Marvel's Spider Man PS4 Review

Marvel's Spider Man is a action-adventure game only for PS4, which was developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It is based on the Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man inspired by the long-running comic book mythology and adaptations in other media.

In my younger days where the stuff like comic books, TV stations and other types of media had introduced me a superhero related franchises that caught my attention as a kid back then.
Marvel Comics is one of the American comic books brand was founded in late 30's by Martin Goodman, while sharing with the well-known key people like Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and Stan Lee was responsible behind the successful superheroes like Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Fantastic Four, Captain America, and of course your friendly-neighbourhood Spider Man that everyone had talked about which is the reason why it got so popular back from 60's to nowadays.

Spider Man is a main poster boy of whole Marvel Comics was well known for his web-slinging action such as saving the people lives from broken buildings, chasing after the thugs, fighting against supervillains, and so many responsibilities that made him becoming the most recognisable superheroes of all-time.
The success of Spider Man comic book series had spawned with many film adaption, TV series, Toys figures and merchandises, and of course the video game series.

I grew up watching many of animated and film series relating to Marvel's franchises especially with both Spider Man's 1967's and 1994's animated series, and Sam Raimi's Spider Man film trilogy which is the reason why I liked the character as a whole that is quite amazing in my opinion.
I remember playing the games for my Gamecube based on Sam Raimi's film trilogy films such as Spider Man (2002) which is a decent web-slinging title, while the Spider Man 2 (2004) was heavily improved over the previous original being regarded as one of the best game in the series, until I just find out there is a recent Spider Man game just came out exclusively for PS4 in 2018 which many gaming press labelled the game as not just being the one of the highest-rated Spider Man game, but also fastest selling superheroes games of all-time which many had argued it's miles better than the previous entry of Spider Man games.

It's been for 16 years since I've played two of the Spider Man games on Gamecube, so I decided to pick up a copy of Marvel's Spider Man for PS4 which I've bought it out from Ebay for £12 thanks to Playstation's Day of Plays sales as I was expecting the game itself to be just as amazing depending on how many the numerous of quests, tasks, collectables, and many activities you have completed throughout the game and how is the story went on whole game had turned out to be, so the answer is yes I have enjoyed the new Spider Man game thanks to spectacular storylines, memorable cast of heroes and villains, large open-world area to explore, amazing fighting mechanics, and tons of replay values is what made the game amazingly fun to play.
Marvel's Spider Man on PS4 is definitely a better superheroes titles for Playstation consoles which I didn't expect the game was created by a team behind Ratchet and Clank and Resistance series which are also a great video game franchises, but I got to say this game is the one of the Insomniac Games's strongest title that bought out so many things to offer that they put up many efforts on their project turned out to be very successful at the release.
         
So without go further do, lets start the review.



Presentation

The game focusing on the event of criminal attack that takes place in New York City was responsible by the crime lord named Mister Negative who threatens to release a deadly virus as well as plotting to seize control of New York City's criminal underworld, so it is up to Spider Man to confront Mister Negative as well as protecting the city while dealing with the personal problems of his civilian persona as Peter Parker.

The story in the game is quite straightforward to follow the plot as a whole. You have Peter Parker, which we already know he's Spider Man in entire entry, had troubled with his many personal responsibilities such as working with respected scientist Dr. Otto Octivius in Octivius Industries, assisted with his ex-girlfriend Mary Jane Watson who works with Daily Bugle as reporter, and supporting his Aunt named May who volunteers at the F.E.A.S.T homeless shelter run by philanthropist named Martin Li which is the reason he struggles to balance his superhero and personal lives.
His mission brings him into conflict with several supervillains such as longtime foes Kingpin and superpowered gang Inner Demons run by Mister Negative who begin dividing the city as well as corrupting innocent people in the city.
It makes the story quite interesting when the person had to make two decisions whether is to protect the city as a superhero or helping out with the supporters as a normal guy which I really liked how the entire plot went well in the game.

I got to say most of the characters in the game is actually great. I really liked this version of Peter Parker in the game has cooler personality during the conversation between the characters, as he had a brighter look on his face that made him quite friendly with supportive characters.
I also liked him as a Spider Man sharing with his awesome humor and being energised superhero who spent most time to save a lot of people in the city which delivers his enthusiasm well in the whole game that made the character quite recognisable.
Then you have other character in the game such as Miles Morales which also delivers his interesting event that has happened in the game, so you may know him from the animated film such as Spider Man: Into the Spider Verse which is cool to have him being included in the game.
Then you have Sliver Sable who is the leader of private military company Sable International being hired by New York Mayor named Norman Osborn to stop Mister Negative and his terrorist group known as Inner Demons.
I got to say the game had a tons of villains on each acts such as the big fat bold head Kingpin, sparkling Electro, big boulder dude Rhino, the green stinger Scorpion, the flying Vulture, the wave blasting Shocker, skilled hand-to-hand combatant Taskmaster, the obnoxious wannabes Screwball, and the freakshow Tombstone in which I am so impressed to see any of the games that has large cast of villains.
I also wanted to give credit to two of the best villains in the game are Mister Negative who has ability to use his mind control power and healing touch which I think this character is actually pretty good in the game, while Dr. Octopus is by far one of the greatest villain of whole Spider Man universe that totally steals the show.
He's one of the character that taking revenge on New York Mayor's lies that he fully despised him which is the reason why his performance is quite chaotic due to his mechanical arms that affected his personal behaviour.

