God of war (2018) Review

God of war is a very known franchise. The fans of the series will remember the epic bossfights and the intense dialogues Kratos had. Well this God of war is different in many ways so forget how the old games were played and even the personality of Kratos in these. We travel to the world of norse mythology and we see and old Kratos embarking on a journey to scatter his wife’s ashes from the tallest peak in all nine realms with his son Atreus.

Storywise the game is perfect. Everyone who knows the franchise will remember the brutal nature of Kratos and his tragic backstory that drives him in an everending cycle of vengeance. In this game we have a very different Kratos. From the very first moment we see how Kratos has no idea how to be a father and Atreus just wants to make him proud. Every step you take in the game is a step closer to these two finding a way to communicate and every hardship makes the father-son bond stronger. Every charachter you meet is unique and the game gives them enought time for you to understand their personality and their place in the story. Even blacksmiths Sindri and Brok our very well written and not many games have a good script for those who sell you staff. There are not many cutscenes and i really like when the story can unfold while you are playing and you are not just a viewer because it makes the moment more alive. The ending also delivers and if you pay attention you know exactly what the sequel will be about!

Gameplay at first is kinda weird. First of all camera potition is not one you are familiar with but you will get used to it and for this game it works very well giving you the best angles to admire the world. Starting the game combat was my main issue. Of course going through the game it becomes very satisfactory with two weapons and a lot of combos and special runic attacks but until that point i really prefered my fists to do the talking. The axe is the weapon you have from the start of the game and it has the ability to come back after you throw it like Thor’s hammer. Later you get the well-known blades of chaos which i prefered more although the axe was still better in some fights. Atreus takes part in the fights and you have some control over him. The good thing is he can’t die in fights so you don’t have to worry about him. Another issue i had was the lack of finishing moves. I loved them when the game started i was getting bored of them a little before getting the blades and i was dissapointed when i realised the blades mostly didn’t had any new finishers.

The game is full of astonishing places to explore and they have a very good job on giving the player enough motive to do everything in the map. Every quest seems like it has a reason to exist nothing is there just to extend the game. From spirit quests to the Valkyries everything can offer the player enough for him to invest in them.

In general GoW has everything that makes a game a great experience. Even after finishing it you want to complete every single thing out there even a new game+ is a good idea. I can’t say it’s perfect but regarding how they decided to continue the story of Kratos i believe they did a great job and the feature of the franchise seems brighter than ever.