God of War (2018) answered one of gaming’s hardest questions, what can you do with a game franchise that was beloved by many teenagers for its childish sexism and unnecessary violence? Obviously, the general answer is let it be an object of its time, beloved for its strengths and a reminder of what gaming was like.
Well Santa Monica Studio took it another way by making it a strong, interesting story that is as much of an emotional journey for the player as it is for Kratos. Also, unnecessary violence, it is God of War of course.
Now that emotional journey is on PC.
If you didn’t own a PS4 or a PS5 and therefore this is the first time you might try playing God of War, then you are in for a real treat. The game kicks off with our old friend Kratos living in the frozen expanses of Midgard with his son Atreus. His wife has died, and they plan to spread her ashes from the highest peak in the realms. Unfortunately, he gets attacked at his home by someone with special abilities and now Kratos’ quiet life in hiding becomes a lot more difficult as the Norse Gods become aware of him.
Suddenly a nice hike up the highest mountain to spread some ashes is complicated as the Gods don’t like the Greek God of War in their midst. One area the game massively improved on is the action. It is much closer and more intimate than the older games. Kratos is equipped with an axe he can fling around, and he unlocks a lot more equipment as the game progresses. If you haven’t played yet, I don’t want to ruin that for you.
There are some light RPG elements as you can collect gear which can also be upgraded. Slot in some runes in for extra buffs and you have yourself enough customisation for you to spend too much time poking around a menu. This does add some depth to the game, as we discover the complexity that Kratos has developed as he learns to be less of an ass hat to his son.
God of War also achieved an extraordinary feat of having no loading screens.
The opening screen which appears to be a static image literally moves into the opening cut scene when you choose to start a new game. It is a technical marvel. Then there is the fact that the game looked absurdly good when it was released on PS4. Then running it on PS5 hardware this absurdly good-looking game got more absurdly good looking. Well with as much power under the hood as you want with a PC, it gets better.
If you have played the game before then this package doesn’t offer too much more. If you have a beefy ass PC and want to make it prettier for your next playthrough, then it will achieve that. The real value here is for PC gamers to play this absurdly excellent game for the first time. So go play it PC gamers. Like now.