benchmark
noun
-
a standard or point of reference against which things may be compared.
Welcome to today’s English lesson.
Today’s word is ‘benchmark’. Because that’s what God Of War is for the Playstation 4. You would think 5 years into a consoles life-cycle it would start to ease into its imminent end or death. Instead, Sony Santa Monica decided to release one of the best games the system has ever seen.
As soon as the title screen loaded, I knew this God Of War experience was going to be different to what I’d seen in the previous games. Heck, it even gives this away with the title revision. This isn’t God Of War 4. It’s God Of War.
And it’s God Of War for a very good reason.
The previous events which have led Kratos to where he is now, and the adventure he is about to undertake, is drastically different. The raw, visceral action returns, yet this God Of War has a different set of tools for his craft. A shield and axe take place of the Blades of Chaos and find themselves much more fitting of the perspective shift Kratos now walks.
Gone is the rapidly shifting camera. Locked in to an over-the-shoulder perspective, it makes actions feel more implicit and tactile. Kratos is as brutal as ever. But now you really feel it as the axe cleaves its way into enemies. And the shield also bashes them with the same god-like ease.
The puzzles of his former life also return, and find themselves further realised with the change in perspective and tools. I found myself lining up targets and standing a distance away from objects frequently, forming patterns to solve some sort of environmental riddle.
New future pasts reboot Kratos into his present, as the story and characters thrust him into this life.
Previously voiced by Terrence C. Carson, the voice and motion of Kratos now falls to Christopher Judge (Stargate SG-1). He is wonderfully emotive and gripped by a past he wants to bury, which is only elevetad by Sunny Suljic as his son Atreus.
Traveling through Midgard together, the parent and child slowly reshape their tepid and blunt relationship. However, it’s when Mimir (Alastair Duncan) joins them that the liveliness of the world truly opens up. Together, they provide quips during mundane moments and stunned reactions during action, which grounds the insanity that unfolds. Often you’ll find yourself laughing at the sass Atreus makes, or anchoring your boat to listen to a story told by Mimir.
I’m reluctant to divulge any more of the experience. After all, the best part of the game is the rediscovery of Kratos.. Experiencing this new adventure in a world unbound from his Grecian history which evolves him into something more.
It makes him less of a god. And more of a human.
GOD OF WAR is a sequel which reboots Kratos into new lands, gameplay and story that he has never experienced before. And with it he finds himself reborn as something even more memorable than his former outings.
It IS the new benchmark for what can be produced for the Playstation 4 and you should be excited for what can next come from it.
