Last we saw Kratos, he still enjoyed getting hammered on a bottle of red, participating in a well-lit orgy & slaying Greek gods in ways that a teenager might storyboard onto the back of a ruled notebook. He và his franchise thrived on adrenaline, any inner turmoil serving as a springboard for ultraviolence, rather than an emotional well khổng lồ be drawn from. Times change, & the new God of War, part sequel (the story continues from where it left off) & part reboot (the adventure is slower and the characterization more thoughtful), has more heroic ambitions for the notorious antihero.

Kratos is a parent now, older, calmer & from what I can tell, into the tiny home fad. He’s taken part in an ancient size of witness protection by moving north & living in a modest cabin in the forests of the Norse realm of Midgard. Kratos is, however, no less a magnet for domestic tragedy. His second wife, the mother lớn his son Atreus, has just died & been cremated. And so, this particular adventure, at the outset at least, has Kratos và his tween on a quest lớn fulfill her final wish: that her ashes be carried to lớn the highest peak in the realm.

(Yes, the game kicks off with a spin on the “woman in the fridge,” but mercifully, things become more complicated as the story unpacks itself.)

The gods và the past get in the way of good intentions, & rather quickly, Kratos and his son find themselves vivisecting undead soldiers, elves, trolls, ancients, & a number of other mythological creatures with silly names & even siller characteristics (e.g., the tatzelwurm, a poison-spitting, tunnel-burrowing walrus-tiger hybrid). Thank goodness. For all the changes to tone and ethos, this is still a God of War game, & you can feel that in the joy of the combat. Kratos doesn’t punch; he pulverizes. He moves lượt thích a boxer, shoulders set, legs grapevining back & forth. The way his ax zips into an enemy’s skull, then back to lớn his hand, is so smooth và natural that it’s easy to overlook how challenging it must have been khổng lồ animate such a thing. (Fortunately, animation director Kristjan Zadziuk explains how the developers likely did it in this YouTube video.)

In the early hours, God of War feels, if not like a follow-up lớn the original game, then a creative revamping. As the 2005 God of War took the individual great combat ideas from its time and blended them together, so does the new God of War for a new era. But the trò chơi doesn’t phối into any style for too long. Without warning, the linear adventure, focused on fights & dramatic showdowns, bursts wide open, và the preset paths of past entries give way to a new, grand hub, its spokes taking the crew far beyond Midgard.

The main objective must be attended to, sure, but not now, not necessarily. Kratos’ goal has weight, but the world isn’t literally rotating around his every decision — an increasingly common & welcome change in AAA blockbusters. This relaxed pace frees you khổng lồ explore, và it frees Kratos to focus more on parenting than on saving the planet. On more than one occasion, he threatens a bratty Atreus that he will turn this canoe around & head straight back home, & it feels lượt thích he might actually vì it.

In this way, the game has less in common with Homer’s epic Odyssey than with last year’s memoir An Odyssey by Daniel Mendelsohn, which serves as a rich, therapeutic và exploratory look at the author’s relationship with his father through the lens of the classical text. And like that book, God of War does it with wit and grace. The dialogue doesn’t put on a faux-Shakespearean haughtiness. Atreus talks lượt thích a kid, sweet & also selfish. & Kratos acts, in turn, lượt thích a father who has no clue how to lớn be a parent, and yet feels a profound need khổng lồ protect this boy from the world and his own bloodline. God of War is awesome at times, in the true sense of the word, but its heart lives in the small ways this man & this boy are building và unbuilding their relationship.

Also optional are the spoken tales I mentioned earlier, the ones told by the disembodied head. Whenever you step from the canoe onto dry land, the head hushes up, and lượt thích a courteous tour guide, promises to eventually pick up his yarns where he left off. I got the most enjoyment from letting him finish, though. This applies lớn everybody Kratos meets during the journey. I encourage you khổng lồ hang in the water. Lounge around the shops. Don’t rush into battle when characters are speaking to lớn you. Phối down the controller, take in the scenery and listen khổng lồ what they have to say.

By journey’s end, of course, the fate of the world is at play — baby, bathwater — at which point God of War is thoroughly spiced with the gristle of Game of Thrones. Ice zombies, a skeuomorphic tabletop map, some occasionally stilted dialogue about the history of powerful family legacies that had hitherto been mentioned only in passing. The game’s one glaring weakness is this occasional mimicry of the iconography established by George R.R. Martin và his fantasy forebears. The art design excels when it tries something different, such as the buglike dark elves và ghastly trắng elves, neither of which look lượt thích elvish cliches.

