Good morning friends. This morning I am going to talk about the thing that I had originally planned on talking about yesterday… before the Blizzard news broke. I am about four years late to the party, but God of War is a pretty damned phenomenal game. On Monday I wrapped up my play through of the game and I have to say the characters have all grown on me. I went from feeling sorry for “Boy”, to wanting to throttle “Boy”, to feeling genuine love and affection for “Boy”. The game takes you on a ride and for anyone who has missed out on the memes surrounding this game, it focuses on a very grizzled and world weary Kratos and his son Atreus that becomes collectively referred to as “Boy”. Moments in to the game Faye dies, the mother of Atreus and we embark upon a mission to take her ashes to the highest peak in the realms.
This simple quest drives the entire game, but as we attempt to complete it… there are certain obstacles that keep getting in our way that we must deal with first. The flow of the game feels extremely natural as we are besieged immediately upon setting forth on the quest, and hunted the entire way by forces that we do not quite understand. We also find friends along the way that help us on our journey, and the entire narrative structure feels very much like one of the epic poems of antiquity from which we base the mythology that makes up this series. There is no straight path through this game but instead one that weaves and loops back on itself constantly as we slowly discover what still remains in our path keeping us from our final destination.
I’ve been jokingly referring to this game as “Bad Dad Simulator” on twitter, because so much of the game is actually really revolving around the relationship between Kratos and Atreus. We get the impression that Kratos really did not know what to do with “Boy”, and had mostly shunned him. We learn that Atreus was a sickly child and Kratos spent most of his time off hunting or doing other busywork to provide for the family. Atreus does not fit the mold of what a man should be in Kratos eyes, and throughout the journey he keeps trying to batter him down into the pattern that he is most familiar with, that of a Spartan warrior. Through this journey however I truly feel like the pair come to a point of acceptance with each other. Atreus has skills and gifts that never would have fit within that role, and Kratos is not the cruel immovable object that the son thought he was. The two understand each other and I think really come to love each other… as opposed to the resentment that is very obvious at the beginning of the game.
One of the things that somewhat shocked me about the game however was how short it ended up being. All told at this point I have put in 22 hours of gameplay according to steam. I’ve completed the main story, all of the major highlighted side quests, and a few of the hidden objectives. There is still an awful lot of scouring that I could do to tick off the last few checkmarks and hunt down the last few things to kill or collect. That said I think I have picked most of the meat off of these bones and am left with the competitionist busywork that every game has these days. The reason why I am shocked is pretty early on in the game you are presented with this screen, the Realm Travel system that includes 8 realms plus Midgard. For those who are not familiar with Norse mythos you have:
- Alfheim
- Helheim
- Muspelheim
- Niflheim
- Jotunheim
- Svartalfheim
- Vanaheim
- Asgard
- Midgard
So upon seeing this screen I thought wow… I have only really been to Midgard so far and it seems huge, I cannot wait to see these other realms! The truth is… any realm that is not Midgard is tiny by comparison. Alfheim is involved in a single quest early in the game, Helheim is involved in two quest chains and cannot really be explored, Niflheim and Muspelheim are realms that each feature a specific mini-game that you can grind for zone currency that lets you craft specific things, and then Jotunheim is used for a single quest near the end of the game. The leaves Vanaheim, Asgard, and Svartalheim completely inaccessible and the vast majority of the game taking place in Midgard… that actually seems entirely focused around the lake of the nine and areas immediately adjacent to it. While I greatly enjoyed the journey, it does immediately hit you how small of a game this actually is in comparison to other “open world” offerings.
All of that said, it is an extremely enjoyable experience and mechanically the Leviathan axe now joins the pantheon of truly epic video game weapons. That seems like a really hard ask these days, to create a weapon for a game that feels unique and memorable enough to really break into the list of the greatest, but Leviathan absolutely earns its place. Similar to Mjolnir, you can throw the axe and summon it back to your hand no matter how far away it actually is. It also has the elemental effect of freezing certain objects, which allows you to use it in order to complete certain puzzles. When you finally get back your Blades of Chaos from the previous games, these also have their own puzzle uses which makes the weapons not only mechanically enjoyable in combat but also strategically interesting for traversal.
Ultimately this game is going to appeal to two sets of players. Firstly if you love a very interesting and well crafted story, then you need to play this game and experience it for yourself. Secondly if you are a player that really enjoys open world brawlers with RPG elements that allow you to fine tune that combat, then this is also going to be a game for you. Additionally if you really enjoyed the original God of War games and can handle the shift to the third person perspective, then you are probably going to enjoy this game as well. I personally am glad that I waited for mouse and keyboard because it felt extremely easy to dive into this title with a control scheme that felt familiar. Like I said at the beginning, I am four years late to this party but I am glad that I finally completed God of War and look forward to Ragnarok.
