4/5 ★ – philip_acquaro's review of God of War.

Started: May 30th 2025 Beaten: June 3rd 2025 I finally got around to playing and finishing this after years of it being on my backlog and wow was it an emotional and climatic thrill ride all the way through. Since this has been out for 7 years now, with a sequel that has released for 2 and a half years as well, everyone already knows that this has been one of the best genre defining games out there both on PS4 and PS5 so I’m gonna keep this review briefer than usual since I unfortunately don’t really know how much more I can add to this conversation. This was my first God of War title and while I still have intentions to play the original 3 games, I felt that after some research into the franchises story thus far, this game was still fine to start with, given it’s a soft reboot of sorts. From the beginning of the experience, you are introduced to Kratos and his son Atreus as well as their tensioned relationship made more difficult by the passing of Kratos’ wife and Atreus’ mother. With the moody and somber tone evoked through the phenomenal dialogue delivery, body language, and acting from the main protagonists, players are shown from the start, the dynamic of Kratos and Atreus which is what this game is all about. Throughout the narrative, with Atreus’ mother gone, they are forced together in a state of grief and you see how it starts from Kratos repressing his emotions, communication, and past from his son with Atreus desiring deeply to connect with his father and to find his approval. As the story develops, their relationship slowly does as well with Kratos trying his best to lead his son to become better than him and his wrongdoings as well confessing much of his past and who he and his son are to Atreus. In a world with many gods who see their judgement as above all others as well as abusing their power and people, exercising a cycle of vengeance and suffering, Kratos wants Atreus to be greater and not repeat the cycle even if it means that he himself still has to be the same monster he once viewed himself as to do what is right. It’s such a good story with many compelling characters that serve the overarching narrative very well. I think with Naughty Dog proving games can have a story just as good if not better than the gameplay, God of War took inspiration and soared with it. And not only does this game start and finish with incredible story telling, it also throws you straight into some of the best cinematic action set pieces in a game with the Stranger fight and as you follow you go through so many more of unimaginable scale as you fight dragons, sons of Thor, and Baldur (to name a few) on top of jaw dropping set pieces complimented by really cool camera movements and fighting choreography. The main gameplay loop of fighting enemy types is also super fun! I love how creative you can get with both the axe and blades of chaos mixing light and heavy attacks as well as different fighting game-like button combos while evading very fast attacks. There are also different ways you can throw your axe or chains attached to the blades as well as heavier attacks that both let you get fancier and even more brutal. I do think there could’ve been a few more enemy types as you’ll be fighting the same types for a majority of the time, both big and small but it’s not that big of a deal. The difficulty can be pretty tough in some spots but for the most part it’s just the right amount of challenge. Really had a great time with this one and I’m really excited to play Ragnarok soon!