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

4. Kratos & Atreus' Place In The World Is Hard To Grasp

At the close of God Of War III, Kratos attempted to kill himself as a way to be freed of the eternal jostle for power between Athena and the other Gods. A post-credits scene showed his former pool of blood now without a body though, and that's what leads into this game.

Now we have a broken Kratos whose been living with wife Faye and son Atreus. I fully understand that the rest of the story might flesh out the foundations of this setup, but it's a touch strange that Kratos discusses the world as though he's never explored outside his front garden.

Atreus as a character is given a reason, and contributes to the journey by reading runic inscriptions or being knowledgeable of the world itself, but Kratos tends to remark on every new creature or part of the world with a mix of shrugged shoulders and/or a lack of information. This made sense in the older games as Kratos was a God-powered human first setting foot in a number of kingdoms and realms, but assumedly, not here.

Considering how close he lives to, well, the Throat of the World and its connective portal to multiple other realms, it's just a tad strange that considering Atreus' age, that he doesn't appear to have done anything for a good 10 years. This makes it quite hard to ground both Kratos and Atreus' plight and quest, when the basic narrative setup leaves you with a handful of holes.

It is slowly becoming known online that the first half of the game is demonstrably slower than its back portion, so here's hoping this gets cleared up or touched upon in the future.