It’s been five years since the latest God of War installment, and here comes 2018 with a new entry to the series! Not only that, this isn’t a reboot like many speculated at first– it’s an actual continuation of the God of War story! Whatever will Kratos do after he destroyed an entire pantheon of Gods? I suppose he has no choice but to bring the fight to a whole other pantheon! What else is a Kratos to do?

When God of War came out in 2005, I was living in the college dorms, and we always left our door open so our neighbors could come and go as they pleased. God of War’s story, while shallow, entranced anyone that entered. It was one of the first video games of such graphical fidelity to take on the challenge of representing the Greek Mythological Pantheon. Seeing the Greek deities in such (at the time) stunning detail was so incredibly interesting that most people just couldn’t stop watching! (That, and the ridiculous and brutal violence was both mesmerizing and, at times, comical in its execution.)

I’ve always been a huge mythology buff, and when God of War originally came out, I was thrilled at the prospect of playing a game focused on Greek Mythology. However, in my personal ranking of mythology, Norse mythology takes the cake.  Everytime. Suffice to say, I can’t wait to see God of War’s take on the Norse Mythological Pantheon.

This particular God of War is a bit of a redesign from the overhead hack and slash of the previous installments. The game has a more close-up third person camera, which puts you much closer to the action than you may be used to. Additionally, according to reviews, this new installment puts more emphasis on character building and the story than in the previous narratives, and does it all quite well!

The press embargo on the game just recently lifted and the reviews have started rolling in from the journalistic outlets that have been playing it for the last few weeks. Most of the reviews are being given a max score and are lauding it as one of the best games so far this year. Amazingly, God of War has managed a 95 metacritic rating, which is phenomenal!

The game is coming out Friday, April 20th, so just two days away! Currently, it’s actually difficult to pre-order it on some websites (I had to sneak in a pre-order with Amazon using their availability service). Expect a Rad Listed post next week touching a bit on my experience with the game.

Here’s some links to prepare you for Friday:

God of War metacritic page: http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/god-of-war

A well-done done chronological video detailing the entire God of War story up to this point:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-suycIDMhEE

Fantastic review by Giant Bomb’s Dan Ryckert:  https://www.giantbomb.com/reviews/god-of-war-review/1900-782/

What up and coming games are you excited about?