The presentation in the game is fully well done for its overall city environment. It has 6 to 9 districts such as Harlem, Upper West Side, Central Park, Upper East Side, Hell's Kitchen, Midtown, Greenwitch, Financial District, and Chinatown.
It has tour attractions and landmarks such as Avengers Tower, the Wakandan Embassy, the Sanctum Sanctorum, the law offices of Nelson and Murdock, Alias Investigations, the superhero cleanup company Damage Control, the Roxxon Energy Corporation, and Empire State University, as well as real-world locations such as the Empire State Building, Freedom Tower, Madison Square Garden, and Chrysler Building which I find these locations pretty interesting to explore throughout the game giving a nice view of whole city centre of New York.


Overall, it has terrific story, great cast of characters, and impressive presentation design.



Gameplay

The game contains 3 acts with 44 missions including story and sides quests, and citywide activities included in the single player campaign, so you take control of Spider Man in the open-world area where you need to complete all the objectives that was marked on the map screen.

Spider Man has ability to swing through the city buildings by holding the right trigger button, but letting it go will stop you swing. Your swinging speed will able to travel faster depending on your altitude, so you can also tap the X button to zip forward to build up your speed, but it also can lose momentum when swinging.
You can shoot a web at certain ledges by holding left trigger to swing up across building faster which is useful for most of the stealth missions.
Spider Man can also climb walls by pushing left thumbstick next to the building wall, so you can lower yourself down by holding left trigger while on top of the ceiling, and you can run across the wall or building quicker by holding the right trigger for sprinting.
For fighting mechanics, you will start off with basics attack by tapping square button few time to perform combos which your combo system points will be added on your hit score.
You can perform air combo by holding square button will launch enemies into the air, while continuing to attack them while in the air.
You can evade the enemy's projectiles by pressing the circle button to dodge when your Spider sense appears on Spider Man's head, but doing a perfect timing will make you perform a perfect dodging causing Spider Man to hit enemy with web.
You can throw objects at the enemies by pressing both shoulder buttons together causing Spider Man to toss items at enemies.
Spider Man can shoot webs by tapping right shoulder button to tied up your enemies, as well as using the web gadget attack can be pressed with triangle buttons such as impact web that causing enemies to launch towards walls, electric web stuns the enemies, web bomb to stick more than 3 or 4 enemies, spider drone to shoot laser, trip mine that ties enemies together, suspension matrix that makes enemies float up high, and concussive blast that pushes enemies backwards.                     
Spider Man can perform a variety of moves such as web swing that swings enemies in circle, swing kick that drop kicks enemies while swinging, yanking enemy's gun to disarm their weapon, throwing rockets at enemy, long range strike that leaps towards them, and many moves which can be shown on move lists at the pause menu.
To keep you mind that each of the skill trees may require skill points to unlock by completing quest will reward you with skill points depending on your level XP system, as well as gadgets may require tokens which you will need to complete the citywide activities to gain tokens to unlock your mods.
Leveling up your character will improve upon your fighting skills the more you become a experienced fighter which really helps your fighting gameplay style for most quests.

I got to say I really liked the size of the open-world maps giving more variation of exploration and discovering where you can able to greet the people in the city centre, going up to rooftops and towers for beautiful landscape view, swim around the sea for fun, and taking selfies on photo mode where you can edit your own personalised photographs which I finding it cool.
There are several of citywide activities that keeps you very busy with the game such as collecting souvenirs from bagpack, taking a photo of building attraction, chasing down pigeons, helping Harry's favour through research stations, capturing enemy bases in many waves of enemies to fight, locating Black Cat's figurines, and completing a task challenges such as chasing drone, disarming bombs, taking down enemies without being caught in stealth, and fighting with the enemies in combat battle which rewards you with tokens so you can able to spend and unlock your mods for gadgets and suits.
I got to say I really enjoyed several of the activities that I can spend time having fun to swing around the city to find objects and completing a certain of the tasks which really adds my experience that feels very rewarding in the game.
While I really enjoyed all the challenge activity tasks, the issue I have problem is that it is ridiculously difficult to achieve gold award for some tasks, so I did manage to get both bronze and silver to gain few tokens, but I was aiming to get even more tokens which took me 20 to 30 times retries to get a gold award to gain 3 more tokens depending on how faster can you beat in time limit or gained a higher score as possible which I finding it quite frustrated that made me skip the task for not being able to achieve gold award doesn't mean it ruining the whole challenge mini game.

