#10 God of War - Alfheim - The Light of Alfheim - Stone Ancient

God of War (2018) is an Action-Hack & Slash developed by Sony Santa Monica and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment exclusively for the PS4. Even when the game could be considered a soft reboot of the franchise, it still follows the same Kratos of the original Greek God of War series. Now living in the world setting of Norse mythology, we find Kratos had been living peacefully within the lands. We also finds that he already had a son named Atreus whom he had a distant relationship for being usually away from hunting. The story then starts off during the day of wake of his wife Faye, which then sets off for the father-son duo to begin a journey of scattering Faye’s ashes at the highest peak of the nine realms. In their dangerous journey, they will encounter various mythical creatures and individuals in their way and learn secrets that would pit them against some of known Norse gods. A tale of family, Kratos and Atreus need to start learning and working with each other to pass through the challenges that will be brought against them by destiny.

Although the game’s changes in its camera view and gameplay had mixed reactions in their fans initially prior to release, it did not affect much on its official release. Receiving a Metacritic score of 94, the game turned out to be universally acclaimed by critics with praises covered in its story which focuses on memorable interactions and development between Kratos and Atreus, the change in its gameplay which highlighted a more strategic approach in its battles, the flawless camera work which does not show any apparent loading times in the transition between gameplay and cinematic sequences and its magnificent world and graphics. Few criticisms where highlighted like how it is less grand in scale compared with the previous Greek entries as well as there is a few diversity in its boss fights. Still, the game turned out to be one of the PS4’s best games of all time if not it’s best ever and its success resulted in it being the definitive Game of the Year of 2018 with 198 GOTY aggregate awards (based on GAME OF THE YEAR PICKS BLOG: 2018 GAME OF THE YEAR (gotypicks.blogspot.com)) received from various media outlets and notable game award shows, managing to beat another one of a generation game in Red Dead Redemption 2.

One of the best games I have played, although I was one of the individuals who found its changes in its gameplay weird. Upon playing it, I’ve found how epic and memorable the game was. Its new combat mechanic is superb with the axe throwing and returning ala Thor being my favorite. The flawless and detailed graphics in its characters, monsters and world and how every interaction had been memorable in my experience. I agree the bosses could use some work with many being reskins with few original bosses in the game, however, its not really affected my enjoyment much due to its action packed gameplay. A game for the history books! Enjoy this walkthrough!