The first enemy you fight in God of War is a tree. Kratos is living as a man now, and that’s what he’s using his axe for, after all. He’s no less angry at it for the fact that it isn’t trying to rip his throat out with sharp claws: his wife is dead, and there’s no shortage of residual rage from the character who we last saw beating his own father’s skull into the ground with his bare hands. But the camera gives us plenty of opportunities to look at his new, haggard face, both here in this first moments and throughout the game: the wrinkles both a sign of his advanced years and the fact that this is his first adventure built for the PlayStation 4′s graphical capability. His beard, too, is the game’s way of saying that we’re in new territory now, a soft reboot for what was once one of PlayStation’s core franchises. We’re in mythological Scandinavia now, the home of Odin, Thor and the Norse Gods.
That’s the challenge of God of War, or of any reboot. Fans of the series, of which there are many, want a God of War game. But they want a new one, not a retread of old territory. We need Kratos to be familiar, but not identical, just like the combat, the new setting and the rest of the gameplay. That the world of the Eddas translates well into the series’ signature larger-than-life brutality is not surprising: we have Trolls, Jotuns, Elves, Dwarves and vengeful Gods, magic hammers, Sacred Runes and everything else we need to piece together a set piece action RPG. What is surprising, however, is how well it all works, not just the change in setting but the ambitious writing and more involved combat. God of War is not just a true God of War game — it’s an excellent one, and my favorite installment since God of War 2.
A Whole New World
The move to Norse Mythology is no less natural for being a move borne out of necessity: there were neither any real stories left to tell in Kratos’ Greek life nor any characters left for him to kill. The game doesn’t linger on the idea much: this is a shared world where the realms of Greek and Norse mythology both exist more or less separate from each other save this one character that’s moved between them, and we’re leaving it at that. It works as a vehicle to bring fresh Gods and monsters into our world, and that’s sort of enough.
The story centers on Kratos and Atreus, his son by a woman named Fey, recently deceased at the beginning of the game. Their journey, like so many of the mythological tales that inspire it, is simple: to scatter her ashes on the highest peak in all the realms. There are some complications along the way, and thus makes the game — the writing here is more involved than the rest of the series, where Kratos was mostly an avatar of rage and more or less all the other characters were dead within minutes of meeting him. That breakneck pace of violence is a bit slower this time around. Kratos is a character this time, and a surprisingly engaging one: no less savage in combat, but more reluctantly so, worried to keep his child from his same fate — or the fate of his previous children. Kratos has few examples of functional families in his life.
What follows works, in and out of combat: Atreus is wide-eyed and excitable, a foil for his father’s gruff, world-weary stoicism. Atreus asks him questions, Kratos responds with what becomes a sort of catchphrase: “I do not know.” The two become endearing, a camera to begin this early exploration of a new world. And the world is different: there is nothing like the glittering, towering temples of the original series, and something about that grandeur is missed. But things are smaller and colder this time around, a little more human to match Kratos’ now-fleshed-out character. As in the past, there is no lack of the large scale in this game. But there’s also a small scale that’s never been present before. We’ll talk about the camera in the next section, how the close-in angle changes the way combat works. But it matters to the story, too: everything is that much more intimate.
It feels a little like God of War by way of Uncharted, with the sort of two-character writing that keeps dialogue rolling through what would otherwise be a solitary adventure. There is even a bit of comedy here, especially when you pick up a new companion along the way. Kratos — yes, Kratos — actually has a few lines which could be roughly interpreted as jokes, a very new role for the Ghost of Sparta. At one point, a character discussing the nine realms of the world asks him if he’s ever been to hell.
“Not this one,” he responds.
Bringing it in Close
Just like the Blades of Chaos defined the area-controlling, flaming menace of the original series, so the new Leviathan Axe defines most of this one. It’s a nimble weapon but a heavy one, which is essentially how combat feels here: Kratos isn’t exactly difficult to move around, but he’s less acrobatic than he was in his earlier years. That’s thanks it most part to the close-in camera, behind-the-shoulder camera, which makes the whole experience more intimate and weightier, bringing us right up to a distance that was mostly reserved for cinematic moments before. Just like the story feels like God of War by way of Uncharted, the combat feels like God of War by way of that old touchstone Dark Souls: we get the physicality, camera and impact of a Souls game combined with the ferocity and power of a God of War game.