There are several of story and side mission that are pretty solid like battling against supervillains, doing stealth investigation, hacking the security modules around the building, fighting with Mister Negative and his Inner Demon gangs inside the train station, activating all surveillance towers, finding missing student, taking down snipers, solving puzzle mini game from Octivius Industries, and there's plenty of all missions that are actually fun to play.
Aside with Spider Man, you get to play as two of the supportive characters like Mary Jane Watson that are heavily focused on investigation like sneaking into somebody's office room in art museum and examine the hidden top secrets in Oscorp building, while Miles Morales are more likely focused on stealth where you need to sneak to next area without getting caught by guards in action, so best to keep an eye on enemy's indicator during the stealth mission. 

The character's controls feels very fluid for its web swinging through city building and being able to climb and running up walls which I had no issue with the responsiveness.
The actual gameplay itself is played absolutely amazing for its combat system thanks to skill tree upgrades, web gadgets, and engaging fighting techniques feels very responsive and playable for most part and I got to say the quick time event does have a best looking sequences for most of the action packed scenes where you had to press and tap the button that appears on the screen feels very engaging for most part.
Along with the amazing combat gameplay, I do find some enemies have overdone the blocking, as well as some cheap counterattack which took me about 15 to 20 seconds to finish them off that I never liked compared with killing off other enemies that takes less than the 10 seconds which is fine, so far I've managed to enjoy the game thanks to large open-world map, numerous of activities and quests, combat system, and of course the boss battles are pretty outstanding that keeps the game well entertained.


Overall, it has large open-world map, numerous of activities and quests, combat system, and boss battles.   



Graphics

The graphics is stunningly beautiful for its environmental design thanks to large open-world details and sharper textures on building surfaces which I got to say it is genuinely spectacular to see things in the game.
I really liked the draw distance, the visuals, and the animation for most levels which feels very polished for AAA games that gets everything right like you can able to see things from the landscapes, the lighting and shadowing on some areas, the weather system effects that is quite dynamic, and the structure itself is well built that made the game quite appealing.
The character's model is looking fantastic for its facial animations and motion capturing movements that looked pretty terrific on most of the cutscenes and in-game design which I got to say it is the most impressive game I've seen on the Playstation hardware.


Overall, it has beautiful environmental design, polished visuals and animation, and fantastic motion capturing system. 



Music and Sounds

I really liked the epic original soundtrack in the whole game feels very like the Marvel's films such as Marvel's Avengers and Sam Reimi's Spider Man trilogy which is the reason why its sounded heroic and fascinating at the same time during the cutscenes and in-game action.
It was composed by John Paesano, who previously worked on his score behind Gran Turismo Sport and Detroit: Become Human, did a remarkable job of making one of the most memorable soundtrack in whole game.
I also liked the sound design for most part in the game with well crafted sound effects and atmospheric noise from city centre, and then I got to say I liked the voice performance for several of casts that did absolutely a cracking job in the game.


Overall, it has epic soundtrack, well crafted sound design, and cracking casting performance.



Special Features

The game comes with extended 3 DLCs which introduced new quests and different storyline. It also has photo mode with customisable edits, collecting cool souvenirs, and unlockable suits.


Overall, it is a fantastic content.



Advantages


Terrific story and characters

Impressive presentation design

Larger open-world map

Numerous of activities and quests

Amazing combat gameplay

Beautiful graphics

Epic original score

So many content



Disadvantages


Enemy's cheap counterattack and over blocking.

Very difficult to earn gold award on challenge task.



Final Verdict


Presentation 9/10 -  terrific story, great cast of characters, and impressive presentation design.

Gameplay 9/10 - large open-world map, numerous of activities and quests, combat system, and boss battles.

Graphics 9/10 - beautiful environmental design, polished visuals and animation, and fantastic motion capturing system.

Music and Sounds 9/10 - epic soundtrack, well crafted sound design, and cracking casting performance.

Special Features 9/10 - extended 3 DLCs which introduced new quests and different storyline, photo mode with customisable edits, collecting cool souvenirs, and unlockable suits.



Overall 9/10 - Marvel's Spider Man is a groundbreaking superheroes title that is amazingly fun.
This is one of the game that got everything what we wanted from the developer teams that brings many features and content thanks to fluid combat, open-world exploration, great missions, and tons of story and characters is what makes the Marvel's Spider Man a all-time greatest game in the series since Spider Man 2 (2004).
I highly recommend all to pick up a copy for PS4 for less than from £17 to £15 of this quality superheroes games with fully completed content is worth for your time.

With great power comes great responsibility, I really liked the game.



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God of War (2018) PS4 Review

God of War (2018) is a Action-Adventure game only for PS4, which was developed by Santa Monica Studio and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It is a sequel to 2010's God of War 3 originally released for PS3, and also for PS4 as remastered version.

