Starting this review was the weirdest one I have done in my career, because I kept sitting here, at my desk, thinking: “God of War on PC is its best version of itself”. I never thought I would even get to say that God of War is on PC, but that this is also the best way to enjoy it? Truly wild. With that said, I have something to say.



Firstly, I won't be reviewing the story, narrative, or anything to that extent, as you can catch up on the initial review back in 2018 - the story is the same, there are no new content additions, and for the most part, this is truly just a PC port of the PlayStation Hit.

However, I do want to mention how incredibly God of War has held up since its release, not just in terms of its aesthetics or gameplay, but its narrative has lost absolutely none of its potency and charm. Atreus still sends you on an emotional rollercoaster, whereby one moment you get lost in the loss of innocence he experiences, while still navigating all the new experiences in the world, and the struggle with his identity. Other times, and sometimes it feels almost instant, you’re left fuming with his arrogance, disappointed in his actions (the scene with Sindri comes to mind - no spoilers but if you know, you know), and downright irritated with his general presence and constant whining.



We know that Kratos is not exactly father of the year, but watching his struggle from trying to balance being a father and a warrior, not knowing when to be gentle to comfort Atreus and when to be harsh still packs that gut-wrenching blow. Moreover, Kratos is still dealing with the issues of his father, and his inability to process those feelings to be better to Atreus is a fear that almost every single prospective parent has - not replicating the mistakes of their parents. God of War is still one of the most emotional experiences you could encounter, and it’s a story that is as old as time, but yet it still feels unique to these characters.

God of War is still one of the most emotional experiences you could encounter.

God of War on PC was an absolute masterpiece to play, with the enhanced graphics, NVIDIA DLSS support, as well as customisable controls for mouse and keyboard, DualShock 4, DualSense, and even an Xbox controller really elevating the experience. God of War was a pretty stunning game when it launched on the base PS4 and PS4 Pro, but the PC version really felt like a whole new environment. A lot of this was thanks to the dynamic and nuanced lighting that NVIDIA’s ray-tracing and DLSS offer. Almost every area was illuminated differently, giving it more space and depth, which made the areas feel bigger or smaller, especially when moving from a tight tunnel or corner, to a large room or area - and vice versa.



The differences in lighting also enhanced armor, weapons, and brought in unique elements of vibrancy to certain scenes - particularly when meeting Freya in her garden, interacting with the world tree table, as well as first venturing into Svartalfheim. Another element that was truly brought to life were the lore cupboards scattered around the world; blues were richer, yellows were brighter, and reds were deeper - it was truly like I had never found them before.

We did experience God of War when it launched on the PS4 (I played it on the PS4 Pro), and then when the PS5 released, I decided to finally break into my New Game+ playthrough. However, even having experienced it on the best possible platforms at the time, the PC version still beats them both and it's mainly down to two things: latency and frame rate.



PCMR often gets meme'd for its insistence on 60fps in games, and are often called “elite” when they admit they won't play a game without 60fps support. God of War accurately demonstrates just how a high frame rate and lower latency can elevate a game tenfold - and this is not to disrespect PlayStation or consoles in any way, the fact that they are able to do what they can do at the price point is impressive.

We were able to achieve 90+ frame rate on Ultra settings, and it was truly a whole new experience.

We are fortunate to have a fairly high-end system to test this on, including an Nvidia RTX 2080ti, AMD Ryzen 5800, and an ultra-fast NVME, so we were able to achieve 90+ frame rate on Ultra settings, and it was truly a whole new experience. More than just the enhanced graphical fidelity, the PC port offered lowered latency input, helped even more by NVIDIA Reflex, meaning combat felt faster and more fluid. Traversal, especially over water, also got a bump in fluidity (pun intended), which just made the overall experience much more enjoyable.



God of War also offers full controller support for DualShock 4, DualSense, and Xbox controllers, as well as most gamepads - which is also thanks to the native controller support by Steam. I ended up moving back to the controller after playing for some time on the keyboard and mouse, purely because God of War feels so much better on the controller, since its original design meant that it had to. Thankfully, due to Steam supporting DualSense, I could play using my PS5 controller because seeing Xbox controls during a God of War sequence was just way too strange - playing it on PC is shock enough, but there is only so much a mortal man can take.

I ended up moving back to the controller after playing for some time on the keyboard and mouse, purely because God of War feels so much better on the controller.

The only real gripe with this port is that because the game feels way more natural on a controller, those only using keyboard and mouse might not feel the fluidity that I have spoken about. However, this is purely down to the fact that the game was originally designed for console, and wasn't a result of poor porting on the developers side. In fact, playing on a keyboard and mouse was perfectly doable, and felt quite natural, which is often not the case on a game ported from a console.



Overall, God of War on PC is the best way you can experience Boy Simulator, taking the already magnificent console release, and evolving it beyond its masterpiece status. It is brighter, more vibrant, and smoother in both combat and traversal. If you have a spare controller, I would definitely recommend using it, otherwise, the keyboard and mouse experience will still delight you. Either way, if you are still looking to play God of War (or even if you have), then not playing this version will only be a disservice to you.

PC Review code provided by PlayStation