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God of War

God of War is a phenomenal effort by Sony Santa Monica, one that needs to be experienced by every PS4 player out there.
God of War Game Cover
95%Game Brain Score
story, gameplay
grinding, stability
97% User Score Based on 79,242 reviews
Critic Score 93%Based on 79 reviews

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God of War Game Cover

About

God of War is a single player hack and slash game with fantasy, drama and historical themes. It was developed by Jetpack Interactive and was released on January 14, 2022. It received very positive reviews from critics and overwhelmingly positive reviews from players.

Get God of War, action game for PS4 console from the official PlayStation website. Explore God of War game detail, images, videos, reviews and more. Buy now.

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97%
Audience ScoreBased on 79,242 reviews
story13.2k positive mentions
grinding586 negative mentions
  • God of War (2018) features deeply emotional and mature storytelling centered on the evolving father-son relationship between Kratos and Atreus, backed by strong character development and powerful voice acting.
  • The gameplay delivers satisfying, fluid combat with a mix of hack-and-slash and RPG elements, offering engaging battles and various strategies without overwhelming complexity.
  • The game impresses with stunning, detailed graphics and an immersive Norse mythology atmosphere, complemented by an epic and emotional soundtrack that enhances both story and combat.
  • Some players find the story pacing slow and occasionally tedious, with hand-holding elements, drawn-out fetch quests, and inconsistent character emotional shifts, which can detract from immersion.
  • The endgame grind, particularly in procedural trial arenas and certain dungeons, is seen as repetitive and tedious by some, potentially reducing replayability and enjoyment for players less interested in farming.
  • While generally well-optimized on PC, performance issues like occasional stuttering, bugs, crashes, and specific hardware incompatibilities persist, affecting stability for a minority of users.
  • story
    22,652 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The story of God of War (2018) is widely praised as an emotionally powerful and deeply engaging father-son narrative that blends Norse mythology with themes of growth, loss, and redemption. The character development of Kratos and Atreus, combined with strong voice acting and cinematic presentation, creates a captivating and immersive experience that resonates with both newcomers and longtime fans. While the main story is relatively concise, typically lasting 20-25 hours, meaningful side quests and lore enrich the narrative, making it a standout aspect of the game.

    • “God of War is a masterpiece of storytelling, gameplay, and emotional depth.”
    • “The story is a powerful and emotional journey focusing on the father-son relationship between Kratos and Atreus, delivering deep character development and a compelling personal narrative.”
    • “This game is a masterclass in storytelling, blending mythic storytelling with a deeply emotional and mature story that stays with you long after the credits roll.”
    • “The whole plot is painfully slow, utterly soulless and somehow people think this is a masterpiece.”
    • “The story is mediocre at best, having good moments but with characters like Atreus who switches his emotional state every 3 minutes, and painfully obvious foreshadowing, it makes it hard to say it's any better than mediocre.”
    • “The game constantly wastes your time with boring story segments, hand holdy climbing, needlessly drawn out fetch quests and tedious combat.”
  • gameplay
    7,370 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The gameplay of God of War (2018) is widely praised for its satisfying, fluid, and engaging combat mechanics, blending fast-paced hack-and-slash with strategic depth and RPG elements. While the story and cinematic presentation are often highlighted as exceptional, some players find the gameplay repetitious or slower compared to previous entries, with certain frustrations around mechanics such as dodging, enemy variety, and pacing. Overall, it delivers a compelling balance of accessible yet challenging gameplay tightly woven with narrative and world exploration, making it a standout experience despite minor shortcomings.

    • “The cinematic integration into the gameplay is flawless—the camera never cuts, transitioning seamlessly from quiet, emotional conversations right into massive, scale-defying set pieces (like interacting with the world serpent).”
    • “The gameplay is very engaging and satisfying, plus there is a lot of options to choose from without making the whole system feel overwhelming.”
    • “The combat mechanics are solid, and the combat system is both fluid and satisfying, allowing for a variety of strategies in battles.”
    • “Lots of barely dodgable and massive AOE attacks with few mechanics in the game to help you with.”
    • “I played through on 'Give Me God of War' difficulty which was a mistake; the new mechanics and 'no mistakes' philosophy expose frequent animation locks, lack of enemy signaling, and inconsistent stuns that often lead to player death.”
    • “The story is great and well-executed, but it's clear the story and cinematics took priority over the gameplay, causing the gameplay to suffer, especially compared to the original trilogy.”
  • graphics
    6,937 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    God of War (2018) is widely praised for its stunning and detailed graphics that remain impressive years after release, especially on PC with high-end hardware enabling ultra settings, 4K resolution, and smooth frame rates. The game's art style, realistic character models, expansive environments, and seamless cinematic presentation create an immersive, movie-like experience. Users consistently highlight the visuals as a major strength, noting enhancements over the original console version and applauding the optimization that allows beautiful graphics even on mid-range systems.

