God of War (2018)

Introduction

God of War (2018) is arguably one of the best games ever created. If you are a Kratos fan from the original God of War games you know his Spartan Rage makes for one fun game.

God of War has been around for a while.

Taking a look at release dates we have:

Chronologically, it goes.

God of War: Ascension
God of War: Chains of Olympus
God of War
God of War: Ghost of Sparta
God of War II
God of War III
God of War – 2018
God of War: Ragnarok – 2022

In the above list I left out the Mobile God of War: Betrayal – 2007 and any Origins Collection or Saga that was released. Right now, I only focus on PlayStation games because that’s what I play.

The only reviews I’ll cover are those I have played which includes God of War, God of War II, God of War III, God of War (2018), and I will FOR SURE play God of War: Ragnarok when it comes out.

Today we’re going to look at God of War (2018) which took the gamer community by storm. Rumors had circulated for a long time if Santa Monica Studios was going to continue the series but it was obvious by how much of a fan base that God of War built, that it would succeed on some level.

Santa Monica Studios took a risk with taking five years to build the updated game. With the Greek Pantheon completely destroyed by Kratos, what was next?

Norse was next.

After 150+ hours of gameplay I’ll take a look at this game through 10 lenses.

Breakdown –

How The Game Begins
Graphic Quality (non-technical)
Logical Flow of Story
Emotional Pull of Story
Combat
Travel Capabilities
Voice Acting
Replay Value
Closure/How The Game Ends
Future Opportunity for Franchise

How The Game Begins

If you played the past God of War games without looking into the story line through the comics or had read any of the dialogue happening in the gaming community you might be confused on how this game begins.

Having stuck to only the Playstation games myself, I had no idea how Kratos could have survived the end of God of War 3. He impaled himself with the Blade of Olympus then dragged himself off of a cliff. Then again, we have to remember we’re talking about The Ghost of Sparta who crawled out of Hades seeking revenge then single handedly took out the entire Greek pantheon. Anything is possible and as a true God of War fan I thought “Yeah he’s probably not dead”.

The game begins with the new bearded Kratos staring at a tree with a handprint on it, which ends up being a significant symbol. After Kratos cuts down the tree with his fancy new axe in a few hits with Spartan Rage we notice him quickly look at his bandaged up forearm. Oh we know what that is! Then we meet a son which adds an entirely new dynamic to the game. God of War has always been a single player, brutal, rage filled storyline. Now there’s a son who is part of the gameplay! Insane.

Once Kratos easily picks the tree up (only a God, right?) and ties it to his boat we walk him to his home where we find out about his wife who died recently, Faye.

Right from the beginning of the game a player can conclude a lot has happened since leaving Greece and entering into the Norse realm.

From there is a tutorial style beginning which makes it a slow start – as many games do. Speedrunners might not like the beginning but I think the amount of detail, introductions, and storyline is well-done. You get a decent picture of what’s going on with Kratos since his prior life.

I think this start to the game gets a 8.7 out of 10. The only thing I would like is an option to skip past more of it during the New Game+ sequence. I would also have liked a little more information about Faye considering how important of a character she becomes throughout the story. You don’t really ever learn how or why she died, but hopefully that’ll be covered in God of War: Ragnarok (2022). If not, I feel like this is a lost opportunity to add some considerable content to the storyline.

It would be a huge miss for me to not mention the other side of Kratos we see. A possible emotional side. We see sadness from Faye dieing but we also see (not so much hear) a fatherly side when he helps Atreus after he burns his hand on his mother’s knife.

If the beginning wasn’t such a slow burn I would give this a 10. It just took a little longer than I liked to really tap into Kratos’ true fighting style.

8.7 out of 10 for this category.

Graphic Quality (non-technical)

Comparing these graphics (from a non-technical standpoint) to the previous God of War games, it’s a total upgrade with a completely rebuilt combat style, which we talk about later.

Comparing the graphics to other new games in 2018 to 2021 when I’m writing this, it’s right up there with them, and in many cases, better. 10 out of 10 from me on the graphic quality. This is an important quality of games for me. Which is why I often have a hard time going back to older games to replay, such as the original Resident Evil games. After playing the RE2 and RE3 remake, I just can’t do it.

I’ve been gaming since I was young and have seen graphic quality transform overtime but this game still surprised me with how good it looks. Although the game graphics are complex, the simplicity of the overall branding is powerful, such as this shirt I think is awesome.

