My top games of the decade. Number Four.

GOD OF WAR.

Son of Zeus. Ghost of Sparta. God of War. Single Father. See the odd one out? Well for this game, it happens to be the most interesting aspect of Kratos’s character development throughout the campaign! I have been so excited to talk about this game as it was flawless to me. The only negative point was there isn’t a sequel out already! I NEED MORE. The game is a cinematic masterpiece and honestly would of been my game of the decade had the others after this not been so close to my heart.

As a new fan of this franchise I felt that this was the right game to get started with, as this is a new beginning to the story, but set in the same universe as the previous three games. God of War opens with Kratos and Atreus mourning the loss of their lover and mother respectively. Kratos obviously struggles with new found fatherhood throughout the game, never calling Atreus by his name only by “boy.” Having had a complicated history with his own father, something that is covered in previous games, one would assume fatherhood wasn’t on his bucket list.

The game is an epic tale of fulfilling the final wish of a dying mother, to spread her ashes atop the highest peak of the nine realms, a mountain in the realm of Jötunheim. The game actually takes place in Midgard, the norse mythological name for Earth, other touristy destinations include Helheim the realm of the dead and Alfheim, realm of the Elves. With the previous titles being based around the Greek gods this new tale is all about the Norse gods and their mythology, obviously.

God of War is not only an amazing story experience, the gameplay is phenomenal allowing for different combat experiences. The ability to use multiple weapons, command Atreus to use his own magic in combat, even find magical artifacts that add their own spice to the flow of combat. The combat gameplay is a mixture of hack and slash and precision aim as landing headshots with your thrown axe grants special bonuses and the ability to freeze enemies in place, with Atreus using magic with different effects such as an electric arrow that summons wolves to do damage.

The boss fights. My word, the boss fights are astoundingly engaging and fun. There is a sidequests to destroy all the legendary Valkyries as they have been corrupted and are not fulfilling their duty of guiding the dead to “Hel”. There is of course a dragon fight, which is a heart racing fight a top an ancient elevator ascending a mountain. If you couldn’t tell, this game was an absolute delight for me, my personal favourite fight though, is on the back of a dragon. Yes, the back of a dragon. These are just a few of the incredible fights throughout the game.

God of War also offers varying difficulty options, one of them being “God of War difficulty”, in which I spent 2 hours to get through one area of mobs. I did not continue the game on this difficulty, I hang my head in shame. It was completed on the second hardest difficulty though, so my head isn’t hung that low. Go me. There are various armor upgrades and options throughout your adventure which were an incredible treat as I really enjoyed collecting them all and upgrading them to max granting me set bonuses and benefits to certain engagements. It wasn’t overly complex but it wasn’t overly simplified either, meaning on harder difficulties you weren’t able to brute force your way through the combat.

In all honesty, if the combat was removed and it was simply cinematics of the story I would still have paid the full price. Not only are the characters played brilliantly but the story is so incredibly engaging that time flies so quickly whilst playing, you really don’t want it to end when it does. It is honestly an amazing story of watching this God come to terms with the fact he now has to raise his son alone and to make sure he is raised properly and has respect for life and who he is. The story lightly touches on Kratos’s past, assuming this is to get you to play the previous titles, but Atreus learning about his fathers past is a big plot point during the game. It changes his character drastically and Kratos acknowledges this and must make sure he is true to himself and grows to be the man his mother wanted him to be.

The final act of this game is one of my favourites in gaming, there are twists and turns and so many plot points that I simply cannot be more excited for to see unfold in the sequel game. I hope to one day replay this game fully again and experience it all over.

Harry.