God of War Review

 

 

 

 

Well, its time for another review and this one is NEW (for a change lol!) and is of the acclaimed action game, God of War, which I've not played before up until quite recently and I got it for the PS5. 

So, is this acclaimed game one of the greatest games of all time and lives up to its hype? Well, let's take a look and find out!

And the usual warning is coming...

PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!! (BUT HARDLY ANY!!)

STORY

So, a bit about the story which is about an immortal God, Kratos, who at the start of the game lives with his son Atreus in the land of Midgard, long after Krator defeated the Olympian Gods. And Kratos cremates the body of his human wife, Faye and Kratos has an uneasy relationship with Atreus as he is often abrasive with him. 

However not long after, Kratos encounters a stranger, who has godly powers and the two of them fight each other in a protracted battle which ends with Kratos seemingly killing the stranger by snapping his neck. Afterward Kratos tells Atreus (who was hiding at the time under Kratos's orders) that they must leave home and honor his wife's request to scatter her ashes at the highest peak in the nine realms. 

And its from here Kratos and Atreus make a dangerous journey toward the peak and encounter many enemies in their way before they can reach their goal...

THOUGHTS

Well, I have to say that God of War certainly deserves its reputation as one of the greatest video games of all time although I wouldn't quite go that far myself, it is undoubtedly an excellent action game with plenty of great combat, colourful characters and stunning visuals to keep you entertained. The game itself is of course a reboot of the franchise, which started all the way back in the PS2 days, so its great to see its reworking done in such an impressive way.

GAMEPLAY 

As for the gameplay, I will as usual break it down into sections as per usual with my game reviews.

COMBAT

Starting with the combat, the game takes on a 3rd person perspective for the action as we see Kratos and Atreus fight together throughout. In fact quite often you will instruct Atreus to fire his bow at enemies and he can also use magic or lightning arrows but the only problem is Atreus needs time to recharge and use them again. 

Kratos himself will use combos while fighting and his trusty axe (which belonged to his late wife Freya) but he can also use his fists and his shield in tandem when fighting enemies also. Kratos also can use what's known as Spartan rage, which is basically like the beserk mode in Doom where he goes into a rage and powerfully smash his enemies to bits and his health will regenerate while he is in that mode. Kratos's axe can also be infused with magic to give it ice effects that can freeze doors and gates to keep them open. Kratos's axe can also be used like a boomerang to throw at either enemies or at objects in order to move an obstacle or open a door and it will return to him afterward. The axe can also have both light and strong attacks.

XP & UPGRADES

Another key feature of the gameplay are the XP points (or experience points) which will allow Kratos to gain new abilities for his weapons and to learn new skills and combos during combat. XP is usually rewarded by killing enemies, bosses or for completing missions set out by NPC's Kratos will meet throughout the game.You can also do the same for Atreus's bow, which you can upgrade the bow's power as well as the damage of the arrows, not to mention Atreus's abilities to help out a bit in physical combat while Kratos fights enemies.

You can also upgrade Kratos's stats via different ways but one main way of doing it is by purchasing armour, which will have different abilities and upgrades relating to stats such as strength, vitality, defense and luck. The armour when upgraded will offer additional slots to allow for more upgrades to be added also. Kratos can also find items called Idunn apples, which will permanently upgrade Kratos's HP but you need to find three at a time to upgrade it by one level. 

STATS

The game as mentioned above also has key stats that you need to upgrade to improve Kratos's abilities in combat and his chances of survival in general! The stats of the game are Strength, which of course improves the power of Kratos's attacks, Runic, which increases elemental damage of attack. Defense is another which simply reduces the damage taken from attacks. Vitality, which increases the amount of HP that Kratos has and again this can be done via armour sets or the special apples mentioned above. Luck, which increases perk activation as well as gaining XP and hacksilver, which is the currency for the game. And last of all is Cooldown, which reduces the recharge time of runic attacks, summons and talismans. 

PUZZLES 

Throughout the game, you will also encounter a number of puzzles that need to be solved at different stages which needs to be done in order to progress the game. These puzzles can range from straight forward to being deeply frustrating and annoying to try and figure out! And if you are crap at puzzles like me, then I'd suggest looking up how to solve them on Youtube lol! Some of the puzzles are optional of course depending on what you are doing e.g. a side mission for one of the NPC's.

SIDE MISSIONS 

You can also perform a number of side missions as mentioned above for some of the NPC's in the game, who want you to collect something for them or find out information and for which you will receive a reward from them. Again the side missions are a useful way of gaining new items as well being able to upgrade your stats and gain extra XP and hacksilver. In fact I'd recommend doing the side missions for just that as it will help boost your stats and give you valuable skills and XP that can help with your combat as you progress in the game.

FAST TRAVEL

And lastly there is the fast travel system where Kratos and Atreus can travel between the different realms in the game via the use of magic doors, which are discovered throughout the game. And you can revisit these areas to do optional missions and gather items and it makes the fast travel very useful if you want to return to an area.  

GRAPHICS 

As for the graphics, the game looks simply superb as the environments are filled with rich detail and the game is also wonderfully colourful and vivid looking, which is a welcome contrast to the colour palette of some of the games we might see today. The character models are also impressive with Kratos cutting an imposing figure and Atreus a more diminutive one and the other NPC's are also impressively brought to life. The attention to details also e.g. in the character's costumes is also great and worth of note as they are often quite intricate and on the PS5 they look mighty impressive. So, overall visually God of War is a real treat on the PS5 and even more so on the PC, which has a greater host of options for gamers to tweak.

