I love God of War 2018 and you should too

 Brief spoilers ahead for God of War 2018, but none of the fun spoilers I promise (I think)

 

Getting this out of the way upfront: I will not be able to do this game justice, it’s just not going to happen. I could talk about it for five hours, going over every detail of every moment and I still would likely come up short compared to what others have been able to draw out of the well that is this game’s rich story and its layered characters. But I, nonetheless, feel compelled to talk about one of my favorite games of all time, God of War 2018.

 

But first, a brief preface, everyone’s favorite face. I bought this game from the recommendation of Skill Up, like, the day before it came out in April 2018. I have since played it through, by my count, five times over the past almost 7 years, and after every playthrough I simply must acknowledge that it is one of the most brilliantly written stories that I have ever experienced. (I have yet to play Disco Elysium so you can stop with the laughing and pointing kids). Now, let’s really dig into all this.

The story of God of War, to lay the groundwork, is about Kratos, who in the plot of the previous God of War games, became the Greek God of War, and ended up killing the entire pantheon of Greek Gods, culminating in him killing his father Zeus. God of War 2018 sees Kratos living as a mortal in Norse mythology’s Midgard, trying to live the simple life of having a dead wife and being a bad father to his son Atreus, who has no idea of his dad’s godhood or his own. They are tasked by said dead wife to spread her ashes from the quote “highest peak in all the realms” and the journey to do that takes them through the plot of the game where they engage with plots, characters, and themes! Imagine that.

 

I’m going to attempt to talk about things in an ascending order of why I like them, so when I bring up Mimir as the last point in this little creative essay, just know it’s not because I think he’s the most important part of this game in a structure sense, but he is one of my favorite fictional characters ever created so I will give him the spotlight he so rightly deserves. What’s funny about saying what I just said about ascending order is that whatever I talk about is my least favorite thing among all these things, which sucks because I don’t really have complaints other than the way some of the armor looks. Like, why show me how cool Kratos looks with this shoulder guard and then try and give me a full suit of armor like some weirdo? Anyways, neither here nor there. Wait! There is something that I have a legitimate complaint about, I just forgot about it because God of War Ragnarök fixed it, and that is the lack of variety in the world’s enemies and especially its bosses. If you’ve fought one troll with a big rock, you’ve fought them all, but that sure didn’t stop the mad lads at Sony Santa Monica for putting like 10 more trolls in there. So yeah, complaint done! Now onto the good stuff

One of the big selling points for this game was Kratos’ new choice of weaponry, the leviathan axe, an ice axe that Kratos can throw and summon back to him like Thor’s hammer. In this playthrough I decided to see if I could only throw the leviathan axe and see how far that would take me. Turns out, not very far, considering the game introduces a hard counter to the axe in the Icey boys that are higher level than you, but trying to complete as much of the game as possible with just throwing the axe was a nice experiment, especially when it worked. But, and I did say some spoilers ahead, and I am technically breaking my “no cool spoilers” rule right now, the leviathan axe is not the only weapon Kratos has access to in this game, as the blades of chaos make a return from the original God of War games, in what is one of my favorite sequences in the entire game. The axe and the blades are designed very well to be useful tools for different jobs, but I do think that the game prefers the more purposeful leviathan axe over the blades of chaos, which seems to be mainly for large groups of enemies. My one small complaint about these weapons is that they kind of are tools for different jobs, I wish that I could play the entire game with just one or the other if I preferred it, but I understand why the developers want to emphasize one weapon over the other in certain encounters.

 

There is a hyperbolic argument that says this is all I really need to talk about when discussing a video game: The things you are directly doing, and that anything of the games story, world, and characters are simply funnels to move the player from one gameplay section to the next. I strongly disagree with this notion, not because I believe games shouldn’t be enjoyable to play first and foremost, but because the interactive nature of a game creates a space for some incredibly unique expressions of character and story in a way that can only be done in the medium of gaming. That being said, the rest of this is just going to be me gushing about the world and its characters and themes.

