You go in expecting another classic but come out with mixed feelings about PlayStation’s boldest experiment in God of War: Sons of Sparta.
When you first sit down with God of War: Sons of Sparta, you probably expect something familiar. You expect power, intensity, emotional weight, and that signature PlayStation polish. You expect to be pulled in immediately, just like so many other big releases in the franchise’s history. But as you spend more time with it, you realize something feels different. Not necessarily bad, but different in a way that keeps you unsure about how you really feel.
Right from the start, you notice that this is not a game you instantly fall in love with. Usually, when you play through new releases, you tend to connect with most of them. Some become favorites. Some impress you more than expected. Some fall short. This one lands squarely in the middle. It does not blow you away, but it does not completely disappoint you either.
Looking at the wider reception, you see the same pattern. Critics hover around the low seventies. Not terrible, not amazing. Player scores on digital stores are much higher, though you know those can be misleading since you often only need to buy the game to rate it. Still, the split tells you something. People are divided.
You did not go into this blind. You followed the rumors. You knew about the remake. You knew about this spin-off. You were ready for it. And despite the online noise, you were firmly in the camp that believed this game deserved to exist. Watching people mock it on social media, calling it “the next big PlayStation disappointment,” felt frustrating.
You have heard people complain for years that PlayStation only makes cinematic third-person games.
The same emotional storytelling. The same dramatic structure. Titles like The Last of Us, God of War, Horizon, and Spider-Man often share a similar tone and presentation. Then a game like this comes along, trying something different, and suddenly people complain that it exists at all.
You believe criticism should focus on quality, not on whether experimentation is allowed. And in that sense, Sons of Sparta deserves credit for trying something new. You want more games like this. You want studios to take risks. Even when they do not fully succeed, you would rather see bold attempts than safe repetition.
One area where the game genuinely surprises you is the story. Going in, you do not expect it to lean so heavily on narrative. But it does. The relationship between Kratos and Deimos becomes the emotional core, and it works far better than you might think. Watching Kratos tell this story to Calliope adds an extra layer of intimacy. Bringing back TC Carson as Kratos’ voice feels like the right move.
The storytelling is subtle. Instead of constant cinematic cutscenes, the game uses small moments. The camera zooms in slightly. Time freezes for a second, and dialogue unfolds naturally. You feel like you are discovering the story rather than being forced to watch it. The brotherly bond is especially strong.
The acting is solid. The music and sound design are impressive. The atmosphere is consistently strong. In many ways, the audio and narrative elements feel like the best parts of the experience. If you value story, this is where the game shines the most.
Gameplay, however, is where things become complicated for Sons of Sparta. At its core, this is a Metroidvania-style game. It is competently made, and the systems do work. The mechanics function. You have exploration. Backtracking. Upgrades. Side content. Progression systems. Hidden areas. All the expected elements are present.
Still, you will struggle to stay engaged with Sons of Sparta.
From early on, you find yourself pushing through rather than being pulled forward. You keep thinking, “It should be clicking by now.” But it never fully does. After years of playing games and reviewing them, you learn to trust that instinct. When something does not feel right, forcing yourself rarely helps.
The story helps carry you for a while, but it is not enough to save the experience. Combat is decent. It improves over time. Most systems gradually get better. But improvement does not automatically equal enjoyment.
The game is also longer than you might expect. Even if you rush through it, you are looking at around ten hours. If you go for completion, that number can easily stretch past fifteen. For some players, that is a plus.
You spend a lot of time backtracking. You revisit areas constantly. You hunt for upgrades. You complete side activities just to stay strong enough to survive later encounters. The game guides you toward objectives, but often in a slow and repetitive way.
Bugs and design issues add to the frustration.
Enemies frequently get stuck on ledges. You find yourself forced to use awkward tactics just to get past simple obstacles. Dodging feels unreliable when enemies are clustered together. Sometimes you bounce between opponents and take massive damage without meaning to.
At other times, you get trapped against walls while enemies attack you endlessly. These moments feel like glitches, but they happen too often to ignore. The game’s design sometimes works against you. Instead of feeling challenged, you feel restricted.
Movement also plays a role. This God of War installment is a heavy Metroidvania. Everything feels slower, which is something you don’t associate with the series. Jumping, fighting, and platforming lack the speed and fluidity you’re used to. Compared to faster entries in the genre, this installment feels sluggish.
Exploration should feel exciting in a game like this. You should want to wander off and see what is hidden. And technically, the rewards are there. Collectibles and new abilities are there, but despite that, the motivation feels weak. You rarely feel excited to search. You do it because you have to, not because you want to.
Backtracking becomes especially tedious. You often travel far from Sparta, which acts as a hub. You push deep into distant areas, only for the game to tell you repeatedly to return. Fast travel exists, but it is limited. You never quite get where you need to go quickly.
The game even discourages fast travel by placing story moments along the return paths. You are clearly meant to walk back. Sometimes this works narratively. Other times, it just feels like padding. Walking for ten to fifteen minutes, only to be told to go somewhere else again, wears you down.
Boss design is another mixed bag. Some fights are brutally difficult with little warning. Early bosses can feel overwhelming, as if the difficulty suddenly spikes out of nowhere. You eventually overcome them, but the experience is more exhausting than rewarding.
Other bosses are the opposite. Once you learn their patterns, they become trivial. In some cases, regular enemies feel harder than major encounters. This imbalance makes progression feel inconsistent. Even small enemies can be annoying. Creatures that should be easy to defeat take far too long. Some of that may come down to how you build your character, but it still affects pacing.
Despite all of Sons of Sparta’s flaws, the game does improve over time.
The story deepens, and relationships grow more interesting, especially between Deimos and Kratos. Combat becomes more engaging. Platforming gets better. You feel stronger, and that brings some enjoyment.
But even at its best, the game never fully grabs you. By the end, you understand why it sits around a seven out of ten. It is not bad. It is not great. It is competent, ambitious, and flawed. It has strong ideas but struggles with execution.
You walk away feeling conflicted. On one hand, you appreciate the effort. You respect the willingness to try something different. You want PlayStation and other studios to keep experimenting. Franchises should evolve. They should surprise you. They should step outside their comfort zones.
On the other hand, you cannot ignore your own experience. You were let down. You expected more. You hoped for something that would truly pull you in. Instead, you found yourself pushing forward out of obligation rather than excitement.
In the end, God of War: Sons of Sparta feels like a necessary experiment that did not quite stick the landing. It shows what is possible when a franchise takes risks, even if those risks do not fully pay off. You may not love it, but you can still respect what it tried to do.
