God of War PC Review
God of War is an incredible game – a Game of the Year award winner and a top seller for PlayStation since its release in 2018. Nothing more can be said about the game that hasn’t already been said many times, both in the service of kudos to developer Sony Santa Monica and when discussing the upcoming sequel, God of War: Ragnarok. And with a PC port for God of War just around the corner, the game will open up to a wider community of players and they, too, should listen to the recommendations of the gaming world at large. God of War is a must-play regardless of platform. However, getting down to the nuts and bolts of God of War on PC, presents a small port (in terms of its overall customization) that is nevertheless impressive. God of War looks stunning on PS4 and looks even better on PS5, but the PC version is the definitive visual showpiece. It’s the best-looking and best-performing version of the game to date, and it’s sometimes surprising how much better the game’s visuals feel compared to the 2018 release. God of War puts a ton of detail into every frame, from the texture of Kratos’ beard to the design of each Norse kingdom. The PC version helps everything feel a little crisper and more alive; every sequence is a feast for the eyes. The opening menu and opening scene alone are enough to make one speechless. The PC version also runs very well and can surpass the original PlayStation version by some large margins. Only 60 FPS is required for the game, as reaction times are essential to succeed on higher difficulties and truly appreciate the combat on display. Beefier machines (or those willing to drop down a few settings sliders) can take things to 100+ FPS, upping the ante to get a smooth experience.
As next generation console owners quickly realized, a 60 FPS frame rate is a transformative experience in reaction-based gameplay and God of War on PC easily hits that benchmark. Whether users’ rigs can also push the visuals and reach their expected 60 FPS is another question, but the port offers enough customization to get there. At that point, there are some basic criteria considerations available for God of War on PC. It supports ultrawide monitors, which deserves all its props. Since God of War is presented as a single, continuous shot, the ultrawide support will likely require a lot of work to accomplish. Stretching the frame to cover more space where hidden loads or assets may have previously been “hiding” is no small task, and as we saw with Days Gone on PC, it’s worth it. From there, the PC version offers V Sync, a Frame Rate cap, as well as sliders for Film Grain and Motion Blur. However, the real gem of the port is its support for DLSS or Fidelity Super Resolution. Regardless of whether users have an NVIDIA or AMD GPU, they will see the benefit of these resolution scaling features that help maintain graphical detail without sacrificing performance. Without these features turned on in one of their presets, God of War may experience decreased performance depending on graphical settings and resolution.
In terms of graphical customization, God of War offers Texture Quality, Model Quality, Anisotropic Filter, Shadows, Reflections, Atmospherics, and Ambient Occlusion customization based on the user’s PC gaming rig. Each of the categories can start at Low/Disable and almost all of them go up to Ultra, with two steps in between. The clever thing about the presets is that almost every category has an ‘Original’ option, so the user can see how the visuals look on the PlayStation platform. And for those who want to really push the game’s visuals, Original is replaced by both High and Ultra options. Running everything in Ultra is not for every machine, depending on the resolution. Today Technology tested God of War on the Origin Neuron 4000D from the Origin PC and was able to achieve 4K resolution and 60FPS with everything set to Ultra, but with DLSS turned on (usually in Quality). Without DLSS, the game will explode at Ultra and 4k, but as mentioned there are many settings tweaks that can be made to get 60 or even 120. Dropping down to High, for example, allows for performance that closer to 100 FPS did almost the same range or switching to 1440p on Ultra.
One might think that a PS4 game ported to PC should run at 4K Ultra and hit 60 FPS without issue, but this is clearly a port that pushes the fidelity dial to new levels. Taking advantage of DLSS or FidelityFX Super Resolution is useful for allowing modern machines to boost the game beyond the detail of the original. There is no question that God of War is an exceptional game. But the magic shown with the PC port has pushed a massive game to new heights and offers some key features that will help it run smoothly on various modern machines. At this point, if players have ways to play God of War they should, and even if it’s a replay of the PC version it’s still worth checking out. God of War will be released for PC on January 14, 2022. Today Technology was provided with a code for this review. Today Technology reviews God of War on the Neuron 4000D from Origin PC. Origin offers a variety of customizable PCs that can meet any gamers’ needs. Read more about Neuron here.