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God of War

Upgraded and Enhanced: Should you revisit God of War on PS5?

Kratos and Atreus are back and looking better than ever.

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A few days ago, Sony Santa Monica Studio surprise released a next-gen update for God of War, bringing an Enhanced Performance Experience to the fantastic action title. The update for the PS5 version of the PS4 title featured 60fps with 4K resolution capabilities, alongside faster loading times amid other handy upgrades thanks to the power of the PlayStation 5. To check out whether this update is worth your time, I ventured back into Midgard as the relentless Greek warrior on the PS5, and boy, was I impressed.

First things first, to set the record straight, this isn't a re-review of God of War, if you haven't already read our original one, however, you can find it here. This is simply a look at whether the PS5 update is worth revisiting or if you should pick the title up if you haven't already.

If you are fortunate enough to have a PS5 today, and you've spent a while playing through the various new-gen titles that are on offer, you probably won't notice the changes to God of War with this update. But, if you head back and check out the PS4 version of the game, the differences are shocking (you can check out the video above for a good look at them). The visuals are much clearer and way more detailed, the loading times extortionately faster, and the tight 60fps performance makes the action way more fluid.

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You can see the PS4 version on the left, and the PS5 version on the right.

In terms of the resolution and the visuals, they not only look much sharper, but everything from the bark on the God's Wood trees to the wisps of Kratos' beard seems to have more depth, colour and detail. The jump from generation to generation that this update provides turns God of War into a visually new looking game, one that doesn't feel at all dampened by the limited PS4 power.

And, the solid 60 frame-per-second, which is pretty much double the fps we were used to on PS4 (God of War would fluctuate in fps in performance heavy scenes and ones that are less so), makes the combat feel completely fluid and the cinematic action scenes even more exciting. Aside from just feeling much better to play, this jump in performance doesn't actually offer as noticeable a difference as the visuals that could be mistaken as a remastered version of the title in places.

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Now, the update focussed specifically on improving the resolution and frame rate, but the PS5 also brings much better hardware, meaning faster loading times. And, they really are fast. While God of War has well hidden loading screens - aside from using the fast travel systems that is - the loading screens that do pop-up are now almost non-existent. The PS5 blasts through them at such a speed that you barely even need to wander around the branches of Yggdrasil before you're back in the action. That even extends to booting up the game, which now takes seconds. You can go from the PlayStation 5 home screen to slinging the Leviathan Axe around in mere moments.

While all of this is essentially a revamped way to experience God of War with performance at the forefront, this is all that's new. You won't find anything else added to the excellent title, which is fine considering Sony Santa Monica Studio seem to be putting all their resources into creating a sequel worthy of this brilliant videogame. However, if you have a PS5 and a copy of God of War, or alternatively have never stepped into Kratos' boots before, then you absolutely should download this game to give it a go, as somehow, an already almost perfect game has become even better.

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Both images captured on PS5.

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