Absolutely Monumental - God of War (PC)

My original goal with God of War on PC was to use it as a hardware testing tool. In the absence of an in-game benchmark tool, the only option is to play the game. My first thought was “Oh, well, I can just play the opening,” but I foolishly believed that for a moment. After another twenty-five hours of campaigning, I’d had enough.

Pros:
Looks stellar
Intense gameplay
Compelling story
Fantastic world to explore
Great performance

Cons:
No ray tracing

Score – 10/10

It’s not as simple as being told how good God of War is to understand the game’s sheer addictiveness, which is reminiscent of the Matrix. It’s best to see it for yourself. And good luck stopping once you start playing or replaying this game. On PS4 Pro, even in Performance mode, God of War was not as responsive as I would have liked.

That’s a lot less of an issue on the PC version, especially for those with Nvidia graphics cards. God of War has a wide range of fidelity settings, including a transparent Nvidia DLSS mode and Nvidia Reflex for quick in-game responsiveness. The lack of a full-fledged fullscreen option is a pet peeve for those who want to squeeze every possible frame out of a game. As a result, you’ll feel more like a game god as a result of faster input and more fps.

Initially, I was dissatisfied with my desktop PC’s specifications for Ultra fidelity settings at 4K, 60 fps because they were lower than what was recommended. In spite of my underpowered CPU (an overclocked i7-8700K instead of the recommended i9-9900K) and GPU (a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti vs 3080), I was able to play the game at 4K over 60fps on the Ultra preset, thanks to Nvidia DLSS’s amazing technical wizardry. The fact that this is DLSS set to quality rather than performance is even more impressive.

What happened? A stunningly beautiful PC port of a PlayStation 4 game that has already wowed millions of gamers. At least there’s more to enjoy in God of War than just stunning fidelity. As a side note, I’m avoiding talking about the story’s specifics because this is a tale that rewards on the main path and impresses all the more when you go exploring.

Still, if a game isn’t enjoyable to play, all the storey and fidelity in the world won’t matter; thankfully, God of War’s core gameplay loop is compelling. When it comes to gameplay mechanics and their context in this fascinating universe, there is a satisfying synergy between the heavy combat and the plethora of optional side missions.

This game’s depth is unfortunately still hidden behind text-heavy tutorials that confuse rather than illuminate, but if you stick with simple upgrades and the Balanced level of difficulty, you won’t have to worry too much. Anything more difficult than “Balanced” is obviously more challenging, but I found that even the next difficulty level up made enemies feel painfully spongey, which was more frustrating than tension improving.

God of War has a campaign that lasts about 20 hours if you stick to the main path and don’t go off the beaten path. Checkpoints are very forgiving, so you’ll frequently be tempted to explore, even though this curiosity can result in a quick demise, but it rewards more than it punishes. In spite of the fact that there are plenty of difficult battles to be found, those who become obsessed with exploring and looting will never run out of in-game currency for skill and equipment upgrades.

It all comes together to form an impressive package that will appeal to fans of cinematic presentation, patient but satisfying story-telling, and frequently intense combat. Finally, God of War is still a triumph in 2019, but your enjoyment may be marred by the game’s overuse of gamified content in an otherwise well-designed environment.

This contrasts starkly with the tightly linked storytelling, world building, and gameplay mechanics of the main game as well as its side quests. However, once the main storey has concluded, this close-knit trio will be overshadowed by the more traditional gamified endgame experience.

For those who prefer to take on increasingly difficult waves of enemies or choke on noxious gas while running for loot, there are two more realms to choose from (I highly recommend consulting a God of War walkthrough for the gas realm). Attempts have been made to put these worlds in the context of the same game, but they have a grindy design that reminds me of games like Destiny 2.

The game’s fans will love the optional content, and it does help to extend the game’s lifespan, but others, like me, will be disappointed by the game’s lack of focus on its core strengths: storey, world building, and gameplay. Although the difficult (optional) Valkyrie boss fights are made a lot easier by higher-level gear obtained through grinding those out-of-place endgame realms, there are still other side missions to complete within the core game realms.

Even though these overly gamified realms are optional, I’m glad they aren’t like the Assassin’s Creed design philosophy of old, which required players to complete seemingly optional side content just to complete the campaign. While my disappointment with the endgame of God of War hasn’t impacted the overall rating, I hope that Santa Monica Studio fixes this problem for God of War Ragnarök (aka, God of War 5).