Kratos is a little more versatile this time around, however. To start with, the Leviathan Axe can also be thrown, adding in a much more involved layer of ranged capabilities both in combat and when solving environmental puzzles — Kratos can recall it with Triangle and it whooshes back with a satisfying thud every time. That throwing gives options in combat that the game didn’t have before, and it allows for a lot more variety in playstyles. Kratos can also opt to go bare-handed, a satisfying way to lay stun damage down on an enemy until you can trigger one of the series’ signature executions — sans button prompts, thankfully. The combination of a shield and some more elaborate high-level moves allow for a strong power fantasy associated with mastering the wealth of options on offer.
Things are more disorienting when you can’t see enemies behind you, which can be frustrating when you’re mobbed. That’s mitigated by both a wider range of magic attacks, as well as UI warnings and Atreus, who will warn you when you’re getting attacked from a blind spot. The kid had people worried that the game was going to be one long escort mission, but both solid writing and clever combat implementation help avoid that entirely: if anything, his arrows are a little bit overpowered, something which helps endear him to the player in and out of combat. There’s far more to keep track of than in older games, and it can be a bit much at times. Still, if you can keep it all straight in your head, it’s massively satisfying to pull off some of the games’ more elaborate executions.
There are also customization options to be had — a lot of them. Kratos can find and craft new armor for his chest, waist and arms, in addition to pommels for his weapons and an ability-granting talisman. Each piece of armor can also a number of enchantments based on their level — my Kratos currently has six, in total. All equipment can be upgraded, and the weapons can be equipped with different special moves, which can also be upgraded. Atreus, too, can upgrade his armor, bow and quiver. It’s a lot to work with, between the dozen or so equipable items and the embarrassment in resources involved in their crafting and maintenance, and it’s here that I found my biggest sticking point with the game: I always felt like I was spending my resources in the wrong place, or that I should have saved for one thing or another, or that I was failing to maximize my gains with what I did have. It’s not a great feeling, especially when the game is a linear narrative at its core: it slows you down.
The More Things Change
When the enemies are swarming, the axe is swinging and Kratos is bashing a poor Draugr’s head in with his bare shoulder, it’s remarkable how much this still feels like God of War. It’s a heavier, more intimate version of God of War, but it feels like much more has been gained than lost: we may not have those arena-spanning acrobatics, but we have a more expansive moveset, tactical options with Atreus’ bow, extensive ranged options and more. Environmental puzzles are just difficult enough to be satisfying, just easy enough to keep things moving. It is — and this is one thing I never expected to be saying — if anything more controller-shaking brutal than the games that came before it, something really driven home by those weighty, angry swings of the Leviathan Axe. Kratos wants to end the cycle of violence, he says, but there’s plenty to be had along the way.
I had heard of the Minotaur when I was a kid, at least in basic terms. I had likely seen it in a cartoon or two, as well as read about it in the kid-friendly and always popular D’aularies book of Greek mythology. It was a silly sort of thing: half-bull, half-man, angry but easily outsmarted by a red handkerchief. And then I remember playing the original God of War and just thinking: oh. Here was a Minotaur, but there was nothing silly about it. It was tall and angry, rendered with the full, ferocious terror that gave those older stories a sort of savage presence I had never really felt before. It may not have been an exactly canon version of those stories, but all those creatures and characters felt like they were made true with a kind of essential accuracy that ran deeper than that.
This new God of War does that for Norse mythology, but in a different way: we still have the grandeur here and there, between the massive, stone-swinging trolls, the great coiled World Serpent and a few other pieces of set dressing I won’t spoil. But it does something beyond that, too, giving us a much more involved look at the twisted family drama that make up these stories as well. The Gods here are more human then they’ve ever been, and there’s something as captivating about that as there was about the larger-than-life absurdity of characters like Poseidon and Hades in the original series. God of War works for what it keeps and works for what it changes. It’s a foundation for a series that’s suddenly a tentpole once again.
Developer: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Platforms: PS4
Publisher: Sony Santa Monica
Release Date: April 20, 2018
Price: $59.99
Score: 9.5/10
A review code was provided for the purpose of this review.