VOICE ACTING (Warning: this section might contain spoilers!)

As for the voice acting, the cast are all excellent and provide fine performances and the game is filled with interesting and amusing characters too.

Christopher Judge first of all is excellent as Kratos, the stern and cold God who chooses to live as a normal man (or as normal as can be given the size and strength of him!) who has an uneasy relationship with his son, Atreus at first but they eventually bond more as the story progresses. And Judge has some amusing moments of dialogue here and there even if Kratos is very serious as a character, he continually refers to Atreus as "boy" and how he requires for him to "be silent" a lot lol! Mind you Atreus does do a lot of yakking, so I can see why it might annoy Kratos! 

WARNING: SPOILER IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH!!!

Sunny Suljic is also very good in his role as Atreus, Kratos's son, who is unaware of who he really is as Kratos keeps from him that he too is a God and not a normal human. Sonny has his share of dialogue as Atreus talks an awful lot throughout the game and there are times where he can be a bit annoying as a character as he yaks on so much but he is ultimately still likeable and a great help to Kratos in combat as well solving puzzles. 

Jeremy Davies also does very well as the Stranger, who threatens and fights Kratos early on in the game and of course he later reappears where we find out his real name is Baldur. Baldur's character however despite being villainous also manages later on to be sympathetic as he lives a cursed life of sorts and looks for a way to change it and I won't say more than that for now on it.

Danielle Bisutti is excellent too as Freya, the witch who helps Kratos and Atreus throughout the game with different missions and she later reveals a few secrets of her own that have a dramatic impact on the story (again won't say what they are!). 

Alastair Duncan is great too in his role as Mimir and he often steals the show with some of the best dialogue in the game. Mimir himself in the game is an all-knowing type of character, who is trapped in a tree and wishes for Kratos to cut his head off, which Kratos duly does and they take it to Freya, so they can bring him back to life (much to Freya's disdain as we find out she doesn't like him!) and from Mirmir helps Kratos and Atreus on their journey.

And last of all are Robert Craighead and Adam J Harrington as Brok and Sindri respectively, two blacksmiths, who regularly help out Kratos and Atreus by upgrading their weapons as well as carrying out side missions for them. And both actors provide some amusing dialogue for their characters as Brok is arrogant and brash and Sindri is more of a wimp and very squeamish at the sight of blood or even dirt! 

MUSIC 

As for the music score Bear McReary provides an excellent score, which is emotional and also engaging to listen to and fits the game perfectly well. And the standouts moments of the score include the opening scene where we see Kratos sadly chop down a tree in preparing for his wife's cremation. McReary would later go on to score the follow up game, God of War: Ragnarock, which also won best score at the Game of the Year awards. 

FLAWS

As for flaws...yes God of War does have some.

For starters I think one of the issues of the game is to do with its reliance on puzzles at key moments and they can be a real pain in the ass to solve in order to progress. One such example is of course where Kratos is trapped and rising water gradually drowns him unless you tell Atreus how to move a series of levers to release him in time and of course it took me quite a few goes to get it right! So, the puzzles can definitely be quite frustrating in the game. 

I also felt that some of the side missions could be a bit annoying or rather trying to find key items such as Iduun apples that will allow Kratos's HP to grow permanently to be a real pain also. This is especially annoying as I was often disatisfieid with the amount of HP Kratos had until later on in the game, which I upgraded via the runic slots on his armour pieces. 

Another issue is to do with the difficulty level of the game, as on the balanced mode it is actually very hard to get through and I found myself frequently dying on a level that matches the Dark Souls games. Thankfully though you can lower the difficulty to an easy level that makes getting through the game more manageable. However, it does have to be said the game does pose quite a challenge to get through if you want to do it on normal mode never hard mode! 

I also found the shaky camerawork of the game a bit distracting at times during the cut scenes as it felt like they overdid it a bit too much and I was in an episode of 24 or NYPD Blue instead of a video game at these moments! However, you can scale back or even turn off the camera shake in the options menu, which is a relief to anyone who might feel the effects of it.  

And last of all is to do with the inclusion of the profanity in the game, especially from the character Brok, who says the f word quite a few times throughout the game. And for me this just felt unnecessary and excessive for what I felt is more like a family orientated game than an adult one but Brok's swearing did spoil it a little bit for me as his swearing really wasn't needed and doesn't add anything to the game. Plus this is a game set in Norse mythology, so I can't really imagine having characters saying "Right, assholes let's kick some f***ing ass!" to be appropriate to the setting and this is something that would continue in the sequel, GOW: Ragnarok.

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, God of War is an excellent action adventure game, which features some great combat, boss fights, engaging characters and a fine music score. The game also has some superb visuals that are filled with great levels of detail from the environments down to the details of the character's outfits. There are some issues of course such as the puzzles being annoying to deal with and the game's uneven difficulty as well as the inclusion of some pointless profanity (i.e. Brok's f bombs!). However that all aside, this is an excellent game and well worth checking out  if you haven't yet and I will certainly check out God of War Ragnarock (once the prices come down for it!).

So, I will rate God of War:

9 out of 10

So, that's it for now and I will be back next month with more reviews.

Until then bye for now!