s bow to fight. God of War is perhaps a little too customizable, which is one of the few issues I had with it. You have your axe, then upgrades for the axe pommel, and then the blade, and the pommel can have sockets, and each socket can have an enchantment, and each weapon can have a talisman, and each piece of armor can be upgraded for more sockets and some sockets can be upgraded but others can’t… this is not the game’s reason for existing. A simple “pay to upgrade the axe” would have sufficed and let the player focus on the best parts of the game.
Kratos’s fighting style is entirely dependent on how you fill out your skill tree and how you fight with him. I developed a rhythm eventually, alternating between shock arrow shots and perfect axe throws at a middle-distance. But there are at least a dozen pretty distinct ways to fight. Later in the game you’ll need to alternate between the axe and the blades to switch between fire and ice attacks for different enemies mid-fight, which is thrilling in its own right.
Beyond combat you’ll solve a lot of environmental puzzles, some of which are tedious but most of which are very well made. And unlike most puzzle games, you won’t need to suspend disbelief about why someone has laid all these Rube-Goldberg machines around for you to solve — the Norse Gods LOVE that shit. It’s there for a reason. I had to look up 3 or 4 puzzles after getting stuck somewhere, but except for one time it was just me being stupid, nothing to the fault of the developer.
The characters were incredible. Beyond the main duo of the timid, sick warrior child and the actual god trying to repent for his sins, you’ll see my good friend and companion Mimir, the all knowing head. He and the dwarf brothers Sindri and Brock provide the exact amount of comic relief needed for the story without trivializing it. The dwarves run the store and upgrade your weapons and such, but also give out side quests and generally help provide some outside perspective to this intensely focused story. The Witch of the Woods is perhaps the best performance in the game, played by the impeccable Danielle Bisuti. And that moment when you meet the World Serpent for the first time is just… unspeakable. I’m unable to speak about that moment. You need to be in it. Live in it.
I wish I could tell you more about this game, but I cannot. All I can do is urge you to play it now. It is also imperative that you turn off the HUD (set it to touch like I did) to truly feel the game. Let yourself be carried away into this world. Where gods and demons alike strike fear into the hearts of man, where chaos fights order for supremacy, where dragons stalk the mountain halls and dwarves sing songs of battles long forgotten. Walk in it.
Even after all the praise I’ve sung for God of War, I must admit it just wasn’t very fun to play. Combat was fine, exploration was fine, but I don’t think I smiled once during this whole experience. I also walked away totally unaffected emotionally, and I cry rather easily. Something about the overall experience rang hollow, but I’m not sure what it was.
Final Verdict: 8.5/10 — Live Inside a Legend
God of War is the only game I’ve ever played that made me believe I was living in an epic, like the story of Hercules or Beowulf. Not just watching it, but IN IT. I was there. I met the World Serpent and climbed the peaks of Jotunheim. I felt the love and loss that can only be known to a parent, I felt the spirit of adventure, I learned what it is to be a man — and that we need to be better. God of War is living inside an art piece. It’s a long, long tapestry painting that stretches farther than the eye can see. Turn off the HUD as soon as you start. If you, like me, play video games to visit worlds you can’t in real life, you must play this game, perhaps more than any other. It’s not one of my favorites ever, but I know a masterpiece when I see one. This is one of the greats, folks. Don’t miss it.
Find more of my reviews at https://ggapp.io/Gandheezy !
