While I knew that God of War 2018 was an amazing game before getting into it, I didn’t know to what extent I would enjoy God of War 2018. I had played both God of War 1 and 2 earlier this year, and I absolutely despised them. Iffy storytelling, clunky platforming, and terrible puzzles littered those two games and made my time playing them horrible. I chose to skip God of War 3 because of this, alongside concerns about PS3 emulation quality. So believe me that even though I heard only great things about God of War 2018, I was still a little apprehensive, due to frustrations that came from the earlier titles. I bring all this up to exemplify how amazed I am with God of War 2018, it’s far better than I even imagined it was. It’s a wonder my PC was able to run it too, though I did have to fiddle with a lot of settings.
First off, the combat. Now, the basic idea of the game’s combat is still somewhat the same as the previous titles. X is a light attack, Y is a heavy attack, and sometimes the order of buttons you press can create combos. But unlike the previous titles, I feel like 2018’s combat is far more nuanced, granting so many unique possibilities and combinations that really fit a person’s playstyle. You have 3 different weapons you can choose from, being your fists, the Leviathan Axe, and a weapon that cannot be named due to story importance. You can freely switch to each weapon on the fly, and for the case of the Leviathan Axe, and the third weapon, you can throw them towards enemies. Some enemies are immune to certain weapons, so you’ll have to try them all out at certain points, which I find particularly nice. Each weapon can be attuned with special attacks that can be used in battle, and if you have one weapon’s special attacks charging, you can switch to another to use its special attacks. The all doesn’t even mention the skill tree that you can upgrade to give each weapon new abilities. Enemies as well now have a stun meter, and once its filled up, you can pull a finisher on them. And it’s so much nicer doing it here than in the previous games, as QTEs are never necessary for them. Spartan Rage is another mechanic that returns, and I actually loved using it here. It felt so good that it was used for story specific segments, and actually using it in battle felt worthwhile and fulfilling to use. And this all doesn’t even take into account what Atreus can do during combat as well. Most of the time, Atreus will act on his own, which is helpful in case of large swarms of enemies, or in case an enemy needs to be stunned. But you can also command him to shoot at enemies your targeting, as long as he has arrows for it. All of this, alongside being able to block, parry, dodge, and dash, create an extremely satisfying set of abilities for Kratos, and it provided a game where I fully enjoyed fighting enemies as Kratos.
And surprising to say, but compared to the puzzles of God of War 1 and 2, God of War 2018’s puzzles were actually really good. One big thing I like is how the weapons, particularly the elements they’re attuned to, are incorporated into puzzles. One of the most common puzzles I encountered were ones where you had to hold a gear in place by freezing it with the Leviathan Axe. As well, I love how Atreus is able to help with puzzles as well, primarily with gaining elemental arrows that can solve puzzles that you couldn’t solve earlier in the game. One of the big problems that came with the puzzles in God of War 1 and 2 is that they felt rather directionless, I had no idea what I was supposed to really be doing. In 2018 however, while the game does throw helpful hints every so often, I found myself just scanning the environment, and instinctively figuring things out. There were definitely some puzzles that I didn’t fully comprehend, and there were some that took me a while. But unlike the previous titles, I actually enjoyed figuring it out, which really shows how far improved this game is.
And I rarely do this, but I really want to express how gorgeous God of War 2018 looks. I don’t play many modern AAA games, mainly due to price, and concern that might PC would explode. I’ll reiterate here that I’m surprised my PC could even handle running the game at low settings. But even at low settings, I found myself in awe of the environments that this game had to offer. They were so visually stunning, as well as diverse in design it was just extremely beautiful. The snowy environments of Midgard, The lush forests of Alfheim, even the icy wastelands of Helheim. I also noticed that I had barely even touched all of the areas found in the game. There was so much to explore, and maybe in the future I’d try to clear out the remainder of the game. And who knows, maybe there’ll be even more amazing sights that I haven’t seen before. The realms of God of War 2018 are so beautifully crafted, there were many times that I just had to gaze in awe of what this game was able to accomplish.
This then leads ultimately into what I think may just be the strongest aspect in the entirety of this game, being its story. And because of how great God of War 2018’s story is, I’ll try to speak minimally on it. I find that the best way to experience a story is to experience it firsthand, and I don’t want to rob people of it. Now when it came to prior God of War titles, my reviews often mentioned how conflicted I was by their stories. Particularly, it felt like they didn’t know what they were trying to be, flip-flopping between wanting to say something, or say nothing at all. But for the case of God of War 2018, It’s so clear that this game’s story knows what it wants to be, and does it so expertly well. Kratos and Atreus have such an amazing dynamic through the game, and seeing them both grow because of each other is amazing. And it’s so nice to see Kratos interact with other characters, have conversations and back-and-forths with characters he wasn’t immediately trying to kill. God of War 2018 was not only able to craft an amazing story, but it was able to create one that I ended up actually loving.
