Chaos Raiden
Avid Gamer & Reviewer
Story
The storyline is interesting, but lack of new things to be told in the God of War universe. It does not attempt to answer many other previously answered questions, but instead it has a new storyline that takes place after Kratos' murder of his family. The new characters are pretty interesting, such as Orkos and the Furies. Kratos himself has a more human side shown in this game, which can be considered an unseen side of Kratos' personality.
Gameplay
If you are familiar with the God of War games, then you should know how to play this game already. You can use weak or strong attacks to decimate your enemies, or use magic to defeat them as well. Platforming section plays more or less with God of War III, where you can traverse between edges, climb ledges, and etc. You will also fight epic bosses in this game, and many bosses in this game are pretty much well-designed with epic scale.
The first new combat addition in this game is the newly improved grapple move. You can press the R1 button to grapple the enemy, and attack it with a variety of ways, such as slam the enemy hard, attack the surrounding enemies using Blades of Chaos, or throw the enemy. You can grapple most of the weaker enemies without damaging them, but you need to damage them enough before grappling them. Once you grapple the stronger enemies, you might need to complete a QTE sequence before killing them. In some QTE killing sequences, you need to attack the enemy while dodging attacks before killing it. In other QTEs, most of it are simply instant kill. I like how the developers managed the QTEs this time by requiring the players to struggle slightly in QTEs before killing them. It is not unique, but a certainly nice touch compared to straight-forwards QTEs.
The other new combat addition is the new secondary weapons. Kratos can wield a number of secondary weapons to his liking, such as swords, javelins, sling, and others. The secondary weapons are much more powerful than Kratos' physical kick attack, and the secondary weapons can be used to stun enemies more easily. You can also discard the secondary weapon for a powerful attack against enemies. You can pick up the weapons while exploring or when defeating enemies.
The Rage system in this game is revamped, where you need to constantly damage enemies to get the Rage meter filled up. Once you filled up the Rage meter, Kratos can use even more powerful damaging attacks such as new Blades of Chaos combo or a Rage attack. Depending on Kratos' magic that he currently equips, he can use different types of Rage attack. If Kratos is damaged while in combat or does not participate in combat, the Rage meter will decrease.
The last new addition is the new Magics system. This time, Kratos has access to four different types of magic, which are fire, ice, lightning, and souls. Each magic will grant different bonuses towards Kratos attacks, such as the Fire of Ares grants Kratos the ability to get more Gold Orbs. You can also use each Magic's special attack, which expends Kratos' magic bar.
As you play in the game, you will come across with some items for you to use in combat as well, such as the Amulet of Uroboros, where you can slowdown enemies for a short period of time. You will also need to use it to solve some puzzles. Puzzles in this game are rather creatively designed, where you need to use some of your items to solve it. None of the puzzles are too hard, but will take some time to complete if you are not good with puzzles.
You can upgrade Kratos' abilities by spending Red Orbs. Red Orbs are obtained by defeating enemies, breaking objects or opening Red Chests. To upgrade Kratos' weapon and magics, you need to spent a required amount of Red Orbs. After leveling up either your weapon or magics, you will learn a new move for Kratos to use. It is advisable to upgrade Blades of Chaos as much as you can since it will allow Kratos to deal more damage once leveled up as well as learn new combat moves. Upgrading Kratos' magics will allow him to use Rage attacks, learn new moves, as well as using the ultimate move of the associated magic. You will also come across with other types of chests, such as Green Chests to restore Health, or White Chests to obtain a piece of Gorgon Eyes or Phoenix Feathers. Get a set of five of Gorgon Eyes or Phoenix Feather to upgrade Kratos' Health or Magic meters.
I find that the gameplay is solid, but not entirely innovative or new. Even if you play the multiplayer mode, I doubt the multiplayer can sustain since it plays too similarly like the single-player modes. There are few complaints I have with the gameplay component, such as unbalanced difficulty in certain areas. In Hard mode, there is one particular area in the final stages of the game will definitely cause players to rage out of frustration. However, I managed to beat that area with difficulties, but I felt it is unbalanced. There will be a patch to fix that matter in lower difficulty modes, but not the Hard mode. Secondly, short completion time. I felt that this game is shorter than God of War III, and depending on players' skills, you can beat the game quickly or slower. Thirdly, some uninteresting new combat additions. I felt that the new Magic system is weakly implemented, and I felt very restricted in using the Blades of Chaos to attack enemies since the weak and strong attacks are limited when you are not using Rage mode. I do not wish to comment much of the multiplayer, since I feel the multiplayer is entirely unnecessary and uninteresting. Overall, the gameplay is good but has some problems with the lack of new stuff to play with as well as some weak new additions.
