There are aspects of the... let's just call it the Norse God of War... that I find really interesting and good. For one thing, I actually really prefer the over-the-shoulder perspective shift. I can't remember if the original games did this, but I also kind of find it interesting that there's a commitment to no loading screens once you're playing and that the cutscenes don't, well, cut. From the moment you're picking a difficulty at the start to the end of the game's journey, it's following Kratos.
I also like that it's showing character development. Kratos is still fundamentally Kratos - a grim, brutal, well, Spartan. He's decidedly unsentimental, but he's not controlled by rage as he was when he was slaughtering the Greek Pantheon.
One thing I'm on the fence about is the narrative of the game. There's something kind of audacious about the fact that the goal of the entire game - the whole point of the adventure - is that Kratos and his son are trying to honor his wife's burial wishes. I'll admit I'll cry at the drop of a hat, but as someone who carried his own mother's ashes to her funeral less than two years ago, the last part of the game hit me pretty damned hard.
What's odd is that the game's big bad is really incidental to the whole story. "The Stranger" (whose identity is not really much of a mystery given that it's got to be a Norse God given what game we're playing) essentially shows up as some raving asshole and then just periodically shows up to assault you. It's telling that once you beat the game's final boss, Kratos and Atreus more or less shrug and get on with what they had been meaning to do in the beginning.
And in truth, while there is a fair amount of territory to explore, it does feel a bit empty. There are fewer than ten characters with distinct personalities and voice acting, and much of the game teases an eventual confrontation with the heavy hitters of the Norse pantheon like Thor and Odin without letting us meet either of them. My guess is that they're planning on having this serve as the beginning of a kind of Norse trilogy to complement the original Greek one. There are also tantalizing hints at a broader God of War cosmology, suggesting that Tyr has been traipsing around, visiting Egyptian, Greek, and even Aztec gods. How many of them can Kratos go and slaughter?
Mechanically, combat is pretty good, though it takes a while to start getting the more nuanced skills and abilities that make it more interesting - the early parts of the game have you just kind of hack at things for a while until they die. I'll admit that I'm spoiled by Bloodborne/Dark Souls when it comes to combat systems, but once you get the hang of God of War's, there's stuff to like (even though I was halfway through the game before I stopped accidentally throwing my axe when I meant to use a Runic ability or vice versa.)
There's also a decently satisfying Metroidvania-style exploration/puzzle gameplay, where the various abilities and attacks you get allow you to make further progress in exploring the world. You'll see things like vibrating red sap or nasty, thorny vines covering a treasure chest and wonder how you can get through that obstacle until you get farther in the narrative. And there are some challenging but not infuriating puzzles (the only one I found frustrating was one that required you to solve it in within a time limit or you'd die and have to restart the whole thing once the game reloaded.)
In terms of difficulty, playing on "Balanced," there was only one time in which I felt compelled to lower the difficulty setting, after I had died far too many times with just a tiny bit of health left on the enemy. There were a couple other fights where I did get angry at how difficult they were, but I only lowered the difficulty that one time.
Returning to that idea of size: the game presents you with the ability to visit all nine realms of Norse myth (though some are either inaccessible or far from necessary to beat the game) but many feel very minor, with some realms feeling less like their own worlds or levels and more like a kind of late-game challenge zone so that you can get the best gear (that you don't really need to beat the game.) And some places, like Helheim, sadly feel devoid of a really strong visual identity or interesting inhabitants that could have made them feel like more of a place than a video game level. As always, God of War has its massive set-pieces, but these feel a little empty given that the world is so empty. Likewise, there aren't all that many different types of enemies - most are just variations on stuff you've seen from early on in the game.
Anyway, the story leaves off on a massive sequel hook with some ominous revelations about Kratos and his son Atreus, at least for those of you who know your Norse mythology. My understanding is that this game got a pretty good critical response and was popular, so I imagine we'll be seeing more of this new take on the series.
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