50 Years of Video Games: God of War (PS4)
By 2018 the shifting priorities of Sony that kicked off with The Last of Us’s success were starting to settle in. PlayStation exclusive games were now ambitious in their storytelling with a heavy narrative focus, and perhaps nothing better embodies that change in direction than the changes the God of War franchise underwent. The original PlayStation 2 game and most of its sequels reveled in violence and bloodshed, the Spartan demigod Kratos carving his way through Greek mythology with little remorse. God of War on the PS4 wouldn’t strip out the action by any means, Kratos’s new Leviathan Axe able to cleave enemies in half and blood speckling him and the battlefield as he did so, but the angry war machine had grown tired of constant conflict, retiring to a cold Nordic home to try and find peace.
God of War on PS4 begins rather quietly as well. Kratos and his son Atreus are preparing a funeral pyre, Kratos’s wife and the boy’s mother leaving them with the instructions that she wants her ashes scattered from the highest peak in the lands. The land’s trolls and draugr as well as the need to hunt for food already ensured that Kratos hadn’t completely retired his violent ways, but his quiet life is disturbed when a strange visitor drops by and ropes Kratos into the affairs of the Nordic gods. Simply wishing to honor his wife’s wishes while keeping his gruesome history from his son, Kratos tries to resist any involvement in the conflict between Norse gods but finds his path to the mountaintop requires him to interact with the people of this land, their magics, and their monsters.
Kratos himself does not feel like the true core character of this journey even though you play as him exclusively, the spotlight instead shared between him and his son. Atreus is present by Kratos’s side at most every moment, talking with his father and fighting alongside him. The personal history between the two is rocky and they both barely know each other, Kratos even preferring to call his son “boy” as he believes a strict and detached hand will best guide him. Atreus is a more selfless and earnest young man though, eager to help others and open to sharing his thoughts with most everyone but his father. The overbearing parenting style of Kratos has made Atreus resentful but he also wants to finally truly connect with one of the few people he’s ever known, so while he wants to object at times to his father’s behavior he also can’t bring himself to do so openly. Sunny Suljic does a phenomenal job voicing him, Atreus around 11 years old and having both the innocence of youth but the desire to become an adult to balance in his attitude. Kratos being strict with him is clearly not entirely unwarranted at times either, Atreus certainly needing room to grow and learn but proving to be naive or careless with his actions as he tries to be more like his incredibly capable father. Since the characters talk during scenes and play there is plenty of time for subtle spots of growth to emerge in their relationship, something that Atreus again embodies superbly.
When you begin, Atreus is encouraged only to pester foes with his bow from afar but soon he becomes more involved in the fights, the player even able to press a button to command him to attack. As the story progresses and the dynamic of the father-son relationship changes for better and worse though, Atreus’s actions in a battle start to reflect it as well. He may become more brazen in the actions he takes on his own or even start going against your plans, although the game still tries to ensures him disobeying you won’t be too painful since most of your success rests on Kratos’s shoulders. In the story though Atreus also proves his worth, Kratos not understanding the language of this land despite often coming across puzzles that require runic knowledge. Atreus can translate these as well as enter places Kratos cannot, and again the way he completes these is an ever-evolving picture of where he is emotionally and how he feels towards his father. If the game wants to focus on an important part of their relationship it will not shy away from making that the core of the moment, but the many subtleties in how they talk during moments of travel also ensure they remain the heart of the experience.
Kratos’s contribution to the plot shouldn’t be understated either, the game making sure it takes time and picks his dialogue well when it comes to how he responds to certain tensions like Atreus knowing nothing about his father’s history. Kratos is shown very early on to clearly care for his son, reaching for him but unable to show the affection as he fears what letting Atreus know the truth will open him up to, especially with the Norse gods now concerned about a god slayer in their lands. Kratos is cold because he mistakes that for the way to spare his son the pains he knows, God of War unafraid to show how at moments it does work and at others it only pushes Atreus closer to danger. Their interactions with other characters also provides fertile soil for drawing out more from Kratos than he’d be willing to give, the game taking a pretty careful approach to how it includes its elements from Nordic mythology. Gods and giants don’t just drop in to make for epic boss battles, a select handful of major names intertwining through the entirety of the story while lesser beasts and creatures can keep the action exciting until you have a possible showdown with a major name. It does put a very strong battle near the start as a taste of the massive battles down the road to whet your appetite, but the slow crafting of each character also ensures that a battle is more than just a chance to let loose with your weapons and abilities.