Back in my old days in 2011 when I finally had finished my course from my college and then on my birthday, I had finally getting my hands on with the PS3 during a summer holidays where I can spent time playing several of titles that I am looking forward to play it, but there's one of the HD collection that caught my attention was God of War Volume 1 which included both the original God of War and God of War 2 that is originally released on PS2 getting a full HD treatment including full 1080p resoulution, running on 60 FPS, and improved visuals. Then I got finally to play God of War 3 on PS3, and also the two downloadable PSP games on my PS Vita such as Chain of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta.
I got to say I really loved God of War franchise because it is one of the most acclaimed action-hack 'n' slash series had won over several of game awards and sold over 32 million games with strong sales figures led the success into many sequels, spin-offs, and other media.

In 2018, I was looking forward to get a copy of God of War (2018) for my PS4 at day one release, but unfortunately it didn't happen till I finally got it for £10 in 2020 thanks to Playstation's Days of Play sales.
I been spent playing the game through single-player campaign just over 3 hours a day which I've already find out the game took 20 to 30 hours to beat depending on quests and explorations throughout the game.
After beating the whole game, I am very happy to say that I really loved this game. It is one of my number 1 favourite PS4 game that I ever played entirely, no bullshit because it is truly a masterpiece that is definitely a most recommendation to all PS4 owners will able to experience a such powerful storylines, incredible relationship between father and son, beautifully made presentation and visuals, and total non-stop brawling adventures filled with many fantastic quests and battles that what I consider the game as the enormous piece of art that proves the single-player gaming aren't dead in modern gaming putting the companies like EA and Activision into wall of shame for relying on bad practices of microtransactions and season pass, which Sony's God of War is all about a fully completed single player action with more content included in the game that is worth adding it to your gaming collection.
                   

So without go further do, let's start the review.



Presentation

The game takes place in Norse mythology set in ancient Norway in the realm of Midgard, where as the previous game were loosely based on Greek mythology.
The story focuses on former Greek God named Kratos and his young son Atreus (aka BOY!!!) following the cremation of Faye (Kratos' second wife and Atreus' mother) who is sadly passed away.
Kratos and Atreus sets off their journey to highest peak of nine realms to fulfil her request that her ashes be spread.
Along with journey, Kratos kept his secret of troubled past from his son, who is unware of his nature, and battling against monsters and gods of the Norse world.

The story in the game is definitely what made the game so special that involves a long journey between the father and son made promise to free Faye's ashes at the place where gods rules the realms, while Kratos is avoid sharing his story to his son related to his past history that involve Greek war as a Spartan. You can really tell he is completely fed up being part of Greek God that brings him lot of his misery times which is the reason why he kept his past life private to prevent his son from becoming one, so this is what made the story so powerful that the former God himself will not make his same mistake from what he did in the past.

Kratos is one of the badasses that starting out as cruel and wicked spartan from previous game to becoming more matured warrior dealing with his past. He is one of the character making a connection with his son to getting to know each other during the journey. I really liked how Kratos calmly controls his son when Atreus had problem with his current situation that troubled him, so as you can see that he is trying to be a good father who cares his son's feeling what makes the relationship between the father and son quite important in the game.
I got to say Atreus is the BOY!!!! yes everyone, he is one of the most useful sidekick that really helps his father a lot to fight against the foes with bows and arrows, a clever with discovering the script messages, and asking the questions, but he also struggles with his cocky behaviour on some part in the story but not very much because he is still has the heart with his father for most part that made him quite special and I also liked how Kratos calls him BOY!!!! in every lines is kinda awesome.
There are some supportive characters that are also great in the game such as Freya who is a witch-doctor that helps Kratos and Atreus on their Journey. Then you will have the headless old guy named Mimir who is quite talkative in whole Journey which I finding him quite entertaining with his every humorous lines.
You have the dwarfs brothers such as Brok and Sindri, who are blacksmiths, are also quite humorous. Sindri is somewhat annoyingly class has perfectly delivered his joke and Brok is a foul-mouthed grumpy blue guy with comedic sense which I finding these brothers are sure funny bastards.                I got to say the villain such as Baldur is sure one tough asshole always like interfering Kratos's Journey putting up a very best, but most brutally battle sequence between these two are actually quite awesome to watch and play at the same time. I wasn't expecting to see the skinny ass dude is quite strong with small muscle could take on big huge guy which is ridiculously insane and he is also quite a crackhead that threaten to kill not just Kratos, but also a small child that made Baldur a memorable villain.
Then you will also have Baldur's twin nefuews such as Modi and Magni who are also targeting Kratos, but I got to say I really liked their insulting jokes on Atreus's mother that kinda really pissed off the little kid that made me laugh the lot during the battles.

The whole presentation in the game is very well done for its choice of location that took place in Norway. I really liked the old fashion Scandinavian themes of these ancients places filled with tall huge statues, abandoned palace with broken man-made pillars, old scriptures written on stones, art style drawned on walls, and etc.
Each of locations has different environmental settings that fits really well in the game such as Alfheim has Lake of Light and Freyr's Temple filled with many trees and branches as well as sea lakes, Vanaheim filled with gardens and fields, Helheim is a nightmarish places with many dead creatures, Muspelheim are firey places with volcanoes and ashes, and Midgard is one of the largest regions with huge islands to explore such as woods, towers, mountains, and temples which I got to say I really liked the overall concept that is so different from the previous games.

