God of War - Review

God of War, a game that I really was not all to hyped for when it got announced, but when I started to see the reviews coming in for that game I had to play it for myself. The game was getting 9/10, 10/10 by many different outlets and I thought to myself “It can not be that good”. I was in for a shock. Warning this review does contain spoilers!!

God of War is a fantastic game, not just on an artistic level but also on a technological level. The game has no loading screens. It’s all one smooth camera that moves fluently between gameplay and cutscenes. Having that happen keeps you constantly immersed in the wonderful world that Cory Barlog and the crew at Santa Monica Studios have created for this game, the scale of this game is ridiculous, the amount of detail but into everything, including Kratos’ beard. Leaves me wondering how I was able to run this on a bog standard PS4 at 1080p 60fps and have it still looking that Amazing.

God of War was a franchise I really knew nothing about, so I had to get myself up to date watching videos on what happened in the previous instalments, and what I saw made me ask questions like “Why did I never play this game?” The brutality and sheer scale that was shown in the previous God of War games would still amaze me if those games were made today. But this is a review on the 2018 God of War.

The game has many positives, from the characters, to the graphics, to the gameplay then to the story but first let’s talk about something people don’t generally look at in modern media, such as games and movies, and that is Music.

Bear McCreary is the composer of all the music used in God of War, and may I say the music is tremendous. The use of the drums to really convey the impact of many of these scenes, especially the use of drums in the track “God of War” which is used generally whenever Kratos’ is on screen, really adds to the menacing look that Kratos is meant to have, especially since he is the God of War and the drums sound like ones used as armies were marching to war. However not all the music is badass and full of bass, the track “Memories of Mother” is used whenever Faye, Kratos’ dead wife is talked about. That track has more of a romantic feel to it, it has a woman humming, possibly Faye humming a lullaby to their child Artreus. A completely different kind of musical feel to the track used for Kratos. This usage of music really helps get the players to feel what kind of emotional attachment both Kratos and Artreus had to Faye. And since Faye is dead the game never has a character speak, the music is key here to get us to understand what kind of person she was, and I think Bear pulled this off masterfully just like he did with all the other tracks.

Moving on to the characters and oh lord. These are some amazing characters right down from the motion capture to the voice acting.

Kratos who was voice acted and mo-capped by a Christopher Judge, was done to near perfection. The growling low domineering voice that he had was perfect for the new creative direction that was going with this character, in the previous games Kratos was a spartan built on revenge for the kidnapping of his brother, he seeked to kill any in his path but then found himself becoming a god, and in the process of him doing that, he was tricked by a god into kill his own family, which then caused him to want to kill all gods and make them pay for their crimes… which he did but in the end, he ended up killing his own father, Zeus. Kratos was a killing machine, but for this game, santa monica studios not only moved from Greek mythology to Norse but they also changed Kratos’ character, since he is now a father again. Kratos is now calmer and more logical. Making an almost 180 turn from how he was before, personally I think this is a great move for Kratos since it now makes more relatable, more real.

Artreus was voice acted and mo-capped by a really young Sunny Suljic, who also did an amazing job, for someone that age he gave a realistic and authentic performance for his character to the point, that I actually felt like a dad taking care of a real kid by the end of the game. Arteus is a special one, as being revealed late in the game as actually being Loki the God of Mischief, originally all of his character traits were very confusing since one point he could be the nicest most respectful child, and other points he could be an utter piece of shit.

There were many more amazing supporting characters like, Mimir, Brok and Sindri also a fantastic character to use as a main villain for the game, Baldur the brother of Thor. But instead of Baldur being the god of light like he is in Norse Mythology he is this darker character, one who feels no pain and is searching for the cure. Which is simple but an effective motivation.

Now for the main mechanics and look of the game, like the games of our time they are generally all puzzle solvers and it would be wrong to say that god of war isn’t that, but what god of war does is it weaves it’s gameplay in with the story, and with the no loading times mentioned before it makes it EVER so better. The combat has a very darksouls feel but with the addedness of Artreus and his bow, there is a small learning curve to the combat but once you become comfortable with it, you will see their combat beats their dark souls counterpart. The graphics honestly for it being just on a PS4 are stunning, they make me feel why other games dont look like that, what is the reason for other games like gta or wwe2k18 lag on the console

and those are the positives, now you may ask. What can there be negative about the game? and there is one answer, length.

I felt the game needed an extra hr or 2 of content but I also understand why it was that length, the father-son story was perfectly done and there is no point going past that, keep it for the next games. But the end however does have a shock with the revelation of Artreus being Loki, but it doesn't feel like the end to a game, to a story yes but not to a game.

But I have had an amazing time in God Of War but the elements of music and the combat and the general story and characters has made me give this:

10/10