Whether you are a fan of Greek and Nordic mythology or not, you have surely heard of the famous God of War saga that started in 2005. In this title, you will embody Kratos in an exciting journey across the lands of the Norse gods. God of War 2018 is a graphical masterpiece and an innovative and challenging gaming experience.

Plot

Kratos was born in Sparta and served a long time ago as a soldier, when he made a pact with the god Ares but accidentally killed his wife and daughter under the command of the God of war. After losing everything, he faced and defeated many gods and titans, took revenge against the Olympian Gods and survived the combat with his father, Zeus. He now lives in Midgard, land of the Norse gods, where he teaches his son, whose mother Freya has recently passed away, how to survive in this dangerous world. Kratos and Atreus are about to start their journey to scatter Freya's ashes.

Gameplay

Characters: Kratos and Atreus will team up in this epic journey. His kindness and innocence will help Kratos choose the right path. Both protagonists will grow up and learn from each other.
Weapons and armors: The game will allow you to customize your character, including your weapons and armors, as well as your skills. Your primary weapon will be your trustworthy Leviathan Axe, but you will also be able to use the Blades of Chaos or the Talon Bow, among others. To defend yourself against all your opponents, you can count on your armor and precious shield to parry attacks and stun enemies. Every piece of equipment can be improved and leveled up. The balance between strength and defense will be up to you and will depend on your playstyle.
Combats: You will enjoy tremendous battles fighting lots of different enemies, including Trolls, Ancients, Valkyries and many more to be discovered. Each has its own set of patterns, strengths and weaknesses, and thanks to the NVIDIA Reflex technology, you will experience more responsive gameplay. So be ready to dodge, parry and attack to take all your enemies down.

Skill tree: As you kill enemies and gain experience, you will be able to unlock more and more skills. Available skills include Frost Rush, which performs a leaping attack with your ax, or Acrobatics, which allows you to make a combo with Atreus if all the conditions are met. And it doesn't stop there, but you will have to discover it by yourself.
Complete the quests: You will be able to explore many different places, each with a unique atmosphere. In addition, you will be able to complete favors, which are side quests that require defeating a specific enemy or finding an item. All those quests add quality content and will make you earn worthwhile gameplay-related rewards.

Graphics and sound

The PC version comes with striking graphics (developers rocked), and you can enjoy true 4K on supported devices. You will also be able to fine-tune graphics settings such as high-resolution shadows, improved screen space reflection (SSR), new screen space directional occlusion (SSDO), and ground truth ambient occlusion (GTAO). All of the settings significantly affect the quality of global illumination. Note that if you have an NVIDIA graphics card, you will also be able to enable their deep learning super sampling (DLSS) algorithm to render beautiful and sharp images with a higher frame rate. Additionally, it offers a gorgeous OST full of emotions that takes the immersiveness to the next level.

Duration and game modes

God of War is a single player game with an approximate duration of 30 hours. It offers several different modes based on the difficulty level:

Give Me a Story: The user-friendly mode for those who want to enjoy the story without a challenging experience. Enemies take more damage, are more affected by effects and do less damage.
Give Me a Balanced Experience: The casual mode can be a good choice if you want a balanced experience and enjoy the story.
Give Me a Challenge: The hard mode for those who want a challenging experience. Enemies have more health, deal more damage and are also harder to stun.
Give Me God of War: The very hardcore mode, for players who want to embody their inner god and are looking for the most challenging game experience. Once chosen, you won't be able to change it during the game. Enemies will turn into elite enemies once damaged, they deal maximum damage, have max health, take little damage and are much less prone to status effects. All the enemies will be faster and can only be wall-pinned if they are mid-air. Kratos will also take more damage and will be much more affected by all kinds of effects.

What do the reviews say?

God of War has received a very high score on Metacritic, 93/100, and is considered a must-play.

"God of War is still one of the most entertaining, engaging, and impactful games to come out of Santa Monica Studios. The story is meaningful and emotional, the mechanics are thoughtful and entertaining, and the presentation on the PC is simply unrivaled. This is still a treat after nearly four years." (Digital Chumps)