I’m sorry if I spent too much of this review comparing and contrasting my experience with God of War 2018 and the previous God of War titles. I felt like it was important to compare my experiences, to show the issues with had with the prior titles, and just how noticeably improved 2018 is. God of War 2018 improves upon every single aspect of the prior games, and creates a game that in every single aspect, really blew me away. The game’s last two chapters especially, though I wont say what they contain particularly, are excellent storytelling. I feel really happy saying that God of War 2018 is a game that I wholeheartedly love. I don’t know if it will ever come to PC, but if it does, and I can run it, you know I’ll be getting God of War: Ragnarök.
First off, the combat. Now, the basic idea of the game’s combat is still somewhat the same as the previous titles. X is a light attack, Y is a heavy attack, and sometimes the order of buttons you press can create combos. But unlike the previous titles, I feel like 2018’s combat is far more nuanced, granting so many unique possibilities and combinations that really fit a person’s playstyle. You have 3 different weapons you can choose from, being your fists, the Leviathan Axe, and a weapon that cannot be named due to story importance. You can freely switch to each weapon on the fly, and for the case of the Leviathan Axe, and the third weapon, you can throw them towards enemies. Some enemies are immune to certain weapons, so you’ll have to try them all out at certain points, which I find particularly nice. Each weapon can be attuned with special attacks that can be used in battle, and if you have one weapon’s special attacks charging, you can switch to another to use its special attacks. The all doesn’t even mention the skill tree that you can upgrade to give each weapon new abilities. Enemies as well now have a stun meter, and once its filled up, you can pull a finisher on them. And it’s so much nicer doing it here than in the previous games, as QTEs are never necessary for them. Spartan Rage is another mechanic that returns, and I actually loved using it here. It felt so good that it was used for story specific segments, and actually using it in battle felt worthwhile and fulfilling to use. And this all doesn’t even take into account what Atreus can do during combat as well. Most of the time, Atreus will act on his own, which is helpful in case of large swarms of enemies, or in case an enemy needs to be stunned. But you can also command him to shoot at enemies your targeting, as long as he has arrows for it. All of this, alongside being able to block, parry, dodge, and dash, create an extremely satisfying set of abilities for Kratos, and it provided a game where I fully enjoyed fighting enemies as Kratos.
And surprising to say, but compared to the puzzles of God of War 1 and 2, God of War 2018’s puzzles were actually really good. One big thing I like is how the weapons, particularly the elements they’re attuned to, are incorporated into puzzles. One of the most common puzzles I encountered were ones where you had to hold a gear in place by freezing it with the Leviathan Axe. As well, I love how Atreus is able to help with puzzles as well, primarily with gaining elemental arrows that can solve puzzles that you couldn’t solve earlier in the game. One of the big problems that came with the puzzles in God of War 1 and 2 is that they felt rather directionless, I had no idea what I was supposed to really be doing. In 2018 however, while the game does throw helpful hints every so often, I found myself just scanning the environment, and instinctively figuring things out. There were definitely some puzzles that I didn’t fully comprehend, and there were some that took me a while. But unlike the previous titles, I actually enjoyed figuring it out, which really shows how far improved this game is.
And I rarely do this, but I really want to express how gorgeous God of War 2018 looks. I don’t play many modern AAA games, mainly due to price, and concern that might PC would explode. I’ll reiterate here that I’m surprised my PC could even handle running the game at low settings. But even at low settings, I found myself in awe of the environments that this game had to offer. They were so visually stunning, as well as diverse in design it was just extremely beautiful. The snowy environments of Midgard, The lush forests of Alfheim, even the icy wastelands of Helheim. I also noticed that I had barely even touched all of the areas found in the game. There was so much to explore, and maybe in the future I’d try to clear out the remainder of the game. And who knows, maybe there’ll be even more amazing sights that I haven’t seen before. The realms of God of War 2018 are so beautifully crafted, there were many times that I just had to gaze in awe of what this game was able to accomplish.
This then leads ultimately into what I think may just be the strongest aspect in the entirety of this game, being its story. And because of how great God of War 2018’s story is, I’ll try to speak minimally on it. I find that the best way to experience a story is to experience it firsthand, and I don’t want to rob people of it. Now when it came to prior God of War titles, my reviews often mentioned how conflicted I was by their stories. Particularly, it felt like they didn’t know what they were trying to be, flip-flopping between wanting to say something, or say nothing at all. But for the case of God of War 2018, It’s so clear that this game’s story knows what it wants to be, and does it so expertly well. Kratos and Atreus have such an amazing dynamic through the game, and seeing them both grow because of each other is amazing. And it’s so nice to see Kratos interact with other characters, have conversations and back-and-forths with characters he wasn’t immediately trying to kill. God of War 2018 was not only able to craft an amazing story, but it was able to create one that I ended up actually loving.
I’m sorry if I spent too much of this review comparing and contrasting my experience with God of War 2018 and the previous God of War titles. I felt like it was important to compare my experiences, to show the issues with had with the prior titles, and just how noticeably improved 2018 is. God of War 2018 improves upon every single aspect of the prior games, and creates a game that in every single aspect, really blew me away. The game’s last two chapters especially, though I wont say what they contain particularly, are excellent storytelling. I feel really happy saying that God of War 2018 is a game that I wholeheartedly love. I don’t know if it will ever come to PC, but if it does, and I can run it, you know I’ll be getting God of War: Ragnarök.