The setup is Journey-like in its visual nature – someonee saw the peak in the distance and knew he’d get there eventually – but as similar stories, the path is never a straight or easy one. A number of obstacles, both natural and god-made, extend the adventure to around 25 hours’ worth of terrifying threats, beginning with the first major encounter in the opening hours.
If you’ve played the previous games in the series – seven of them, counting two PSP games and one mobile game – you know that Kratos lived a long life of loss, triumph, and plenty of god-killing in ancient Greece.
While that history certainly informs who he is now, the character we encounter here has started a new chapter, having found love, a family, and a full bushy beard in this world of Norse mythology. But he is still a stranger to this place, and is forced to rely on the son he barely connects with to decipher its languages and guide him when the swing of an axe or the imprint of his boot on an undead foe won’t do the trick.