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. There isn’t much more to say about the game that hasn’t been said copious times over, both in service of heaping praise onto developer Sony Santa Monica and when discussing the forthcoming sequel, God of War: Ragnarok. And with a PC port for God of War just around the corner, the game is going to open up to a wider community of gamers and they, too, should heed the recommendations of the gaming world at large. God of War is a must-play regardless of platform.
Getting into the nuts and bolts of God of War on PC, though, reveals a modest port (in terms of its overall customization) that is nonetheless impressive. God of War is stunning on PS4 and looks even better on PS5, but the PC version is the definitive visual showpiece. It’s the best looking and the best performing version of the game to date, and at times it’s surprising how improved the game’s visuals feel when compared to the 2018 release.
God of War packs a ton of detail into every frame, from the texture of Kratos’ beard to the design of each Norse realm. The PC version helps everything feel a little crisper and more alive; every sequence is a feast for the eyes. Just the opening menu and intro scene alone are enough to leave one speechless.
The PC version also runs very well and can exceed the original PlayStation version by some considerable margins. 60 FPS alone is a must for the game, as reaction times are crucial for succeeding at higher difficulties and truly appreciating the combat on display. Beefier machines (or those who want to drop down some setting sliders) can take things to 100+ FPS, upping the ante to get a smooth experience.
As next-gen console owners are quickly realizing, 60 FPS frame rate is a transformative experience in reaction-based gameplay and God of War on PC can hit that benchmark easily. Whether or not users' rigs can also push the visuals and hit their expected 60 FPS is another question, but the port offers enough customization to get there.
To that point, there are a few key standard considerations available for God of War on PC. It does support ultrawide monitors, which deserves props all its own. Because God of War is displayed as one, unbroken shot, the ultrawide support likely required a lot of work to make happen. Stretching out the frame to cover more space where hidden loads or assets might have been previously “hiding” is no small feat, and as we saw with Days Gone on PC it is worth it.
From there, the PC version offers V Sync, a Frame Rate cap, as well as sliders for Film Grain and Motion Blur. The real gem of the port, though, is its support for DLSS or Fidelity Super Resolution. Regardless of if users have an NVIDIA or AMD GPU, they will see the benefit of these resolution scaling features that help preserve graphical detail without sacrificing performance. Without these features turned onto one of their presets, God of War can dip in 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 a 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. What’s smart about the presets is that almost every category has an ‘Original’ option, so the user can see what the visuals looked like on the PlayStation platform. And for those who want to really push the visuals of the game, Original is superseded by both High and Ultra options.
Running everything on Ultra is not going to be for every machine, depending on the resolution. Game Rant reviewed God of War on the Origin Neuron 4000D from Origin PC and was able to achieve 4K resolution and 60FPS with everything set to Ultra, but with DLSS turned on (usually to Quality). Without DLSS, the game will chug at Ultra and 4k, but as mentioned there are a lot of settings tweaks that can be made to get to 60 or even 120. Dropping down to High, for example, allowed for performance closer to the 100 FPS range or switching to 1440p on Ultra did about the same.
One might think that a PS4 game ported to PC should just be able to 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 beneficial for allowing modern machines to boost the game well beyond the original’s detail.
There is no question that God of War is an exceptional game. But the magic on display with the PC port pushes an already tremendous game to new heights and offers some key features that will help it run well on a variety of modern machines. At this point, if gamers have the means to play God of War they should, and even if it’s a replay of the PC version is still well worth checking out.
God of War releases for PC on January 14, 2022. Game Rant was provided a code for this review.
Game Rant reviewed 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 the Neuron here.
