God of War 4 is an upcoming third-person action-adventure video game in development by Santa Monica Studio and to be published by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE). It is scheduled to be released on April 20, 2018 for the PlayStation 4 (PS4) console. It will be the eighth installment in the God of War series, the eighth chronologically, and the sequel to 2010's God of War III. The story is a new direction for the series, as it will be loosely based on Norse mythology—all previous games were based on Greek mythology.
Series protagonist Kratos returns as the main character, and he now has a son named Atreus. Kratos acts as a mentor and protector to his son, and has to master the rage that has driven him for many years. Described as a "re imagining" for the franchise, the gameplay has been completely rebuilt, with one major change being that Kratos no longer uses his signature double-chained blades, instead using a magical battle axe called the Leviathan Axe. Another notable change is the camera; the game uses an over-the-shoulder free camera as opposed to the fixed cinematic camera seen in the previous entries. There will also be elements similar to role playing games and Kratos' son Atreus can provide assistance during gameplay. A short text-based game called God of War: A Call from the Wilds was released on February 1, 2018 through Facebook Messenger, and follows Atreus on his first adventure into the Norse wilds.
God of War received critical acclaim, being praised for its combat, visuals, world design, story, and characters. Receiving a 95/100 from review aggregator Metacritic, it is the highest-scoring game in the franchise. It has the second highest score of all time for a PlayStation 4 game (tied with The Last of Us Remastered), and the highest score for an original, non-remastered PlayStation 4 game. It is also the highest rated PlayStation 4 game of 2018, and is the highest rated game of 2018, regardless of platform.