 So, let’s start with the world. This world unfortunately does not have 16 times the detail, but it is still pretty great, nonetheless. As someone who, at the time, had only experienced Norse mythology through the lens of Chris Hemsworth and his bleached eyebrows and dutched angles, I was thrown for the best loop possible on this game’s depiction of Norse mythology. Odin is sinister, Thor is brutal, and the Aesir gods, the gods that live in Asgard, war with both the Vanir gods of Vanaheim and the Giants of Jotunheim was so interesting to learn about and pairs nicely with Kratos’ universal hatred of every god. Skipping ahead to God of War Ragnarök for a second, but God of War 2018 and Ragnarök fit so nicely as a duology because of what was chosen to be included and excluded in God of War 2018. Ragnarök feels like the full unveiling of the world, showing us all nine realms, Thor, and Odin, and having them be active players, and God of War 2018 feels like the perfect alley-oop for all the things that Ragnarök achieves. See, if I start talking about God of War Ragnarök I’ll likely never stop. Getting back on track, a discussion of this game’s world feels wholly incomplete without bringing in the characters and themes that are the driving force of the plot.

The driving force of God of War 2018 is the relationship between Kratos and his son Atreus, as they, likely for the first time ever, have to interact for more than 10 seconds with one another. My favorite part of the journey that Atreus and Kratos take with each other is that every little interaction is given the proper time to breathe. Atreus’ journey into discovering who he is and Kratos’ journey of raising his son despite hating himself never feels rushed for the sake of wrapping everything up, and the big moments, good and bad, feel truly earned and developed. God of War 2018 also doesn’t have an ounce of fat on its main story. Sure, there are gameplay extending circumstances like going to the mountain, then having to get a thing to progress further, but all of these moments are well utilized to highlight the journey and arc of Atreus and Kratos’s relationship. Some of the best moments occur when the gameplay circumstances are influenced by the narrative and current character dynamics at play.  If you’ve played the game before, then you very likely already know what I’m going to bring up, but for those unaware, a brief preface once more. This next example encapsulates everything that I love about God of War’s narrative. There’s a point in the game, again, brief spoilers ahead, where Atreus finds out that, through his father’s lineage, he is part god. This initially doesn’t create much of a change in him, but as the story goes on, and the idea of godhood begins to truly set into this young moron (something else he got from his father), his whole demeanor begins to change. This is by far the best example of Sony Santa Monica’s talented writers, because tell me why I have played this game like 5 times and yet somehow get even more angry at Atreus’s like douchebag attitude every time without fail. During this little ego trip that the boy is having, there’s one encounter you have with some regular simple enemies, no big deal. Except this time, Atreus isn’t behaving like a normal companion NPC should. Typically, Atreus at this point in the game is quite adept at assisting you in combat, stunning enemies on his own and even grabbing enemies so you can better hit them. But here, Atreus is acting completely independently. You can equip a special arrow move that summons spectral creatures like wolves or birds that further stun enemies for a long period of time, and it’s up to you the player/Kratos the character to tell Atreus when to fire this special ability. “Only fire when I tell you to fire”, is almost the very first thing we hear Kratos Tell his son at the beginning of the game. But what does this little moron do? He starts OUT with this move, summoning the special ability on his own and generally being selfish and unhelpful during combat. The relationship that Kratos has with his son at this moment is the same relationship the player has with Atreus, and this level of connectivity is something that can only be done in a video game. It’s amazing how earned this moment is, where the developers slowly but surely build up the relationship between this father and son on the story side, build up the rhythm of combat with the player and the helpful NPC on the gameplay side, and tear everything down in a single encounter where the story frustrations are communicated through gameplay interruptions. Anyways, good game, let’s talk about the REAL reason we’re all here.

 

 

Mimir of War 2018 is what the game should have been called.

 

I love Mimir, this dude may very well be my favorite character in any game ever made. His vibe, his accent, the information he provides, be that factual or counsel, is just so well executed from both a writing and a performance standpoint. This won’t be a long paragraph by any means, but again, I cannot stress enough how much I enjoy Mimir. I’ll say more on him if/when I talk about God of War Ragnarök.

 

Little creative essay over, thank you for reading!