Playing God of War at the Highest Difficulty

My brother has been playing the God of War on PS4 to prepare for the new release of the franchise, but he chose the hardest difficulty named “Give me the God of War”. It is an aptly named difficulty level, as it’s complete madness!

I love games with a good storyline and God of War is amazing in that sense. I finished it a few years ago on normal difficulty and enjoyed it thoroughly. It has enough puzzles and challenges to keep you entertained too. Multi-opponent battles are fun, but sometimes I felt like in most games the AI was holding back a bit. The opponents were coming in turns, rather than in a fighting frenzy. It always bothered me with most games.

Now that how it is in my brother’s game, I can safely say: What a fucking madness it is! Opponents try to circle him, try to get behind him, push his back to the wall, time their attacks to aim for his block coming down, and pile on him relentlessly! With the high HP of the opponents and the delayed development of Kratos’ strength, it’s very challenging!

Being timely and tactical is not enough. Sometimes you play the same fight and die dozens of times to pick up the rhythm. Then, it’s still not enough. You have to be perfect in your style: Parry exactly when needed, dodge exactly when needed, and pull punches exactly when needed. You need to play like AI itself and stop being frustrated. It requires a mountain of patience and time. The game tests you.

For me, it’s not fun to play it at this level. I enjoy the story and the frenzy, not doing it the best way possible. I’m playing the games for the fun of them, to take me to another realm and away from my troubles. Not to be frustrated hundred times over.

But if you enjoy it, there are quite a few videos on YouTube that show how it is on the hardest mode. One of them is below, but beware of spoilers!