A pair of dwarven brothers stands out as wonderful side characters who almost serve as a means of exaggerating the rough relationship between Kratos and Atreus. Brok and Sindri were smiths who worked on famous weapons before their differing attitudes lead to them refusing to work together, both of them willing to help Kratos enhance his axe and armor should he find them but quick to complain about each other. Brok is a gruff loudmouth he speaks his objections with colorful language while Sindri is incredibly emotional and deathly afraid of getting his hands dirty, their behavior arising from such exaggerated personality traits providing amusing touches to a blacksmith visit but also a representation of how Kratos and Atreus could grow apart if they didn’t try to temper their issues with each other. The all-knowing Mimir enters the picture later and adds an impartial eye of wisdom to help guide the two main characters, almost like an advisor at times when characters might leave things unsaid otherwise but also present to strengthen the player’s understanding of Nordic myth during moments he can speak at length. Even some of your main adversaries again touch on the troubled affection one can have for family, trying to sort out the positive feelings with the things you learn to dislike from being so close to someone.
To make it all the more impressive how masterfully it handles this plot of interconnected themes though, God of War is presented almost entirely without cuts the moment you select New Game. Naturally turning off the system when you’re done playing for the day would interrupt this approach, and if you die or open a pause menu it will have to break the commitment to one long take, but the immersion of being there for literally every step of the journey further provides a constant lens on the evolution of its characters. Rather than ever cutting away with the assumption something was done or said you know the full breadth of the relationships on show, from moments of quiet reflection to the fiery moments things come to a head. Subtleties are more poignant and present because you can track their change in real time or how a character might suddenly break from the norm. Even the means of traveling more quickly from place to place later in the adventure is represented in game as a dimensional path you walk through to connect distant locations, load times accounted for with interactive segments so that you are not broken out of the immersion too often. In fact, even the menus can sometimes work towards this as well. While things like equipping new armor or upgrading your skills uses fairly normal menu approaches, the codex that tells you about the creatures you fight and characters you encounter is all presented as a journal Atreus keeps. His observations can include useful tips for fighting common foes but also include personal observations or moments of fascination and unearthed memories of his life before the adventure, this window into his thoughts also free to speak more candidly about how he feels on his father which in turn can reflect his emotional state at the time he takes his notes.
While the fascinating touches done to bring the story to life definitely make this game an exemplary experience, the action-adventure elements are certainly well-crafted as well. Your available skills both in terms of what Kratos can do and how Atreus can help are constantly expanding during the adventure, not only as a means of spicing up the battles with the monsters of myth but also as a way of expanding the potential for puzzle solving. Your Leviathan Axe is a versatile tool, not only chopping through enemies with its powerful swings but able to be hurled forward and summoned back with a satisfying weighty catching animation to punctuate it. Not only does this give you a projectile from the start if you feel you need to keep your distance for a bit in a fight, it also gives you a means of interacting with the environment like smashing or cutting things from afar as well as freezing gears with its icy touch. Without the axe in hand though you can still fight with your fists and a shield you can instantly summon can be used to defend or deflect blows as well, the player eventually able to customize unique Runic abilities for special attacks or enter a powerful rage mode to spice things up even further. Fights will come to ask you to better realize the breadth of your options as you progress as some won’t take much damage unless you attack them right or exploit weaknesses, and Atreus’s contributions begin to add to this as well as his arrows can stun or distract foes while mystical powers later give him customizable abilities to whip out to change the flow of battle.
God of War also has a good sense when it comes to rotating in and out its enemy types. While the draugr you encounter at the start of the game will keep making appearances throughout, you’ll start to encounter icy reavers you must fight with your fists, witch-like creatures Atreus must stun for you to even touch, giant stone golems that rely more on you striking their weaknesses as they attack, and things like floating eyeballs that draw on different ways to aid their allies like poisoning you or even regenerating an enemy’s health as they posses them. Cycling them in and out helps improve the longevity of each concept and their variations can start to be combined so a physical fighter will be joined by speedy assistance or magical snipers, the player needing good battle sense to handle them throughout the experience. Boss battles are bombastic and often involve Kratos showing off his supernatural strength not only in what you directly do but the flashy animations between moments of control, the epic scale of facing a god or dragon captured well although a few moments in these battles can be a bit simple and less exciting by comparison. Still, when you do get into one of the major moments of combat the game wants to heighten things to a truly incredible level, be it the early taster with the fight with the stranger or the finale where all of the narrative elements finally come to a head in a phenomenal spectacle.
