God Of War PS4: 8 Hands-On Impressions You Need To Know

8. The Dark Souls Comparisons Are Immediate

The shoulder button control scheme, behind-the-back camera, turtling/rotating around enemies to gain the advantage, whittling away at an on-screen health bar and facing sizeable foes that the camera can't keep up with... yup, this is Dark Souls alright.

At some point it's worth pointing out that FromSoftware's action RPG has had such a monolithic impact on third-person action, that every modern title with any focus on combat will crib myriad elements from it. From The Surge to Assassin's Creed, Lords of the Fallen to For Honor, the age of the isometric hack n' slash is gone; ditched in favour of the aforementioned tropes.

It's not dissimilar to when Call of Duty 4's monumental success made every FPS under the sun (and to this day) adopt the same control scheme. No shooter has had melee on anything other than the right stick in over a decade, and it's precisely because of Modern Warfare.

Back to God of War, and in revamping the series to be more in-line with the current marketplace and to hammer home the ferocity of Kratos' attacks, Sony Santa Monica have brought across more than a handful of Souls-style gameplay tropes.

Thankfully they mostly work a charm, and we'll get to the "negatives" in time.