Graphics
Sound
The game's soundtrack is composed by Tyler Bates, who is a composer has composed music for numerous movies and games. His musical style is fairly interesting and unique, and I feel that the game has one of the strongest God of War soundtrack. The voice acting is fairly good, with the main voice actors did good job in performing and voicing their roles.
Replay Value
Unfortunately for this installment, this game lacks a number of bonus features that are previously present in previous God of War games, such as Challenges feature. Not to mention, the game has short completion time compared to other God of War games. The multiplayer is certainly unique, but I felt that the multiplayer is unnecessary and not interesting.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I feel that this game is a weak follow-up with God of War III and God of War: Ghost of Sparta in many ways. This is still a good game, but plagued with some problems such as lack of innovation, unnecessary multiplayer. lack of bonus features, low replay value, and etc. Despite all that, it is still have pure entertainment value, good combat, epic fights, incredible graphics, interesting story, and immersive soundtrack. This is a good game, but with many problems that God of War fans that are afraid of. It is not a must buy game, but it is still good on its own.
Score
Story: 6/10
Gameplay: 6/10
Graphics: 10/10
Sound: 10/10
Final Score: 8.0/10 or 32/40
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Interesting storyline.
- New combat additions.
- Incredible graphics.
- Violent and fun combat.
- Creative puzzles.
- Epic fights.
- Better managed QTEs.
- Excellent soundtrack.
- Fitting voice acting.
Cons
- Story feels too short and not so epic.
- Story lacks new and surprising plot elements in God of War saga.
- Gameplay feels too similar with previous God of War games.
- Completion time is a bit short.
- Low to moderate replay value.
- Uninteresting multiplayer.
- Some new gameplay additions are weakly implemented.
- Unbalanced difficulty in certain areas.
Play Kratos again in his journey to break his oath with Ares.
The game takes even before God of War: Chains of Olympus, where Kratos first defies Ares and wants to break his bond with the God of War. However, the Furies attempt to prevent Kratos from doing so, and tried hard to capture him. They succeeded at first, but Kratos will break from his imprisonment later on. Embark on Krato's journey to defeat the Furies and to break his bond with Ares.The storyline is interesting, but lack of new things to be told in the God of War universe. It does not attempt to answer many other previously answered questions, but instead it has a new storyline that takes place after Kratos' murder of his family. The new characters are pretty interesting, such as Orkos and the Furies. Kratos himself has a more human side shown in this game, which can be considered an unseen side of Kratos' personality.
Gameplay
Plays like previous God of War games with some new additions.
If you are familiar with the God of War games, then you should know how to play this game already. You can use weak or strong attacks to decimate your enemies, or use magic to defeat them as well. Platforming section plays more or less with God of War III, where you can traverse between edges, climb ledges, and etc. You will also fight epic bosses in this game, and many bosses in this game are pretty much well-designed with epic scale.
The first new combat addition in this game is the newly improved grapple move. You can press the R1 button to grapple the enemy, and attack it with a variety of ways, such as slam the enemy hard, attack the surrounding enemies using Blades of Chaos, or throw the enemy. You can grapple most of the weaker enemies without damaging them, but you need to damage them enough before grappling them. Once you grapple the stronger enemies, you might need to complete a QTE sequence before killing them. In some QTE killing sequences, you need to attack the enemy while dodging attacks before killing it. In other QTEs, most of it are simply instant kill. I like how the developers managed the QTEs this time by requiring the players to struggle slightly in QTEs before killing them. It is not unique, but a certainly nice touch compared to straight-forwards QTEs.
The other new combat addition is the new secondary weapons. Kratos can wield a number of secondary weapons to his liking, such as swords, javelins, sling, and others. The secondary weapons are much more powerful than Kratos' physical kick attack, and the secondary weapons can be used to stun enemies more easily. You can also discard the secondary weapon for a powerful attack against enemies. You can pick up the weapons while exploring or when defeating enemies.
The Rage system in this game is revamped, where you need to constantly damage enemies to get the Rage meter filled up. Once you filled up the Rage meter, Kratos can use even more powerful damaging attacks such as new Blades of Chaos combo or a Rage attack. Depending on Kratos' magic that he currently equips, he can use different types of Rage attack. If Kratos is damaged while in combat or does not participate in combat, the Rage meter will decrease.
Use four different types of magic to defeat your enemies.
