Like many of you, I'm playing the new God of War. I just reached the base of the mountain, and I'm loving it!
It definitely deserves its place in the Meta Critic trinity alongside Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey.
And the more I play, the more I see parallels to the legendary Resident Evil 4.
Namely:
- Consistent pacing: GoW has pretty much the perfect mix of light skirmishes and epic encounters... of tight spaces and open spaces... of forward progress and exploring off the beaten path. This may be RE4's finest quality — and it's very rare in games. GoW is masterful in its use of contrast, with quiet moments that make the loud moments "louder" and vice-versa. But those quiet moments are never dull. Rather my brain feels continually engaged on multiple levels.
When you're not fighting, you're using your boomerang axe to open new pathways — cutting ropes to drop bridges, freezing cogs in place to open gates, hitting revolving doors to spin them around. You're solving puzzles that feel quick and intuitive — snappy lil' brain teasers, woven into the world all around you.
It feels like there's a puzzle at every turn. They're simple but satisfying, making you feel smart, like a good Zelda puzzle. They never kill the pacing like the puzzles in the Uncharted series. And so far there have been a LOT of them — and the game has managed to keep them varied throughout.
The mileage the game gets out of its mechanics is astonishing — "multiplicative" gameplay like RE4, or more recently BotW. And the game practically showers you with rewards like EXP, silver, upgrades, armor, runes, etc. There are a huge variety of treasure chests, uncovered and opened in different ways. Sometimes you'll find multiple chests in the same area. Opening them all is addictive.
- Tight mechanics and crowd control: This might be one of the "best feeling" Western-made games ever, right up there with DOOM 2016. Everything just feels right. Kratos is fast and fluid with his quick turn, side-steps and dodge-rolling. Toggling his sprint feels good. Shield-parrying is fantastic, with a light touch of hit-pause for effect. The first boss plays out like a Platinum-style rival fight that skill-checks you on all these things.
And the combat feels so good! Throwing the axe to freeze enemies, pummeling foes with hand-to-hand combat, and then calling back the axe like a remote-controlled boomerang smacking multiple enemies on return... It looks great and sounds great — the axe glancing off level geometry with a clang and spray of sparks, as it twirls back to Kratos's waiting hand — and it feels great with the rumble deep in the controller.
But it's the way you use it for crowd control that reminds me of RE4. GoW has a similar camera perspective, close to the player's back in the thick of the action. Threats come from all directions, and onscreen icons indicate approaching enemies and incoming attacks. Like RE4, you're prioritizing targets, managing your melee and ranged options to zone some enemies while closing in on others. You can target limbs and faces, stunning enemies, and although Kratos is a grounded fighter (no jumping), he can reliably launch foes for air juggles. But often you'll find yourself backing off for space as you quickly become surrounded. This back and forth feels like RE4, delivering a similar rush of tension and release.
The optional enemies with purple health bars really put this into perspective. Sure, you could come back and fight them later when you're stronger — nothing in this game is missable, apparently — but I want to open that treasure chest now, and so I find myself kiting enemies that can one-shot me around a small arena, sparingly picking my shots with the axe, trying to make each throw hit them on the way back. It's exhilarating.
- The sense of a journey: As you explore, the world map is gradually uncovered, the fog lifting to reveal only the areas where you've been. Everything is interconnected, like a Bloodborne or Metroid. You can backtrack to earlier areas with new abilities, reaching new areas. You can backtrack to previous areas and encounter stronger enemies in new arrangements, as well.
But such detours are purely optional. You're free to stick to the critical path, traveling to the summit, and it's a continuous journey throughout. I imagine that by the time I reach the mountain peak, it'll feel like I did at the end of RE4, where I looked back on Leon's journey from the village through the castle across the island to the end. It lends the game a sense of grandeur and grounding. So, too, is the case with GoW.
And I think the effect is heightened by the fact the camera never cuts away. The camera is always following our heroes, so you're literally with them every step of the way — even those moments Kratos is launched high into the air, thrown deep into the side of a mountain, or slammed into the ground.
- The sense of progression: RE4 empowered the player with all kinds of upgrades that were balanced around an in-game economy of gold and treasure, powering up your firearms and expanding your attache case so you could pack in more items. GoW also has a lovely progression loop, where you sell artifacts for silver and use rare materials to craft and upgrade weapons, gear and talismans. You also fit slots with runes that provide passive benefits, and invest EXP in skill trees where each move is both simple to use and effective in combat.
Of course, these features exist in countless other games, as well. But it's the way GoW does it that feels so right. This ties in directly to the first point, where I discussed the game's consistent pacing with regards to exploration, combat and puzzle-solving. And it also ties into the point about the sense of a journey. The game is so balanced that you're continually rewarded with the means to enhance your character, yet there is sufficient enough challenge that you'll actually use your resources. It's the pacing of player growth that reminds me of RE4.
In conclusion: At the end of the day, everything comes together in a way that's more than the sum of its parts. It's not the presence of these features, which individually exist in other games, but rather their totality and execution that makes the game so damn good.
It's like the designers are having a dialogue with the players, speaking to us through carefully calibrated encounters and level design. Everything in GoW feels shaped by a higher intelligence, and in this way the game feels so thoughtful and "alive." This density of design, layering upon itself and building beautifully across hours of gameplay, is an RE4-like accomplishment that is so rare in the industry.
