[Review] God of War (2018)

A near godly experience made slightly mortal by one glaring issue

source: www.playstation.com

~ Intro ~

God of War (2018) is a 3rd person action game made by Santa Monica Studio. The game is currently available on both PS4 and PC. This title is sort of a reboot of the series with it taking a different direction from the traditional hack and slash formula of the original God of War games. I haven't played any of the other God of War games so this has been my introduction into the series. I have wanted try this series for a while, as I have seen good things about it. So, starting with this reboot felt like a great entry point. With that said though, let's get into my thoughts.

~ Positives ~

let's go over the positives first. To start with, the story of the game is good. This game's story is all about fulfilling a last wish, though there are many road blocks the main characters must face along the way. As I was playing I found myself intrigued to find out what would happen next. The characters greatly helped with the narrative too. Kratos and Atreus are the main protagonists of the game and they undergo some good development as the game progresses. Some other notable characters like Freya and the antagonist Baldur where quite interesting as well. 

The general gameplay was quite engaging throughout. The puzzles of the game where fun to figure out and the combat encounters where pure action goodness. The different powers and items gained during the journey helped keep things interesting throughout. As you earned these powers you could also go back to previous areas to access chests and sometimes new sections you haven't traversed before. Most of the time, games like these, suffer from level design issues but god of war I can happily say does not suffer the same fate. The level design and world design was quite good actually.

~ Negatives ~

Now for the negatives, there are two aspects that stood out to me, with one of them leaving a bit of a mark on the game's quality. Let's go into the more major one first. This major flaw lies within the boss reuse. Many times you would find yourself fighting the same bosses over an over again just with different textures. This is a shame because there were some great boss fights but they were very few.

The other issue which isn't as big, is the ending. While it was a nice ending it was a bit anti climatic. The section before the boss was quite short and easy. Then, after doing the final fight, you gain control again and manually go to the final realm. This final realm is pretty much a straight line to the ending cutscene, with no real reason it couldn't have just been part of the ending cutscene. In the post game there is actually a scene you can see when you go back to your house that sets up the sequel, not sure why this wasn't part of the ending cutscene either. This would have left the game off on a much more climatic note.

~ Conclusion ~

Overall, I am happy I gave this game a try for sure, after playing this game I can definitely say I am a fan of God of War. There were a few other very minor issues I had with the game but they aren't really worth mentioning. There is a lot to like with this game and I look forward to trying the next game in the series, that being, Ragnarok. If you are a fan of action games I would recommend this game for sure. 

Hours played: 50 (23 main story)

Rating: 4/5

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