10 Brilliant Video Games That Surprised Everyone - Commenter Edition
3. God Of War (2018)
2018's soft reboot of the successful God Of War franchise came as surprise not for following a bad series - quite the opposite, in fact. The original trilogy of games on the PS2 and PS3 had seen wild success, being cited as some of the best action games of all time.
Their camp, ultra-violent rampage through Greek mythology had a great deal of charm to accompany some rip-roaring gameplay.
With this in mind, when the PS4 sequel-cum-reboot was trailed, fan were perplexed - a hammy hack-and-slasher set in Ancient Greece was now a serious-hairy-dad-game centring on Norse Mythology. Kratos' naive young son Atreus was met with derision, and an ageing, bearded, grumpy Kratos seemed similarly out of place.
The result, however, was simply perfect. Santa Monica Studios' retooling of the franchise worked not only on a gameplay level, but narratively most of all. Kratos' remorse over his abhorrent past, his closed off, taciturn demeanour and believable relationship with Atreus spoke to the maturing of not just the character but the game's writers as well.
Its emotional journey, coupled with a wonderfully tear-jerking ending, makes for one of the current generation's most memorable titles.