After almost four years of PlayStation exclusivity, God of War now also lands on the PC. Not every masterpiece survives this change, we reveal how the God of War fares.
“If you don’t behave, we’ll turn back right now!” This phrase makes children’s souls shudder all over the world. Most of the time, the little ones hear it from a parent when they get all jittery with excitement in the back seat because they are about to go to the next amusement park, swimming pool or, I don’t know, laser tag. Whatever today’s children like to do.
But now imagine the following scenario: The child remains a child. The laser tag is the highest peak in the country and the parent is the Greek god of war. Surely six feet tall, arms staring with muscle, a voice like thunder and a massive ice axe on his back. And you thought your father would make your knees weak with the opening sentence.
Luckily, you don’t have to let the God of War yell at you in the action adventure God of War. For it is you who slip into this role. Only you are not alone, but travel with son Atreus to scatter the ashes of his deceased mother. A mismatched pair and a new role for a well-known anti-hero. This character change is one of the reasons why this game has already been almost worshipped by numerous PlayStation 4 owners in 2018.
God of War is considered one of the best action games of the last decade. Probably one of the best of all time. And after Horizon: Zero Dawn, the next PlayStation biggie to make its way to the PC.
If you haven’t paid attention to God of War because of its exclusivity and are now wondering what makes this game so great, grab a methorn and read on. We’ve been testing the PC version, keeping a watchful eye like Odin’s raven to see if it suffers from similar PC technical issues as it once did (Horizon: Zero Dawn).
Table of Contents
This production is second to none
The fact that the narrative around Kratos and Atreus captivates so many people in front of the screen is not only due to the father-son relationship and how well the game portrays its characters. God of War can strike other chords besides deep emotions and then puts its epic world centre stage. Yes, even a humanised god like Kratos occasionally seems dwarfed amidst the breathtaking landscapes.
But it’s not just the rugged mountains, glittering lakes or entirely different landscapes like the jungle-like Alfheim, where dark and light elves dwell, that will amaze you. Such fascination can, of course, easily turn into bewilderment in a screwed-up PC conversion. But that shouldn’t happen with God of War.
Of course we can’t speak for all the systems in the world, but on the test computers (GTX 3080, GTX 1050 Ti) God of War ran as smooth as butter. It looks even better on the highest settings than on the PS4. There was only one bug in over 15 hours of play, and that was a display error in a cutscene. Otherwise, the PC version is just as amazing as on the console. Even if you already know the game.
This is new in the PC version
- Ultra-Wide-Support: You can play on 21:9 screens.
- Unlimited Frame Rate:If your computer can handle 60 or more FPS, then this is possible.
- Graphics options:Quality of models, textures or shadows can be adjusted.
- Key assignment: You can assign all functions to any key on the keyboard.
- Nvidia DLSS and Reflex: On GPUs from Nvidia, this can improve performance.
This is what else is in it
- New Game Plus:The release version of God of War still came without this feature, the PC version offers the option to start a new game with existing powers but stronger enemies right from the start.
- Bonus content: On PC, Kratos and Atreus start with the Death Oath armour set, plus Kratos has a choice of several visual customisations for his shield
Especially when you are confronted with truly gigantic entities at some point during the plot, the designs, camera work and sound make your mouth drop open. The music alone occasionally sets the heart racing. The term “epic” has become somewhat hackneyed, but if a game can be described as such, then it is God of War!
A God in a Battle Frenzy
The battles, which make up the playful core of God of War, also seem to be cast from a single mould. Unlike in the predecessors, the camera stays very close to Kratos most of the time, and numerous enemies stand in his way. Rarely a good idea, considering the body count of the Ghost of Sparta.
Admittedly, God of War does not have a revolutionary combat system, but lets you use a combination of light, heavy and long-range attacks to beat the Draugr, trolls or ogres to a pulp. Nevertheless, the implementation is one of the best you can find among modern hack & slays. The force of the fights alone makes them something special, and when Kratos calls back his axe with the press of a button and it wipes six Draugr off their legs in the process, you truly feel like a god.
With the controller, God of War plays wonderfully, as it did on the consoles. That was to be expected. What is much more surprising is that the mouse and keyboard are also excellent. Even the standard assignment works perfectly after a short familiarisation period, but you can also choose to assign the entire key layout yourself. That’s how a PC conversion should be!
One remaining criticism is that God of War does not offer an overwhelmingly large number of different enemy types. But this is most noticeable in the boss fights against the trolls, which occur again and again in a slightly different form. And those who expect a sequence of massive boss fights like in the predecessors might also be disappointed.
