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

7. There's A Thinly Veiled Loot System

Perhaps included at one point as a way for the team to add a microtransaction marketplace to progression (if such things weren't tantamount to a revealing photo showing you shaking hands with the devil), God of War still has multiple currencies, stats to grind and loot to craft or find. Thankfully, across these early hours, it's very much in the background.

Unlockable after meeting a couple of chat-happy dwarves, you'll unlock the ability to attach runes to your axe and armour. They give - as you'd expect - minimum pluses and minuses to a variety of character stats like Strength, Luck, Defence, Speed etc.

To be honest, I've not noticed any improvement strength or defence when "speccing" in that direction, but I have to imagine that as the game unfolds, there'll be plenty more reason to "play a class". Thankfully, or weirdly, considering the weighty context of everything, you just straight-up find new moves in treasure chests, too. Like Kratos realised or remembered, "Hey, I can totally just spin with this axe in my hand, and it'll take guys out!"

God of War's single player focus is damn good to see amongst the current climate, but even it couldn't escape a loot grind entirely, and the way everything is "slotted" into your equipment is very reminiscent of Shadow of War.