God of War has always taken an interesting approach to its storytelling. When I was growing up, I loved reading about Hercules. I loved the tales of adventure, the beasts he fought, and I liked that he used his cunning in many ways while trying to complete his labors. I thought of him, and by extension the gods of Olympus, as larger than life figures out questing for glory and honor. I would read about feats they have performed and how they are raised up on shoulder to be worshiped and idolized. God of War has taken these stories and told them from the perspective of the people who did not benefit from the hero’s actions. The gods in these games are generally portrayed as assholes, doing as they please no matter the cost. Killing one another, and Imprisoning and torturing others for their own gain. I find this very interesting. As a child I didn’t really understand or think too hard about how Hercules was Zeus’ son, conceived while Zeus was in disguise, with a mortal woman (Zeus’ own great-granddaughter actually). About how it was Hera, Zeus’ wife, who had tricked Hercules into killing his own family out of jealousy, causing him to eventually have to perform the 12 labors. It was typically delivered in a way that made me think it was more jovial. These are gods and they mess with each other. They play tricks and do pranks. Isn’t this all a bunch of fun? But when the stories are delivered from the perspective of those the gods have wronged, it takes on a much darker tone.
Throughout the series we follow Kratos, who believes he has been wronged by the gods, tricked into murdering his own family. He spends a few games going on revenge-filled, bombastic god-murdering adventures, becoming a demigod himself in the process. By God of War 3, Kratos’ anger and brutality came to a near tipping point for me because of a few portions where I just did not want to be a participant in his actions anymore.
The newest God of War pulls back a little on the Kratos’ anger and instead replaces it with his brand of grief. Set now amidst Norse mythology, presumably because there are no more Greek gods to slay, Kratos embarks on a journey to deliver his recently deceased wife’s ashes to the highest peak in all the realms. He must do this while accompanied by his young son, Atreus. The wife and son are welcome new additions to the story, and allow for more depth to be added to Kratos’ character than the series has seen prior. Kratos is not a native to these Norse lands and is not super familiar with the lore or the enemies he must fight in his quest. Luckily Atreus paid attention to his mother’s teachings and is able to assist, writing in his notebook, which shows up nicely as tips in the beastiary or small bits of lore for you to read.
Kratos relationship with Atreus is complicated. Given what we know about Kratos’ history, it comes as no surprise that he is gruff with the kid, mostly referring to him as “Boy”, and ordering him around asking him to read things to him or critiquing his archery skills. It is all in a misguided effort to teach the boy to be capable on his own, likely because as is often mentioned, Kratos has not always been around. Kratos didn’t even want to begin the journey so soon because he did not feel the boy was ready. But journey they must, for fun story reasons I will refrain from spoiling and, Boy! Have I been enjoying the direction this journey is taking.
I have played 20 hours of God of War by this writing and I can tell there will be a decent amount left for me to do when I get back, with some estimates for completionist playthroughs reaching the 60 hour mark. It has a fairly lengthy opening that feels mostly linear with occasional offshoots for pick-ups. It uses this familiar layout to help teach you the new ways of God of War, and ease you into a new mythology. For starters, Kratos wields a new weapon, Leviathan, a hefty two-handed battle axe. Combine that with the camera being pulled in tight behind Kratos’ shoulder, and the combat feels a bit more slow and deliberate than in previous games. God of War 3 played a little with the idea of Kratos having different weapons than the traditional Blades of Chaos, but I don’t remember those weapons having quite as much heft as the new axe does. It forces you to do most of your combat in close, and since the enemies will not wait their turn to fight you and knock you out of your attack animations, you have to care much more about crowd control and positioning.
At its core you get a 2-button, light/heavy attack combat system with a block. You can also aim by holding down the left trigger and throw your axe using the light and heavy attack buttons. Once thrown, your axe will stay where it sticks or lands… until you recall it. Leviathan will come tumbling back to your outstretched hand in a gorgeous arc culminating in a very satisfying thud. Oh yeah, did I mention that God of War seemingly uses every single opportunity to make use of the controller’s rumble? I personally have drained the battery on 2 different controllers in 2 different 4-hour play sessions. Fun fact.
Atreus kind of acts as an AI weapon in battle that Kratos can otherwise call on to distract, or eventually hurt, specific enemies. In the skill tree, you can upgrade Kratos and Atreus to make them more effective in combat, gaining new combos and abilities. Eventually Atreus will start doing real damage to your foes and will even participate in some melee. At times I found it frustrating getting used to the combat. I frequently toggled between normal and easy difficulty. Normal could be quite difficult at times for being so early in the game and easy was actually too easy early on, seemingly taking most of the enthusiasm out of the enemies. Easy difficulty had picked up some bite and hit a sweet spot for me by the time got about 15 hrs in to the game.
Another addition to God of War is the concept of loot. You will find materials used for upgrading your axe and armor. You will find new, different armor, and eventually be able to craft it as well. You will find runes and enchantments you can mix and match for your axe and your armor. These will typically add special attacks you can perform or bonuses to your stats. You can do all of this for Kratos and Atreus, making them stronger and more interesting in combat.
Eventually, it opens up into a larger hub area where you branch off into different regions with different enemies and sights to see, and the game really starts to take off. There are side-quests to accomplish, usually in service of obtaining better loot or runes. There are areas with some light puzzle solving usually opening a previously blocked off path or opening a locked chest containing more loot. I am excited to play more of this game. As much as I find the combat to be frustrating at times, I really like where the story is headed and have thoroughly enjoyed the changes that they have made to the structure and tone so far. Things have started happening in the plot that really make me want to see it through to the end and the world is interesting enough that I want to explore and see the things that are hidden on the fringe. You can follow the main story leaving many areas unexplored if you like, but God of War’s visuals are stunning and its sense of scale is still some of the best I have seen in games.
In one region I came across the aftermath of an age-old fight between Thor and a giant. The corpse was laying on the ground and stretches on forever and you realize as you approach to navigate to your destination, this giant fell on a village when it was slain. You encounter characters who paint the giants in a good light. They way they tell it the giants just wanted peace for their people and the gods wouldn’t stop messing with them. This fight and Thor’s victory are told as a tale of triumph, but traversing through the crushed town and seeing the results of Thor’s actions from that perspective… that’s interesting to me, and I can’t wait to see more.
