A change of pace and the first review, God of War 2018!

I want to change the pace a little bit and try to create more posts than just tech updates. The pace at which I’m posting isn’t necessarily the greatest and that’s a problem, I never wanted to slack on this as this is my personal recollection of accomplishments and progress. That being said, I want to share more posts and opinion pieces moving forwards, starting with something I’m very passionate about, video games. I’ve written about video games in the past, however I really want to start sharing my experiences and opinions on some of the games that have dropped over the years, starting with one that I recently completed, God of War 2018.

These are my opinions and my opinions only

The Review

Overview

God of War 2018 is an excellent game, phenomenal even. However, I am familiar with the original trilogy and the gameplay that series presented. The original trilogy is much more akin to classic platformers or hack-and-slash games than the 2018 entry. Santa Monica Studios did a fantastic job translating this iteration of the titular God of War to a new generation; that should absolutely be commended. However, I was always a fan of that old style of God of War gameplay, the visceral and bloody combat that the series was known for. Nonetheless, I was in for a treat when I really sunk my teeth into God of War 2018.

I will admit, I started God of War 2018 in the past, and it didn’t click with me. However, with a new perspective and a purchase of God of War Ragnarok sitting in my game library on the PS5, I was willing to give it a fair shot. After some tweaking with the gameplay settings that I will get into, oh boy, was I in for a treat!

The Good

First, the game is absolutely beautiful for a PS4 game, and if someone were to tell me that it was originally for the PS4 and not the PS5, I wouldn’t have guessed. The game looks wonderful, from the Lake of the Nine to the other realms you travel into. The game has graphical fidelity not seen on the PS4 and, in some cases, beats out a large majority of PS5 titles. It’s simply a masterfully crafted graphical showcase that Sony should be proud to show the public.

Second, the audio is also masterfully crafted in every shape and form, from the music to the sound effects. The only gripe I have is that Kratos’s axe doesn’t have a strong feeling of impact when hitting enemies. It really needed to have more of an audible impact than it did, and that could be due more to the animations in addition to the sound effects. But that was my one and only gripe with the audio. Every other aspect of the sound design was perfect.

Third, the puzzles were very well crafted, while not being too simplistic. I had to look up a couple of puzzles online, but nothing too overly complicated. This contributed to good gameplay outside of combat and a very enjoyable overall experience in the overworld, as sometimes the game can get repetitive. This is something I will cover.

The Mediocre

Alright, let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way first: the combat. While serviceable, the audio cues and the impact of the Leviathan Axe simply weren’t as impactful as I would have wanted. The combat at the beginning with the Leviathan Axe really turned me off of the game. Seriously, it was the main reason I stopped playing the first time. It felt like I was hitting enemies with a wet noodle. You can imagine someone who is familiar with the original trilogy and how every swing of the Blades of Chaos felt like an earthquake when hitting the ground or a gigantic butcher knife slicing through enemies— to feel the Leviathan Axe’s weak attacks and sound effects was such a disappointment, and I didn’t want to spend the next 20-40 hours with this weak weapon.

This is where I had to tweak the gameplay a bit in the settings. I lowered the difficulty. Yes, I went from the intended normal mode down to story mode, and it wasn’t because the game was too difficult. I could very much handle the game on normal; it simply never felt like I was making any impact with the Leviathan Axe, as every enemy felt like a sponge soaking up those weak soundless axe swings, lowering the difficulty helped create a better power fantasy for the character and prevented the enemies from feeling like complete sponges soaking up every hit. Later on, however, SPOILER you do get the Blades of Chaos again, and my goodness, does the game change. They hit like a truck, as wonderful as they were in the original trilogy. So one has to wonder, what went wrong with the axe? Who knows, maybe Ragnarok fixes this. I haven’t played it yet, but I fully intend to finish Kratos’s romp in Norse mythology. Until then, my opinion stands.

Next, boss fights. They were alright; there wasn’t anything too impressive until the dragons started to come into play, and man, does Kratos feel like his old Spartan self when that happens! The problem with the boss fights is the same as in the original trilogy: they relied on the spectacle of size rather than gameplay. For the most part, that’s perfectly fine, but when I fought Baldur the second time, it did feel like I had made progress. However, it was just a relief to finally SPOILER end his hunt for our heroes after a somewhat lengthy battle. Overall, the boss fights worked well for what they were, but they never really felt as good as those in the original trilogy of games.

Side quests are next, and some of them are really good, but I never truly found any proper incentive to do them other than to get more lore. Whenever I completed a side quest, I would only get a mediocre rune or a somewhat decent piece of armor—nothing really impactful. The items I did get over time and actually used were found while exploring in the wild, not from doing side quests, so that was kind of a bummer. I suppose if you’re looking for more gameplay and lore, this can hit home, but for me, it needs to have an incentive with meaningful output. Overall, they worked well, but the rewards could have been better.

The Conclusion

God of War (2018), as I previously stated, is a phenomenal game. It ticks all the boxes of being an unstoppable force of a man in a world filled with mystic plots and narrative twists. There are some hangups, of course—just like with any game, nothing is perfect—but God of War (2018) comes so close to perfection!