God of War PC Review: ‘The definitive version’

God of War has finally made it to PC, and I was pumped to give the former PlayStation exclusive another playthrough. God of War was one of my favorite games of 2018 and has continued to stick out as one of the best of the 2010s.

Unfortunately, the experience was somewhat marred by the PS4’s inability to carry such a detailed game further than 30 frames per second. A patch allowed PS5 players to squeeze 60fps out of it, but there weren’t any options to increase the quality of the visuals. It wasn’t until the PC version that we got to experience the game in its full glory.

Dad of War

Of course, God of War’s story continues to be a banger. The world has changed a lot in the four years since the game was released, so I took different things away from this playthrough than it did the first time around. Kratos was not a great guy, and his move for Midgard was meant to put some distance between him and his past. His relationship with his wife and the birth of Atreus gave him a second chance at having a family. However, he’s obviously still dealing with feelings of inadequacy when the game begins.

Throughout the game, the concept of what makes a good man and father is continually examined. Kratos tries to be a stern, cautious dad and doesn’t want to make the same mistakes his father and he made in the past. Unfortunately, this causes him to inadvertently withhold the love that Atreus needs in the wake of his mother’s death. Kratos distancing himself also makes Atreus think that he’s not strong enough to be his son.

At the same time, Atreus is at the age where he’s figuring how who he is. The boy is torn between rebellion at what he feels are slights from Kratos and the need to convince his dad that he’s worthy of his love. I still love that we’re very much an audience to the story of Kratos and Atreus. Even when you’re doing side activities and exploring outside of the main story, the two converse with each other, telling stories and making observations.

Good things come in small packages

God of War also continues to have some of the best pacing I’ve ever seen in a game. It avoids the pitfall of many open-world games that make the main story seem urgent and then let you do whatever you want indefinitely. Instead, the game locks you in during certain parts, and you’re on a set path until that section has concluded.

God of War has Metroidvania elements as well. As Kratos and Atreus gain new abilities and items, you’ll be able to revisit old areas in the open world sections and move past obstacles into new territory. Essentially, this means there are two paths of progression, the linear story, and the open-world areas.

Midgard, which serves as the main open-world area, isn’t the most gigantic area in gaming history. Still, it’s packed with things to explore. After playing through some recent open-world titles, like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Cyberpunk 2077, I find I much prefer worlds that are dense with detail, even if they don’t necessarily feel gigantic.

Peak performance

Fortunately, this is an excellent port. It played as smooth as butter for me at 4K and averaged higher than 60fps for almost my entire playthrough. There were a few times it dropped into the 50s, but the only way I noticed was the FPS counter.

The only issue I found at all during my time with God of War on PC was with the implementation of DLSS. Turning it on caused framerates to climb into the 70s and 80s, but it had one nasty side effect. For some reason, it makes Kratos’ beard look kinda crappy. It’s not terrible, but it definitely loses fidelity when DLSS is turned on, and the lighting doesn’t interact with it properly. It might not seem like a big issue, but you see A LOT of close-ups of Kratos in cutscenes, and it can be a bit jarring. I didn’t install a God of War-specific driver, so it’s possible a fix for the issue might be coming soon.

Aside from the above issue, it was smooth sailing. Shadow resolution and ambient occlusion are superior on PC, and the textures look amazing at 4K, even with DLSS turned on. Some players will find the lack of a FOV setting to be a negative, but I didn’t mind.

God of War is obviously designed around using a controller, but keyboard and mouse aficionados will be happy to know that there is full rebind support and on-screen prompts change to reflect any new bindings. It’s great to see Sony is putting care into its ports, especially given the poor state we’ve seen some of them in the past.

God of War PC Review: The final verdict

How impressive God of War is on PC really gives credit to Santa Monica Studio’s work on this game. It’s still a gorgeous journey through a unique take on Norse mythology, and a great way to play the game for the first time or revisit it before God of War Ragnarok releases. I’m as impressed with it now as I was the first time through it, and I look forward to seeing what’s in store for Kratos and Atreus in the sequel.