God of War 2018 Review 

   


Release and basic information
   

God Of War, an amazing action-adventure game, released April 20th, 2018, it is the eighth chronological installment and the direct sequel to 2010’s God of War 3. It is part of the infamous God of War series, an action and adventure series about the man grown into a god, Kratos. This game was made by Santa Monica studio and published by Sony interactive entertainment and is playable on Sony’s PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. This game is considered a masterpiece and worthy of being 2018’s Game of The Year by many, including myself. 

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Image: Santa Monica

The main protagonist, Kratos has now made it through fighting Greek mythology’s monsters and Gods and is now in the Northern realms with his son Atreus, they are on a journey to bring the ashes of his past wife and mother of his child to the highest peak in all Norse mythology— Jotunheim, the land of the now extinct giants.   

On the journey to complete their loved one’s last wish, they are confronted by many challenges. intense battles are expected in every God of War game, but there are some exotic new fights with expertly designed enemies that show off beautiful animations and mechanics. This new installation also has puzzles that are quite fun and rewarding. All of them require your weapons such as, Kratos’s Leviathan Axe and Atreus’s bow with several unique arrows to complete. During some points in the game you will not have the weaponry needed to complete some puzzles, which always leaves extra things for you to do once you have completed the game along with more fights that are sometimes impossible for you the first time you attempt them.  

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Image: Santa Monica

 This installment is much more likable because of its similarities to famous games such as Dark Souls and Nioh. At first it does not seem as tough as those it is compared to seeing Santa Monica has obviously focused more on story telling then top tier fights, although that does not mean they made it easy. 

 There are many difficult encounters in which you fight against well-known characters such as The Stranger, later known as Balder the Norse God of light, who cannot feel pain and is the main antagonist throughout the story. The player encounters balder many times on their quest, with each encounter being expertly animated as well as the game play being perfectly balanced, which makes for an enjoyable brawl every time you meet.

Another is the corrupted Valkyries. The Valkyries serve as an extremely good addition to the game since they act as a final boss after you have completed the rest of the game. They give you great gear if you plan to replay the game using the “new game plus feature”. The Valkyrie fights are by far the most difficult in the game with all nine being bosses with some being stronger than others. After you defeat every other Valkyrie, you are able to fight against the Valkyrie queen, by far the most harrowing fight in the whole game with her fast attacks that can deplete most of your health in one hit and her seemingly endless health bar, this fight took pros hours to defeat! There is no way to fight the Valkyries in order, you just fight the first one that you find whether that be the second hardest or the easiest.  

The combat in God of War 2018 is the best in any GOW game ever in my opinion. Santa Monica and Sony really went beyond on the combat with the new leviathan axe and the old, but still well made, chaos blades. The only thing that is not as good as the other games might have been the finisher animations. They start to get repetitive seeing there is only a couple that are recycled unlike other games where there was what felt like different animations every time. But of course, this is to be expected seeing the other games were hack and slash games and this newer installment is an open world game.  

Santa Monica did an amazing job with the abilities and upgrades too: the use of skill trees is perfect seeing they add to the games massive pool of combat moves by giving you even more to work with opening new combos, special abilities and more. The upgrades are also next level, requiring a worthy amount of effort compared to the reward that’s gained making the assignments not impossible but not easily completed. This is perfectly done by Santa Monica allowing the player to progress at a steady pace. 

The story telling involved with this game really shows the maturity of Kratos during the in-game time skip from the end of God of War 3 and God of War 2018. Along with his beautiful dynamic with atreus he has blossomed as a man, learning how to be a father and teach himself discipline to control the rage he previously showed before his new family. It is believed that throughout the entire game he is holding back his true power which is left for the community to wonder how strong this fully grown Kratos truly is.  

God of War is one of my personal favorite games and 2018’s game of the year. I give God of War 2018 a 10/10 recommend rating seeing the well written story and exceptional game play overcomes any down side It may have. This game really captures the heart of the player and is great at getting you invested in the characters, making you fall in love with everything from the main characters father son relationship, to Brok and Sindri, the blacksmiths you collect your gear from.

You will be astonished by the graphics, game play, and storytelling, which will make you fully immersed in God of war.

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