God of War Review – A god ascends

Surrounding the story and the combat is God of War‘s visuals – its technical quality and its aesthetic presentation. This is the other area of God of War that left me concerned. The series has a reputation as being one of immature games for mature audiences. I could boil the original trilogy down to three core concepts – tits, gore, and Ray Harryhausen. It wore on me as the trilogy went on, but this installment reverses that trend. Every element of God of War is, simply put, stunning.

It looks especially good on PlayStation 4 Pro, where you can choose between an upscaled 2160p resolution and a higher frame rate rendered at 1080p. Either mode looks great, with the latter performance-focused setting offering a buttery-smooth frame rate while still looking very nice. The game is full of beautiful lighting, particle effects, and tons of nordic fog.

One of the most fascinating decisions the developers made was to put their entire game in what is essentially one long camera shot. From cutscene to gameplay, the camera never breaks away from the action and never cuts out to a pre-rendered cutscene that I could tell. Or maybe the team just masked it really well. But when action shifts, the camera just follows it like a documentarian on foot behind their subject. When it’s time to give the player control, the camera finds its spot behind Kratos and locks in. It added to the personal feeling of God of War, and made the feeling of being there that much more immersive.

But perhaps the most notable improvement is on the aesthetic front. God of War is a brutal game, and Kratos is constantly stomping heads and cleaving monsters in twain. But the gore this time is elemental rather than liquid. Ice-powered draugr (Norse undead) burst into a crackling, frozen mist, while fire draugr spray into red-hot fire. And when you do fight more human or human-like characters, there is blood, from Kratos and his enemies alike, but all of it is handled more tastefully. It feels like an R-rated movie rather than one that had to fight to avoid an NC-17 rating.

Even the bombastic takedown moves are tempered this time. In this case, the team seems to have taken a page from 2016’s Doom. When you stun an enemy and hit the takedown button, Kratos does his gory work, tearing the monster in half, stomping on its skull, and all of that, but but the game doesn’t linger on it. It’s not pornographically gory like it was before.

And on that note, there’s nary a breast to be found in this take on God of War. Aside from how strange it would be to have that happening in front of the child Kratos has with him, it wouldn’t fit the tone of the game, either. God of War purists may find changes like these off-putting, but to me it feels like director Cory Barlog has found way to preserve God of War‘s violent, harsh core without the previous games’ cringe-y teen-boy-notebook-art quality to the whole production.

The look of the game lends itself a bit more toward reality than the previous titles, too, though in ways this serves to enhance the moments of scale the game features. When you meet the World Serpent Jörmungandr for the first time, the beast is truly huge in a way not even the biggest of God of War‘s Greek beasts can compare to.

I had a hard time putting down God of War throughout my time with it. While the game doesn’t offer a readout of time spent, I’d estimate I spent at least 30 hours with the game and probably much closer to 45 or 50. More than once, I found myself thinking about the game while I was away from it, and “just 10 more minutes” turned into an hour as I literally lost time to the game.

In short, I was wrong. I was completely wrong about God of War. The series I was so done with is back. It’s beautiful. It’s heavy, meaningful, and mature. It’s a mature game for mature audiences. It’s a bloody, brutal game that can be incredibly difficult if you want it to be. It has a strong storyline, but tons of optional ways to keep exploring the beautiful world. It has twists and turns that are even more delicious if you know your Norse mythology, but those who haven’t dug into the legends of Baldur, Jörmungandr, Mimir, and the Jotun won’t find themselves in the cold, either.

Instead of a tired, bored tale of vengeance, Sony has revived a god.

Disclaimer: We received review codes for God of War from the publisher and played through the full campaign as well as a significant portion of the optional content before writing this review. All screens were captured on a PlayStation 4 Pro.

Article source: https://www.technobuffalo.com/reviews/god-of-war-ps4-review/