9.5 out of 10 for this category. I think there are still some rooms of opportunity. If I were to compare these graphics against Red Dead Redemption II, Red Dead is slightly better.

Logical Flow of Story

Storyline flow in this game was excellent. The entire game tied together really well with many pieces of what happened in the beginning of the story being explained later on. Such as, how did the Draugr’s get so close to home? Faye has the border of their home protected which was broken by Kratos cutting the marked trees down. My mind was blown.

I also like how they explained so much within the first 20 minutes of the game. You realized Kratos was in a new land, had a wife, and has a son. It was also obvious Kratos was trying to move on from his past since he had his scars from the Blades of Chaos covered and this epic weapon was not used in combat right away.

Character introduction was also well done. We meet Baldur early on and we really don’t know who he is but it is obvious he is a god in those lands. If you hadn’t already realized it, seeing Baldur (or the Stranger) makes it clear there’s a Norse reference considering his beard, tattoos, mention of Midgard, and Odin. After that fight it’s also obvious Atreus doesn’t know anything about his father, Kratos, as he doesn’t really answer many of his sons questions.

Throughout the game we learn about Midgard, the local gods, and the chaos that engulfed the land, especially after meeting Mimir, the smartest head in the lands. One thing I would have liked to see more of was humans. There were a few in the beginning who attacked Kratos and Atreus but that was it. We don’t exactly learn why so few humans remain. We learn there has been some crazy stuff happening but all that’s left is a couple humans, gods, trolls, and elves.

The storyline IMO was logical and well done. There were no parts of the game that didn’t seem to make sense to me. Most questions I had were answered later on either throughout the gameplay cutscenes or stories from Mimir.

9.6 out of 10 for logical flow.

Emotional Pull of Story

Taking a look at the Emotional Pull of this story, it’s opposite of what we are used to with Kratos. However, the pull is strong and relatable. In past games, it’s an awesome plot but the emotional pull is less relatable considering none of us will sell our soul to a god of war then seek revenge on our father who is Zeus, the King of Gods in the Greek Pantheon.

What we can relate to is a parent child relationship and the stages of it. Atreus, being Kratos’ son, is probably the only person who can talk the way he does to Kratos and not be sent to you know where. We see a bond develop between them that wasn’t there at the beginning of the game. From what I experienced, Kratos didn’t see or talk with his son much until Faye died.

Even then, we see the Spartan General/God Slayer in his parenting style. We see glimpses of Kratos having a fatherly side in the beginning but the relationship goes through a lot of ups and downs throughout the game. One of the reasons this game is so successful is because of the emotional side of the storyline.

By the end of the game, we see Kratos start to become a father to Atreus. We also learn Atreus’s other name, Loki, which is what Faye called him to the Giants.

Other than the father son relationship, we see a lot of chaos in Midgard and all of the other realms. Once they got to Jötunheim, you saw a very sad scene. The place you spent the entire game getting to has been destroyed and you never learn how or why. You can guess from some parts of the game that there was a war between Giants and the Aesir but you don’t see or hear much about it other than seeing the aftermath.

Another area I would have liked the game to explore was Kratos and Faye’s relationship. There was a lot left on the table with that and it could have been explored much more. Unless the next game has a flashback sequence I’m not sure what else they could do. What I think could have been great would have been starting the game before Faye died. The first 10% of the game could have had her play a role then go somewhere, which most likely would have been the war between Giants and Aesir. They could have explored how she died, how they found her body, added scenes of her and Atreus, etc. I think this was a lost opportunity in the game. Hopefully they add to this in 2022 but with Ragnarok being the focus and adding so many new characters, I’m not sure how beneficial it would be.

Overall, there are many different emotional pulls in this story. I would also have liked to have learned what happened to the Giants but Santa Monica Studios may release that information in God of War: Ragnarok in 2022.

8.3 out of 10 for Emotional Pull. I give an this because I really think the relationship between Faye, Kratos, and Atreus could have been built up more.

Combat

In this category I’ll write about each part of the combat. For GOW we have the fighting, armor, weapons, abilities, combinations, and customizations. I probably forgot something but this won’t be exhaustive.

Combat in this game is unbelievably smooth. It’s also fast which allows you to really fight like how we think Kratos fights. If you’ve seen Game Breaker God on YouTube, his way of playing GOW pushes the fighting engine to its absolute max and it’s awesome to watch.