The world of God of War gives more than things to kill though. At many points you’ll need to use your axe, Atreus, or some other acquired skill to overcome traps or reshape the land in a helpful way, this perhaps at its best when you come to the Lake of the Nine. While most of the adventure is about the forward progress towards the mountain’s peak, complications do draw you elsewhere and one location opens up your options for where you want to go. The Lake of the Nine has multiple areas you can explore that are of no true story consequence but can hold areas that feel just as well crafted as places you need to visit in your personal mission to scatter the ashes. Some are islands with useful items to grab or tough foes to beat for good rewards, others are deeper and more involved puzzle areas that often tie to something the dwarves can use, and many of them have some small story of their own that gives you something to attach yourself to during the action. The stories are perhaps better for how the core cast reacts to them rather than their own unique substance, even the riding of a boat through the lake often a chance for Kratos and Atreus to speak more than it is something interesting gameplay-wise, but plenty of unique ideas not found elsewhere in the game appear here and in other optional content you are free to engage with or ignore at your pleasure. The lake even undergoes changes at different moments in the story to open up new areas when you return to it, and even later down the line you can start to open up exploration of other realms as well.
The adventure to the mountain peak might at first seem like it will be rooted mostly in caverns and snowy mountainsides, but the expanding scope of the adventure leads to Kratos and Atreus not only heading to areas like the Lake that provide an appreciated change of setting but also can be in entirely different realms. Visiting Alfheim where the light and dark elves are locked in war provides a beautiful lush world of light amidst the dark backdrop of the conflict, other realms also weaving into the adventure either as story destinations or unlockable locations that truly do feel like other worlds compared to the more natural spaces you spend most of your time in. It’s not like God of War is without creative ideas for places in its grounded main setting either, the corpse of a giant an especially interesting place to explore visually. Save for the side content, areas are also not simply introduced just for variation’s sake, the shifts in setting and concept good for shifts in gameplay but also often adding something to the continued development of Kratos and Atreus either individually or in how they interact with each other and those around them.
THE VERDICT: A phenomenal father and son tale told amidst battles with monsters and gods, God of War presents a remarkably rich and layered relationship between Kratos and Atreus that colors most every aspect of it. Combat, the codex, even the shape of places you visit and the concerns of characters you interact with almost always has some tie to the troubled bond between the two central characters while developing in believable and satisfying ways between fighting a dragon and using a giant’s dead body to solve puzzles. Satisfying combat with a handful of customizable skills you need to use well to overcome a well cycled set of enemies provides more visceral thrills while solving puzzles with those skills or exploring the Lake of the Nine’s many optional areas adds in different interactive forms of play that connect to strengthening your characters or giving them more room to interact.
And so, I give God of War for PlayStation 4…
A FANTASTIC rating. The impressive feat of presenting all the action with no intended cuts sounds like a mere technical achievement on first blush, but the fact it roots you in the entirety of the adventure makes it so much more than a mind-boggling commitment to an idea. The frigid unfamiliarity between Kratos and Atreus that starts the adventure is able to be reshaped and developed in real time and as the culmination of so many small touches the player can easily follow along the way. Atreus is not only vital to the plot but a constant important ally in a fight, pulling his weight in unique ways that Kratos cannot so the player is able to appreciate him beyond just his story purpose. In that way his emotional state feels more present as well, and by having the characters in the plot carefully picked specifically to introduce new wrinkles to how Kratos and Atreus interact you are guaranteed a narrative that does not dawdle even when the pair are forced off the path to the mountaintop. God of War is devoted to telling a superb story and will devote as much time as it needs to in order to draw out the meaning of a moment but also does not slack at all when it comes to the fighting system, your ability growth and the evolution of the opposition keeping battles involved and layered even if you do get involved in optional content that provides you some of the best gear and powers in the game. A few moments where bosses briefly get tame amidst their usual bombast do feel a little out of place and the interconnected nature of areas like the Lake of the Nine can mean a diversion before you have certain skills turns out fruitless, but most moments, be they major action segments or deliberately paced conversations, are a masterful contribution to a game that does not stray from its focus to the point its one shot approach remains feasible and complementary.
A remarkable facelift to a series that at first seemed boisterous in its deliberately amoral hero, Kratos’s shift to a more human and emotional character feels surprisingly believable because of the care given to almost every bit of dialogue he speaks. He is a man weighed down by a history that influences his every action, but God of War for PS4 is not beholden to this legacy either. A strong entry point even for those turned away by the carnage of the early titles but still maintaining that element of the character but in a more emotionally mature manner, God of War finds an incredible balance between providing the player with constant immersive story development without denying them the chance to participate. While starting as an attempt to reinvent the franchise after its Greek god killing premise has been worn down over time, God of War for PS4 also cemented the incredible potential of Sony’s new preferred focus, single player games with rich narratives on top of their solid gameplay not too surprisingly a format for success.