'God of War' Review Roundup: Universal Acclaim for the Reinvented Series
"God of War" was getting stale, and there's only so much a hulking, furious Kratos could do to keep the franchise going. Sony's Santa Monica studios then embarked on a drastic reinvention of the character, and critics have been blown away left and right by the result.
When "God of War" or Kratos enters the conversation, what usually comes to mind is a massive, hulking brute sweeping his chain axes all over the place. Greek gods and legends provide the fodder to be mowed down by the wrath of Kratos, and like that, the series has gained a faithful following since the groundbreaking launch of the original "God of War" in 2005.
The popular franchise is in dire need of something new, though, and this time, Sony's Santa Monica studio did something few studios would dare to do. They revamped Kratos, the pillar holding the franchise together, and made the death machine into a caring figure.
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Not only that, they put him in charge of taking care of his young son Atreus, and even shifted the whole thing to a new setting — Norse mythology. With the studio casting off many of the things that have made "God of War" what it was, will reviewers and fans find themselves returning to the series?
Based on the Metascore on review aggregating website Metacritic, the answer is a resounding "Yes." A 94 for the game, with 81 critics unanimously giving the new "God of War" their green vote, is a pretty convincing endorsement.
With a score translating to "Universal acclaim" from reviewers, "God of War" is now the "#1 Best PS4 Game of 2018" on Metacritic this early in the year. It might be a lock for the spot, though, with reviews from Gaming Trend, Games Radar and Yahoo giving the game and its father and son tandem a solid 100.
Gamespot's Peter Brown calls it "The Power of Myth," the closest a video game could come to being a masterpiece. Strong writing and performance by the voice actors made the new and caring Kratos convincing, and the game is a visual treat with flawless animation.
The performance is such that The Verge's Andrew Webster came to realize something that should have been impossible — the new game actually made players care for Kratos not just as a rampaging death machine, but as a person too.
That does not happen right off the bat; as Polygon's Chris Plante pointed out, the game does a great job in gently easing in the player to the new dynamics between father and son. Like the other games before it, there are plenty of puzzles and clues to unlock, but behind secret walls and passages, the player is rewarded with stories and lore rather than collectibles like in the previous games.
"God of War" is coming out on next week Friday, April 20, exclusively on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 4 Pro.