One of the features I really enjoyed with this game was the add-on abilities which included Atreus combat. Having Atreus as a secondary was interesting and fun. Both of their abilities had so many fun ways you could incorporate them into combat. The beginning of the game was pretty limited in terms of different ways to fight but each add-on really brought a lot more to combat.

The leviathan axe, which is the weapon you start with, is awesome. It had a Mjolnir-like quality with being able to throw it and have it return. However, I immediately asked “Where are the Blades of Chaos?!” which you are able to use more towards the middle of the game.

With a completely new combat system it left a lot of us excited to see how the blades would look. Of course, they used this opportunity to create a cinematic cutscene when Kratos went to bring the blades out once again…..and it was GREAT! He brought the blades back out to travel to Helheim which is the Norse underworld and covered in ice. Kratos did this to save his son.

GOW did a great job incorporating the two main weapons into the game. You also have a fist option which is a nice addition. Some of the enemies required either fists or one of the weapons but were immune to the other. This was a great way to keep gameplay fresh when most of the enemies were the same. Which leads me to my next point.

I would have liked the enemy variety to have been more expansive. Same enemies meant mostly the same brutality scenes. It was great but after battling mostly Draugr, fights became pretty predictable.

Runes and armor in this game are awesome, but maybe too awesome. They added so many runes it became less than motivating to keep changing them out. If I came across a Dark Elf I eventually stopped changing runes. That applied to multiple parts of the game for me. I just thought there were too many options. This also applied to the armor. It was difficult to level up everything to see it’s highest abilities so I ended up just picking a set I liked most and sticking with it.

It reminded me of Shadow of War where the weapon and armor options were just insane. I like variety and options but it can become overwhelming after a while. A game I thought did a good job was Assassins Creed Valhalla where you had a good amount of options but it had an endpoint.

I’m going to give this category a 7.5 out of 10.

Travel Capabilities

Compared to previous GOW games this was a new exploration of travel. Other games were really just one direction. This is a linear style game with an open world feel and each section of the game had really only one path. I liked that Santa Monica Studio’s has begun to explore an open world GOW but this game was definitely the beginning stages of that.

They had an open world concept so I need to rate this against other open world games, not just past GOW games.

Comparing this to Assassins Creed (Odyssey and Valhalla are the only ones I have played so far), Red Dead Redemption 1&2, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, Days Gone, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and others, this was slightly disappointing. Once you beat the game there wasn’t a lot more to do (which I’ll write more to below).

The lack of open world detail was slightly disappointing but the story is still incredible. The method of travel was decent. By foot or by boat. I felt the boat was a little overplayed but it fit into the story especially before Jörmungandr officially came into the picture. I’m also guessing it could be a part of the myths of that time but I’m not a norse expert so I don’t know how well the insane amounts of water fit into history.

I’ll give this section a 6.8 out of 10. I like the thought of an open world GOW but this wasn’t quite there yet.

Voice Acting

Absolutely. Amazing.

I could stop here but I’ll give a little more detail.

Video games in today’s era are close to mini movies you control. The better the actors the better the experience. We saw this in The Last of Us where the voice acting was incredible. They did a great job and really pulled you in.

At first, I was curious why they hired a different voice actor for Kratos until I heard him speak. The previous actor was all intensity, which was perfect for past GOW games. New Kratos is older, calmer, and a father. He’s someone who regrets his past and wants to live a “normal life”. It’s natural for his tonality to change but I have to say Christopher Judge did a perfect job being Kratos.

Atreus (boy), played by Sunny Suljic, was also very well done. This extends to every other character. Scripts were great, the actors nailed it, everything sounded natural and non-robotic. I thought the Norse Gods may have had a little more of an Norse style accent but that didn’t detract from much.

I’ll give this category a 9.6 out of 10. I don’t think this game is quite the gold standard for games but it’s close to it. If the Aesir had a little more Viking style accent we would be at 10 here which is a difficult rating to give.

Replay Value

Replay value is important for me but also difficult. Once I finish a game I always hesitate to start another run through unless there are major changes. How speedrunners play a game hundreds of times is just something I’m not interested in doing. There’s still streamers playing Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 Remake. I don’t know how they do it.

