Written by Joshua Gallegos
What a time to be alive. Despite what the news tells you, 2018 was a year without peer in human history — or at least, in video game history (same difference, right?!). Never has it been better to be a gamer. It seemed like every week brought a new fantastic world to discover, a new gaming experience that’s unlike anything before, or a refreshing take on timeless concepts and worlds. To put it simply, 2018 was the Year of Video Games. The Nintendo Switch is revolutionising the way we interact with video games, especially indie gems. Fortnite is overtaking pop culture in a way not seen since Minecraft. Tragedy has struck (look no further than Telltale’s studio-wide collapse), yet for every difficulty, there has been a soaring achievement.
Out of all the major influencers in this space, Sony takes the 2018 cake for best cultivation of the games industry. The Playstation 4 is at its peak, delivering blow after fantastic blow of pitch-perfect games that are unrivalled elsewhere. Games like Red Dead Redemption II and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey may appear elsewhere, but none can deny that the PS4 is the place to play them. Marvel’s Spider-Man finally delivers on the promise of a near-perfect Spider-Man game. Little titles like Astro Bot: Rescue Mission are fulfilling the VR dream. But it’s a little game by Sony Santa Monica Studios that has shaped the gaming industry more than any other game in 2018. That game is none other than God of War.
It’s hard from the outside looking in to determine what exactly makes God of War so special in a year of stand-out games. After all, it’s simply a reimagining of a series based on Greek mythology, a series that was essentially just a visual showcase of the Playstation 2 hardware capabilities. The original God of War captured attention because it gave people the opportunity to violently tear apart classic Greek monsters in (then) eye-popping graphic quality. And that was . . . about it. It was a surface-level romp through Greek myth, one spear-headed by a hotheaded Spartan who simply desired revenge. God of War II expanded on a lot of the fun gameplay elements and took advantage of more parts of Greek myth (like the Sisters of Fate), but even then was meant as nothing more than a gore-fest of fantastic creatures. God of War III did the same thing, but with Kratos (the one-dimensional angry Spartan mentioned before) tearing actual Greek gods apart instead of just Greek creatures and characters.
After that, the series was followed up by a couple of handheld spin-offs and a poorly-received prequel. All of that to say that God of War was never an industry-defining series. It showcased spectacle better than anything in gaming at the time, but has never been more than that. In fact, the original trilogy features a lot of elements of game culture’s “adolescent phase” that many people would like to forget, like poor storytelling, mindless violence, and sex minigames. Kratos was never a relatable or beloved character, and if it wasn’t for the inherent appeal of Greek mythology, the game series may not have lasted as long as it did. So how, in 2018, is the God of War series suddenly leading the charge in innovation and storytelling in the gaming industry? How in the world is Kratos shaping the industry for good?
Put simply, God of War (2018) showcases the maturation of the video game industry. It, more than any other game, makes the case for the legitimisation of games in the world of art, storytelling, and entertainment. I daresay that God of War proves that the video game industry can deliver the absolute best in each of these areas (art, storytelling, and entertainment), and do so in a way that at the same time gives gamers the actual gameplay experience they love and crave. It sets up video game storytelling as direct competition to television and books. It propels video game art and expression into modern conversations about the best of the best in the world of art. It gives movies a run for the cinematic-experience money, and stands toe-to-toe with its peers in world-class video game entertainment. There is next to no portion of God of War that is not excellent, and in that way, it proves the case of video games better than any game before it. Now, when those of the older generation or other naysayers look at games and write them off as an immature medium for children, God of War can stand as an indisputable testament to the viable nature of expression through the gaming medium.
Other games have managed to capture some of these elements, and there may be other video games that are perhaps even better at some portions of the gaming spectrum than God of War, but none are so perfectly harmonious as the new adventure of Kratos. And that, more than anything, is shaping and will continue to shape the video game industry into perhaps the leading medium of art, storytelling, and entertainment in the future. The video game industry is incredibly young. I mean, just compare it to the century-plus age of movies and television, and the millennia-old book industry. Yet, in a short amount of time, video games have grown drastically. Gone are the days where the best the game industry had to offer was a mindless, rage-filled Spartan slashing half-naked Gorgons in half. Now, that same Spartan is commanding the attention of creatives and storytellers around the world.
Now, how exactly is Kratos accomplishing all these things? After all, isn’t he the same character? I won’t say much here so as not to spoil a game that, I think, is a must-play for anyone and everyone, but I will say that it simply comes down to genius creatives taking the limitations of a one-dimensional character, seeing the potential, and realising it to its fullest. The folks at Sony Santa Monica somehow managed to deliver a Kratos that not only wasn’t one-dimensional, but was verifiably relatable, nuanced, and troubled in all the right ways. What’s even better is that they didn’t solve it all by just tossing out what they did before. Instead, they paid respect to the games that had gone on before, avoiding the temptation to start with a clean slate, and took the mess they had and made something beautiful from it. The height of accomplishment in this regard cannot be overstated. Adding in the father-son dynamic with Atreus creates an even more potent and powerful narrative that gives room for strong character development, fantastic plot twists, and emotional payoffs rarely seen in gaming. All with one of the (previously) worst-developed video game characters of all time.
But Sony Santa Monica didn’t stop at just redefining Kratos and call it a day. Instead, they went in and also made a fantastic video game, with top-grade combat, a world begging to be explored, and lore so intriguing you can’t help but stop everything just to listen to dialogue. Again, Santa Monica didn’t get rid of anything that had made God of War popular before. Instead, they took those elements and perfected them, giving you a refreshing twist on the combat that was so beloved before (that Ice Axe, though) and still delivering an intriguing mythology to play around in (the change to Norse mythology helps keep the series fresh yet again). Throw that in, along with the fantastic storytelling, and you have a feat unlike anything that has come before in gaming.
Not satisfied with a legendary story and pitch-perfect gameplay, Sony Santa Monica took it a step further and created a true work of art by focusing on one continuous “camera take.” That means that, throughout the entire adventure, not once does the camera cut. Never is there a transition from one scene to the next, never is there a cut to show you something else. Instead, it’s one long tracking shot, which gives the entire game both a sense of intimacy and a grand sense of scale that could not be achieved otherwise. That one decision to stick with one continuous tracking shot for the entirety of the 10-hour experience propels God of War into a masterpiece in cinematography, technological achievement, and storytelling. It is truly a milestone not only in the video game industry, but in artistic expression itself.
The power of such an experience as God of War is hard to capture here. I hope I have at least piqued interest in the title, and proven how exactly God of War has shaped and is going to continue to shape the video game industry going forward. This $60 video game for the Playstation 4 is, I think, a crowning achievement in the history of human expression. Nobody ought to miss out on it.
