Although the story is not nearly as interesting when compared to the titanic events of God of War 3 (and how could it be? GoW3 was crazy!), this game is still first class in all other respects, at least in terms of singleplayer. Santa Monica Studios have done it again with their innate sense of epic cinematic gameplay and flare for truly exquisite aesthetics and environments that will make your jaw drop because you won’t believe what these guys pull off.
The hack ‘n slash gameplay and combat is the most refined and rewarding you will find in any game – it is a privilege to play a game which can be genuinely challenging whilst never feeling cheap, and one where button-mashing will get you nowhere and you are coerced into using variety and true skill to overcome the game’s smart and dynamic enemies.
Seasoned God of War players or veterans of hack ‘n slash will find the game’s Hard difficulty setting a challenging yet rewarding experience that very few games seem to achieve these days. I wasn’t completely won over with the game’s use of ‘Elements’ to slightly diversify move sets, and I felt that the amount of moves and combos were somewhat stripped down compared to GoW3, with a slight focus on magic-ranged attacks that started to move away from the raw hack ‘n slash melee gameplay fundamentals that make the franchise’s visceral and thrilling combat so appealing.
Nonetheless, this game is still a brutal blast that represents the finest that gaming has to offer on the past generation and in fact of all time. For the cheap prices this game would now be at, now is certainly the time to jump into exceptional end-of-a-generation titles such as this before the PS4 finds its legs and its worthwhile titles start to drop in price. For about 10 hours of first-class gaming and chump-change, it’s a no-brainer investment in a good time.