God of War on PC is the definitive way to play this epic title

Previously a Sony exclusive and a system seller, the epic action game is still a high point in recent gaming that PC owners should not miss out on

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God of War: PlayStation releases tense trailer for game

God of War is one of the top-selling video games of the last generation and with good reason, loved by critics and gamers alike for a more grounded and dramatic portrayal of the series. The game was until now a PlayStation exclusive.

The God of War series began back in 2005 on the PlayStation 2 as a hack and slash action game about a spartan warrior murdering the Gods of Olympus in revenge for the death of his family.

However, after two mainline sequels, and spin-offs the game protagonist, an edgy 2000s, rage monster, Kratos has changed and the series has evolved into a much more serious, deeper and complex game about fatherhood and secrets while updating it with more grounded and frenetic combat.

2018’s God of War was developed by Sony Santa Monica Studio and was a smash hit for the PlayStation 4 and an exclusive for the system that many never thought they’d see on any other system.

And with the sequel Ragnarök in development, the series doesn’t look like it’s going away any time soon.

Sony’s exclusive titles are a huge system seller for PlayStation consoles and some fans are disappointed to see their favourite titles come to other hardware.

But with Sony titles Like Uncharted,Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Horizon Zero Dawn and Days Gone making their way to PC, with some minor hiccups with Final Fantasy 7 remake and Horizon Zero dawn having some issues.

But likely we’ll see many more on the way, allowing many PC gamers to experience some of Sony’s strongest titles for the first time.

God of War is the story of the Greek God killer, Kratos, but this time he is accompanied by his son Atreus, as they journey to the top of a mountain to spread Atreus’ mother and Kratos’s second wife Faye ashes.

They traverse the frigid, frozen land fighting undead, monsters while along the way confronting secrets about Kratos’s past and Atreus’s heritage and being pursued by powerful Norse Gods who want to prevent Ragnarök.

Playing an older Kratos coming to terms with his relationship with his son and trying to be a better father while trying to prepare his son for this dangerous world, causing friction between the two characters and making them feel believable and grounded.

The cast is incredible but with standout performances by Christopher Judge as Kratos and Sunny Suljic as Atreus is just staggering and really breath life into the characters while adding complexity and weight to the games themes and story are just amazing to watch.

The game perfectly balances some stunning fight scenes that could put an MCU blockbuster to shame, but also quieter more touching moments.

The recommended specs for the game aren’t too demanding and wasn’t quite as hefty as I expected however the 70Gb of hard disk space is a little bit large, however nothing compared to Call of Duty 200 GB size.

Processor: Intel i5-6600k 4 core 3.5GHz or AMD Ryzen 5 2400 G 4 core 3.6GHz

Memory: 8GB RAM

Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 1060 6GB or AMD RX 570 4GB

I played the game on two different systems one with an Nvidia RTX 3070Ti and one with a much older GTX Nvidia 1080Ti, and while of course, the 3070 looked much better and benefits from the DLSS technology, 1080Ti still did a surprisingly great job albeit at lower settings.

God of War’s original graphics still hold up incredibly well today and a straight port would have been okay, however, this is a quality port adding many technical improvements for more robust hardware.

This PC port brings with it extensive graphical enhancements including native 4K resolution with unlocked framerates and 21:9 widescreen support, texture details have also been enhanced as well as reflections and shadows.

Which takes the already jaw-droppingly, gorgeous and vibrant world and makes it more beautiful than ever before. It’s especially noticeable in the smaller details like Kratos’s white hairs in his beard, the bandages on his hands and the cracks in the armour.

The game also supports Nvidia DLSS or Deep Learning Super Sampling for those with a compatible 20 or 30 series graphics card. This means you won’t need a God of a machine to run the game reasonably well.

DLSS utilises AI rendering to boost frame rates by upscaling lower-resolution frames without sacrificing any image quality or causing a hit on performance.

This has made the combats and movements feel much smoother and easier to control as well as dodge and aim and playing at 120 fps was an absolute joy.

Kratos’s reactions are smoother than ever thanks to the inclusion of Nvidia Reflex, this reduces the time between your computer acknowledging your input.

There is a decent amount of graphical options to tinker with to help get the game looking its best.

The game supports either a controller or keyboard and mouse and as a PC gamer, I used the latter and found it much easier.

I did briefly try it with a controller but as I only have Xbox controllers it felt weird to me and I’m terrible with them. However the game also natively supports the excellent PS5 ‘s DualSense controller but without its incredible feedback.

The combat is very simple to pick up yet tricky to master and still a hack and slash affair. The game feels slower and more visceral than previous titles adding some real with and power to your moves. The PC version feels more fluid and is enhanced by the graphical and framerate upgrades.

You’ll still die often but with the smoother frame rates and graphical fidelity, you’ll see enemies coming just a bit sooner and be ready.

I also forgot how good the story was with some emotional gut punches along the way .

In a departure from previous games in the series, these titles allowed you to explore more which allows you to gain experience and find upgrades for weapons and armour making you even more devastating in combat.

I’m excited and a little nervous to see what modders will end up doing to this stoic story, maybe the insertion of Thomas the tank engine like in Skyrim or modding in the classic 2005 era Kratos character model.

Verdict

Out of all of Sony ’s selection of top tier first-party games, God of War is a fantastic choice to port over to the PC and make no mistake this is a port done perfectly.

It’s also great to see the upgrades breathing new life into this much-deserved legend of a game, as well as see a whole new audience embrace this title.

Given the original PS4 versions initial shaky start and inconsistent framerates and stuttering, you can now enjoy this breath-taking title in perfect 60+ framerates, bear in mind you will need a beefy machine if you wanted to stay locked to 120 fps.

However, if your hardware can handle it, then the already magnificent game just looks incredible at full native 4k ultra settings and at 120 fps it looks more realistic and plays more responsively than possible on even the best modern consoles like the PS5.

With such a great PC port my fingers are crossed that we might see Spiderman bought over in the not-too-distant future.

For those who never played God of War before this game is a must-have with a fantastic story, bone-crunching combat and a rich and vibrant world combine with some fantastic acting.

While picking this up may not be worth it for those who own the PS5 version, for those who played it on PS4 the PC port is a visual feast, it offers significant improvements over this already legendry title and the definitive way to play God of War.

God of War is out now for £39.99 and is available on Steam and the Epic Game Store.