God of War – Game Review & Opinion [PC]

In 2018, Santa Monica Studio introduced players to a new chapter in the history of Kratos. After many challenging adventures in Greek mythology, the PlayStation icon spurred into a new world and the production, which was initially exclusive to PS4, won the 262 Game of the Year award, beating titles like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Marvel’s Spider-Man. It was only a matter of time before the sequel was announced, and in fact the story is coming – although initially the plans were different, the adventure will go to PS5 and PS4. There have been rumors for months that Sony wants to encourage PlayStation 5 to use ports on older PC titles, and God of War is the best proof of that. In early 2022, Kratos’ adventure will land on PC, after which its continuation will be available on consoles.

After spending more than 20 hours with this title, I know one thing – it is still one of the best games of the previous generation that will lead players to Ragnarok, and as a result, the Japanese plan will succeed.

God of War? This is what you want to play

You can read our full God of War review for PS4 in this placeBut it is definitely worth mentioning that Kratos, to get into Norse mythology, faced a very difficult task. The God of War is no longer the same warrior he was a few years ago, and although he is still sleeping with known demons, the great hero has tried to find peace – he got it from his lover, who unfortunately died. However, it wouldn’t be a huge spoiler when I write that the entire story centers on the journey of Kratos and his son Atreus, who must fulfill the last request of their lover and mother. A woman wants her ashes to go to the highest mountain in the world.

Looking back and learning about production for the fifth time – Kratos’ first adventure into Norse mythology is almost on the same level from start to finish. The screenwriter managed to pay attention to the interesting main plot, which was in a good position in the game world, and the protagonist has the opportunity to once again face strong opponents. I still got the impression that the developers should expand the topic on other gods, and the stories would certainly be good if we had the opportunity to meet at least two additional bosses. After all – again it was hard for me to walk away from this adventure.

Given that God of War has already been reviewed on the third platform, it is easier for me to appreciate not only the combat itself, but most of all the pace of events, because The game guides the player wisely by hand all the time, Atreus encourages people to visit other parts of the world, but no one really forces Kratos to do non-essential activities. It will take no more than 20 hours to complete the main story, But if you want to know all the secrets here – you will spend much more time in the world.

When I first approached God of War, I bumped my nose a bit at the fact about the main character’s weapons – you know, for much of the adventure, we only use one. after time? Leviathan has been my favorite instrument of terror. Other Gods of War games have faded into the background because nothing gives me so much satisfaction as playing by throwing a huge ax at or near enemies…and then watching the equipment return, which can take down or take out enemies. I wasn’t convinced by Leviathan for a long time, but now it’s in my opinion one of the best elements of the Santa Monica Studio site.

God of War is also one of those products that are worth coming back to, Because getting to know the story for the first time can satisfy a lot, but still discovering this world and exploring additional locations provides a great experience. Here, however, unfortunately – The Sony team did not care about cross-save, So we don’t have the option to transfer saves from PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5. This is definitely bad news for gamers who were hoping on Steam or a future on SteamDeck to finish off their competition and develop an already boxed Kratos. The Japanese also do not offer cross-purchase, so those interested will have to buy the title again.

God of War on PC? There are some important options

However, before proceeding to the description of the gaming experience on PC, it is worth taking a closer look at the settings for the new version. Not every game that hits PC from consoles gets the necessary options, but In the case of God of War reviewed, we can choose some important details that will allow us to enjoy the adventure.

Players can easily change the quality of textures, models, anisotropic filtering, shadows, reflections, weather conditions and ambient occlusion – those interested will choose one of the prepared modes or select each option manually (minimum, low, original, high, ultra settings). In case of display, we set resolution, we run Vsync, we set max frames per second (120 fps to max), noise (0 to 10), grain (0 to 10) and the option of scaling resolution appears .

The developers have collaborated with different producers, so Supports God of War DLSS 2.0 and AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution – When deciding on a function, we can choose different modes that improve fluidity or improve setup. An important detail is also the settings where we can turn on the latency mark, but also NVIDIA Reflex (a set of optimization technologies that reduce game lag) – this is another technology from NVIDIA that can improve the gaming experience.