    • “God of War's visuals really have to be seen to be believed and a lot of hard work and long hours have gone into realizing and delivering a gorgeous art style.”
    • “The graphics look fantastic, and this game has easily the nicest HDR implementation I have used to date—best enjoyed on an OLED, and with a controller.”
    • “Beautiful graphics, story and amazing acting.”
    • “The graphics are terrible, and I'm on PC, where the graphics are better than PlayStation, and still the main characters are stiff like NPCs.”
    • “For some reason the textures love to be low res sometimes no matter what your graphics settings are but that's probably more of an issue with the port than with the game itself, I think.”
    • “The only criticism I have is the annoying film grain; I don't know if it was an art style feature, but it is there and it's a little annoying. Luckily there are mods to remove it, but removing it with mods causes graphical glitches in some areas, the most prominent one being annoying texture flicker.”
  • optimization
    1,493 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game is generally recognized as exceptionally well optimized on PC, delivering smooth performance with stable frame rates even at high settings and 4K resolution, especially on Nvidia hardware with DLSS support. Minor issues such as occasional stuttering, memory leaks (now mostly patched), and some AMD-specific performance problems are reported but do not significantly detract from the overall experience. While performance on the Steam Deck is mixed and may require configuration tweaks, the PC port stands as a benchmark for polished console-to-PC conversions with extensive graphical options ensuring wide hardware compatibility.

    • “Performance-wise, I played the game in 4k with everything at ultra without any kind of upscaling and framerate was in the 80-110 fps range, absolutely fantastic and really well optimized.”
    • “First played this on PS5 but the experience on PC has been otherworldly I must say... the devs optimized this game perfectly - a constant 200 fps cap at native 4k and the lowest 1% I reached was about 180 fps.”
    • “This is one of the best PC ports currently available, period.”
    • “The game is quite good, one of the best I've ever played, but I'm facing a lot of performance issues on PC, even using an RTX40 series; when I enter a new place or open a door to a new area, the GPU just blows up. I wish the game was better optimized.”
    • “Not optimized at all; it was constantly lagging with a 9070XT and Ryzen 7 7800X3D held at a max of 60 frames, bugging out about 100% CPU usage.”
    • “Tl;dr: this game is incredibly poorly optimized for PC. In fact, it is possibly the most poorly optimized PC port I've ever played in my entire life.”
  • music
    1,484 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The music in God of War (2018), composed by Bear McCreary, is widely acclaimed for its epic, emotional, and immersive qualities that perfectly complement the game's narrative, atmosphere, and intense combat scenes. It features a masterful blend of orchestral and Norse-inspired elements, enhancing both quiet story moments and grand battles, making it one of the best soundtracks in gaming. While some note moments of minimal or sparse music during exploration, the overall consensus is that the soundtrack significantly elevates the game's emotional impact and cinematic experience.

    • “The epic soundtrack and the heartfelt story hidden within their lyrics is nothing short of a masterpiece in music writing.”
    • “The soundtrack is outstanding, epic, emotional, and perfectly matched to every moment.”
    • “From the haunting chants to the powerful orchestral pieces, the soundtrack enhances the emotional impact of key moments, further immersing players in the epic journey.”
    • “Gone are the epic choirs and rancid orchestra of the classic games, now replaced by the most underwhelming and bland music ever forged by mankind.”
    • “The music is quite disappointing for such a game and was very generic considering how big this studio is.”
    • “The music was barely present, didn't even notice it most of the time.”
  • emotional
    1,364 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    God of War (2018) is widely praised for its deeply emotional and mature storytelling, centered around the evolving father-son relationship between Kratos and Atreus. The game masterfully blends intense, satisfying combat with a heartfelt narrative about fatherhood, loss, and personal growth, enhanced by a powerful soundtrack and immersive, cinematic presentation. This emotional depth and character development elevate the experience, making it a standout in both narrative-driven and action-adventure gaming.

    • “The story is a straight 10/10 — emotionally grounded, beautifully written, and one of the best character arcs Kratos has ever had.”
    • “God of War (2018) is a masterclass in storytelling, gameplay, and emotional depth.”
    • “The bond between Kratos and Atreus is the emotional core of the game — their evolving bond, combined with Mimir’s presence, creates a dynamic that is both engaging and heartfelt.”
    • “The game constantly wastes your time with boring story segments, hand-holdy climbing, needlessly drawn out fetch quests, and tedious combat.”
    • “Bad game, boring story, turned it off because I couldn't stand the child talking for another second.”
    • “A souls-like with a boring story that would fly over my head because I never played the preceding trilogy.”
  • grinding
    859 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The consensus on grinding in the game is mixed, with many players finding certain endgame content—especially in realms like Niflheim and Muspelheim—to be tedious, repetitive, and grind-heavy, particularly when upgrading gear or achieving 100% completion. While the core story and combat are generally praised for being engaging, the additional grinding for collectibles, upgrades, and side quests can feel monotonous and time-consuming, detracting from the overall experience for some. However, others find the grind manageable or even enjoyable, emphasizing that much of it is optional and that the main narrative can be appreciated without excessive farming.

