Now, I’d be the first to say that while I wanted to see Marvel’s Spider-Man win the game of the year at the Game Awards, I thought for sure that Red Dead Redemption 2 had this one in the bag.
However, this was not the case as God of War took home the award for game of the year. I was just as surprised as anyone to find out that this game won over Red Dead. Every year, after the Game Awards, I take some time to go back and play whatever game won the award for the year. After a few hours of playing God of War again, I can really see why it beat the others.
From the leviathan axe rushing back to your hand during a fight, to the overall look of Midgard and the other realms, the game is so immensely huge. For a world so huge it tells such a personal story about a father and son trying to spread their wife/mothers ashes.
Now, I want to say that I love Red Dead 2. It’s an awesome game with an amazing story. It has fun gameplay and an massive open world to explore. That’s when I came to the realization that God of War has the exact same formula used in the original Red Dead Redemption. It is a game with an amazing story about redemption with an epic open world that, again, has tons of stuff to explore.
This isn’t a bad thing at all. However, it just proves that Rockstar can use the same formula and make an even more an insanely great game the second time around. The reason God of War won is because of this same fact.
God of War completely reinvented itself in every way, from core mechanics to Kratos himself. The game was not at all like the ones before it.
Kratos wasn’t a rage monster with a singular goal. He was a man trying to learn how to be a good father to a son. You could see a man in the eyes of this Kratos and not the monster I remember from God of War 3.
God of War gameplay wasn’t even the same because it opted from using the usual smash square and then triangle a bunch of times to kill what’s in your way to a friendlier Dark Souls style of combat, just not as difficult.
God of War’s reinvention turned a game series that was all about blood (and more blood) and that had, quite honestly, an unlikeable protagonist into a game that still has a ton of blood but slow things down to explain that life is more than just having awesome power and no responsibly. You get to see Kratos show his son to better than he was. It also made Kratos into someone I cared for and that made him one of my favorite video game characters.
Due to these simple facts, God of War deserved the game of the year award.
Currently playing: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
