I like God of War Game. God of War has always been a narrative-driven franchise, but each of its first six games had a very summer blockbuster pulp quality to them. They were excellent for what they were, but fell apart under closer scrutiny. God of War came along and completely changed that.
It transported Kratos to a new setting, where everything was different and mysterious- where previous God of War titles had been all about bombastic pomp and flash, God of War (2018) was understated and gradually paced. It built its characters honestly and maturely, it developed relationships properly, and it did it all in the backdrop of a larger, grander tale that is dripping with potential. Most of all, it did all of that while respecting past events, where many other franchises would have chosen to take the easy way out and just start fresh.
About midway through God of War, Kratos and his son Atreus sit in a canoe in the middle of a lake, listening intently to a disembodied head recount the tawdry and tragic dramas of the Norse gods. The head dishes with the gusto of a gossip columnist and the smoothness of a public radio host. Kratos and son show the orator respect, only interrupting with the occasional question for clarification. That this serene moment doesn’t ring false, let alone veer into tedium, speaks to the tremendous heavy lifting done by the creators of God of War to shift the tone, the style and the expectations of one of the most beloved but also most violent and debaucherous franchises in modern games.
Last we saw Kratos, he still enjoyed getting hammered on a bottle of red, participating in a well-lit orgy and slaying Greek gods in ways that a teenager might storyboard onto the back of a ruled notebook. He and his franchise thrived on adrenaline, any inner turmoil serving as a springboard for ultraviolence, rather than an emotional well to be drawn from. Times change, and the new God of War, part sequel (the story continues from where it left off) and part reboot (the adventure is slower and the characterization more thoughtful), has more heroic ambitions for the notorious antihero.
You can’t help but marvel at the masterful way in which Red Dead Redemption 2 sets up its story, progresses it, escalates it, and then brings it to a close. Rockstar’s magnum opus has a stunning clarity of vision, and it is a vision that the game never wavers from- everything is in service to the story and the rich, dense world it takes place in, and if the game has to sacrifice even something that would otherwise be very crucial for the benefit of that story, so be it. Red Dead Redemption 2 is very deliberately placed- some might call it slow, and while they wouldn’t be entirely wrong, seeing the game take its sweet time with everything ultimately pays off in spades. Watching the fabric of the van der Linde gang crumble is an intoxicating experience, one that is enriched infinitely by the complex nature of Arthur Morgan, one of the greatest video game protagonists ever. It’s a story that respects itself unabashedly, and knows that a culmination of everything only ever feels like a proper payoff if everything that precedes it was done with honesty and maturity. That is the kind of story one cannot help but respect.