What a game!
It definitely deserves its place in the Meta Critic trinity alongside Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey.
And the more I play, the more I see parallels to the legendary Resident Evil 4.
Namely:
- Consistent pacing: GoW has pretty much the perfect mix of light skirmishes and epic encounters... of tight spaces and open spaces... of forward progress and exploring off the beaten path. This may be RE4's finest quality — and it's very rare in games. GoW is masterful in its use of contrast, with quiet moments that make the loud moments "louder" and vice-versa. But those quiet moments are never dull. Rather my brain feels continually engaged on multiple levels.
When you're not fighting, you're using your boomerang axe to open new pathways — cutting ropes to drop bridges, freezing cogs in place to open gates, hitting revolving doors to spin them around. You're solving puzzles that feel quick and intuitive — snappy lil' brain teasers, woven into the world all around you.
It feels like there's a puzzle at every turn. They're simple but satisfying, making you feel smart, like a good Zelda puzzle. They never kill the pacing like the puzzles in the Uncharted series. And so far there have been a LOT of them — and the game has managed to keep them varied throughout.
The mileage the game gets out of its mechanics is astonishing — "multiplicative" gameplay like RE4, or more recently BotW. And the game practically showers you with rewards like EXP, silver, upgrades, armor, runes, etc. There are a huge variety of treasure chests, uncovered and opened in different ways. Sometimes you'll find multiple chests in the same area. Opening them all is addictive.
- Tight mechanics and crowd control: This might be one of the "best feeling" Western-made games ever, right up there with DOOM 2016. Everything just feels right. Kratos is fast and fluid with his quick turn, side-steps and dodge-rolling. Toggling his sprint feels good. Shield-parrying is fantastic, with a light touch of hit-pause for effect. The first boss plays out like a Platinum-style rival fight that skill-checks you on all these things.
And the combat feels so good! Throwing the axe to freeze enemies, pummeling foes with hand-to-hand combat, and then calling back the axe like a remote-controlled boomerang smacking multiple enemies on return... It looks great and sounds great — the axe glancing off level geometry with a clang and spray of sparks, as it twirls back to Kratos's waiting hand — and it feels great with the rumble deep in the controller.
But it's the way you use it for crowd control that reminds me of RE4. GoW has a similar camera perspective, close to the player's back in the thick of the action. Threats come from all directions, and onscreen icons indicate approaching enemies and incoming attacks. Like RE4, you're prioritizing targets, managing your melee and ranged options to zone some enemies while closing in on others. You can target limbs and faces, stunning enemies, and although Kratos is a grounded fighter (no jumping), he can reliably launch foes for air juggles. But often you'll find yourself backing off for space as you quickly become surrounded. This back and forth feels like RE4, delivering a similar rush of tension and release.
The optional enemies with purple health bars really put this into perspective. Sure, you could come back and fight them later when you're stronger — nothing in this game is missable, apparently — but I want to open that treasure chest now, and so I find myself kiting enemies that can one-shot me around a small arena, sparingly picking my shots with the axe, trying to make each throw hit them on the way back. It's exhilarating.
- The sense of a journey: As you explore, the world map is gradually uncovered, the fog lifting to reveal only the areas where you've been. Everything is interconnected, like a Bloodborne or Metroid. You can backtrack to earlier areas with new abilities, reaching new areas. You can backtrack to previous areas and encounter stronger enemies in new arrangements, as well.
But such detours are purely optional. You're free to stick to the critical path, traveling to the summit, and it's a continuous journey throughout. I imagine that by the time I reach the mountain peak, it'll feel like I did at the end of RE4, where I looked back on Leon's journey from the village through the castle across the island to the end. It lends the game a sense of grandeur and grounding. So, too, is the case with GoW.
And I think the effect is heightened by the fact the camera never cuts away. The camera is always following our heroes, so you're literally with them every step of the way — even those moments Kratos is launched high into the air, thrown deep into the side of a mountain, or slammed into the ground.
- The sense of progression: RE4 empowered the player with all kinds of upgrades that were balanced around an in-game economy of gold and treasure, powering up your firearms and expanding your attache case so you could pack in more items. GoW also has a lovely progression loop, where you sell artifacts for silver and use rare materials to craft and upgrade weapons, gear and talismans. You also fit slots with runes that provide passive benefits, and invest EXP in skill trees where each move is both simple to use and effective in combat.
Of course, these features exist in countless other games, as well. But it's the way GoW does it that feels so right. This ties in directly to the first point, where I discussed the game's consistent pacing with regards to exploration, combat and puzzle-solving. And it also ties into the point about the sense of a journey. The game is so balanced that you're continually rewarded with the means to enhance your character, yet there is sufficient enough challenge that you'll actually use your resources. It's the pacing of player growth that reminds me of RE4.
In conclusion: At the end of the day, everything comes together in a way that's more than the sum of its parts. It's not the presence of these features, which individually exist in other games, but rather their totality and execution that makes the game so damn good.
It's like the designers are having a dialogue with the players, speaking to us through carefully calibrated encounters and level design. Everything in GoW feels shaped by a higher intelligence, and in this way the game feels so thoughtful and "alive." This density of design, layering upon itself and building beautifully across hours of gameplay, is an RE4-like accomplishment that is so rare in the industry.
What a game!
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