“God of War” for PC in the test: The best PS5 advertisement

Boy, boy, what’s going on here? Mother dead, child intimidated, father super strict and within the first half an hour some tattooed guy with shining eyes disturbs the peace of the house and causes the decimated family to flee. Welcome to “God of War”, actually the fourth part of a game series. And the first that Sony brought out for a platform other than its own Playstation. The test reveals how well this worked and why gaming is really worthwhile despite the initial confusion.

You have to digest that first. Because I haven’t bought a Playstation since 2005, I’m going into the game as a virgin. And at the beginning I have a lot of questions. Why is the main character with the bright red tattoos constantly very angry and vent his anger on opponents with half superpowers? And why does he sometimes behave so strangely? Kratos, who is that anyway?

In fact, much is left unsaid at the beginning of the game. That makes it a little more complicated at the beginning to find yourself in the role of the grieving, sullen father. The first conversations with other characters that explicitly refer to Kratos’ past only give an idea of ​​what might have happened and who the main character actually is. A picture of the protagonist emerges for PC gamers: inside only over time, while console gamers: inside already know how the rabbit, sorry, Kratos is going. And rather ask yourself what your hero, who actually lives in distant Greece, is suddenly up to in the Scandinavian forest. The initial ignorance does not harm the game in any way, it only changes the experience – but the laborious start is worth it.

First start slaughtering

Games that tell an exciting story and depict characters in a believable way remain the exception. For the inexperienced PC gamer, it’s a gripping story from the first minute about a grumpy and strict father named Kratos and his son Atreu. After their mother’s death, both set out to scatter their ashes on the top of the highest mountain. You quickly notice that the relationship between the two is not without its problems. The believable development of their father-son relationship in a decidedly hostile world forms the strong plot for an epic adventure. The fights are just as exciting as the characters that Kratos and his Filius encounter, the action is beyond reproach. “God of War” for the PC is therefore also recommended without previous knowledge, but a summary at the beginning would have helped newcomers to acquire a minimum of previous knowledge in order to facilitate immersion.

If you ignore the initial ignorance about the universe, the game starts with never-ending action. The sometimes exaggerated depiction of violence, especially with the so-called finishers, i.e. the optically explicit killing of the opponent, is anything but youth-free. But they quickly give adult gamers an idea of ​​what kind of warrior Kratos is – regardless of his résumé. And yes, it’s a lot of fun. The PC version of “God of War” is worthwhile for another reason.

Technology that excites

The dispute between console gamers and PC gamers has been raging for decades. But that’s not the point at this point. Nevertheless, it is clear that Sony can let off steam with effects and graphic details on the PC, depending on the hardware of the player. “God of War” for the PC comes with a surprising number of features that are not available on the console. For example, support for ultra-widescreen monitors and the 21: 9 aspect ratio, native resolution in 4K and theoretically unlimited frames per second. As a result, the game not only runs more smoothly, but also looks a lot sharper.

For owners of the latest generation of Nvidia graphics cards, there is also support for “Deep Learning Super-Sampling” (“DLSS”) and Nvidia Reflex. Both should ensure a flawless display and minimal delay in display and input. For users of an AMD graphics card, the game has the option of activating “FidelityFX Super Resolution” (“FSR”), which essentially takes on similar tasks.

“God of War” for the PC does not seem like a hasty implementation for a third-party platform, but like a well thought-out and mature game for the computer.

Hardware requirements

Unlike consoles, there are of course minimum requirements for the PC version to run the game at all, as well as a recommendation for full graphics enjoyment. The following graphic shows what the manufacturer recommends.

Minimum requirements “God of War”: This is what your PC needs

In the test, “God of War” ran smoothly with all details on an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X, 32 gigabytes of RAM and an Nvidia RTX 3080 in UWQHD, i.e. a resolution of 3440 x 1440 pixels, with around 115 FPS even in hectic scenes. And let it be said, the game looks fantastic!

The ability to control the game yourself is also exciting. Of course, the game supports all kinds of controllers, but if you like, you can also control the god of war with your mouse and keyboard – with the desired key assignment. “God of War” not only adapts to the hardware, but also to the player. A freedom that doesn’t exist on the console.

But why now Playstation advertising?

With “God of War”, Sony is now bringing the second top seller to the PC after “Horizon: Zero Dawn”. There is of course an ice-cold calculation behind this, because this year will follow for owners of a Playstation 4 or 5 with “God of War: Ragnarok“The long-awaited successor. The release of the old game for the PC can definitely be understood as a promo for the series and is probably also intended to boost sales of the consoles, if you can get one. Incidentally, Sony earns with a recommended retail price of 49, 99 euros again a decent amount with a game that is essentially four years old.

Conclusion: “God of War” is so good for the PC

In itself, “God of War” is and remains a great game. Even if PC gamers are thrown ice-cold into a completely unknown universe and maybe at first have no idea what is hidden behind the grim face of Kratos, the title stands for itself. The graphics are absolute feast for the eyes, the technology works and the action is engaging. It is unfortunate that not all of the titles in the saga made it to the PC – because the ingredients that “God of War” brings as a game and as a story are now a rare commodity. So it gets complicated one last time as a PC gamer falls in love with the world and wants more: Because “God of War” is a top advertisement for the series of games on the Playstation. And Sony will probably not open the successor “Ragnarök” – like this title – to other platforms for a long time.

God of War (PC)

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