Game #1274: God of War(2018)

 Now you can call him daddy.

 Took me a while, but I finally decided to try God of War(2018) and check out how Kratos' story continued. I've always been somewhat taken aback by how people quickly forgot just how well crafted Kratos' and his descent to villainy was, being a perfect tragic protagonist, since, much like I thought before playing the games, thought Kratos was just an angry guy. Well, can't say he is an angry guy anymore!

 The story picks up hundreds of years after God of War III, Kratos now lives in Midgard and has a new son, and the entire game is about them fulfilling Faye's, Kratos' new wife and Atreus' mother, last wishes: Having her ashes spread from the highest mountain in the nine realms. Of course, there are more wrinkles to the story, as nordic gods come a-knocking, quite literally, to Kratos' door and they want a piece of him too. Kratos' new focused, calmer demeanor feels like a direct progression of how his character would grow if he decided to change after all the rampage, and his relationship with Atreus, a son he barely knows, was interesting to witness. Some things were a bit dumb, like how Atreus thinking he was a mortal when he was a god made him sick, how does that make sense? And his personality shift midway through was done too abruptly, but overall, I'd say it was enjoyable. That said, the game was clearly made as critic bait, so there's a ton of ill-fitting Marvel humor in here. All the humor that comes from Kratos' and Atreus' interactions makes sense, but the rest? There's a dwarf that starts gagging when he sees or thinks about gross stuff, completely out of place.

 Back in the day, everyone wanted to be God of War, now God of War wants to be everyone else. The original game, while not as deep as other hack and slash games such as Devil May Cry, kept things simple, bloody and mashy, and thus, spawned a ton of games that wanted to ape it, such as Conan, Dante's Inferno or Castlevania: Lords of Shadows. It had an identity of its own. That identity is now gone, this is the game-est game out there. Now we've got RPG elements, different armor and equipment pieces, a weighty combat system in which you attack with the shoulder buttons like modern Souls-inspired games, it's open world-ish, so you get a checklist of of things to collect and chests to open, to open for materials so that you can craft more equipment, etc.

 Thankfully, the combat is decent. At first you can only fight with the Leviathan Ax and your fist/shield combo. The Leviathan Ax can be thrown and retrieved as will and deals plenty of damage, while your fists deal more stun damage, and filling an enemy's Stun Gauge lets you perform a brutal maneuver that usually kills them. You can press Square to have Atreus pepper the enemy you are aiming at with elemental arrows(Shock or Light), or have him summon a phantom being to help you. As for you, you can equip two different Runic Attacks on your ax, and there's a wide variety of them. Sadly, the combat is a bit... limited. The third-person, over the should camera isn't the best, when an enemy is coming from behind, all you get is a tiny red marker and Atreus screaming 'behind you'. Enemies are way more nimble than you, and it kind sucks, particularly when fighting bosses such as the Valkyries, who very easily break your lock.

 The attacks you can learn for the ax are rather limited too, usually being about holding down a button instead of mashing it. You have a single unique attack string, R1 R1 R1 and R2 and that's it.... and just as you start getting a bit tired of the Ax, Kratos retrieves his Blade of Chaos. Most of the original combos returns, and thanks to its wider attack angles, its a much more fun weapon to use than the ax, albeit slightly weaker. You can swap weapons at any time too! The combat is nothing special, but once you have access to both weapons it becomes much more enjoyable. That said, Spartan Rage is done with L3+R3, as per usual, L3 is dash and R3 is locking on... I can't count the times I accidentally triggered Spartan Rage, when all I meant was to target the enemy that broke my lock and dash towards it.

 Rounding up your abilities, you have a dodge, which is used to avoid red, unblockable attacks, and a shield that can block or parry yellow attacks. Spartan Rage is back, but it's kinda weak, however, it regenerates your health, so it's still a mechanic you'll rely on for tough bosses. I'll give it this, God of War has always been about spectacle, and this game is no exception. Some of the boss battles are amazing, featuring arena transitions and what not, plus, they removed QTEs, THANK YOU. This is how you can tell that even though it's quite different from the previous games... the people involved knew what God of War was all about. Kratos is true to himself, the Blades of Chaos retain their combos, and they exceeded the previous games in spectacle.

 As for the rest of the game, it opens up once you finally get into a boat, and this will be your main means of traversing the nine realms. You are free to explore the many islands for optional sidequests and optional loot, and why not do it, more loot means more upgrades. The really good upgrades are usually hidden behind puzzles, some more irritating than others, as its usually a matter of finding devilishly hidden statues or switches to to select the right runes. These really wore out their welcome, and I had to look up online just where some of these were hidden. Challenging in the wrong way.

 Another small issue... the map isn't very good. How some areas connect isn't clearly explained, and the checklists could've been done better too. For a game like this, built around exploration, built around getting upgrades that let you clear obstacles you couldn't before... the map should've been done better.

 Assuming you aren't tired of all the bazillion other games that do the things this one does too.... God of War is a great choice. It's disappointing seeing how God of War, as a game, lost all of its personality to become another part of the whole homogeneous mass of modern adventure games, but at least it does everything it tries to do really well, despite a few shortcomings.

 8.0