Game Review - God of War (PS4)

God of War steals. And it steals from the best! I could probably call this a knock-off of Dark Souls and the new Assassin's Creed games and be done with the review but I would be committing a huge sin if I did as it has more than enough ideas to stand on its own. Now that I have finished the game through and through, I can give you some reasons as to why this game deserved GOTY 2018.

God of War (4? 8?) is a soft-reboot of sorts of the age-old franchise of which I have been a huge fan of, for the ridiculous amounts of violence and exceptional gameplay mechanics. Though the previous games do matter in this reboot, it feels as if it is entirely a new IP. It feels fresh and familiar at the same time and most of it has to do with the story-driven aspect rather than the gameplay side of things.

Kratos had somehow escaped death (once again) following the events in GOW 3 and has been living a peaceful life far away from Greece for quite a while now. Unfortunately, Mrs. Kratos has passed away now. So Kratos and his son, Atreus must embark on a journey to fulfil her last wish - to scatter her ashes from the highest peak in all of Scandinavia. Sounds simple...*dramatic close-up* OR IS IT!? We see Kratos' human side in this story and that is what makes this stand out from the previous titles where he was a God-slaying, mindless brute. His new family had made him forget he was a God and brought out his human-side. And we see this throughout the game from his interactions with his son, who is a friendly NPC. He starts out being a stern father but slowly puts faith in his son. His son, on the other hand, expects appreciation and love from his dad (of war), which he seldom receives. This push-and-pull dynamic added a lot of layers into this, frankly, a simple plot and it never got annoying. To put things into context, we also have a character called Mimir, who is a severed head attached to Kratos' belt (don't ask.) who acts as our guide/encyclopedia providing us a lot of information on the Norse mythology that most of us are not familiar with.

The gameplay has vastly changed - we no longer have a third-person, top-down action adventure game. Instead, it is more of a fixed camera, behind-the-player action game, not much dissimilar to a thrid-person shooter. Kratos' iconic chain-blades are replaced by his trusty Leviathan Axe, which comes back to him once he throws it. Moreover, this time we have a lot of RPG aspects where Kratos' and Atreus' armor and weapons can be modified or upgraded as the player sees fit. It is a lot deeper than I could put it in here but it is very, very addicting to keep buffing up Kratos' until his stats cap-out. To put it in context, the last time this happened with me was with another GOTY, i.e. The Witcher 3. I spent so much time on finishing the side missions in this game that I forgot there was a main story which I needed to go through...and by that time Kray-kray was ridiculously OP'd which made the game easy-peesy. There are only a handful of boss-battles unlike the previous games but they are every bit as cinematic and epic in scale. However, there was one boss that I wished was more grand in scale which was the final one. That fight was anti-climactic to say the least and just when you expect it to ramp up, the game's over. I was left feeling sequel-baited.

The visuals are literally out of this world. Much like with Uncharted 4, there were moments in this game where I just stood around and breathed in the meticulously-designed locations and environments. I was transported to ancient Scandinavia. There is an chapter in the game where you explore an area surrounding a dead giant and I was overwhelmed by the sheer scale of it all. I played the game on my regular PS4 which caps it at 30FPS and it still looked scarily massive and a wee bit enchanting. I noticed a few (very minute) slowdowns here and there but they weren't game-breaking at all.

I like to think that this game and its next installment would be a handing-of-the-torch setup where the franchise will go forward with Atreus. And if this is the first one to do that, I cannot imagine the lengths the next ones will take. The love that the game-makers had for this game and the franchise is evident from the fact that they have promised not to release a cash-grabbing DLC out of respect for the fans. I seriously had a great time playing this title (bar the minor spoilers I came across via a jerk of a friend) and that is why I feel that this wholly deserved to be GOTY. Take a bow Mr.Barlog!

Score- 8/10