I'm going to cut off your head now.

God of War (2018) is a triumph of modern game design, while remaining faithful to its decade-old tenets. It's a lively and rip-roaring adventure, while also telling a somber and sometimes touching story. It fills a huge, beautiful world with a wealth of compelling content. And it lets you beat the absolute shit out of Norse gods.

Considering the series is best known for grisly, rage-fueled deicide, it may be hard to believe that this installment features heartfelt narrative moments. But it does! This isn't just another mythological revenge tale, nor is the father-and-son dynamic merely an excuse for a companion character. God of War crafts a truly impactful story, largely on the back of real, believable character interactions and complexities.

Old man Kratos has layers.

The game's introduction clearly establishes a core conflict: the gruff, hardened, and world-weary Kratos has suddenly become a single father -- and has a tough time relating to the naive young Atreus, who's clearly more into "book learning" than physical combat. Kratos wants his boy to grow strong and self-reliant, and tries to teach Atreus hard lessons about the bleak, unforgiving nature of the outside world. And though Atreus wants to make his father proud, he struggles to get any positive responses out of him.

Kratos hopes that his son won't repeat his same mistakes, that Atreus will become a better man than himself. But violence is all that he knows; and he's afraid of doing it wrong, of failing his son in the same way that he feels Zeus failed him.

Ironically, given Kratos's story arc, his struggle in this game is much more human than any of his previous labors. Watching both Kratos and Atreus mature as men, throughout the course of their journey, really made me feel some things.

But the genius of God of War's storytelling is that it's more than just that. Emotional moments are punctuated, and tempered, by light-hearted comic relief; jokesters Brok, Sindri, and Mimir all jumped quickly up my list of memorable video game characters. (Mimir's "what really happened" stories about Odin and Thor are easily some of my favorite moments from any game.)

And, building on one of the stronger points of the first God of War, this one really delivers on the epic feeling of coming face-to-face with mythological entities and artifacts. I mean, you meet the world serpent pretty early on, and it only gets more awe-inspiring in the dozens of hours that follow.

Meanwhile, the fact that Kratos isn't from 'round here is a convenient excuse for other characters to teach him - and thus teach you, the player - about the nine realms, the history of the Vanir, and so on. And it's kinda adorable seeing Atreus beam at the chance to explain to his father what runes mean.

So while all of this exposition is going on, what is the "game" actually about? Well, it's roughly the same stuff that Kratos has done before - exploration, puzzles, and murderin' - but in more pleasant proportions, and to more impressive effect.

The exploration part is my favorite. Not only is the game's Midgard gorgeously realized and breathtaking to behold, but a significant chunk of the game is open-world -- or at least feels like it. After talking to Jormungandr, the Lake of Nine opens up a whole bunch of side-quests, for shoring up your armor and weapons. There's an impressive quantity of content, albeit far from an "Ubisoft Game" amount; rather, almost all of God of War's optional objectives feel worth doing, for the sake of seeing more of its world.

The opneness isn't quite perfect, though. A fast-travel mechanism doesn't open up until fairly late in the game, and Metroidvania-style obstacles make some objectives hard to track; it's unclear if you've been to a place before, but didn't have the upgrade necessary to fully explore it. And though most of the side-quests were a pleasure to experience, some of the end-game ones feel like a grind. (I have no interest in that Niflheim garbage.)

Nevertheless, just boating around the lake and looking for self-directed stuff to do is a joy, as well as a great way to wind down inbetween tense story segments.

The puzzling is pretty good, too. I don't remember puzzles featuring so prominently in the first God of War, but they're prolific, here. It's amazing how much mileage they got out of mechanics based around "throw an axe at this thing" -- sincerely, the breadth of puzzle types is much bigger than I would have expected.

The combat is okay. I mean, it's fun, but I'm glad that there wasn't too much of it. What I remember from bouncing off of God of War II was the amount of combat feeling repetitive, dulling its own dramatic effect; the 2018 formula really benefits from a "less is more" approach.

Fighting can still feel a little simplistic, as opposed to a game like Horizon Zero Dawn which asks you to target weak points and manage elemental vulnerabilities. Tactically, God of War doesn't go much further than knowing when to dodge versus when to attack. But it's fun, and swinging a big axe around feels especially visceral and satisfying.

Progression in God of War is a little weird, and not quite like any other game I've played, but it mostly works. There are "levels," and there are experience points, but these two things aren't related -- XP is used to unlock combat abilities, while your level is determined by the power of your equipment. And that equipment is crafted, and upgraded, using raw materials you find throughout the journey.

Higher-level equipment will give greater bonuses to individual stats, like Strength and Defense; and better stats will increase your overall level rating. Hence, Kratos's level is effectively an abstraction of your overall combat power. It's a loose connection, but the character level nevertheless serves as a good gauge of your combat odds. I.e. if you're level 4 and an enemy is level 7 then you're probably about to die.

The dark side of this sytem is that the long-term consequences of your crafting options aren't clearly telegraphed, and are tough to compare. Several times throughout the game, as new equipment recipes become available, you must choose what to invest in: buy some new equipment, given that its initial strength may be less than your current, upgraded equipment? Or continue upgrading your existing equipment, given that it may hit a cap on its strength more quickly?

Not to mention, since some resources exist in limited quantity - e.g. there are only three Dragon Tears in the game - there are some equipment choices that are mutually exclusive. Which just seems unnecessarily obtuse. I'd have preferred less opportunities to pick the "wrong" equipment, and more emphasis on linear upgrades.

So I hope that they work a little bit on that system for the sequel. ... I know there'll be a sequel, because the ending is little more than a teaser for it. (Hopefully the next game has some more closure in its own ending, too.)

But, yeah. After this, I definitely want to see more of Kratos and Atreus's journey.

Better than: Middle-earth: Shadow of War, the original God of War
Not as good as: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Hard to call either way versus: Horizon Zero Dawn or Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

Progress: Finished on normal/balanced, defeated 6 valkyries.