This kind of strategy gives many fights – especially one-on-one bosses – an engaging duel-like quality. You can freeze one from afar by throwing your axe, then use your fists to stun and grab another, then recall Leviathan for an area-of-effect ice burst. You can’t cut through huge swaths of enemies with it, so you need to consider how to manage your foes. I like how it emphasizes a more calculated style of combat instead of zoomed-out, combo-driven encounters, Leviathan makes you a tactician. The ice-infused axe Leviathan is a drastic departure from the iconic Blades of Chaos Kratos once wielded, but it is a well-balanced and entertaining tool of destruction. He fires off magic attacks and performs brutal executions in his attempts to defeat a clever assortment of foes from Norse myth. The Greek world may be gone, but Kratos is still a god of war, and his skill on the battlefield is appropriately divine. Despite this more grounded approach to presentation, the action’s scope and ambition is stunning in cutscenes and combat alike. The environments and characters look fantastic, and a new cinematic camera angle brings you close the action and never cuts away – a decision that proves immensely rewarding during big moments by giving you an intimate view. Between those points and beyond, the adventure is punctuated by a steady flow of enormous beasts, ancient architecture, and intense boss fights. An early encounter (against a mysterious enemy called the Stranger) sets the bar absurdly high, and a cathartic sequence later on stands out as my favorite moment in the series to date. That isn’t to say God of War has sacrificed its ability to deliver incredible spectacle. In terse responses and long silences, Kratos conveys more than he ever did cursing Olympus at the top of his lungs. These quiet moments are interesting, slowly and believably closing the distance between two characters – a focus that contrasts sharply with previous games. When Kratos artlessly paraphrases the fable of the tortoise and the hare, Atreus mocks his lack of storytelling prowess. Atreus wonders what he might say to his departed mother if given the chance – an exercise Kratos finds pointless. The interactions of Kratos and Atreus range from adversarial to compassionate, and these exchanges have ample room to breathe and draw players in. God of War brilliantly presents a desolate journey in a gorgeous world, all through the lens of the relationship between a distant father and his eager son. They encounter detours and surprises along the way, but the precise story beats are less important than how they are conveyed. The narrative is one of them, despite its simple premise: Kratos and Atreus need to reach the top of the highest mountain in the Norse domain. While previous games in this series established a successful formula of stylish action and epic setpieces, the team used this opportunity to be better with surprising changes on every front, God of War forges a new identity and surpasses even its most acclaimed predecessors.Īs a longtime fan of the series, this entry captivated me for completely different reasons. In developing the latest God of War, Sony’s Santa Monica studio apparently took this message to heart. This happens in different contexts, but the lesson remains consistent: Your decisions are not bound by precedent, and the choices of others are not examples to follow – they only set standards you can strive to exceed. In gruff moments of fatherly instruction, Kratos repeats the phrase “be better” to his son, Atreus.
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