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These visuals don’t boil down to lớn glorified matte paintings. Unlike in other kích hoạt games, where spectacle happens around the hero while they fight inside a controlled arena, Kratos and Atreus step into these dense backgrounds. That massive lane in the lake becomes a pathway khổng lồ an elven kingdom, filled with fights và puzzles. The giant serpent rests languidly around the world’s central hub. And the camera never cuts away. There are no load screens. From the opening frame, through the credits & beyond, the camera lingers behind Kratos, the story proceeding in real time. God of War takes place in one shot.

The unedited long take is a bit stress-inducing, at least at first, like watching a movie và not being allowed khổng lồ blink. But as the trò chơi established its more chill pace, I appreciated the refusal to lớn cut away from Kratos and company. I felt more lượt thích a participant in the world, rather than someone watching the adventure from outside it.

It sounds Dark Souls-ish because it is Dark Souls-ish. That comparison extends to lớn the combat, which — especially in the extremely difficult postgame content — does a good (if imperfect) impression of everybody’s favorite masocore series. Borrowed inspiration isn’t limited lớn the Souls franchise. Fights involve an unusual but effective hodgepodge of genres: Ax melee attacks handle lượt thích an old-fashioned beat-’em-up; ax throws work lượt thích a sniper rifle, the weapon returning to Kratos with the tap of a button; Atreus (whom you can command to fire arrows) behaves almost lượt thích an RPG party member, flanking large enemies & stunning packs into position for attacks.

In fact, God of War takes a good khuyến mãi from role-playing games. Gear can be purchased or found, then upgraded or modified, to lớn increase Kratos’ status, which is displayed on the pause screen like a tabletop character sheet. The ax, the shield and the bow have tăng cấp trees. Kratos’ fanciest attacks are called runics, & you assign one light and one heavy runic attack at a time. Runic attacks replace complex combos, và are performed with a simple tap of the shoulder buttons. No pressure to lớn master reflexes and motor skills. Instead, precious brain juice can be spent on strategy: Does a zone điện thoại tư vấn for attacks that stun large groups of enemies, setting up a sequence of brutal takedowns, or does a big quái dị warrant narrow but powerful damage-dealing blows? Tough battles are made easy when treated like puzzles lớn be solved with the right combat approach.

This ambiguity works because it’s intentional, not a byproduct of poor storytelling. Even small details pay off. Brief anecdotes parallel vi xử lý core themes. Seemingly inconsequential decisions have major repercussions. Lượt thích the game’s world, the story folds in on itself, inviting you lớn re-examine where you’ve been & reconsider where you’re going. There’s a musicality to the structure: The central hub that Kratos and Atreus visit between adventures acts lượt thích a chorus, with each spoke of their journey its own verse. Atreus và other characters gently guide the player toward priorities, though they just as often mention a bundle of side quests that are just as worthy of your time. Simple chatter usually has a purpose, either moving the story forward, or nudging you, wittingly or unwittingly, in a new direction.

A decade ago, director Cory Barlog helped establish the God of War franchise as an iconic gory and debaucherous đoạn clip game romp. While its antihero, Kratos, had pathos (he killed his wife & daughter in a fit of rage, his skin forever grayed by their ashes), it served little dramatic purpose, rather existing as a grimdark excuse for his god-slaying & orgy-having ways. Barlog — now older, a father — has returned khổng lồ the series with a small army of talented designers, many of whom served on the earlier games, khổng lồ make good on that rich but neglected potential at the francises’ core. There’s still plenty of gore, but now the guts have meatiness. Some die-hard fans may fear this isn’t really God of War. I suppose they’re right. It’s even better.

God of War was reviewed using a final “retail” PlayStation 4 tải về code provided by Sony. You can find additional information about maimoikethon.com’s ethics policy here. The game was played on a PS4 Pro on Performance mode. For PS4 Pro users, God of War offers a display mode with 4K resolution, but it had frame-rate issues in our tests. The game was also tested by the maimoikethon.com team on a standard PS4 & exhibited no major performance issues. Screenshots were captured on both PS4 Pro và standard PS4 in 1080p resolution.