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God of War is an action-adventure video game developed by
Santa Monica Studio and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment . Released
on April 20, 2018, for the PlayStation 4 (PS4) console, it is the eighth
installment in the God of War series, the eighth chronologically, and the
sequel to 2010's God of War III. Unlike previous games, which were loosely
based on Greek mythology, this game is loosely based on Norse mythology. The
main protagonists are Kratos, the former Greek God of War, and his young son
Atreus. Following the death of Kratos' second wife and Atreus' mother, they
journey to fulfill her promise and spread her ashes at the highest peak of the
nine realms. Kratos keeps his troubled past a secret from Atreus, who is
unaware of his divine nature. Along their journey, they encounter monsters and
gods of the Norse world.
Described by creative director Cory Barlog as a reimagining
of the franchise, a major gameplay change is that Kratos prominently uses a
magical battle axe instead of his signature double-chained blades. God of War
also uses an over-the-shoulder free camera, with the game in one shot, as
opposed to the fixed cinematic camera of the previous entries. The game
includes role-playing video game elements, and Kratos' son Atreus provides
assistance in combat. The majority of the original game's development team worked
on God of War and designed the game to be accessible and grounded. A separate
short text-based game, God of War: A Call from the Wilds released in February
2018, follows Atreus on his first adventure.
God of War received universal acclaim from critics, being
praised for its narrative, world design, art direction, graphics, characters,
and combat system. It received perfect scores from multiple reviewers, making
it the highest-rated game in the God of War series, as well the third
highest-rated PS4 game on Metacritic. The game performed well commercially,
selling five million copies within a month of release.
Developer(s) SIE
Santa Monica Studio
Publisher(s) Sony
Interactive Entertainment
Director(s) Cory
Barlog
Producer(s)
Elizabeth Dahm Wang
Sean Llewellyn
Chad Cox
Eric Fong
Designer(s) Derek
Daniels
Programmer(s) Florian
Strauss
Writer(s)
Matt Sophos
Richard Zangrande Gaubert
Cory Barlog
Composer(s) Bear
McCreary
Series God of War
Platform(s) PlayStation
4
Release April
20, 2018
Genre(s) Action-adventure
Mode(s) Single-player
The gameplay is vastly different from the previous
installments, as it was rebuilt from the ground up. Although the previous main
installment, Ascension (2013), introduced multiplayer to the series, this installment
is single-player-only. The game features a third-person, over-the-shoulder free
camera, a departure from the previous installments, which featured a
third-person, fixed cinematic camera (with the exception of 2007's 2D
side-scroller Betrayal). Cinematographically, the game is presented in a
continuous shot, with no camera cuts. The game is open, but it is not
open-world. Due to it being open, players can fast travel to different locations
through Mystic Gateways.As the ability to swim was cut from the game, players
instead use a boat to traverse bodies of water. Just like previous entries,
there are puzzles for players to solve to progress through parts of the game.
Enemies in the game stem from Norse mythology, such as variants of trolls,
ogres, dark elves and their king, wolves, wulvers, nightmares, draugrs,
tatzelwurms, as well as Gullveig and the revenants, beings warped by seiðr
magic, among other original creatures. Valkyries appear as optional boss
battles, and players can free the dragons Fáfnir, Otr, and Reginn—dwarfs that
were turned into dragons—in addition to battling a dragon called Hræzlyr.
A major change is that Kratos no longer uses his signature
double-chained blades, the Blades of Chaos, as his default weapon. Instead, he
uses a magical battle axe, called the Leviathan Axe, which is infused with ice
elemental magic. The axe can be thrown at enemies and magically summoned back
to his hand (similar to Thor's hammer Mjölnir). Larger enemies have precision
targets and throwing the axe at those targets stuns the enemy. The weapon can
also be thrown at environmental objects to trigger a damaging explosion and it
can freeze objects and some enemies in place for puzzle solving until the axe
is summoned back to Kratos' hand. The axe has standard light and heavy attacks,
and over time, it can be upgraded with runes to allow for special runic
attacks, with one slot being for a light runic attack and the other for heavy.
This provides players with a variety of options to cater to their own play
style. For example, one of the light runic attacks allows Kratos to charge the
axe and let out a burst of energy and one of the heavy runic attacks allows
Kratos to summon a swirling ice storm. Another new weapon that Kratos utilizes
is the Guardian Shield. When not in use, it folds up and appears like a
vambrace on Kratos' left forearm. When summoned, the shield can be used
offensively and defensively, similar to the Golden Fleece in previous games.
Kratos also utilizes hand-to-hand combat, a feature originally introduced in
Ascension. The Blades of Chaos are acquired late into the game via a plot
device and perform similarly as they did in previous installments, but can also
be upgraded with light and heavy runic attacks.
Similar to previous games, there is a "Rage"
ability called Spartan Rage. Like the previous versions, the Rage ability has a
meter that gradually fills during combat. With this ability, Kratos uses
powerful bare-handed attacks, as opposed to weapons, to greatly damage enemies.
The game also features elements similar to role-playing video games (RPGs).
There are crafting resources for the player to find that allow them to create
new or upgrade existing armor with better perks. Players also accumulate a
currency called Hacksilver, a key component in crafting and purchasing new
items. Experience points are used for learning new combat skills. Throughout
the game world, players find chests containing random items, such as Hacksilver
and enchantments for improving armor and weapons, as well as two special items,
Iðunn's Apples and Horns of Blood Mead, which increase the maximum length of
the health and rage meters, respectively. Quick time events have changed from
previous games.Enemies display two meters above their heads, one for health and
the other for stun. Filling up the stun meter helps to defeat more difficult
enemies. When the stun meter is full, a grab-prompt will appear. Depending on
the enemy, Kratos may rip it in half or grab them and throw them into other
enemies, among other possible outcomes.
Although the game is played entirely as Kratos, there are
times when the player may choose to passively control Kratos' son, Atreus. One
button is dedicated to Atreus and its use depends on the context. For example,
if the player needs assistance, they can look at an enemy, press the button,
and Atreus will use his Talon Bow to shoot arrows at the enemy. The arrows have
little effect on an enemy's health, but do increase the stun meter. Over the
course of the game, Atreus helps in combat, traversal, exploration, and
puzzle-solving. When facing a large number of enemies, he distracts the weaker
ones as Kratos fights the stronger ones. If too many enemies gang up on Atreus,
he is knocked out for the remainder of that combat. Just like Kratos, Atreus
acquires new skills, armor, special arrows, such as lightning arrows, as well
as runic attacks for his Talon Bow, but it only has one slot instead of two.
Atreus' runic attacks summon different spectral animals with different
abilities. For example, one summons a wolf that attacks enemies, while another
summons the squirrel Ratatoskr that will dig up orbs to replenish Kratos'
health or rage meters.
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