The main question that I’ve seen people asking about the new God Of War game is in relation to needing to play the previous games in order to understand (and enjoy this one). Now, this isn’t a silly assumption to make considering there’s been six God of War games this far on console/handheld, but I’m here to tell you why it doesn’t matter in the slightest if you haven’t played a previous God of War game both from a story aspect as well as from a gameplay perspective.
Now, obviously I don’t want to spoil anything about the story. I’d be lying if I said that there was no mention of events that happened in the former games. There’s obviously some throwbacks to previous games in the series throughout the story, but this is a brand new Kratos. He has a new family and is battling it out in a brand new world, with new enemies and bosses, and the game’s premise is extremely different (and has nothing to do with) any of the other games.
The game does a really good job at slowly introducing you to Kratos’ previous major encounters. In our review we mentioned that Kratos doesn’t know a whole lot about Norse mythology. His son is quite knowledgeable (thanks to his mother) which means that his son has to teach him a lot about this world. Well, the writers have also done a brilliant job in the sense that his son knows nothing about Kratos’ past, which means that Kratos recounts key moments throughout his days in Greece as the game goes on.
The combat in the new God of War is also quite different to any of the previous games. Firstly, Kratos’ main weapon is an axe, which handles completely differently to his Chain Blades. The game also has an over-the shoulder camera, which allows for slower, more grounded gameplay. Combat-wise, the game does a really good job at building up to the more intense combat, not relying on any combat expertise from the previous games.
I’ve seen a lot of people saying that they’re going to rush the first three games before this one comes out which I also wouldn’t recommend. Whilst they’re not long, they are very combat intensive (and quite repetitive) and I don’t doubt that you’ll be burned out if you rush through even one of the previous God of War games before playing this one.
All-in-all, the new God of War is going to be absolutely incredible regardless of your experiences with the previous games. It’s a cinematic masterpiece that goes way beyond anything we’ve seen in the previous games, so saddle up and prepare for a wild ride.
