God of War is a great way to play PS4 Classic

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In 2018, Sony Santa Monica shipped God of War, a minor reboot of the fan-favorite action-adventure trilogy that replaced the Greek pantheon with Norse mythology. Featuring an emotional narrative that focuses on the relationship between the ferocious Kratos and his young son Atreus, God of War revitalizes the series without departing too much from the brutal combat systems and exciting boss fights that made the series so beloved during the PlayStation 2’s heyday.

Nearly four years later, we still consider God of War the crowning jewel of the vast PlayStation 4 library, offering an experience unlike anything else on the platform. It should come as no surprise, then, that as part of Sony’s ongoing initiative to bring the best first-party titles to new platforms, God of War is the latest release for PC.

After spending a few hours with the game’s PC port, we can happily confirm that this is an exceptional way to play one of the best PlayStation exclusives.

For starters, some housekeeping. We played the game on a PC including an MSI GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card, an Intel Core i9-9900KF processor, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD. We mainly played on a 1080p 144Hz screen but took our system downstairs into the living room to test the game on a true 4K screen.

So, what’s new in the PC version? In all honesty, very little. In terms of content, this is the same game that was launched on PS4. However, the port does come with a handful of graphical improvements, including higher resolution shadows, improved screen area reflections, and improved close-ups for Earth reality.

These new visual improvements are a welcome but largely unnoticeable addition. Shadows are softer and reflections may be crispier, but even with all options enabled, the PC port looks very much like the original game. Really, the only intrinsic visual upgrade in this PC version is the ability to play the game in true 4K resolution rather than the chessboard solution used on the PS4 Pro and PS5 versions of the game.

Unfortunately, if you were expecting this new version to offer a meaningful visual upgrade over what’s currently available on PlayStation systems, you’ll be very disappointed.

Well, we say disappointed. God of War still looks amazing as a recent release, especially when played on a 4K screen. Although it takes place in a decaying world, its environments are full of vibrant natural elements which contrast starkly with the crumbling ruins you find yourself exploring in the majority of the game. Simply: still seen.

Performance-wise, we haven’t had any issues with God of War on PC. Our setup comfortably met the game’s recommended “ultra” requirements, and any noticeable drop in frame rate during the game’s opening sections or the open-world hub area was avoided. Even with the game set to Ultra, God of War ran at 60fps when viewed at 1080p and 4K.

Gamers with access to high refresh rate monitors will be happy to hear that the game supports up to 120 frames per second right out of the box. Admittedly, we couldn’t have consistently achieved this lofty goal at high graphical settings without taking advantage of Nvidia DLSS.

Powered by a number of compatible RTX graphics cards, Nvidia DLSS uses AI upscaling to improve overall performance without sacrificing visual fidelity. Although we were able to run the game at 60fps without the help of DLSS, the feature is a lifesaver at 120fps.

God of War frame rate between 90-120 fps is turned off at Ultra settings. With DLSS turned on, and some tedious settings like one-touch shadows dropping, the game ran at 120fps smoothly with very few drops. It’s debatable whether a single-player action game requires a high frame rate or not, but we’ll admit that the game’s combat definitely looks delicious when running at that speed. Watching sticky God of War enemies scatter under the power of Kratos’ axe feels divine, even if there are noticeable visual compromises required to reach this level of performance.

In general, there is little to be noted in the game’s settings menu. The accessibility features found in the console version are also here and as expected, the game can be played with any PC compatible console in addition to a mouse and keyboard.

The mouse and keyboard controls are pretty much serviceable, but a little weird if you’re used to playing the game on a PlayStation console. Holding the left CTRL key to point your ax, for example, seems a bit clumsy. Fortunately, all keyboard controls can be reset from the game menu. Disappointingly, the gamepad controls can’t be reset, with console users forced to stick to the layout found on the PS4. It’s a minor wrench, but a shame given the flexibility of most modern PC versions in this area.

While we’re on the topic of input methods, we’ll be remiss in not highlighting how weird I felt playing the game with an Xbox One controller. Seeing a yellow “Y” symbol denoting the ability to return our ax felt borderline illegal, but admittedly a small thrill to be found in using the opponent’s pad to control the popular PlayStation mascot. We may need to get out more, but we’ll take our kicks where we can get, thank you very much.

With all this in mind, we suppose one question still remains: Should you play God of War on PC? For first-time players, we can’t recommend this port enough. God of War is a basic release, and we’re glad that one of the greatest video games of all time can now be experienced by a wider audience.

For those who have already played the game on PlayStation, the answer is a little trickier. To be honest, we have the impression that Sony has no intention of tempting existing fans to take a double dip with this port. This is the same game that you can play on PS5, and unless you want to play it in true 4K, you might be better off keeping your current copy.

To say that we still very much enjoy revisiting God of War on PC is perhaps a testament to the quality of the game itself. This is a solid port that is sure to delight and excite PC gamers in equal measure. For fans to return, it’s an even tougher sale. However, you can’t go wrong with a modern Sony Santa Monica masterpiece, no matter what platform you choose.

Are you going to play God of War PC or are you waiting for the next God of War Ragnarok instead? Are you happy with the features promoted in this port, or do you think Sony could have done more to improve the overall experience? Throw your ax in the comments section below.

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