    • “The crafting is perfectly balanced and no farming nonsense required (at least not up to ~30 hours play time).”
    • “Little to no grinding required to get upgrades, even on hard difficulty.”
    • “A lot to explore, a lot of captivating Nordic lore to learn along the way and upgrading your gear isn't grindy and tedious but incorporated nicely in the game.”
    • “God of War (2018) mostly lives up to the hype, being mainly held back by a variety of mechanical shortcomings and a tedious endgame grind.”
    • “The best armor and gear upgrades are locked behind grindy, procedural trial arenas and repetitive mazes.”
    • “Grinding out mist echoes is tedious, all of Niflheim felt like a tedious afterthought.”
  • character development
    509 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Character development in this game is widely praised as exceptional, deeply emotional, and integral to the storytelling, especially focusing on Kratos and Atreus's evolving father-son relationship. The growth of Kratos from a rage-driven warrior to a more nuanced, caring figure is highlighted as a significant and satisfying transformation. Overall, the nuanced character arcs, natural dialogue, and well-paced development contribute to a rich narrative experience that rivals top-tier cinematic storytelling.

    • “The story is the most captivating part of this game for me, with rich, deep lore in every corner you explore, very likeable characters and very satisfying character development.”
    • “The writing is powerful, the dialogue feels natural, and the character development is some of the best in modern gaming.”
    • “Watching Kratos develop from this extremely gruff character that has seen (and caused) immense tragedy to developing into a father who, although still rough, actually shows a tender side is great character development.”
    • “In the first 6 hours, there is literally zero character development at all, but Kratos said "boy" 62 times.”
    • “It really feels like we are missing an entire game's worth of character development.”
    • “The combat feels too samey from the start of the game towards the end, the story beats and character development all happen unnaturally fast.”
  • stability
    389 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    God of War PC port is overall well-optimized and runs smoothly on a wide range of hardware, often praised for high frame rates and beautiful visuals. However, users report occasional bugs such as freezes (particularly on Steam Deck and certain hardware), minor graphical glitches, some combat oddities, and rare crashes, though these generally don't severely impact gameplay. Overall, stability is considered good, with most players experiencing a largely bug-free and stable experience after initial patches.

    • “From the technical perspective, the experience was flawless: great optimization, and no glitches.”
    • “Technical perfection - no major frame rate drops, no glitches or freezes...combat was always fast, smooth, and exciting.”
    • “This pc port is flawless, no bugs, no glitches, just pure entertainment.”
    • “What I didn't like: game has weird issues and glitches on AMD GPUs, sometimes puzzles bug out, and some collectables don't count towards overall completion (I collected 51/51 ravens, achievement popped but game still says 42/43).”
    • “The game freezes and then crashes constantly.”
    • “Runs okay on the Steam Deck, but I frequently encounter frame rate drops and it freezes up every 15-20 minutes, only shutting down the device solves it.”
  • atmosphere
    349 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's atmosphere is universally praised for its breathtaking, immersive, and richly detailed Norse mythology-inspired world, enhanced by stunning visuals, evocative music, and exceptional sound design. The emotional storytelling, character depth, and meticulous world-building combine to create a powerful, cinematic, and memorable experience that deeply engages players. Overall, atmosphere is considered a standout, integral aspect that elevates the gameplay and narrative to masterful heights.

    • “The world is rich, atmospheric, and filled with breathtaking set pieces that feel like they belong in a blockbuster film.”
    • “Combined with the Norse-inspired soundtrack — heavy drums, ancient instruments, deep male chants, and haunting vocals — the atmosphere feels raw, mythic, and powerful.”
    • “The music and atmosphere make it unforgettable; it feels like a turning point not just in the story, but for Kratos as a character.”
    • “No real sense of atmosphere, exploration or discovery at all; perhaps I have been spoiled by open world RPGs like The Witcher 3 and Assassin's Creed Valhalla - both far better games.”
    • “Later on, all the machines and gold-plated levers and mechanics at the 'Sea of Nine' and beyond spoil that atmosphere.”
    • “The flashiness of looting chests and the colorful icons indicating what you found make it feel like a AAA casino-style loot game that does not fit the atmosphere of the story.”
  • humor
    322 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's humor is widely praised for its well-balanced blend of witty, subtle, and genuinely funny moments that enhance character development, especially the dynamic between Kratos and Atreus. Side characters like Mimir, Brok, and Sindri receive particular acclaim for their comedic timing and engaging dialogue, contributing to a lively and immersive narrative without detracting from the serious and emotional tone. Overall, the humor is seen as smart, endearing, and integral to the game's storytelling, striking a perfect balance between levity and gravity.

