Following ” Horizon: Zero Dawn ” and “The Past is No Longer “, another exclusive masterpiece on the PS platform, “God of War”, will also land on PC in the near future. The PC version of “God of War” mainly improves the game’s image quality and frame number performance, and adapts to mouse and controller devices. Please get the qualification to try it out in advance before the release. Next, we will bring you the PC version of “God of War” gaming experience.
Stable transplant performance
The story stage of the new God of War has shifted to the Nordic region. In Norse mythology, the branches of the World Tree make up nine kingdoms. At the beginning of the game, Midgart, where Kratos and his son are located, is the human kingdom among the nine kingdoms. As the adventure unfolds, players can also explore other kingdoms.
Although it is a console game from 2018, “God of War” presents players with a rather sophisticated Norse mythology world, and the graphics performance is not outdated even now. The PC version of “God of War” also provides rich screen setting options, including higher resolution shadows, improved screen space reflections, and new GTAO, SSDO, etc.
This time we used a configuration of 3080 + i5 10600K to experience the game. With the image quality option maxed out and DLSS not enabled, the 4K resolution frame number can be maintained at around 60-70 frames per second. There were frame drops in a small part of the process, and there were also a few game crashes. As for the Reflex technology that reduces input latency, the changes it brings are not intuitive. Players may not be able to feel it clearly without paying special attention and comparison.
In order to have a better sense of immersion and visual experience, the game can define the UI display according to their own preferences, such as closing the enemy health bar, the compass direction above the screen, etc. Of course, it also includes the camera mode added in the subsequent updates of the console version.
The Winter of Fenbur is an important event in Norse mythology and also a harbinger of the twilight of the gods. The main plot of this work is basically developed according to this. However, due to the addition of Kratos and his son, the mythological character images, relationships, and specific stories have also been adapted.
The addition of his son, Atreus, is one of the biggest changes in the game, both in terms of plot and combat puzzle solving . Kratos has transformed from a violent warrior who was not bound by moral dogma in previous generations to a strict and steady father. In the game, Kratos will patiently teach his son how to hunt and help him bandage his wounds… There are a lot of interactive plots between father and son. In addition, Atreus is also a very useful assistant character in battles and puzzle solving. When facing enemies, Atreus will remind Kratos to pay attention to sneak attacks, and players can command Atreus to carry out attacks such as archery. Wearing different equipment will also give Atreus different auxiliary effects, such as dropping healing stones, increasing damage to aerial enemies and close range. Overall, the father-son setting of this game gives the game a new experience in both plot and gameplay.
In terms of perspective, this game abandons the traditional perspective mode of ACT games and switches to over-the-shoulder combat. In this game, Kratos can use a new weapon [Leviathan’s Axe]. The combo of [Leviathan’s Axe] is similar to previous works, which can make enemies float or fall through a combination of light and heavy attacks. In addition to attacking long-range enemies, throwing axes is also a very important puzzle-solving skill in the game. Coupled with various runes and skill combinations, Kratos’ combat style is quite rich.
The PC version of the controller and keyboard and mouse adaptation is also well done. The game supports DUALSHOCK4 (PS4), DUALSENSE (PS5) and other types of controllers. When players connect different controllers , the key patterns in the screen will change accordingly. However, DUALSENSE’s Self-Adaptation trigger and other features do not seem to work in this game. In addition, the vibration of DUALSENSE is too frequent, which brings a large sense of vibration, and my personal experience is not particularly comfortable. As for keyboard and mouse operation, the default button layout needs to be adapted by players, such as throwing axes and aiming with CTRL, etc. Overall, the operation of the controller is smoother.
[Review Summary]
Although it is only a ported version, the quality of “God of War” itself is quite excellent. If you haven’t tried this game on a console platform before, I personally highly recommend players to give it a try.