Overall, it has perfect storylines, awesome cast of characters, and well made style of presentation.



Gameplay

In single player campaign, you take control of Kratos, while Atreus controlled as A.I Assistant, in third-person perspective with over the shoulder angle instead of the fixed camera from the previous game, so you will have a map locations with the 17 chapters in total and large chunk of side quests to complete.

Controlling Kratos will allow him to sprint through the area, jumping across the platforms, climbing up walls and chains, lifting up and breaking heavy objects, turning switches and interacting the objects to loot items like currency and materials.
Kratos has the Leviathan Axe as the primary weapon which you can attack in horizontal and vertical, but you can also throw axe in far range which can easily freezes enemies and objects, while it magically summoned back to his hand similar to Marvel's Thor's hammer.
Kratos can also use his fist to punch and throw enemies as well as lifting heavy objects, and you will have a shield that blocks the enemy's projectiles as well as parrying to deflect their moves too.
You will obtain the later weapon at the middle of the game such as Blade of Chaos which is a twin blades originally from older God of War games that allow you to perform a fiery spinning attack which is much more quicker compared with the slow, but powerful axe.
Kratos will perform a melee finisher when the icon appears while enemy are being weakened will allow Kratos to tear them apart in gruesome way such as ripping their heart out, opening up chest, stomping their face, and so many finishing animation.
Once you filled enough orange meter bar, you will be able to activate rage mode which makes Kratos's fists much stronger allowing him to attack enemies faster in limited time.
Kratos also commands his son to shoot arrows that kills or stuns enemies depending which arrows he uses during the battle.
There are a blacksmith's shop that Brok or Sindri can help you choose your own choice of armours, runes, pommel, and weapon upgrades as well as giving you an option to sell some valuable items and materials. 
You can customise Kratos armours and slots in which you can see his list of stats that relying on health, strengths, runic, cooldown, luck, and defense. Each of chest and wrist armours including expansion slots will increase some of your stats that made him stronger, but there are some of them will decrease some stats depending what armours and slots you are using with to add on.
The Kratos weapons will have 2 slots that allow you to perform different variety of runes moves such as shockwave attack, spinning attack, charge attack, ice beam, activating power up, fiery blast of energy, and slam attack, while Atreus can summons a cast of spectral falcons, stampede, crows and elk.
Once you're beating the quest or defeating the enemies then you will be awarded with XP points that you can spend it on upgrades that improves your fighting skills such as frezzing burst, precision throw combo, returning whirlwind, grinding storm, Leviathan's fury, agile strike, countering strike, fury strike, spartan stomp, rushing chaos and so many moves that may requires the weapon upgrades from the blacksmith's shop.

Aside with the combat gameplay, the game are involved with exploration where you can able to discover the unvisited area, collecting loots such as power-ups and currency, talking with the people like Brok and Sindri for favours or question, reading on the script walls, and of course sailing with the boat.
The best part in the game is the puzzle aspects that involves opening new passage such as doors and elevators which requires 2 or 3 switches to be activated as well as evading the deadly traps like spikes, blades, flames, and any hazardous objects that gets in your way while finding way to unlock the new area in the game.
You have twin blade that uses for swapping the green light from first to second orbs, locking on cogs with axe to prevent bridge from moving, mix and match the rotation of script, breaking all the hives together without regenerating, matching the 4 symbols of season, stabbing the icy patterns with the special tool, and there's many more puzzle solving which I think the game did a remarkable job of having a riddled puzzle that unlocks a certain of places is what made the game quite unique.

The game is well executed for its combat system, puzzles, exploration, and numerous of quests that is perfectly well made without any of issues with the controls and gameplay design that feels quite flawless for most part.
I got to say I really liked the epic boss battles in each quests is quite satisfying for its overall difficulty and has it own battle strategy is what made the game quite fun.
It is a non-stop brawling action that never gets bored off easily with aggressive A.Is and responsiveness that couldn't stop you from fighting them is what made the game overly epic.


Overall, it has fantastic combat system, unique puzzles, great exploration with many quest, and epic boss fights.



Graphics

God of War definitely has the best looking graphics of all PS4 libraries. I was so impressed with the cinematic design feels very realistic on each sequences and I got to say the character model is looked amazing for motion capturing technologies feeling much more natural and more substantial than most of the PS4 games that you have ever seen adding the character's personality and development is the reason why it looked so amazing.
The environmental design on whole open area feels much authentic for its a opened level design, heavy textures on surfaces like runes, towers, walls, and houses, the draw distances on landscapes, the reflecting visuals and lighting effects, the animation sequences for gore, and many more designs that is almost feels like a next-gen than the current ones which I think it is the most graphically impressive of all PS4 libaries.

