I’ve played each and every single God of War game, and I consider a few of them to be all-time great games. Even the games I found middling compared to the series’ standouts are still great games! Learning about the fate of Kratos’ wife and family, seeing Kratos and Atreus grow closer as father and son, and watching a friendship blossom between Kratos and Mimir. These are some of my favourite aspects of God of War‘s overarching storylines. I love seeing the relationships, be they good or bad, come to their conclusion. When I saw God of War: Sons of Sparta get announced, and I knew that we’d get to learn about Kratos in his youth, I thought it’d be a cool detour – not necessarily something I care about, but an interesting route to take. Unfortunately, I couldn’t care less about how Kratos’ youth was handled, and I believe this is the first God of War game I outright didn’t enjoy at all.
The stories told across this series have been some of the strongest in gaming, so I absolutely expected more from God of War: Sons of Sparta. I will say that the strongest part of this game is its voice cast. It’s always amazing to hear Terrence Carson as Kratos. Anthony Del Rio plays Young Kratos and does a fine job. It is jarring to hear Kratos speak like a regular person, and it’s almost off-putting because that just isn’t how he’s ever been portrayed, but eventually I got used to it. I can totally imagine people hating the voice because it’s not how they know the character, but I thought he was decent.
Jack Quaid is in the game and plays Eis, the namesake of Atreus. While his character isn’t what I would call dramatically important, I thought Jack was way more than just star power. I was impressed with his delivery and its realism. The rest of the cast is quite good – some performances better than others, but I didn’t think anybody was outright bad. I also just didn’t care much for the writing or the story, and I think the performances did a lot of heavy lifting in that respect.
I really like the idea of a God of War Metroidvania game, but a great Metroidvania, God of War: Sons of Sparta is not. It doesn’t do anything new or exciting, unfortunately. Every upgrade is something that’s been done before; the map isn’t very interesting, and I didn’t feel a major sense of exploration, which is key to making these types of games work. The biggest offender is that the game just isn’t fun to play. Traversal never feels quite right, and the movement is very clunky. Combat feels bland and lifeless due to the lack of impact you feel on each hit. God of War has always been about really deep and satisfying combat, and this is the first game in the series that just doesn’t meet the mark. It’s got your typical Metroidvania fare – abilities that are used for traversal and combat, parries, dodging, all of that. But the game just doesn’t feel great to play, and I never got excited about a new upgrade or combat encounter.
The biggest issue I’ve got with God of War: Sons of Sparta is that I just do not care at all for how the game actually looks. The colours are very muddy and don’t evoke anything from me other than the desire to turn up the brightness and contrast. The art style isn’t my flavour either, and I just find the game a little on the ugly side. The animations are also very minimal and leave a lot to be desired. The mix of muted colours, shockingly undercooked animations, and character designs that feel uninspired, I just felt disappointed by what was on my screen almost constantly.
God of War: Sons of Sparta is not a game for me. I am a massive fan of the Metroidvania genre, and this really didn’t stand out to me in any way, shape or form. I do think there is merit to playing this if you’re a diehard God of War fan who is also really deep into the lore. There are also some pretty great voice performances across the game. The bizarre aesthetic decisions repeatedly took me out of the experience, and there were many times when I thought it looked like one of those old Flash games you’d find on Newgrounds. I would love to see them take another go at this genre in the God of War world because it makes sense and it feels right, but this game just didn’t do it for me. There are so many incredible games coming out right now, and that makes it very difficult for me to recommend getting this anytime soon.