God of War is another Sony game that offers a mouse and keyboard game, but I honestly wouldn’t recommend playing that way – it’s much easier and more fun to connect one of the consoles to your PC. During the game, I checked how the DualSense works and in this case the developers did not disappoint, because we got an almost complete impression – the tactile vibrations work, but you will not hear any sounds from the console speaker. You can also use the Xbox pad easily.

God of War for PC! How does sony production work?

Sit down to review God of War On PC, I wanted to see how Kratos’ adventure could run at over 60 frames per second. My PC (GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, CPU i7-8700, 16GB RAM) is no longer top-notch, but I can feel the difference without any issues – especially because of the DLSS. In my group I select the “Performance” mode (3840 x 2160 resolution, 1920 x 1080 resolution) and choose the “Native” graphics settings I get on normal sites 80-90 fps, in a fight around 75-90 fps, In larger spots around 70 fps and 56-70 fps during cuts. In some situations, I was able to play at 100fps. When deciding on “maximum performance” in DLSS 2.0, I was able to enjoy the title at well over 100fps and often even at 120fps….although in this case the display resolution drops to 1280×720. I must make it clear Definitely including “quality” (2560 x 1440), production runs around 50-65 fps – although still on “native” graphics settings. Thanks to AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution, I recorded the following results: 75-90 fps (performance), 68-80 fps (balance), 65-72 fps (quality) and 55-65 fps (maximum quality) . Quitting DLSS, I got 50-60 fps.

However, I also had the opportunity to check God of War On a more powerful platform (GeForce RTX 3080, AMD Ryzen 9 3900X, 16GB of RAM) and on such a platform it clocked 58-70fps on 4K Ultra settings without DLSS, but including NVIDIA tech I got 90- 110 fps (maximum performance), 90-102 fps (performance), 70-110 fps (balance) and 70-99 fps (quality) – all at ultra graphics settings. In the case of AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution, I can count on 80-110 fps (performance), 90-105 fps (balance), 80-95 fps (quality) and 66-68 fps (maximum quality). ).

The graphics themselves are certainly an important question. In the God of War for PC reviewed, we can of course achieve a different setup and it all depends on what hardware you have, but on 4K Ultra you will get a quality similar to that of the PlayStation 5. In the case of close-ups, you can see some improvements on the PC compared to the PS5, the developers have taken care of higher resolution of shadows (the original 4K is highly visible) and improved reflections, But during the game itself? This game looks great on both platforms. Gorgeous costumes of Kratos or his axe look great, and during the fight we witness a real festival of great dances with, for example, Leviathan in the main role.

Throughout the adventure, I didn’t run into any major bugs and only occasionally (even though I’m familiar with the platform I have) did I notice a slight drop in animation. However, I never felt the game “jerks” or encountered any graphic errors. During the game, I also ran the aforementioned NVIDIA Reflex, but let’s face it – this technology makes a real difference to esports titles. Of course, by reversing enemy attacks with a shield or throwing an axe, we can see Kratos’s immediate reaction, but it’s hard to compare directly to consoles.

God of War on PC? This production will encourage you to keep going

Sony has picked a really good production that will encourage more PS5 gamers. God of War can look great and run very smoothly, but of course we need a very powerful PC for that. The Japanese console is an alternative – of course (as in the case of powerful GPUs) if you can buy it. I encourage you to learn about Kratos’ adventures with the console in hand, because the board is definitely more fun than the mouse.

Another encounter with Kratos only stimulated my interest in the upcoming God of War Ragnarok. I’m still not sure if Santa Monica Studio will add variety to the gameplay, but at least for now I can confidently recommend God of War’s first adventure in Norse mythology. God of War tastes as good as it does in a PS5 game, and if you have a real monster next to your desk, you’ll feel the difference on the Japanese platform.