Overall, it has excellent cinematic design, amazing character model, and authentic environmental design.



Music and Sounds

The original soundtrack in the game is sounds incredibly stunning mixed with orchestral and folklore style that is so like Scandinavian culture that fits well at the set of the game that takes place in ancient Norway.
It was composed by Bear McCreary, who is responsible for composing some TV series like Battlestar: Galactica as well as some video games titles like Dark Void, did a such an incredible job of making one of his strongest works of all video game soundtracks.
The sound effect is quite perfect for most part in the game such as sounds design, ambient noises, and great use of sound technology for cinematic purposes, and then I got to say the voice cast such as Christopher Judge did a magnificent job on his role as Kratos as well as the child actor Sunny Suljic did well with his role as Atreus which is the reason why their performance is quite powerful.
Then you have Jeremy Davies did a role on Baldur, Alastair Duncan as Mimir, Danielle Bisutti as Freya, and best of two are Troy Baker and Nolan North did a role on Modi and Magni.


Overall, it has stunning original music, perfect sound design, and powerful voice role.



Special Features            
  
The game has downloadable digital comic book, new game plus, digital art-book, and DLCs.


Overall, it's a great overall features.




Advantages

Perfect story

Memorable characters

Fantastic combat gameplay

Unique puzzles

Epic boss fights

Excellent cinematic design

Amazing graphics development

Incredible original soundtrack

Strong voice role



Disadvantages

None at all



Final Verdict

Presentation 10/10 - perfect storylines, awesome cast of characters, and well made style of presentation.

Gameplay 10/10 - fantastic combat system, unique puzzles, great exploration with many quest, and epic boss fights.

Graphics 10/10 - excellent cinematic design, amazing character model, and authentic environmental design.

Music and Sounds 10/10 - stunning original music, perfect sound design, and powerful voice role.

Special features 10/10 - downloadable digital comic book, new game plus, digital art-book, and DLCs.



Overall 10/10 - God of War is one of the Cory Barlog's biggest masterpiece that I highly recommend playing it on PS4.
The game featuring a powerful story between father and son, well built gameplay design with many combats and quests, quality looking visuals, stronger cast performance, and has replay values which is the reason why the single-player gaming never dies had finally proves everyone wrong.
God of War is the best example that is considered legendary in my opinion because it's one of the game that tries to redefine my top favourite PS4 libraries that you should go out and buy it from online or physical store for less than £15.     
So I was hoping the developer team will consider making another God of War installiment for PS5 in possibly future perfect, so what are you waiting for BOY!!!!? just go get a God of War and play it on your PS4.


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Horizon Zero Dawn PS4 Review

Horizon Zero Dawn is a Action-RPG game originally released for PS4 in 2017, while it was later confirmed for PC release in possibly 2020. It was developed by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment.

A talented developer was made responsible for their outstanding FPS series such as Killzone which had caught my attention back in my younger days when I had a PS3 console, so I was blowned away with epic over-the-top campaign, innovative graphics design, and addicting online multiplayer matches which I fell a love with the series during the PS3 era.
As I moved on with the PS4 era, I've began to watch Sony E3 live conference 2015 to see the exciting upcoming titles that I'm looking forward too, so the game that gives me a eye-catching moment is Horizon Zero Dawn that been shown on live shows as a gameplay demo footage which I was impressed with the looks of the game because it's different from the Guerrilla's previous development titles filled with gorgeous graphics aspects and actual gameplay performance in which made me wanted to play this game for the future release.

The game finally got released in 2017 as I originally planned to pick up the copy of Horizon Zero Dawn, but it didn't happened till I finally got the copy as in 2020.
I been spent playing the game for over 3 hours of play a day which I already know the game has bigger campaign filled with many quests and exploration that extends the overall play length and it took me 3 weeks to finish the whole game.
So far, I spent my wonderful times of playing the game through many of main and side quests that I had really fun exploring the new areas, collecting resources and materials, fighting off heavy-duty machines, tracing paths using focus devices, upgrading weapons, and levelling up abilities.
You have great objectives, decent combat system, and amazing boss battles will also satisfy the fans of the genres that seeks epic adventures and challenging missions.
I also find the story and presentation is actually pretty done a solid job which starting out with good opening scenes and introducing protagonist, while the rest of it focuses on longer additional dialogue conversation and gathering information which I understand it adds the overall in-depth plot, but I finding it quite over done that sometime it gets pretty slow in half-way doesn't mean it's a bad thing in the game.
Aside the great story, the characters are actually pretty good especially with playable protagonist which I think it done a remarkable job in whole game.

Is Horizon Zero Dawn a greatest PS4 titles? let's find out the positives and negatives of the game itself.

So without go further do, let's start the review.



Presentation

The game takes place in 31st century where most of the humans lives in tribal-like populations, while the world fills with machinery like creatures.

