Bread’s Game Of The Year: God of War
I thought about opening this post with a line akin to “Who could have thought this game would be as good as it is?” But that would be a borderline lie. If we didn’t flat out know this game was going to be as good as it was, then we could have at least inferred it. I say these things because God Of War is far and away the best game that came out in 2018, better than Spider-Man, better than Red-Dead Redemption 2 and better than literally any other interactive experience that came out in the last 365 days.
God of War’s plot is pretty simple, which is a shocking thing to say given some of the places it goes. Kratos, now functionally in hiding (though frankly he has few enemies left to hide from after that last game) in the Norse world with his new family suffers the loss of his wife and while struggling to come to terms with that, must also contend with his young son, with whom he clearly struggles to connect with on any level. The thing I appreciate about the plot the most, is that the goal is simple: Fulfill Fey’s final wish, having her family spread her ashes from the highest mountain in the nine realms. Though many events twist and turn the pathway to this initial goal, it remains your main objective above all else, even when the norse gods(which this game shows surprising restraint in using) have taken notice and their machinations risk derailing the plot, but thankfully that never happens and the story sticks close to doing what it does best, exploring Kratos and Atreus rocky relationship on this journey they’ve both been asked to undertake, anchored by incredible voice acting performances from both.
Throwing and magically recalling the Axe literally never gets old, you can have fun just seeing how far you can throw it and timing how long it takes to come back.
The gameplay is simultaneously an excellent example of the changes big budget action games have gone through in recent times and the single best version of the modern AAA action game. Where before, in games like this, speed and fluidity was almost always the thing prized above all else, God of War takes a slow, deliberate and absolutely bone crunching turn into the Dark Souls esque combat that’s become so popular. Every hit Kratos makes on an enemy is heavy, you can feel the bone breaking impact of Kratos slamming his shield into a drauger or the knock down drag out affairs that often define the games incredible boss fights. Everything Kratos does to an enemy looks like it hurts really bad, because though he’s trying so hard to change, it’s what he’s best at in life, and that translates extremely well into the gameplay.
If I were to fully write up this game, I’d go on for pages, so I hope what I've written gets across just how much of an experience this game is. 2018 in general was incredible for video games, who knows what 2019 can look like with the sheer amount of quality unloaded on us between 2018 and 2017, but hopefully I’ll be here talking about the things. Lets just all keep having a good time huh?
The characters other than Kratos and Atreus vary wildly, but Brokk and Sindri, the dwarven brothers in the middle of a long disagreement, are by far the best.