The last new addition is the new Magics system. This time, Kratos has access to four different types of magic, which are fire, ice, lightning, and souls. Each magic will grant different bonuses towards Kratos attacks, such as the Fire of Ares grants Kratos the ability to get more Gold Orbs. You can also use each Magic's special attack, which expends Kratos' magic bar.
As you play in the game, you will come across with some items for you to use in combat as well, such as the Amulet of Uroboros, where you can slowdown enemies for a short period of time. You will also need to use it to solve some puzzles. Puzzles in this game are rather creatively designed, where you need to use some of your items to solve it. None of the puzzles are too hard, but will take some time to complete if you are not good with puzzles.
You can upgrade Kratos' abilities by spending Red Orbs. Red Orbs are obtained by defeating enemies, breaking objects or opening Red Chests. To upgrade Kratos' weapon and magics, you need to spent a required amount of Red Orbs. After leveling up either your weapon or magics, you will learn a new move for Kratos to use. It is advisable to upgrade Blades of Chaos as much as you can since it will allow Kratos to deal more damage once leveled up as well as learn new combat moves. Upgrading Kratos' magics will allow him to use Rage attacks, learn new moves, as well as using the ultimate move of the associated magic. You will also come across with other types of chests, such as Green Chests to restore Health, or White Chests to obtain a piece of Gorgon Eyes or Phoenix Feathers. Get a set of five of Gorgon Eyes or Phoenix Feather to upgrade Kratos' Health or Magic meters.
I find that the gameplay is solid, but not entirely innovative or new. Even if you play the multiplayer mode, I doubt the multiplayer can sustain since it plays too similarly like the single-player modes. There are few complaints I have with the gameplay component, such as unbalanced difficulty in certain areas. In Hard mode, there is one particular area in the final stages of the game will definitely cause players to rage out of frustration. However, I managed to beat that area with difficulties, but I felt it is unbalanced. There will be a patch to fix that matter in lower difficulty modes, but not the Hard mode. Secondly, short completion time. I felt that this game is shorter than God of War III, and depending on players' skills, you can beat the game quickly or slower. Thirdly, some uninteresting new combat additions. I felt that the new Magic system is weakly implemented, and I felt very restricted in using the Blades of Chaos to attack enemies since the weak and strong attacks are limited when you are not using Rage mode. I do not wish to comment much of the multiplayer, since I feel the multiplayer is entirely unnecessary and uninteresting. Overall, the gameplay is good but has some problems with the lack of new stuff to play with as well as some weak new additions.
Graphics
Incredible graphics.
Perhaps no one should be reminded that each God of War game has cutting-edge graphics that will make other games pale in comparison of graphics. Great looking characters, nice environment design, and etc are the strength of the graphical prowess of God of War games.Sound
Great soundtrack and good voice acting.
The game's soundtrack is composed by Tyler Bates, who is a composer has composed music for numerous movies and games. His musical style is fairly interesting and unique, and I feel that the game has one of the strongest God of War soundtrack. The voice acting is fairly good, with the main voice actors did good job in performing and voicing their roles.
Replay Value
Low to moderate replay value.
Unfortunately for this installment, this game lacks a number of bonus features that are previously present in previous God of War games, such as Challenges feature. Not to mention, the game has short completion time compared to other God of War games. The multiplayer is certainly unique, but I felt that the multiplayer is unnecessary and not interesting.
Conclusion
Stylistically good, but lack of gameplay value.
In conclusion, I feel that this game is a weak follow-up with God of War III and God of War: Ghost of Sparta in many ways. This is still a good game, but plagued with some problems such as lack of innovation, unnecessary multiplayer. lack of bonus features, low replay value, and etc. Despite all that, it is still have pure entertainment value, good combat, epic fights, incredible graphics, interesting story, and immersive soundtrack. This is a good game, but with many problems that God of War fans that are afraid of. It is not a must buy game, but it is still good on its own.
Score
Story: 6/10
Gameplay: 6/10
Graphics: 10/10
Sound: 10/10
Final Score: 8.0/10 or 32/40
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Interesting storyline.
- New combat additions.
- Incredible graphics.
- Violent and fun combat.
- Creative puzzles.
- Epic fights.
- Better managed QTEs.
- Excellent soundtrack.
- Fitting voice acting.
Cons
- Story feels too short and not so epic.
- Story lacks new and surprising plot elements in God of War saga.
- Gameplay feels too similar with previous God of War games.
- Completion time is a bit short.
- Low to moderate replay value.
- Uninteresting multiplayer.
- Some new gameplay additions are weakly implemented.
- Unbalanced difficulty in certain areas.
