On April 20, God of War was released, a new mythological-themed combat and adventure video game for PlayStation 4, which in two weeks has established itself as one of the best titles to ever be released on the console, receiving enthusiastic and almost unanimous reviews in considering it. one of the most beautiful video games of recent years. Currently in the ranking of the Metacritic site, which summarizes the reviews of film series and video games in a scaffolding from 0 to 100, God of War (69 euros on Amazon, 59 euros on ePrice) is in third place among the best video games ever for PS4 : behind two classics like Grand Theft Auto V and The Last Of Us Remastered.
God of War was developed by the Americans of the Santa Monica Studio, and is the eighth in a famous and successful video game series whose first title was released in 2005 for the PlayStation 2, and the last, God of War III, in 2010. God of War has the same protagonist as the other video games in the series: Kratos, a Spartan warrior who discovers that he is actually the son of Zeus, and therefore a demigod. The story of Kratos is complicated and is developed in the many chapters of the series: the most important thing to know is that Kratos was once the servant of Ares, the god of war (hence the title), who at one point killed taking his place.
The latest God of War, however, is set many years later, and Kratos left Greece to move north, where he married a warrior with whom he had a child. The setting of the story has therefore changed, and the symbology is that of Norse mythology, and no longer that of Greek. The world of God of War are actually the nine worlds of Nordic cosmology, which as in legend are held together by the Tree of Life and which host, in addition to humans, many fantastic creatures such as elves, trolls and various types of monsters. If you are worried, there is no reason: you can play it safely without having played the previous ones.
The story begins with the death of Kratos' wife, who as a last wish asks that his ashes be scattered from the highest mountain of the nine worlds: Kratos then sets out on a journey with his son Atreus, who initially does not know of their divine nature. At the center of the video game there is therefore the journey of Kratos and his son, who meet friendly creatures to help and from which to be helped, but above all hostile creatures to be beaten up. It is mainly fought with a giant and magical ax, which can be recalled to oneself with the thought, but there are also the chained swords that appeared in the previous chapters, bows and arrows.
On The Verge, Andrew Webster talked about it very well, explaining that in this new version of God of War the protagonist Kratos is much more three-dimensional than the previous ones, and the time dedicated to fighting is now almost the same as that dedicated to solving problems, with the result is that the gaming experience is more balanced. Even if the world is not “open”, that is, a map in which you can roam at will, you can still spend a lot of time exploring, according to Webster, who spoke of a “single-player experience as there are few left in the world. a world where online-focused titles have become dominant among blockbuster video games “.
Chris Plante of Polygon wrote that despite all the changes compared to the previous chapters, the fun of the fighting has remained the same, where the accuracy of the animations is better noticeable. Plante really liked how the world of this new God of War revolves less around Kratos, and how this makes the game experience more relaxed, also allowing “Kratos to devote himself to parenting, rather than saving the planet. “. Plante says he did some of the coolest and funniest things when he set aside the main focus to explore the map and discover secondary environments and characters.
In many reviews, God of War has been compared to two of the most popular video games in the history of the PlayStation 4: The Last of Us Remastered, considered among the best ever and centered on the journey of a man and a girl in a post-apocalyptic world. populated by zombies, and Dark Souls, a fantasy title considered one of the most successful ever in terms of fighting. This is because, as Keza McDonald explained in the Guardian, who gave God of War 5 stars out of 5, it is a video game that combines the violence of the previous chapters (and similar to that of Dark Soul) with a greater psychological depth of the protagonist ( like that of The Last of Us). According to McDonald, God of War also manages to combine the protagonists' family drama with a majestic mythological setting: “there are many moments of formidable beauty (…), it is one of the most visually impressive video games ever made”.
