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

5. Combat Is A 70/30 Split Of Awesome/Awkward

When God of War's combat clicks, it absolutely BANGS. You can toss your axe into the fray whilst unloading on nearby enemies with your fists. Unarmed attacks build stun damage, meaning you can finish foes off with suitably gruesome, usually skin-ripping executions.

You've got quick health boosts, splash damage spins, stun flashes and ground-pounds. When it comes together, you're Kratos, the God of War, carving your very name and reputation through Norse mythology with every axe swing.

Then there's the times it most definitely doesn't work.

Mainly down to this notion of God of War playing like a sped-up Dark Souls whilst retaining the size of its "one against all" battles, the game's answer to teams of goons is to put small markers on-screen that dictate attack directions. Once you're in the flow of pulling off the more visually exciting moves though, you'll barely have time to register - let alone using the face buttons to tell Atreus when to fire an arrow.

The latter is essential to felling some enemy types, and between the visual flourish, Atreus yelling as to where you should be parrying, some enemies being unblockable and attacks popping off in all directions, it can go from "Man, this is AWESOME" to "Yup, this is one big mess and now I'm dead" in seconds.