View the God of War Trailer on YouTube.
Marv’s Picks: God of War!
By Marvin Capistrano
God of War has got to be one of the greatest experiences I have encountered these past few years.
I emphasize the word experience because that was exactly what this was; I wasn’t playing God of War. I was following along on this personal journey with Kratos and his son, Atreus. Believe it or not, the best story I’ve encountered these past few months was not a comic I read or a movie I watched, but from a video game.
As a lifelong gamer, I have a new appreciation for the medium and see the potential of ambition it has. While a life-long gamer, I have not played any of the other installments in the God of War franchise. I blame the ‘binge-watching’ culture we live in now where we have this need to know EVERYTHING before beginning a series. There were 10 games among three systems. Because of this, unless I watch multiple videos on the franchise history, there was no way I was going to be able to catch up.
Santa Monica Studios, the developers of God of War, has insisted that this is almost a reboot of the entire franchise. The older games were not necessary at all. The previous games had Kratos face off against the Greek Pantheon. This time, the focus was on the Norse Mythos. I still have some hesitance whenever I’m told this, but being that I was in a place where I needed something new, I decided to hop into the pool and give this a go. I had no idea what I was getting into. In the game, we follow Kratos and his son, Atreus, on their journey to fulfill the final wishes of the matriarch of the family, Faye, by sprinkling her ashes from atop the highest peaks in all the Nine Realms. I did not know how personally invested I was going to be in the relationship between a father trying to accept who he is and a son trying to discover who he is. Redemption. Anger. Acceptance. Regret. Family. Man, this game has such a layered story that one can discuss for days the inner linings of themes presented.
Another thing to keep in mind is that these are not your parent’s Norse Gods. They are drastically different versions of characters we are familiar with yet not deviating from the myths they are based on. Odin isn’t a loving All-Father but a greedy All-Father…and we don’t even meet him in the game! The game does an amazing job with setting up characters even when they’re not present.
There are also plenty of surprises along the way. Without being too spoiler-ish, let me just say that this isn’t entirely a ‘reboot’ of the franchise. Despite this, not knowing anything of the previous games deterred my enjoyment of the game. In fact, it added to it. It gave me a unique perspective to this game that, quite frankly, I’ve never experienced. It’s hard to explain, but I guess ignorance is bliss, after all… It has been three months since I finally finished this game. Since then, I’ve played plenty other games, read plenty of comics and books, and watched plenty of movies. But the whole time, I couldn’t shake God of War out of my head. Maybe it’s because it gave me this unexplainable feeling I don’t think I’ve ever had.
I think I’m going to play this game again…
Marvin Capistrano is a big fan of comics and provides occasional insights on choice comic book picks…and even video games! Images are property and © Sony Interactive Entertainment and Sony Pictures Digital. They are solely used for review purposes only.
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