Dear Sony,
At E3 2016, you unveiled the latest title in the God of War series, God of War. People cheered, but I remained unimpressed. I had at one point considered myself a fan of the God of War series. I thought the first game was fantastic and found it's sequel to be a solid entry as well. I finally played the third title, God of War 3, in late 2012. The title featured the same tired gameplay with a nonsensical story that tried to stretch what should have been the final level of God of War 2 into a 10+ hour adventure. God of War 3 was a mess. It was pretty to look at, but it was a creative mess. I haven't touched the series since.
It looks like I haven't missed out on much since then. The series received two titles on the PSP and another entry on PS3 known as Ascension. Ascension seems to have burnt out more people than 3 ever did. Fans claim the game wasn't as strong as past entries and review scores took note. Where the series had received high marks for years, Ascension received noticeably lower scores ranging in the 7’s and 8’s. It's been 5 years since Ascension released and God of War as a series is making its return next month with God of War.
Let's get one thing straight. God of War came out in 2005. That was the name of the PS2 classic. This new title is also called that. I absolutely hate it when developers and publishers name their title the exact same thing. I don't think anyone is dumb enough or has so short of a memory that they forgot God of War actually came out 13 years ago and that this new title is something completely different with the same name. It's stupid. It's dumb. What bothers me most is this is strictly an issue within gaming. Rarely do movies utilize the same title for multiple films. Books and music do it less so. Worse, gamers don't seem to mind this. Last year was a horrible year for game names as both Prey [2017] and Star Wars: Battlefront II (2017) released, sharing their names with titles that released just a little over a decade ago. This new game could have been called just about anything else, but they went with the lazy and uncreative "God of War". I plan on covering this subject more in the future, but for the remainder of this article I shall refer to the game in various other ways so readers are not confused as to which title I'm discussing.
God of War [2018] is a weird beast compared to other titles in the series. To begin with, the mythology that past games were based on has been replaced. This is because Kratos killed them all in God of War 3 when the writer’s wrote themselves into a corner. God of Four will instead feature Norse mythology. I have no issue with this idea. Well except a few things. 1) Why weren't the Norse gods and creatures ever mentioned in previous entries? I'm sure there will be some sort of unremarkable reason for this as it's explained in-game. 2) why is Kratos still around? Again, there will be some sort contrived reasoning for this in-game. But what about in the real world? Why is the series that has long been under the guise of Greek mythology changing course to Norse mythology with the exact same character at the helm? Kratos, himself, is the son of Zeus. His entire character is weaved into the greek mythos that God of War has set before us.
Let's give God of Snore a break on this one. Story isn't important to God of War. At least, that's what I'm led to believe. But what about the gameplay itself? Why is this such a massive change compared to past titles?
But Nat. You just said that the gameplay had grown stale by the third entry.
You're right. I grew tired of the combat in 3 simply because it was the exact same combat that was in the first title. Games don't have to completely reinvent themselves between entries, but moderate improvement is something I expect in video game sequels. The new combat and gameplay of God of Bore seems completely out of place compared to past entries. Before everything revolved around mashing square, square, triangle until the enemies were dead. It was a hack n slash game, albeit a very basic one. God of Creative Bankruptcy is closer to a strange hybrid of modern open world games like Assassin’s Creed and Horizon mixed with the more brutal aspects of the Souls series.
The combat looks sound enough. It trades away the large set pieces for a more standard and bog over the shoulder melee combat system. The strange inclusions of rpg elements are where I begin to scratch my head. Kratos now has stats including things like Luck. If I'm lucky, maybe this game won't be a flaming pile of trash when it's released. It also features crafting systems, armor and weapons, none of which were featured in the previous titles. Change is good. But this doesn't feel, look or act like the God of War we knew. The new title is also much longer. The developers claim that the game will last anywhere from 25-35 hours. That's over twice as long as any of the previous entries and they've confirmed sequels are in the works.
Kratos is the playable character once again. This time he has a beard and a son. The son even helps out in combat similar to The Last of Us. But here's the thing. Kratos doesn't act like himself. He isn't the angry god of war. He's just some bloke with an axe. As I mentioned before, it's the same Kratos as past titles, so why has he changed? The answer will likely come in the game and I suspect it will be a cop out.
Our resident expert in all things related to Metroid and Alcohol, drunkmetroid, mentioned to me that this transition is similar to the one we saw between Resident Evil 3 and Resident Evil 4. Fair enough. Franchises change overtime and in a lot of cases for the better. I would argue, however, that the resident evil series kept its original tone and themes in place during the transition. This new God of War seems to be closer to the last of us in tone, not its past entries.
God of No Subtitles is probably going to receive high scores. It will probably sell well. And it will probably be half the game Bayonetta 2 is. I think I would actually be interested in the game if it wasn't God of War. So shouldn't I just let go of the past and give the series a new chance? Nope.
There is absolutely no reason for this title to be in the God of War series. It has so little in common with past games that outside of Kratos, who is basically a new character, there's no connecting line. Nothing is even close to the original set of games. This game should have been a new IP or at the very least it should have been a spin off. It's time to bury the God of War games and actually try to make something for once.
I know why you called this God of Explore the Underbelly of Mediocrity, Sony. You couldn't call it God of War 4 because it isn't similar enough to past games. Calling it God of Chore to Come up with Parody Names gives you an out. It allows you to show that the same series is here (even when it isn't) while drawing in new fans who haven’t played games before 2010. It's a cheap marketing trick and that's what the entire game is. It's a thinly veiled attempt to soft-reboot a franchise that wrote itself into a corner 8 years ago. I ask you, Sony, to let this franchise die. If you want to cover other mythologies, try making spin offs with new characters that fit those mythologies. If you have to revisit Kratos for whatever reason, then just make it a full reboot. A soft reboot of the series doesn't address the underlying cause and just comes off as lazy.
Hopefully you'll heed my advice and cancel God of PlayStation All-stars. Might I suggest replacing it in your line-up with Knack 3?
Sincerely,
Nat
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