I'm an old, jaded gamer. Sure, I don't have the time I used to have to play games. I can no longer run home from school, through on my console of choice for that evening and voraciously devour my media of choice.
My free-time is not as free as you might think, meaning any game purchases I make now have to be really worth while. I don't want to be an hour in only to discover the hard-earned cash I just put down on something I *thought* was going to be good (ah, game demos...) turns out to be something I'm thoroughly not enjoying. Something not living up to the hype. Something mired with micro-transactions, or made dystrophic by future DLC...
Not so, God of War.
The game is good. Really, really good. It's a fantastic mash of excellent game play and compelling, mature story telling. Not quite the brilliance that The Last of Us managed to achieve, but falling short of that bar in my mind is no great sin given how high the hurdle is.
For the record, I never played any of the earlier God of War games. I didn't know about about Kratos, the main character and Spartan of... Sparta, and his ongoing feud with the Pantheon of Greek Gods, who did various unpleasantires to him, such as tricking him into killing his wife and kid, and concealing from him his own nature as the son of Zeus, and so he proceeds to feed most of them their teeth.
At least, I think that's how it goes.
Fast-forward to non-ancient-greek-times-but-still-pretty-ancient-norse-times, we find Kratos still alive and kicking, or in this case chopping down trees, clearly still haunted by those ghosts he left behind in Greece. Enter Atreus, son of Kratos (or "boy" for short) as the two of them prepare for the funeral pyre of wife and mother, Faye, who's asked her ashes be scattered from the highest peak in all the realms.
And so our journey begins, with one of the Norse Gods picking a fight outside Kratos' wood-lodge for reasons to be explored...
A journey filled with much ass-kicking, axe-throwing, and everything in between. The game's combat is appropriately "arcadey", I'd say, pretty accessible to all but filled with enough nuance to keep people engaged and challenged at higher difficulties. And the game it's self also paces the combat and the story rather well, as Kratos endeavours to be a good father to his son whilst also tearing demons and undead apart with his bare hands. It makes for an interesting dynamic, and the story is told well, only with one part nearer the end of the game seeming a bit blunt and unnecessary, perhaps to be further explored in inevitable sequels.
While the game is mostly linear, there's enough open-world vibes there to encourage one to stray from the beaten path, side-quests to pursue, loot to... loot, and beasties to maim. Littered inbetween the comings and goings of Dad and Boy are interesting pieces of dialog between the two. These dialogs are thoroughly improved by Mimir, another character who accompanies our two lads (though, accompanies might be a bit of a stretch, as you'll find out) on their trek.
Mimir is great. I love Mimir.
Given my penchant for wandering, I managed to achieve most of what I believe the game has to offer as I slowly plodding along to the end of the game, something which came up rather abruptly, all things considered, but still tied together quite nicely with a nod toward the future, as I have aluded.
I'm eager to see where our lads go next, and surprisingly, not soured by the idea of future DLC. Let's see how that goes.
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