    • “From trying (and failing) to censor his adult stories around Atreus to his hilarious reactions to the environment, Mimir feels like a genuine friend tagging along for the ride.”
    • “Even though I am playing it in 2026 and the game came out in 2018, the graphics and storytelling are top notch. Mimir is one of the most lovable characters for me; his humour is godly. I am always eager to listen to his lore drops and his funny stories.”
    • “The dynamic between Kratos and Atreus is a mix of heartwarming and hilarious, with Kratos' attempts at fatherly advice being both endearing and laugh-out-loud funny.”
  • replayability
    253 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Replayability for this game is generally rated as high, with many players praising the new game+ mode, engaging combat, side quests, and additional challenges that extend playtime. However, some feel the story's linearity, repetitive dungeon design, and unskippable cutscenes limit replay value, making it more enjoyable primarily for those who appreciate the gameplay mechanics and wish to revisit content or improve their build. Overall, replayability depends on player preference, with many finding it well worth multiple playthroughs, while others see it as more of a one-time experience.

    • “The main story quest can take about 20 hours less if you don't do side quests or complete areas. If you do decide to do side quests and complete all the areas and collectibles, it might give you an extra 5-10 hours. There are fun challenges you can complete to get better gear and a lot of resources to level up your skills. The game has a lot of replay value as you can unlock even better armor and enchantments on new game+, which also allows you to skip cutscenes once you are on new game+ — a godsend because there’s no way I’m watching these long cutscenes on every new playthrough. Currently, I'm on my 5th playthrough; I really love this game.”
    • “With over 95 hours of gameplay and 67% of the achievements unlocked, God of War offers immense replayability.”
    • “Replayability is excellent; unlike other games, the 'new game+' really does add a lot of new equipment and tactics to the experience.”
    • “My second playthrough felt worse than the first since I first played this on the PS4 around when it came out, and I don’t think this game carries a lot of replayability.”
    • “First, the randomly generated dungeon in Niflheim feels extremely lazy with barely any replay value (it has very little randomization so you are essentially clearing the same thing again and again).”
    • “Only thing I'd probably say about it is replayability kinda sucks as the entire game has a ton of cutscenes, all of which are unskippable, which makes it a bit of a drag if you're wanting to play again.”
  • monetization
    61 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game is widely praised for its absence of microtransactions, DLCs, and other common monetization tactics, delivering a complete, upfront purchase experience without pay-to-win elements or intrusive ads. Reviewers appreciate the pure focus on gameplay and story, highlighting it as a refreshing departure from modern cash-grab trends in AAA titles. Some minor criticisms noted ads in boss fights, but overall, the monetization approach is seen as respectful, player-friendly, and true to a passion project rather than a profit-driven scheme.

    • “No multiplayer, no microtransactions – just a pure, complete experience.”
    • “A game with great combat, systems with depth that served the game perfectly, no loading screens, no micro-transactions, no lootboxes, no paid DLC, no monetization, no "will fix it later."”
    • “Simply download and play, with no additional accounts needed or unnecessary launcher and no microtransactions.”
    • “The longer I play this the more I realize that this publisher has lost its touch and is milking a classic series for a cash grab that puts the rest of their previous work to shame.”
    • “This is a shameless, greedy cash grab.”
    • “It's rather sad to see so many triple-A game companies over the last decade focus on repetitive gameplay and constant microtransactions - their focus being to keep you paying and playing their game over and over again.”
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93%Critics’ scoreBased on 90 critic reviews
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25h Median play time
78h Average play time
21h Main story
51h Completionist
10-50h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 231 analyzed playthroughs
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Skip FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

God of War is a hack and slash game with fantasy, drama and historical themes.

God of War is available on PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Windows and others.

The main story can be completed in around 21 hours, while the entire game is estimated to take about 51 hours to finish. On average players spend around 78 hours playing God of War.

God of War was released on January 14, 2022.

God of War was developed by Jetpack Interactive.

God of War has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from players. Most players liked God of War for its story but disliked it for its grinding.

God of War is a single player game.

Similar games include God of War, God of War Ragnarök, Ghost of Tsushima, Black Myth: Wukong, NieR:Automata™ and others.