The story focused on Aloy who are being raised by the outcast named Rost. As a child, she discovers a abandoned place where she obtains the focus, a AR device that gives her ability to access the stored information that is related to one of her past relative from 100 years ago.
After growing up her age, she is now a hunter who joined the Nora tribe which she aims to protect the mankind's homeland, while battling against the cultists members and robotic machines as well as continuing to discover her past identity.

The game actually tells the story that explains Aloy discovered the device that had the stored recordings of the past history that already happened in 100 years ago which is the reason why Aloy wanted to find out her identity that is related to her past mother who is the US scientist behind Zero Dawn project and how the world was being completely destroyed, so these are the plots predicts the future that affecting the earth that been overtaken by the horrible corrupted machines hurting the mankind.
I got to say the story is actually great because of learning all about the backstory involves projects and getting to know with protagonist's identity that really caught my interest in the game.
I got to say Aloy is actually solid character for its delivering her brave personality and powerful fighter in which she is one of the female protagonist that can able to train and fight against the foes.
I also liked some of the side characters in the game that are also done a decent job, so you have Nil the Carja solder who invited Aloy to raid the bandit camps, Varl and Sona of Nora tribe members swore to avenge Vala's death, Erend the Oseram captain who searches for his lost sister, and Sylens the Banuk traveller who helps Aloy to discover the truth behind the machines.
Then you will have the evil tribes known as Shadow Carja which is led by the corrupt leader named Helis is one of the villain that threatens to attack several of tribes (e.g Carja, Nora, and Oseram) and conquer the homeland.
I got to say I really liked the concept of the machines that is just almost like the animals in robotic figures, so you have Watchers, Strider, Grazer, Scrapper, Broadhead, Lancehorn, Sawtooth, Bellowback, Glinthawk, and there's plenty of more robotic species found in every locations.

I really liked the overall settings of presentation which is looking spectacular on each locations. It is based on states of America that is being renamed in maps such as All-Mother Mountains (Cheyenne Mountain) is the Nora's worship place, Devil's Grief (Denver, CO) is a ruin site in Sacred Lands, Meridian (Eagle Canyon, UT) are the city of the sun where Carja tribes lives in, and Sunfall (Bryce Canyon National Park, UT) is capital of Shadow Carja.
The mountain places like Mother's watch and Banuk Encampment are icy and cold places filled with snows and frosty, the canyons places like Morning's watch are quite hot and sandy, and Forrest places like outside of Meridian Village are quite greenery filled with trees and flowers which I think these concepts in the game look well presented that is looked different from the real-life world.

While the game does have interesting story, great cast of characters, and the stunning presentation design, I do find the additional dialogue is seems kinda too much during the conversation between the characters so I fully understand these dialogue trees is trying to increase the in-depth plot, but it's makes the dialogue conversation quite too long because it has about 6 to 7 dialogue options to select to ask question that doesn't mean it's going to affect the overall story itself once you have to get used with the slower paced conversation.


Overall, it has interesting story, great cast of characters, and the stunning presentation design.



Gameplay

In single player game, you take control of Aloy in third-person perspective open-world map where you get to explore and uncover the new areas, so you will have map inventory that helps you to locate by placing the maker as well as it has the several icons that indicates stuff like mains, sides, enemies, items, and etc.
Aloy has her ability to hide under the grass during the stealth, swim on water, climb on walls, parkour platforming, roll dodge, and best of all the focus device that allows you to scan on species, tracking down footprints, and collecting information from documents which I finding the devices is very useful for most of the mains and side quests.
You have list of weapons to use in combat gameplay such as bow that shoots in long range, so it had three types of bow that has different variants of arrows items such as hunter arrow deals low impact and tear, fire arrow brings fire damage over time, hardpoint arrow has stronger damage and tears easily on machine's parts, precision arrow are very effective for sniping, harvest arrow are weaker but removes machine's parts that can be looted, shock arrow that stuns machines, and freeze arrow that froze enemies in which these of the arrow variants can be effective on ether human enemies or machines that they are being venerable.
There are some useful weapons can be purchased from merchants such as forgefire are used for close range attacks deals medium fire damage, icerail deals high freeze severity, rattler that shoots 5 bolt projectiles, ropecaster is a tool to pin down targets, slingshot that shoots 4 types of bombs, and best of all the tripcaster that placed shock traps on ground allowing to stun on machines which these are all weapons are worked effectively well in combat battles and exploration.
You can also perform melee weapons such as spear which I think it worked better on stealth attacks, while using it as basic melee attack during the combat battle which I got to say it does have some ups and downs.
I finding the spear weapon as a melee combat is quite unbalanced with damages depending on which machines you're fighting with and some of them are kinda much easy to kill machines, while the others doesn't take much damage which I think that it could have been better if the game has more melee weapons to purchase rather than just being stuck with same ones which is the reason why it wasn't good as the main weapons that worked pretty well for its more variations and upgrades.         

