This review contains spoilers
I keep seeing this game show up on "best games of all time" lists and I completely do not get it. This game is just trying to turn God of War into The Last of Us but doesn't understand what made The Last of Us so great.
Firstly, much like The Last of Us, this game's narrative is clearly structured to be told in a linear fashion. However, the player is allowed to hop on a rowboat and go off to do side quests whenever, completely ruining any sense of pacing that the narrative demands.
Secondly, perhaps one of the biggest similarities to The Last of Us is that this game's narrative also centers around a parent/child relationship. Only again, the relationship between Kratos and Atreus is nowhere near as compelling as the one between Joel and Ellie. Not only that, but there were multiple other games that centered around raising a child the same year that all did it more compellingly. The Walking Dead: The Final Season, Life is Strange 2, My Child Lebensborn, I was more invested in all of these than God of War.
And lastly, there is so much ludonarrative dissonance within this story. The game wants to tell you that violence is bad, but with every visceral kill Kratos does, the camera lovingly zooms in to show you a splatter of orange goop spurting out of these mythological creatures. It wants you to love the power fantasy as much as any of the previous entries in the series. Then at the end, Kratos kills Baldur saying something along the lines of "the cycle ends here" as if we didn't just spend an entire game doing what we always do in God of War, killing dudes and ultimately killing a god. The game is afraid of committing to its "violence is bad" narrative because ultimately, it still wants to be a God of War game.
Firstly, much like The Last of Us, this game's narrative is clearly structured to be told in a linear fashion. However, the player is allowed to hop on a rowboat and go off to do side quests whenever, completely ruining any sense of pacing that the narrative demands.
Secondly, perhaps one of the biggest similarities to The Last of Us is that this game's narrative also centers around a parent/child relationship. Only again, the relationship between Kratos and Atreus is nowhere near as compelling as the one between Joel and Ellie. Not only that, but there were multiple other games that centered around raising a child the same year that all did it more compellingly. The Walking Dead: The Final Season, Life is Strange 2, My Child Lebensborn, I was more invested in all of these than God of War.
And lastly, there is so much ludonarrative dissonance within this story. The game wants to tell you that violence is bad, but with every visceral kill Kratos does, the camera lovingly zooms in to show you a splatter of orange goop spurting out of these mythological creatures. It wants you to love the power fantasy as much as any of the previous entries in the series. Then at the end, Kratos kills Baldur saying something along the lines of "the cycle ends here" as if we didn't just spend an entire game doing what we always do in God of War, killing dudes and ultimately killing a god. The game is afraid of committing to its "violence is bad" narrative because ultimately, it still wants to be a God of War game.