Before I start this I wanted to say that I will not go into any spoilers here! I went in as dark as I could and I'm so glad I did! If you plan on playing this game, or are currently playing it, do you're best to avoid spoilers cause you can easily have the ending spoiled! Alright, on to my thoughts!
There's a moment in the opening cutscene of this game when Kratos bends down to pick up the tree that he just cut down and some of the bandages he has wrapped around his arms comes loose and hangs. He stares at the dangling bandage for a moment and takes a deep breath as he reminisces about his past and how he has moved on. This represents this entire game! This is not like any of the other God of War games before it but at the same time, there are moments that totally are God of War moments! This is the reboot of this series that I didn't know I wanted until I had it in my hands! Cause I saw all the review scores and all the hype for a week since the embargo lifted so soon, but they were all right! This isn't just an amazing game with great combat and some of the best graphics I've ever seen, it's important on a few levels. I'll get to those though.
I want to start with the story and characters. I legit teared up and straight up cried while playing this game. They transformed Kratos into this broken man who just wanted to move on with his life but his past wouldn't let him. In the previous games he was just an angry Spartan who wanted to kill the gods for what they did to him and he is quiet in a lot of situations in this game. Most of the yelling he does is during combat. You can see the scars of his past with the huge scar on his stomach from the end of God of War 3 and the bandaged up arms from his blades. As great as he is, Atreus is the shinning character in this game! By the time I beat the game I fully believed their father and son relationship. He's very chatty, but not annoying chatty. He's like Elle from The Last of Us. And I know there are a lot of comparable aspects to the game and this one but that's not a bad thing. He holds his own in combat the same way Elizabeth did in Bioshock Infinite.
I'm also one of those people that didn't know much about Norse mythology and they did a great job explaining things in the story and the lore in your journal. They touch on all the heavy hitters in the mythology that you probably know and it's interesting to hear their take on characters like Thor. I will say, being a fan of the current Marvel moves and having seen all the Thor movies, I fully understood a lot of the references in this game thanks to those movies.
Let's talk about combat a little. As odd as this is going to sound, this game plays a tad like Dark Souls. And at first that might sound awful but it's amazing! You don't have a stamina bar or anything but blocking is a key thing to do in late game stuff and the controls are laid out the same as a Souls game. The Leviathan Axe is so fun to use! It's fast and you unlock some awesome skills for it, but the best part is being able to throw it! It literally works like Thor's hammer in the sense that you throw it and it returns to you by pressing triangle. Atreus is surprisingly great in combat! He can use his arrows to sun and damage enemies and they recharge pretty fast depending on what outfit he has on. I spammed his arrows basically the entire game!
There's also a loot system in this game and I was very skeptical about it going in but it works really well! You can find armor or craft it with the dwarves Brok and Sindri, who are both really well written and funny by the way. Getting in to late game stuff you will have to grind a bit to get the high end gear but it's worth it cause it looks awesome! And you'll need it for post-game content...yeah, I said post-game content...in a God of War game.
The side stuff in this game is vast and it's all really good! It's so weird to have content like this in a God of War game but I'm all for it! If you are like me then you'll be happy to know that there are no missable trophies and you can go back to every location after the main story. I would say it could take up to 50-60 hours to see everything this game has to offer and that's all unique content!
I mentioned earlier on what this game is important and I want to end with that. This is a story about a father and son that is done so well and hit me with so many emotions. I would go as far as to say this is a must play from a story stand point and that's big for a God of War game. It's dripping with emotion and none of it comes off as corny, it's all believable and the emotions feel real. And this is also a single player game and is selling very well! That's a big deal since the top games of 2017 were mostly multiplayer games and we had that Star Wars game cancelled by EA because it was a single player game. I hope this game let's companies know that single player games are things that players still want! I get all single player games aren't gonna be in 5 year production cycles but still, we want them! We want good stories with interesting characters and those games will sell!
I could honestly go on for another 5 paragraphs about this game but I won't! Just know that this game is definitely one of the best games of the year and it might be my favorite God of War game! It's a beautiful story with an amazing ending that leaves the door open for more games! It's definitely worth buying a PS4 to play this if you don't have one. This is a masterpiece of storytelling and one of the best games this generation!
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