3.5/5 ★ – KHFanXIII's review of God of War.

God of War (2018) was a big deal when it released. The return of a franchise we thought was left behind, only for it to come back in a new way. It became a juggernaut and one of the most well received games of the 8th generation. The GoW series prior, most people had been getting a bit tired of, so does this fresh new direction give God of War the kick in the butt it needed to soar to new heights? The answer is a bit complicated. First we should dive into the meat and potatoes of this game, which is definitely the story. It's fucking phenomenal. Seeing how Kratos has changed since GoW III, and how he's matured is incredibly interesting. Actually being able to see Kratos as a father is also very cool and you can really feel how careful he is with his son, Atreus, due to his past. Atreus is also a good character and seeing him go through an entire character arc in this game was captivating. The whole time I was playing through the story of this game I was completely enthralled. It's definitely the best told and most interesting narrative in the series, and it's only enhanced by having played those previous games. The story also sets up a sequel quite well and has plenty of hints and nods to the future. Now let's get on to a more divisive aspect, the gameplay. It's a huge departure from the rest of the series, going from a fixed camera hack and slash, more arcade-y experience, to a third person more grounded hack and slash experience. The combat itself isn't bad. I can't quite get into that same flow state I did with the previous games in the series, and I personally don't find it quite as fun, but I didn't feel there was anything too wrong with it outside of lacking any real combos. Hopefully this is improved in Ragnarok. The main issue I have with this game is the loot system. Most games with loot systems I just honestly don't care for, and if the story wasn't so good in this game I honestly might've dropped this one. I just don't care for looting enemies and choosing between this armor piece or that armor piece that the only difference is a +5 in stats that I don't notice anyway. I know it probably makes me sound dumb but all those numbers everywhere just make my eyes glaze over. That and, while it's a constrained open-world and I appreciate that, some of the stuff in this game is classic open-world fodder (including the dreaded checklists) that I've grown increasingly tired of recently. I dunno, putting RPG elements into non-RPG games, just doesn't really do it for me lately. I do appreciate that this game doesn't have a standard leveling system tho. It instead basically gives you a number based on your current skills and abilities. What is really neat tho, is that how much that level matters really only depends on your skill. I was able to take out some super high level enemies early on in the game just by playing well, and I think that's cool. I will give praise to the side-quests tho. They feel very high quality, and there's not a ton of them. They help flesh out the world a bit more and it's nice seeing more interactions between Kratos/Atreus outside of the main story. Something else I'd also like to give praise to the optional dialogue in this game. There are lots of places in this game where you are just traveling on a boat or just waiting around, and they fill those places in with fairly interesting dialogue and stories from Mimir and Kratos. It really helps with world building and I really enjoyed it, to the point that sometimes I would just wait in my boat until the conversation was over. The rogue-lite area in this game is pretty fun as well. I enjoyed it for probably like 3 hours or so until I had to grind for 70,000 Mist Echoes, then I was getting a bit tired of it. However, I would've like to see that area fleshed out into it's own DLC. I think it'd be pretty fun. Overall, I liked this game. It has a stellar plot that really is the star of the show. The gameplay and world-design, however, does drag the game down for me a bit. Hopefully Ragnarok can make some improvements to make this game even better.