I've honestly never had any interest in the God Of War series. It launched back in 2005 on PS2 and my eyes completely glossed over. I mean, it just looked like a pretty vapid action series that was inspired heavily by Greek mythology. It seemed like a dumb action game based on The Clash Of The Titans. I was into way more hipster games at the time. And honestly, I guess I still am. But it's hard to resist all the critical praise that the 2018 reboot has gotten. And it's also technically "free" to me via Playstation Plus, so I figured eh, why not give it a shot?
One thing I do hate is reboots that reuse a title, though. I hate that I have to say I'm talking about God Of War (2018) and not God Of War (2005), but whatever. The series would have probably stayed off my radar had it not been for the 2022 Game Awards. Yes, I'm one of those weird guys who actually watches the Game Awards. Every year since launch, I've made it an actual event. It's dumb, sure. And honestly, it's more of a reason to show trailers than a proper awards show. But some people watch the Grammys and some people watch the Oscars. I've never suffered through either, but the Game Awards actually goes on my calendar every year. And who can forget Christopher Judge accepting the award for God Of War Ragnarok? It's a long moment that has lived in infamy. At the time, I remember my wife and I just baffled that his acceptance speech was going on for so long. And yet, looking back there was something almost endearing about it all. It ate up a bunch of time, and the 2023 show was pretty much ruined because the producers were so serious about preventing such long speeches. But I mean, this guy was seriously excited about his award and he just lost focus and rambled for what felt like an eternity. It was kind of what these award shows should be about to begin with and it was also just a beautiful mess. So I started up God Of War (2018... sigh) and I really didn't know what to expect. Again, I'm a guy who's never played a single game in this series. And honestly, I didn't expect such an emotional story. For those that don't know, the mythology has shifted from Greek to Norse and the whole thing starts with Kratos and his son ("boy") preparing Kratos' wife's deceased body for cremation. It's heavy stuff. And right out of the gate, the story tackles some deep stuff like dealing with grief and anger. Burning her body was heavy enough, but right after that Kratos teaches his son how to hunt. The duo tracks a deer and then Boy has to reluctantly euthanize him and Kratos struggles to console him. It's all a bit much. But it's nuanced, and I wasn't expecting any of this. The tone immediately shifts into a big ridiculous battle with another god and the whole thing gets drawn out and overboard in an almost Dragon Ball Z kind of way, just filtered through Norse mythology. My point is, there's all these crazy shifts in tone and yet the whole thing feels grounded and well... fun. One minute you're dealing with some very real feelings about death and life, and the next you're punching a dude through a mountain. And thus, this is the flow of the game. And if I'm being honest, I think I'm a bit hard on God Of War, even when I'm enjoying it. I find it impossible to not compare it to Horizon Zero Dawn (2017) because that game came out only a year earlier and was also a Playstation exclusive and is also an open world game with lush landscapes. Although the two games are also rather different if I'm being fair. Horizon is a truly open world whereas God Of War is vast, yet similar. Horizon plays into sci-fi tropes (which is my preference) while God Of War is based on Norse mythology by way of Greek mythology. But the need to throw in RPG elements like XP, skill trees and armor upgrades definitely gives me the feeling that this game was pitched as "what if God Of War was like Horizon?" That's not a bad thing, but because I can't help but compare the two games, I am going to say that I certainly prefer one over the other. And spoiler, I adore Horizon Zero Dawn. There's no denying that this is a good game, though. And the story gives way to some solid dad vibes. (Yes, that was a Limp Bizkit reference). I mean, the part where Atreus (aka "boy") kills an enemy for the first time in self-defense and just stands there with tears running down his face while Kratos embraces him - that's heavy stuff. And I like it as a gamer and a dad. Ultimately, Santa Monica decided to take their franchise that was known for being kind of dumb fun and add a whole lot of levity. And I do always appreciate when developers are willing to take some big risks by shaking up the formula. The combat is definitely satisfying. I enjoy throwing axes and parrying with the shield. It's not exactly Dark Souls, mind. But it's fun in an almost arcadey way. "Keep in mind, though/hot dad riding in on a rhino." There's some good action stuff. You direct Atreus to shoot arrows at stuff. You get new skills and some are cool. You solve puzzles to get through areas. You (of course!) pick up materials to craft crap. You upgrade weapons. You have puzzle-ish rooms where spikes are around you. You clear out hordes of enemies. So basically, it's a pretty cool and heartfelt story wrapped around the bones of a rather typical action game with some RPG elements. Have you ever watched a movie that won a whole bunch of Oscars and you're just kind of sitting there at the end thinking, "well yeah, it was a fine enough movie. But I don't really know what all the hype was about?" That's kind of how I'm feeling about God Of War. I guess my best analogy is Titanic in this case. Look, I'm a huge fan of James Cameron's work. I can totally admire all the work that went into Titanic. I can see that it's a quality film that I understand why people would enjoy. But when I sat in a theater surrounded by people sobbing I just kind of felt like I must be missing something. It's fine. It's a fine movie. Maybe Titanic is a terrible example, though. That was a movie about a real thing. A horrible and sad tragedy. It also had a rather shoehorned love story. I wanted to use The English Patient as an example because of that Seinfeld episode where Elaine hates The English Patient. But I've never seen The English Patient. And I don't hate Titanic, nor do I hate God Of War. But at this point, I've gone too far down this hole of trying to make a good analogy and I'm coming up short. But I admire that I somehow managed to talk about Titanic and Limp Bizkit in a piece about God Of War. I'm a strange dude. So let's just rewind. Pretend the last two paragraphs don't exist and I'm not too lazy to delete them or edit them into something far more readable and relatable. Okay, so God Of War is a fine game. It looks good and it plays good. But outside of the kind of good story about a father and son bonding over grief, I can't really say I understand all of the hype. I get some of it, but not all of it. Let's use The Game Awards as an example here to illustrate my point, mostly because I started this whole thing talking about The Game Awards. So, the 2018 Game Awards saw God Of War win Game Of The Year while beating out Assassin's Creed Odyssey (I guess this makes sense), Celeste (a frustrating but interesting 2D indie), Spider-Man (which seems to be one of the best superhero games since Arkham Asylum), Monster Hunter World (which is a way more interesting game to me, though probably more niche), and Red Dead Redemption II, which honestly should have won because it basically bests God Of War in every way - story, scope, visuals, music, and so on. It's like I get it, but I don't. I feel like God Of War could have been a toss up between Assassin's Creed Odyssey but really any of the other games seem more interesting and more innovative. So maybe it was the hype that it hurt the game in my book. All I know is that a few hours in, I started to find myself less and less compelled to boot the game back up, instead opting to log more and more hours into Slay The Spire - a game I've been playing on a weekly basis for like five years now. If a game can't distract me long enough from my fall-back comfort game, then it's not really a hit in my book. Horizon Zero Dawn was able to do that - I couldn't stop playing that game. But God Of War? Eh, it's fine. I get why everyone likes it. But it doesn't really grab me the same way.
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