I just beat the 2018 God of War and it is amazing. I only played the first game back in 2005 and a bit of the second game, but I know the basic plot of the original trilogy. Kratos as a character never really appealed to me and the plot is a fanfiction of Greek mythology but was fine. The draw of the games was combat, which was very fun and I preferred it to another series being released at the time, Devil May Cry.

I heard rave reviews about the new God of War and was very pleasantly surprised to see how much it deserves the accolades. I've stated many times much of my love is in the environments, and it fulfills much of my itche. It's very visually attractive, and the different realms all have a completely different feel that you can appreciate. I particularly loved walked around the central chamber with Yggdrasil, staring at the different etchings on the walls depicting the realms. (Did you know Midgard was missing from there, and the door you walk through I believe is Vanaheim?)

As I said I didn't play III so I can't attest to how gameplay developed, but combat is greatly surperior and very fun. I'm a barely-competent gamer but it was still great trying out all the different moves, and I screamed in delight once the blades of chaos were reintroduced. The studio kept puzzles as well so it didn't become a monotonous blur, and there were involved world-building sidequests with rewarding prizes.

But the real treat is Kratos and Artreus. You don't have to play the original trilogy for this, but I don't think you can fully appreciate Kratos without doing so. As I stated before, I didn't particularly care for him because he was really one-dimensional and his type of hyper-masculine personality didn't click with me. Here you can see how he runs up against a wall when dealing with his son. He is a person of his time with a terrible, daunting past, so he remains the laconic man's man, but he has to change in order to raise Atreus well and not lose him. Their interactions, as well as with Brok, Sindri, and Mimir, were a true and complete delight. The only weird part was Artreus' personality turn around upon discovering his heritage, but otherwise the flow of conversation and growth for the two of them makes this game totally worth playing. Five stars, 100% recommend.