During the exploration, you will have a full list of quests that you need to complete the task which has main quest which focuses on story campaign, while the side quest and errands are just the extended mission with extra tasks that don't mainly focus on story but it also rewards your player's experience. Then you have the cauldron is just a special dungeons which rewards you with adding new tools to your arsenal, the bandit camps is the mission where you had to take down the enemy's bases, and hacking the tallneck to expand the map locations.
Along with the mission quest, you can spend time killing the machines, hunting down real animals and collecting every materials and resources that really helps crafting your ammos and travel bags, while it also works with upgradable pouchs that gives more spaces on your inventory screen which requires rare items and some resources to develop.
After beating the quest will award you with skill points which you can use them on inventory screen to improve your ability skills such as shooting with 3 arrows, balancing aim while standing on ropes, increasing strike attack, reducing your visibility to enemies, faster reload, more concentration, overriding machines, and healing your health faster which really benefiting your player's performance.

I was impressed with the choice of combat gameplay that I can able to fight off machines and being able to perform stealth mechanics quite well thanks to variety of weapon's ammunition offers solid collision detection on enemies and I also got to say the playable character just controls well in the game for its smooth aiming precision and climbing ability, but I wish they could have improve the melee system to balance out the damages and speed that would have it made it better.
Most of the whole quest in the game are outstanding because it has great selection of mission objectives like completing the competition to become Nora Brave, tracking down the killers using focus device, confronting those who commit crimes against humanity, helping person to seek revenge, and searching for people went missing in which these are the types of mission objectives that I had spent my fun on amazing game for over 3 hours a day without any disappointment thanks to 30 to 40 hours of play length that keeps you busy with the game well.


Overall, it has outstanding quests with full of exploration, smooth player's controls, and great combat system.



Graphics

I got to say the Horizon Zero Dawn had the most incredible graphic design in modern video game.
I have never seen anything amazingly to see how the PS4's powerhouse can able to manage such quality AAA game like this.
The character's animation looks very real for having impressive body figure for its movements and facial expression offers well made lip syncing during the dialogue which really shows how realistic these characters had looked in PS4 standards.
The whole environments of map design is incredibly photo-realistic of having a bloomy special effects in some areas, the lighting effects are quite effective for real-time weather system, and the visuals on some surfaces like water and grass are very detailed with sharp textures and the use of animation.
It ran on 30fps of full 4K resolution making it the most beautiful game of all Sony's exclusives in which I considered it a biggest technical achievements of one of the Playstation's hardwares.


Overall, it has incredible character's model, photo-realistic environment design, and great use of visual effects.



Music and Sounds       
           
The original soundtrack is epicly amazing by Joris de Man, who is responsible of composing soundtrack for Killzone series, which proper nails with the orchestrated folklore music that is kinda mix of James Cameron's Avatar and the CD Projekt Red's The Witcher 3 which is the reason why it sounded pretty epic in whole game.
I also wanted to praise the sound design in the game for its ambient sounds in some areas and some background effects are kinda sounds pretty damn good in the game. I got to say the voice cast in the game such as Ashly Burch (Aloy), JB Blanc (Rost), Crispin Freeman (Helis), Chook Sibtain (Olin), and Lance Reddick (Sylens) is sounds remarkably fantastic for bringing their strongest role of their characters.

 
Overall, it has epic soundtrack, impressive sound design, and strong voice role.



Special Features

The game does have new game plus mode as well as how many quests and discoveries have you completed which really adds the replay value, and it also included the expansion DLC called The Frozen Wilds contains new storylines, characters, and area which you can purchase it from PS Store as DLCs or get it physically as the complete edition.


Overall, the features is a amazing package to this game.




Advantages


Stunning presentation design

Interesting story and characters

Outstanding quests with full of exploration

Fluid combat system

Photo-realistic graphics design

Epic original soundtrack

Excellent features (Including DLCs and new game plus)



Disadvantages


Very slow and long dialogue conversation

Unbalanced melee damage attack




Final Verdict


Presentation 8.5/10 - interesting story, great cast of characters, and the stunning presentation design.

Gameplay 9/10 - outstanding quests with full of exploration, smooth player's controls, and great combat system.

Graphics 10/10 - incredible character's model, photo-realistic environment design, and great use of visual effects.

Music and Sounds 9/10 - epic soundtrack, impressive sound design, and strong voice role.

Special Features 9/10 - expansion DLC and new game plus.



Overall 9/10 - Horizon Zero Dawn is a Guerrilla's strongest AAA title making it the most beautiful Action RPG on Playstation's system.
I am so glad that the developer team behind Killzone series just made a such terrific game that offers a gorgeous looking graphics design, soild story presentation, stronger character role, numerous of mission quests with lots of explorations, well executed combat gameplay, and higher replay values which is the reason why I've enjoyed it for over 30 hours length of amazing adventures.

I cannot wait to see Guerrilla's another Horizon sequel for PS5 in possibly the future release which I am excited for it, so for any those who are searching for quality Action RPG title (such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wilds and The Witcher 3), then this game is for you to play which is worth for less than £10, so I'll say buy it. 



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