After Horizon: Zero Dawn or even more recently Days gone, it is now the very best God of war which finally lands on PC. It is therefore more than four years after its release on PS4 that the title of Santa Monica Studio hits our PCists. Is the result still so sensational? Should we really rush on this PC version?
Test conditions: We played the PC version of God of War for about eight hours without necessarily finishing it, which gave us time to see the real changes on this build, its optimization as well as its usability with the keyboard combo. /mouse. The title has been tested with 16 GB of RAM, a GTX 1070 and an i5 running at 3.8 Ghz.
A Nordic adventure always of the highest caliber!
It is obviously good to remember what this opus, released in 2018, is more than four years ago. God of war takes us straight to a Midgard where Kratos, in a most gripping intro, organizes the funeral of a loved one in the company of his son Atreus. The objective of our two protagonists will be to climb the highest mountain, and thus deposit the ashes of this person who was so dear to their hearts.
Under a simplistic starting point, the narration will take a lot of breadth as the progression progresses with totally captivating and interesting protagonists, the past of Kratos which inevitably resurfaces and above all a well-mastered staging. The fact of having also developed God of war in sequence shot gives rise to an ultra fluid and impressive progression. We will also note this father / son relationship between Kratos and Atreus which is developing little by little, and which will also reserve many surprises, in this Nordic story which is just sumptuous. Obviously, you will find a lot more details in our test.
For the gameplay, God of war start again from zero. In TPS view with the camera on the shoulder, this new opus changes dramatically, in addition to adding the semi-open world, and this fabulous possibility to visit the many kingdoms of Midgard. What’s more, Kratos is equipped with the Leviathan Ax which he can throw and revert as he pleases, in addition to freezing enemies in place. This gives rise to fights that are always nervous, brutal but also totally enjoyable with a feeling of power and significant rise in power for Kratos over the course of the game. Atreus is not left out because he is also very useful in fights, and offers an interesting chemistry with his father.
The RPG aspect is also added to the title, and in a very nice way. Enemies now have a health bar and a level indicated according to their dangerousness. What’s more, it is possible to equip Kratos from head to toe and thus increase his statistics according to the equipment you have assigned to him. Skills are also to be unlocked over the course of the game with experience gained. A shop with the dwarves Brok and Sindri will be there, and will offer to improve your equipment for money or resources that you find in the chests.
Without going into more details since our test of the PS4 version is already available, God of war is still a high level video game experience with excellent narration, gameplay revised from top to bottom that works devilishly, and also has a sound and artistic atmosphere that smashes at all times. There is no denying it, the title is always exciting in all its phases of play combining platforms, a little puzzles, and perfectly staged fights from start to finish. God of War Ragnarok is being expected more and more.
A PC version that doesn’t really disappoint
Now that the memory is properly refreshed, what is this PC version of God of war ? Concretely, the enthusiasm to find Kratos on PC is very present. The title still offers such good sensations, has not really aged after four years, and know that it plays perfectly well with the keyboard / mouse combo.. Good news for players who do not necessarily have a controller in their possession, and even know that locking enemies on the PC seems a little easier to handle, which is a very good surprise after all.
Of course, you lose all the immersion of the vibrations of a simple controller, but the gaming pleasure remains relatively intact. Fatally, we can still blame him for his little flaw not to offer a sufficiently varied bestiary but never mind, the result is very satisfactory. The only downside will be some movement bugs that can sometimes occur, or slight display problems, but this does not really affect the gaming experience. Note in passing that a photo mode is present on the soft, but remains very anecdotal.
Finally, regarding the graphic quality of the software, it does not have to be ashamed, far from it. The title is still as beautiful artistically as it is graphically, and is really sublimated in this PC version.. However, and you see us coming, we will still have to benefit from a configuration a little more advanced than the one we used for the test in order to see the full graphic potential of the software on PC. Because in Ultra and with our configuration, expect a few mini-jerks or even quite violent freezes at certain passages which will push you to start on graphics settings a little less greedy to soften the matter.
But beyond that, at least you will know that God of war is quite well optimized even for small setups, which is still good news. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to test DLSS or ray-tracing, but we dare to imagine that the title will only be embellished with these two technologies made in Nvidia. Note, however, that we strongly recommend that you install the title on an SSD as we did, because on HDD, expect it to be too long and potentially unstable.
Conclusion
Finally, what to remember from this PC version of God of war ? Despite slight pitfalls already present on the original game, this PC version of God of war is damn convincing. With its smart keyboard / mouse controls and its very well-mastered optimization for all configurations, God of war made a nice entry to our dear PCists. Apart from a few small bugs here and there which should be quickly corrected, or the fact that it is imperative to install the title on SSD, the playing pleasure is always instantaneous, and the gameplay mechanics introduced on this new opus still work as well. .
In fact, whether in the narration to the staging, the excellent graphic side or even the Dantesque fights, God of war Still hitting hard four years after its release on PS4. In addition, PC players will have the chance to finally discover the new adventures of Kratos, and to see how the title of Santa Monica Studio is still a little video game bomb while waiting. God of War Ragnarok.