I spent a lot of hours playing God of War and of course after I beat the main story I went back to battle the Valkyries. I also went through the New Game +. For me, there wasn’t a lot of replay value here. Sure, it was fun to go through the NG+ with all your gear and play on the hardest difficulty but after that I got bored. The Muspelheim trails were good for a while, as was Niflheim.

What I found odd was that an entire realm was dedicated to these trails. How was it every realm was abandoned, dead, or at war? This was probably due to Santa Monica Studios running out of time and money but wanting to add some replay value into the game. I thought it was great but I’m hoping for more exploration in the next game. Taking five years to produce a game is a lot of time. Considering the success of God of War 2018, I think we can expect a lot more in the next game. Yet still it’s taking another three years to produce Ragnarok. I’ll talk more on this next but the ending was such a huge cliffhanger I would have thought they would have had a game out sooner. But this is me speaking from no experience working with a gaming company so I doubt they could work on two games at once and produce an amazing product. I do think companies learned a lesson from Capcom with how many people were disappointed at the Resident Evil 3 remake, which I wasn’t disappointed with. I thought it was well done. Although I do understand the arguments that came up.

This category is going to get a 6.4 out of 10. The replay value didn’t really keep me hooked.

Closure/How The Game Ends

The end of this game was HUGE. Not only did you see a destroyed Jötunheim but you learned Atreus was named Loki by his mom. If you know any Norse mythology at all or have watched Marvel you might have almost fallen off your gaming chair like many of these streamers did.

That opened up SO many more questions where Kratos just says “a question for another day” then BAM game ends. Biggest gaming cliffhanger I have ever seen. Then they top it off with a secret ending of Thor visiting your home ready to fight “years later”. I guess they meant three years.

All this happens and I’m supposed to go on living my normal day-to-day life? Come on!

10 out of 10 for this. So much happened, emotions everywhere, and all I wanted to do was play the next game. This is my gold standard for how a game should end, at least one where they have plans for another one. Days Gone messed me up. The ending was insane, so much left on the table, just for Days Gone 2 NOT to happen.

Future Opportunity for Franchise

There’s what’s already scheduled to happen then future opportunity. What’s scheduled is Ragnarok. According to merriam-webster Ragnarok is defined as “the final destruction of the world in the conflict between the Aesir and the powers of Hel led by Loki”.

Oh. My. God. (pun intended).

So yeah, the next game is obviously going to be like GOW 3 where Kratos ruined the Greek Pantheon. But it says Led by Loki. Some argue Kratos might die which is a view held by many after seeing a murel towards the end of the game where Atreus is holding someone as they die. Think about it though, we’re talking about the Ghost of Sparta who crawled out of Hades twice seeking revenge and walked into and out of Helheim by choice. Of course they have to throw in Kratos saying “we should finish this journey while I still have strength”.

What?!

You just took out three more Gods and you’re losing strength? What does that mean?

So many unanswered questions in this game. Thankfully we’ll get some answers soon!

Ok so what COULD happen in the future?

Kaptain Cuba has some great theories, many of which I agree with.

The above video is called “Predicting Every God of War Game That’s Coming Out in the Future”. I like what he has to say.

GOW is set up for a possibly endless storyline of Kratos just crushing all gods in all areas of the world.

I still think there is a chance for Kratos to revert back to his old self if pushed far enough. If he comes to the conclusion that all gods are bad, there could be a chance for a massive open world game that has several parts (similar to the Final Fantasy 7 Remake) where Kratos travels to every area of the globe just causing chaos.

I don’t think they’ll do that but they did hint to Egypt and Japan. Mimir even mentioned “a land of many gods” most likely referring to Egypt.

10 out of 10 for in category. There’s unlimited opportunity for the future of this franchise.

Final Rating (1-100)

How The Game Begins – 8.7

Graphic Quality (non-technical) – 9.5

Logical Flow of Story – 9.6

Emotional Pull of Story – 8.3

Combat – 7.5

Travel Capabilities – 6.8

Voice Acting – 9.6

Replay Value – 6.4

Closure/How The Game Ends – 10

Future Opportunity for Franchise – 10

86.4 out of 100

This is my personal view on this game. I enjoyed it very much during the insane hours I spent on it. I will play it again to get pumped up with God of War: Ragnarok. If you haven’t played God of War (2018) yet, I highly recommend it and hope you get the chance to do so.

Happy Gaming!