God Of War PS4 Review: 8 Ups & 1 MINOR Down

7. Its Comment On Video Game Violence & The Original Games

Alongside Kratos and Atreus' journey is a meta-textual comment on uses of violence, morality, godhood, being a warrior, being part of a family and much more. It's all effortlessly layered throughout thanks to Atreus' inquisitive nature and Kratos' extremely regrettable past.

The way this reboot recontextualises the original games by making a mature comment on their actions, from the character who took part in them in the first place, is likely the direction many other games will go. We saw a similar thing with how Nathan Drake reminisced on games as "past adventures" in Uncharted 4, and this way of taking playable experiences and turning them into plot points is genius; feeling like a fundamental advancement of the medium.

Like Bioshock's "Would you kindly?" twist, God of War shows many creators how to further pick apart character motivations and player agency in truly enjoyable, lasting ways.