10 Best No. 4's In Gaming History
2. God Of War (2018)
Have you played the original God of War trilogy recently? If not, best keep it that way.
Kratos' Grecian odyssey has aged terribly. From the simplistic combat to the embarrassing edge-lord attitude (best highlighted by GoW III's infamous segment where you kill an innocent woman and use her body to prop open a door), Kratos' Greek adventures are the gaming equivalent of the crappy poetry you wrote in high school - an embarrassing relic of an immature mind.
Which makes the stunning success of 2018's reboot all the more surprising.
Kratos himself is the best symbol for why the reboot succeeds where the prequels failed. The Kratos of this game is markedly different from the one-note psychopath of the original trilogy. Here, he's a world-weary father, ashamed of his past mistakes and desperate for his son not to follow in his blood-soaked footsteps.
Neatly, Kratos' maturation as a person mirrors the series' evolution as a game. The combat is given a much-needed overhaul, keeping the series' signature spectacle while offering much more depth to the player. And the linear levels of old are abandoned for a Metroidvania-style world, filled with upgrades and optional bosses for players to explore at their leisure.
God of War is a triumphant reboot of a once-stale franchise, and arguably the second-best franchise reinvention in gaming history.
Which begs the questions: Which is the first? Oh, we think you know the answer...