As new technological breakthroughs bring our society further into the realms of Science
Fiction, video games slowly begin to advance into this world as well.

With every passing year, new developments tend to make impeccable breakthroughs in
gaming that never could have been thought of as possible.

Let’s rewind time for a minute and take a look at 2018, a huge year for games trying to
push the technical restrictions of the past.

Considerably the biggest games of that year were Red Dead Redemption 2 and God of
War, both of which succeeded in creating worlds with insane amounts of details existing
within the characters and environments.

These games both had a large emphasis on story and characters, winning awards and
praise from many due to these aspects while also stirring up debate on which game is
superior.

The Video Game Awards of 2018 would crown God of War as “Game of the Year” over
Red Dead Redemption 2, and I 100% have to agree with this decision – God of War
(2018) gave me a thrilling experience that I have never felt from another game.
Being a continuation to the series that ended in 2013 (first starting in 2005), the game
switches the normal Greek mythology setting and takes the player into the cold world of
Norse mythology where we follow greek demigod Kratos and his half norse, half greek
son Atreus.

After successfully killing every primary god in Greece due to his rage, including Zeus,
the story follows an older and more restrained Kratos trying to start a new life in the land
of Midgard, secluded from his past. After the passing of his wife, Kratos and Atreus set
out to spread her ashes on the highest peak in all the nine realms per her final request.

A big highlight for this game to me is the way how Kratos and Atreus interact with each
other and the land around them.

Atreus, learning from his norse mother, is so interested in the people and history that
exists within Midgard and he is constantly pondering about the implications behind the
ancient structures they travel in.

Kratos on the other hand, being the stone cold beast that he is, is so comically
dismissive of the importance behind all these monuments. Either due to his Greek
heritage or just because of his rock like personality, Kratos only views his goal as
important; everything else is a simple distraction from the danger that exists within this
world.

All of the other God of War games are pretty lackluster in character development and
interactions, so seeing the game take such a strong stance on dialogue and thoughtful
interactions is refreshing.

Many of the games funniest moments happen in canoe trip conversations between
Atreus and his hardcore father.

Like I mentioned before, there is a powerful insistence in creating detailed characters
and environments – big highlight on environments!

There were many times when I had to take a moment to gawk at the incredible features
displayed throughout the entirety of my playthrough. There is such a massive scope of
size incorporated into the game.

Mountains that peak through the fluffy clouds surrounding the land, wide open valleys
encompassing forests and caves, just look at screenshots of the game – it’s
unbelievable how incredible the land looks in this game.

A good way to describe the environment is essentially imagining you’re playing the
game, you see a massive rocky mountain with an ominous cave gaping open in the
background, you say “oh that’s cool, it’s really detailed”. But then as you continue the
game, you realize that you can actually go to the mountain that you saw earlier, making
it an actual, tangible object within the game; thit is an amazing feat to accomplish for a
video game.

The creatures are like this too, especially the World Serpent, which upon seeing this
behemoth for the first time I verbally gasped and embarrassed myself.

The World Serpent, which in Norse is a giant snake that encompasses the entire planet,
has so many moving parts to its design that blow any “realistic game” out of the water.
Seaweed being attached to the creature’s chin after surfacing from the water, the loose
yet massive skin drooping off of its curvy body as it rises to the sky, the fact that you
can see its enormous body still moving even when it is in a distance so far from the
player; There is just so much detail!

Okay, before I drool a pool from talking about the design of the game, let’s cover what is
really important, gameplay.

It’s really fun…that is all.

The big attraction of all the previous titles in the franchise was the brutal combat within
and GOW (2018) doesn’t hold back at all in this field.

Kratos using his axe and god powers to slash, chop, punch, throw, and crush his
enemies feels so exhilarating. The way that the enemies react to your attacks has such
a nice feel to it – the combat has weight and is floaty at the same time.

Even the way Atreus plays feels helpful and effective, like he is an actual player at
times. Creating a partner AI is very important for this type of game, as Atreus is
constantly with Kratos in every part of the game, and very few games are able to get
this perfect.

Atreus acts and plays like he is your partner, simple as that.

Kratos feels and controls like a powerful being, simple as that.

There are many small niches and giant additions that make God of War the colossal
game that it is, I haven’t even been able to talk about how the in-game camera never
has any scene cuts (like the movie 1917).

Every Part of the gameplay feels so fluent and so purposeful, that you can never step
away from the controller. The game is fun and has a thoughtful story to support it, a
quality that many games try to achieve today.

God of War (2018) is one of the best games I have ever played and I highly recommend
it to anyone interested.

Rating: 5/5 (an amazing experience)