On the edge of action role-playing
Both Kratos and his son learn as the campaign progresses. Because basically God of War is on the borderline of an action role-playing game. Sure, new attack manoeuvres via runes or skill trees can be found in many games. In God of War, however, there is also a thoroughly in-depth item system. Kratos’ overall strength determines his equipment.
Depending on the breastplate, loincloth and gloves, other characteristics are buffed. There are three basic armour types, which always focus on either attack power, armour or cooldown for abilities. However, you can modify them further by adding runes to existing sockets or upgrading them at the blacksmith.
New sockets, however, are only available for rarer equipment that comes in different colours. This makes for a motivating search for loot, but for the main story you don’t necessarily have to work out the perfect build on the medium difficulty level. This makes the armour pieces somewhat interchangeable at first, but Diablo fans will most likely feel a tingling in their fingers already.
From Midgard to Helheim – an open world?
What was that, main story? Is there any stuff off the beaten track? Good look out! To call God of War an open-world game would be a bit presumptuous. But Kratos and Atreus can occasionally explore the world around them. Above all, the great lake with the Temple of Tyr and the Midgard Serpent is to be understood as a hub world, from where the two either paddle to other shores by boat or immediately enter another of the total of nine mythological realms (not all of which are available) via the Bifrost.
Many locations only become available when Kratos or Atreus have gained the corresponding abilities. So there’s a bit of Metroidvania in God of War, too. Exploring is not only worthwhile to get better items. There are additional side quests that are very elaborate and tell nice little stories. But there are also tough challenges like the labyrinth of Niflheim or the scattered Valkyries. If you want, you can spend dozens of hours with God of War long after the main quest is over.
A simple story with complex characters
The God of War series has never been known for telling particularly complex stories. The predecessors were mostly about series hero Kratos being pretty angry at the gods of Olympus, and rightly so, as the Spartan was well and truly screwed by Zeus and his crew on more than one occasion.
In return, Kratos put the gods over his knee – and was anything but squeamish about it. But the overloaded back story of God of War should not consume too much of your remaining reading will here. Learn everything you need to know about Kratos and his career in the following video:
Those who don’t know anything about God of War can still start the game without hesitation and will understand just about everything. After all, the God of War is no longer fighting his way through half of Greece, but is sitting somewhere in Scandinavia as an ageing family man.
The basic plot of God of War should not overwhelm you intellectually. Why the story is so fascinating nevertheless is largely due to the characters. Because even though Kratos and Atreus actually have a clear goal, the relationship between the two is anything but simple.
In the course of the game, we can see how their relationship changes in a comprehensible way. In addition, lots of interesting side characters appear, such as the forest witch or Baldur, the son of Odin, who is obsessed with being beaten up by Kratos for initially unknown reasons. It is the characters who make this heroic saga stand out, who transport emotions and many of whom will be remembered.
In combination with the visually stunning environment, the seamless change between cutscenes and gameplay, the rousing battles and the constant improvement of Kratos’ abilities, God of War develops a rip-roaring game flow from which it is almost impossible to break out without great self-control. But why would you want to?
Editorial conclusion
A little look behind the scenes: Getting a PC conversion as a tester can (!) be a very rewarding task. In the best case, testers have already played the console version extensively and can approach the game with more freedom than in other tests. After all, I am not forced to play to the very end and have no time pressure. That was the case with God of War. I love this game and have played it up and down on the PS4. Played through the story in full and also spent a lot of time after the credits to fight the last Valkyrie. It was great.
So for the test of the PC version, I knew I didn’t have to stress much. I was worried that the technology wouldn’t work, but you usually notice that pretty quickly. But do you want to know what happened next? I couldn’t get away from God of War on the PC. The game just fired right back up and I spent hours experiencing the same battles, the same puzzles and the same quests, all of which I already knew. And that’s not what I had in mind! I just wanted to try out the PC version for a bit! But then I just got sucked back into this game and had trouble getting out of its paws. Simply because everything here flows smoothly. Because the epochal world thrills me, because the soundtrack spurs me on to peak performance, because I love the characters and because there is never a moment of boredom.
Even before the PC version, I was convinced that God of War was a masterpiece. Now I am unalterably convinced of it and plan to set up a shrine to the God of War somewhere soon. That’s the least I can do! In fact, the implementation is so well done in my eyes that plugging in a gamepad wasn’t worth the effort for me. Instead, I preferred to continue playing with mouse and keyboard. You first have to achieve that in a former console game!
